LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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THE 



KINGDOM OP m DElfELOPED 



ACCORDING TO THE 



Inspired Records and Predictions, 



ORIGINAL 



N PLAN, INVESTIGATION, AND EXECUTION. 



NO EFFORT TO AVOID OR ADOPT 



THE 



CONCLUSIONS OF OTHERS. 



, -¥■ >■ 



.. DEC 22 1887 >) 

THINGS ^^ ^"^ 



OLD AND NEW. 



PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, 

REV. GEORGE WILSON, Bloomington, III., A. D. 1887. 
Copyright by the Author, A, D, 1887. 






3 



Aphorisms of the Kestgdom. 



GOD HAS ORDAINED HIS KINGDOM 
TO REFOKM AND GOVERN THIS WORLD. 

HE HAS PROGRAMMED ITS DEVELOPMENT 

YEARS, CENTURIES, AND AGES BEFORE 

THE EVENTS IN ITS DEVELOPMENT TRANSPIRED. 

HERE IS A HISTORY OF EVENTS 

TRANSPIRING IN CONSECUTIVE ORDER, 

COINCIDING WITH TUESE DIVINE PROGRAMMES', 

ALSO, 
A COMPREHENSIVE, CONDENSED, CONCOMITANT HISTORY. 

LOOK AT THESE FACTS, 
AND THINK FOR YOURSELF! 

ARE YOU A CITIZEN OF THIS KINGDOM? 
DO YOU WISH TO KNOW THE HISTORY OF ITS DEVELOPMENT? 

THIS WORK WILL ENABLE YOU TO UNDERSTAND IT, 

AND TO DEFINITELY IDENTIFY ITS ANTAGONISMS, 

ON THE PAGE OF HISTORY. 



Aphorisms of Religion 

AKD CEISTTRAIi TKtJTIIS OF THE KI:N^GD0M OF GOD. 



God exists. He created and governs the world. He is a rewaider of those 
earnestly seeking Him. 

Man is under the inherent and positive laws of God. 

Inherent laws are: Physical, Mental, and Moral Laws. The rewards and 
penalties of inherent laws are the consequences of obedience or disobedience to 
their precepts. 

Positive laws originate with the lawgiver; obligations, rewards, and penal- 
ties, depend on his will. Precepts in positive laws may be precepts of inherent 
laws; or, they may be arbitrary, to teach man his subjection to the lawgiver. 

Man is under condemnation for violations of the inherent laws of his crea- 
tion, and of the positive laws of Revelation. 



APHOBISMS OF RELIGION. 



Mature lias no pardon for violation of its inherent laws; but a knowledge of 
those laws may enable man to counteract the effects of violation of one law bv 
obedience to another law. ' 

Positive laws may grant pardons; but to sustain the dignity and authority of 
law must require an adequate satisfaction. This satisfaction may be arbitrary 
and m no way the effect of the transgression. 

The dignity of the positive laws of Eevelation must be sustained by obedi- 
ence to their precepts or by suffering the penalties. Can man do this, and 
deliver himself from under his present condemnation ? 

Can the dignity of law be sustained by a substitute ? That will depend on 
the pleasure of the lawgiver. He may choose to have mercy on the trans- 
gressor and reform him, and at the same time sustain the dignit^ of the law, as 
m the case of David. o ^ ? 

^ God Himself has provided a substitute for condemned man. After experi- 
encing the evils of condemnation, man may be restored to favor and happiness. 

This substitute is the Only-Begotten and Well-Beloved Son of God The 
digmty of the Divine positive laws must be sustained, though the Son must 
suiter, or the sinner has to perish, forever. 

^ The pardoned sinner must become a Disciple of the Eedeemer: must ^row 
m grace and the knowledge of the Holy; he must be transformed into the image 
ot God, m holiness, intelligence, and righteousness. Baptized into the remis- 
sion of sins, the Christian is pardoned upon his repentance and confession, with- 
out ottering a sacrifice. ' 

Tlie Chnstian must cast a wholesome influence into society, and give and 
send Divine instruction to others. ^ 

Every church should be a mutual aid society, to enable every member to 
carry out every law and teaching of Christianity, as an individual, and as a mem- 
Der 01 society. 

The Kingdom of God must be the primary object of every Christian. And 
-Uivme precepts must be obeyed. 

Believers in Christ Jesus have eternal life; shall not come into judgment: 

^nH^rf ' r* f -i"^/^^^' l"^? ^'^'^ ' ^^^^^ P^«^^^ f^^^^ ^^d^r the death sentence 
and become the children of the resurrection. They come with Christ to judge 
the world, and reign with Him on the earth. -^ ^ 

Then Cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the Kingdom to 

.h.ll^^^Q^" ^ ^^t^- ^"".^ ^^^'^ ^^^ ^^^^"^« «^^^1 ^e «'^bdued unto Htm, then 
Shall the l^on, also. Himself, be subject unto Him who put all things under Him ; 
that God may be all in all. ^ ' 

Fn. ^^^if^ ' ^ T^^ ^^^ *^'"^' ''^'^- ^"^ I «^^ a "ew heaven and a new earth. 

hZrl ""^I^^^r^ ^""^ ^^^ "^"^ ^^'^^^ ^^^^^^ I ^iil m^l^e, shall remain 

before me, saith the Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain 



CoYENA]srTS, Oaths, and Promises. 



It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 

I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, though the 
imagination of man's heart be evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any 
more every thing living, as I have done. The apostacy of the human family 
will be counteracted in some other way. How ? We shall see. 

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee; and 
in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. My covenant is with thee, 
and thou shalt be a father of a multitude of nations; for a father of many 
nations have I constituted thee. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the 
earth be blessed. The Jehovah made a covenant with Abraham, saying, Unto 
thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the 
river Euphrates. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land 
wherein thou art a stranger — all the land of Canan, for an everlasting posses- 
sion, and I will be their God. 

Having selected the family of Abraham, through Jacob, for His peculiar 
people. He suffered all nations to walk in their own ways till Christ came, then 
He commanded all men to reform ; because He has appointed a day to judge the 
world. 

All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Jehovah ; all ends of 
the earth shall remember and turn unto the Jehovah; and all the kindreds of 
the nations shall worship before thee. The earth shall be full of the knowledge 
of the Jehovah as the waters cover the sea. 

And I will appoint a place for my people, Israel, and will plant them, that 
they riiay dwell in their own place and be moved no more ; neither shall the 
children of wickedness afflict them any more, as at the first, and as from the day 
I commanded judges to be over ray people, Israel ; and I will cause thee to rest 
from all thine enemies. And thine house and thy kingdom shall be made sure 
forever before thee ; thy throne shall be established forever. Once have I 
sworn by my holiness ; I will not lie unto David ; his seed shall endure forever, 
and his throne as the sun before me ; it shall be established as the moon, and 
faithful witness in heaven. I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like 
as grain is sifted in a sieve ; yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. All 
the sinners of my people shall die by the sword who say, The evil shall not 
overtake nor prevent us. In that da}^ will I raise up the tabernacle of David 
that is fallen down, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his 
ruins; and I will build it as in days of old, that they may possess the remnant 
of Edom, and of all the nations which are called by my name, saith the Jehovah 
that doeth this. 



\ 



PREFACE. 



Section 1. It has pleased the Lord to let the human family fall into sin and 
misery, and then recover them by the Kingdom of God. Why He has so done 
is no where stated in the Scriptures ; perhaps to impress upon man the necessity 
of implicit obedience to positive commands as well as to the inherent laws of 
nature; perhaps to qualify him by experience for some other sphere of existence. 
The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not 
only they, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan within 
ourselves, waiting for the adoption — the redemption of the body. The creation 
was subjected to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected the 
same in hope. The earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifest- 
ation of the sons of God. — Rom., 8:18-23. Who are these sons of God? As 
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. — Rom., 8-14. 
The creation, itself, shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the 
glorious liberty of the sons of God. — Rom., 8-21. Beloved, we are now the 
sons of God. But it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that 
when He shall appear we shall be like him ; for we shall see Him as He is. — 
1 John, 3:2. When will He appear? The Heavens must receive Him until the 
times of the restitution of all things, as God has spoken by the mouth of all His 
holy prophets. — Acts, 3-21. This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye 
have seen Him go into Heaven. — Acts, 1:11. The whole creation, and the sons 
of God, must wait for their happy time till the Second Advent. 

§ 2. Some of the present day, as in every past age, have pronounced 
revealed religion a failure. But these persons are ignorant of the Divine pro- 
grammes. Christianity stands this day before the world, and in the world, just 
as these programmes represented it would do at this present time ; and while a 
commander carries out his programme, he must be acknowledged master of his 
situation. The God of the Bible makes covenants and keeps them; threatens 
wrath and inflicts it; gives promises and performs them; foretells events and 
brings them to pass. 

§ 3. This institution was predicted. In the days of those kings shall the 
God of Heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, shall not be 
left to other people, shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and 
shall stand forever. — Dan., 2:44, 45. The saints of the Most High shall take the 
kingdom and possess it forever, even into the ages of ages. — Dan., 7, 14, 18, 37. 

The Jehova God will give unto Him (Jesus) the throne of his father, David; 
and he shall reign over the House of Israel forever; and of His Kingdom there 
will be no end. — Luke 1:31-33. At the name of Jesus every knee in Heaven 
and in earth shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord of all: to 
the glory of the Father. — Phil., 2:9-11. The kingdoms of this world have 
become the kingdom of the Lord and His Anointed ; and he shall reign forever 
and ever, into the ages of ages. — Rev., 11:15. We look for new heavens and 
earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. — 2 Ft., 3:15. Behold 1 I make all things 
new. — Rev., 21:5, 1. 



6 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

§ 4. In the writings of the New Covenant, this institution is invariably 
called the Kingdom of God, and, also, the Kingdom of Heaven ; and God has 
ordained it to reform the world, and to govern the world when reformed. To it 
belong the covenants, oaths, and promises made to the Fathers, to the Jews, to 
Jerusalem, and to the Nations. The history of its development may be divided 
into four ages : the Incipient, Preparatory, Intermediate, and Consummated 
Ages. The Prince of this Kingdom is the Son of God, and He is also the Son 
of Man. The great adversary to this institution is called Satan and Diabolous; 
and his hostilities to this institution have been developed in four Antagonisms: 
the Satanic, the Red Dragon, the Wild Beast with two horns, and the Diabolian. 

§ 5. In the Preparatory Age, and perhaps in the Incipient, coercive power 
was given to the citizens and penal laws were enforced by them, and its history 
is full of wars. In the Intermediate As^e the Kino^ has reserved all coercive 
power to Himself, and He rules the nations ; but their relation to the Kingdom 
is not noticed by historians. The churches have no coercive powers; but most 
desolating wars and woes have attended its advancement, and more are coming 
soon. 

§ 6. In the Incipient Age, the care and government of the Kingdom was 
under Patriarchs of families, or tribes. After the Deluge, which had arrested 
impiety by destroying all the human family but eight persons, apostacy arose and 
increased, developing itself in Polytheism — the doctrine of many gods. Patri- 
archates became corrupt, or were absorbed by impious tribes, or confederacies, 
and the true religion of the True God was rejected by all nati(ms, if not by all 
individuals. To checkmate this Polytheism, the Preparatory Age of the King- 
dom was set up, and covenants, oaths, and promises Avere given, which required 
long time to be realized, giving time for hope to expire and impiety to boast of 
triumphs. But at the appointed time the boasting was stopped and the hope 
realized. God's people possessed the land, preserved the true religion, made it 
known, and became powerful. Then they apostatised, the enemy triumphed, 
and the hope of the world appeared lost in the captivity to Babylon. IJnob- 
served, the cause of God permeated society among the nations, and arose to 
power and influence; the nations became infected by it, and proselytes were 
made to the true religion, while Jews were disgracing it b}^ impious conduct. 
The Intermediate Age was introduced, and triumphed over Jewish opposition, 
and brought on a struggle with Polytheism. Polytheism persecuted Christianity 
most cruelly and provoked its own defeat, and was forced to retire from the con- 
spicuous conflict. But soon State-Church Monotheism became corrupt, and per- 
secuted the true religion more fiendishly than Polytheism ever did; but the 
judgments of God broke the power, and light and reformation were scattered 
around. Another triumph of the enemy and another defeat of his power will 
introduce the Consummated Age of the Kingdom of God. The tares shall be 
gathered out of the wheat — the children of the Wicked One gathered out of the 
kingdom — the living saints shall be freed from corruption, soul and body, and 
rendered immortal; the saints asleep in Christ will be resurrected into immortalit3^ 
Thus freed from derangement and corruption, the saints will be active and pow- 
erful and will govern the world one thousand prophetic years. Then the earth 
will be blessed with peace and prosperity; the righteous will shine in the King- 
dom of their Father and take the government and dominion under the whole 
heavens. At times this institution appeared to be lost; at one time overwhelmed 
by avowed enemies ; again, by usurpation of its government by apostates, and 
by perversion of its teachings and laws. Still it exists in despite of all oppo- 
sition, while all its enemies of antiquity are destroyed and obliterated, and its 
later ones are doomed to extinction. Such is this institution; but a development 
of it, according to the divine programmes and history, I have never seen nor 
heard tell of, nor discovered in any catalogue of books. Such a work is a 



t»REFACii. 7 

desideratum in sacred literature. While history has become an imperative study 
in schools, and the history of our country is reckoned indispensable to patriotism, 
the history of the Kingdom of God is unknown to most of its professed citizens. 

§ 7. Now, I have endeavored to form a complete, comprehensive, and con- 
secutive historical development of this great theme of the Bible for my own 
satisfaction, and am willing now to exhibit to the world this greatest, grandest, 
most permanent, and successful institution located upon earth. This work is not 
so much argumentative as historical, expecting the arrangement and narration of 
facts to carry the evidence of the truth with them. It is not exhaustive on most 
subjects, but suggests more than is expressed. It is a pioneer work and text- 
book, giving a comprehensive view to the reader, and enabling the student to 
search out a fall and complete history of the subject; and it might be enlarged 
to four times its present dimensions. Where we have the Sacred History, I 
simply show its design and appUcation to my subject and give a chronological 
arrangement of the Scriptures, from Townsend, so the reader may open his 
Bible and read the inspired narrative, poem, prophecy, or instruction along with 
the development. When guided by prophecy, I give what I consider the obvi- 
ous import, without any argument to support my own views or condemn others, 
and arrange the extracts of history according to the Divine programmes; while 
reading plain history we are witnessing the fulfillment of prophecy. The reader 
must judge for himself as to the correctness of my views of prophecy and 
Divine teaching, but what I give for facts recorded in history are in those 
histories referred to, unless I have put down, by mistake, the wrong author or 
reference. I am liable to mistakes. 

My judgment respecting future events rests upon that kind of evidence 
called Plausibility, and I make no pretensions to inspiration. This work is not 
limited to the inspired programmes, but gives, also, a condensed, comprehensive, 
concomitant history, and is brought down from Adam to the present day. Here 
is the sacred history, or prophecy, and here are the facts of history collated with 
them. Look at the facts and think for yourself. Within ninety years the history 
of the Kingdom of Grod will be the spine, or trunk line, of all history. All 
nations will owe the importance of their history to their contact with this history. 
All history must center in its history, and radiate from it. All Divine pro- 
grammes due to the present time have been carried out, some are being per- 
formed now, and all will be verified in due time; and Christ's people should 
understand the signs of the times and act accordingly. Now, here is a book of 
facts coinciding with these Divine programmes, and showing in consecutive order 
what has passed, what is passing now, and what, in all plausibility, will yet be 
accomplished in this greatest of works. 

§ 8. Only those who have mastered a science from its first elements are 
capable of solving its last, or most difficult problems, or of judging when they 
are correctly explained; and only those acquainted with the past development of 
the Kingdom of God are competent to expound its future programmes, or of 
judging when they are correctly explained. An expounder should have the same 
views, desires, hopes, fears, feelings, and interest in, and of, the Kingdom as 
the prophets themselves ; then they will understand and apply the scenes and 
symbols as Daniel and John would and did. If we discover the Scripture man- 
ner of recording facts, we may understand its way of portraying future events. 

§ 9. This work will not supersede any work known to the author, but will 
occupy a vacant nitch in sacred literature. It is not a commentary, explaining 
Scripture and making practical applications ; nor a Bible dictionary of any name, 
treating subjects in a scientific or alphabetical order; nor systematic theology; 
nor an extensive ecclesiastical history. We may study the Sacred Scriptures 
topically, in the order we find them, without discovering the mutual relations of 



8 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DETELOPEt). 

the different parts aud the one great design running through the whole book. 
We may study thera according to their teachings, as systematized in creeds, con- 
fessions, and lectures; we may study them in chronological order, as arranged by 
men devoting themselves to that difficult and laborious task. Adopting Town- 
send' s chronological arrangement as sufficiently correct for the purpose, I found the 
the greatest delight and edification in studying them in their historical and prophet- 
ical development of the Kingdom of God — the greatest, grandest, most perma- 
nent, and successful institution located on earth. In day schools and Sabbath 
schools I became familiar with the topics of the Bible; in catechisms, confessions 
of faith, and lectures, — oral and written, — I learned the systematized doctrines of 
different denominations ; but when I studied the Bible in its historical and pro- 
phetical development of the Kingdom of God, it became a new book. The 
Bible is a historical and prophetical development of this Kingdom, and, to be 
rightly understood, must be studied from that standpoint. 

§ 10. If the reader has time to read the outlines only, he may read chapter 
177, which is a retrospect of the whole work ; if he can read parts only, he may 
look over the analysis of contents and indexes, and select his subject, or topic, 
and follow it through its continuations. If he wishes to understand the subject, 
he must read the whole work; if he has more time, he can read the Scriptures 
as arranged with the chapters and sections ; for more knowledge, he can read 
commentaries on those passages; and whether they agree or disagree with the 
author, he will gain more knowledge on the subject; he can read Bible diction- 
aries of any name, on the different topics, and the histories I have garbled, and 
think for himself. The Bible puts the history of the world in a nutshell, whether 
giving historical narratives or portraying future events, and when we have learned 
the Bible manner of recording and portraying, we will know how to discover the 
progressive work of the Kingdom, in the voluminous histories of the bustle of 
the world. 

§ 11. All extracts of history are credited to their authors, though not marked 
as quotations. Sometimes I abridge, to put in smaller bounds ; sometimes one 
word interpolated will show the application to my subject, without any comment. 
But I have dealt fairly witli my authors, and never make them say what they did 
not intend to say; but I turn their facts, and often their figures and expressions, to 
subjects they never intended to elucidate or prove. It is an easy matter to classify 
events and shade facts to suit theories, but when historians classify and shade, 
without designing to prove or elucidate the Scriptures, they give the strongest 
evidence that what they relate in history is what the Bible portrays in scenes 
and symbols. The language and figures in history do often coincide with the 
scenes and symbols of Scripture ; therefore I prefer extracts of history to my 
own conceptions and composition. 

§ 12. The Saviour told His disciples to make the Kingdom of God the 
primary object of their lives. But what is it? What its work? What its his- 
tory ? How near are we to its consummation ? What its destiny ? Will these 
evil days never end ? Must the hope of Israel be deferred forever? Was the 
glorious ambassador, who taught Daniel, incompetent to teach ? Was Christ 
incompetent to teach His servants what he undertook to teach them ? I have 
followed these programmes from the first down to the present time, and found 
them verified by the facts of history, written by enemies; and by friends, not 
knowing they were doing so or intending such important work. And if verified 
in the past, why not depend on them for the future ? Follow me through these 
pages, and then think for yourself. 

§ 13. The Scriptures give no means for calculating when the world will be 
burnt up; and it will take more than eleven hundred years yet to till up the pro- 
grammes of events to transpire in relation to the Kingdom of God before the Son 



will deliver it up to the" Father. Bat most terrible revolutions and catastrophies 
are not far off, and theologians and statesmen, saints and sinners, should be 
apprised of them. The Frog-Spirits of the Revelations are perambulating the 
whole world and mustering the nations to the great battle of God Almighty. 
They are trying each other's strength just now and wish to destroy each other, 
but they always have, and always will, combine against the truth: and truth is 
the cause of God and His Anointed. The Fourth Wild Beast is now out of the 
Pit and acting without a head ; but present events may cause the ten horns of 
the Third Wild Beast to give him a headship. Then he will destroy the Harlot 
and slay the Witnesses, or slay the Witnesses first and then destroy the Harlot. 
The end of this Age comes after the gospel has been preached to all nations, and 
some whose knowledge of things entitle them to respect, say: "The Scriptures 
will be translated into all languages within eighteen years." Then will be 
distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and waves roaring, men's hearts fail- 
ing them for fear and looking after those things coming on the earth. The power 
of the Turks, the last nation that will hold the Jews in expatriation, is drying 
up. Then will all the registered Jews return home, and an unprecedented time 
of trouble will be experienced. If we take the prophetic year at 360 days, the 
time of the dispersion of the Jews expires in twelve (now ten, A. D. 1887) years. 
The wonders of Daniel's predictions, or of his last prediction, terminates in 
A. D. 1927. All Divine programmes show the end of this Age to be very near. 
Like causes produce like effects. All the elements of revolution and catastrophe 
at work in the Old World are found in the New, and the same consequences may 
be experienced, though the New World comes not in the field of prophetic vision. 
We need theologians and statesmen who love truth and right more than they love 
fame or self and party interest. 

§ 14. This work is not written in favor of any denomination in religion or 
party in politics, nor against any of them, but the facts and principles, deductions 
and conclusions, will necessarily come in contact with many dogmas and opinions 
of men and parties, and may cause hostility to it. This can not be helped ; we 
can not suppress truth because some may take offence. Truth is of God, and 
falsehood is of the Devil. The Son of God was manifested to destroy the works 
of the Devil; when the Son has finished His work, all falsehood will be destroyed 
out of theology and history. Truth is an attribute of God; we can not love God 
and hate truth. They are not wise who refuse to examine into the truth on all 
subjects relating to religion or to civil government. Every one mast have liberty 
to present his evidence, judge for himself, and be accountable for his own faith 
and practice. Truth should not be ignored, nor compromised with falsehood. 
We can not love truth and hate the evidence that sustains it, nor refuse to 
examine into the evidence on all important subjects that may concern us or 
others. Man is not a sceptic by nature, but he may become such by resisting 
the truth and perverting evidence. Get possession of the facts and reason for 
yourself. 

§ 15. Resist the thought that you will be in your grave and not interested 
in the Advancement of the Kingdom of God, and in coming events. If there is 
joy in heaven over repenting sinners, the saints, absent from the body and 
present with the Lord, will be interested in the triumphs of the truth; and if 
asleep in Jesus, they will come with Him, and reanimate their resurrected, 
regenerated, immortal, and glorious bodies, and shine gloriously in the Consum- 
mated Age of the Kingdom. Go thy way, Daniel, for thou shalt rest, and stand 
in thy lot in the end of the days. The evil days shown to him. 

§ 16. This work is divided into four ages, twenty-three periods, and one 
hundred and seventy-seven chapters divided into sections. Subjects are treated 
of, with other subjects synchronizing with them, and when not finished in one 
period, or chapter, or section, are continued in another, and reference is placed 



/^ 



10 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

at the end of one and at the beginning of the other, showing their mutual 
relation. Thus we read, historically, the events which belong to the same times ; 
and when we wish, we can read any one subject by itself, by reference from 
section to section, from first to last, in unbroken connection. 

Chapter 176 is the end of the history, and is composed of extracts from 
periodicals in my possession, and is brought down to the latest information in 
them. Chapter 177 is a retrospect of the whole work, and bears the relation to 
it that a map of the world has to an atlas of the world. The reader, wishing a 
comprehensive view of the whole subject, should read the retrospect first, and 
when he has read the whole work he should read it again; then he will be master 
of the whole subject. Had the apostles comprehended Christ's death and resur- 
rection, they might have witnessed the whole scene with awe and intelligence, 
and awaited His resurrection in joyful hope; and if we understand the develop- 
ment of the Kingdom of God, we may witness its consummation in awe and 
admiration; and we know where, and how, to locate every important transpiring 
event. 



AUTHORITIES: ABRIDGED AND QUOTED. 



Ancient History — Divided into Chapters. Pablislied by the Carters. 

Bush's Scripture Illustrations — Arranged according to tlie Scripture texts. 

Bloomfield's Greek Testament — In two V^ols. 

Benedict's History of the Baptists. 

Comprehensive Commentary — In five Vols. 

Dowling's History of K-omanism— Divided into Books, Chapters, and Sec- 
tions; 16th edition. 

Dodrig Family Expositor. 

Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. 

Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History — Translated by Rev. C. F. Cruse, A. M. 

Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — By Guizot; in two Yols. 
Oxford, Ohio. Yol. I. contains Chaps. 1-39. Yol. II. contains Chaps. 1-32. 

Guthrie's Geography — In two Yols. 

Harper's Magazine — A monthly. 

Horn's Introduction — In two Yols. 

Jones' Church History. 

Josephus' Antiquities and Wars of the Jews — Divided into Books, Chapters, 
and Sections. 

Lippincott's Gazetteer. 

Leveret's Latin Lexicon. 

Milner's Church History — In two Yols., divided into Centuries and Chapters. 

Mosheim's Church History — In two and in six Yols., divided into Centuries, 
Parts, Chapters, and Sections. 

Mitchell's Ancient Geography. 

Missionary Magazine — Boston. 

Missionary Sketches — F. S. Smith. 
•Napier's Peninsular Wars. 

Neander's Church History — Of the first three centuries, translated by Rose. 
Planting and Training of the Church — Translated by Ryland. 

Outline History of the Jews — In Polyglot Bible. Another Outline, etc. — In 
Supplement to Comp. Compre. Country. 

Revolutions in Europe — By Koch and Schoell, two Yols. in one, divided 
into Periods and Chapters. 

Rollin's Ancient History — In eight Yols., divided into Books, Chapters, and 
Sections. 

Robinson's History of Baptism. 

Supplement to the Comprehensive Commentary. 

Swinton's Outlines of the History of the World. 

Thalheimer's Ancient, Mediaeval, and Modern History — In two Yols. 
Referred to by page and section. 

Townsend's Chronological Arrangement of the Scriptures — In two Yols., 
Old and New Testaments, divided into Periods, Parts, and Sections. 

Wardan's System of Revealed Religion — In Scripture texts. 

Willson's Outlines of History, Ancient and Modern — Also, American 
History, by the same. 

Periodicals of the day. 



Idex or Ages axd Periods. 



Ages. — Incipient, Chap. 1-22. Splice with Preparatoi^, Ciiaps. 9-22, and 
Periods, 1 and 2. 

Preparatory, Chaps. 23-101. Periods, 3-16. Splices with Intermediate, 
Chaps. 84-101. 

Intermediate, Chap. 102-176. Periods, 17-22. Don't know whether it 
will splice with the Consummated or make a square joint. 
Consummated, Chap. 109:19, 20. 118 and 119. 
The End. — Period 23. Seventh Seal, or New Heaven and Earth. All references 

are to Chapters and Sections. 
Period. — 1. Placing of the witnesses, Chaps. 9-16. 

2. The Red Dragon in his First Headship assails the Kingdom of God, 
and is defeated. Chaps. 17-22. 

3. Levitical institutions established, and the Promised Land possessed, 
Chaps. 23-32. 

4. The Second Head of the Dragon developed with six horns, and the 
horns broken. 33-35. 

5. Israel under kings. Chps. 36-44. 

6. Israel divided, the divinity and sovereignty of Jehovah, and His fidel- 
ity to engagements, proved by the prosperity of Judah and the adversity of 
Israel. Clips. 45-48. 

7. Partial apostacies and reformations, and corresponding adversities and 
prosperities. Chps. 49-51. 

8. Impious rebellions, and great reformations, and the Third Head of the 
Dragon developed and broken. Chps. 52-56. 

9. Rebellions, warnings, predictions, and captivities. Chps. 57-59. 

10. Seventy years captivity. Fourth Head of the Dragon broken; the 
Fifth, with two horns, developed; and the first horn defeated. Chps. 60-63. 

11. Captivity returned. Temple and City restored, and second horn of 
the Fifth Head defeated. Chps. 64-70. 

12. Enlargement of the Kingdom of God. Sixth Head of the Dragon, 
with two horns, developed. Chps. 71-74. 

13. Adversities and Conflicts. The ninth and tenth horns of the 
Dragon broken. Chaps. 75-80. 

14. Preparation for the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Tlie Seventh 
Head of the Dragon developed. Chaps. 81-83. 

15. Mission of Jesus Christ on Earth. Chaps. 84-99. 

16. Apostolic Mission. Chaps. 100-124. 

17. White Horse, or First Seal Period of the Kingdom of God in its 
Intermediate Age. Chaps. 125-127. 

18. Red Horse, or Second Seal Period. The Red Dragon dethroned and 
his Seventh Head converted into the First Wild Beast. Chaps. 128-140. 

19. Black Horse, or Tliird Seal Period. The Second Wild Beast with 
two horns developed. Chaps. 141-147. 

20. Pale Horse, or Fourth Seal Period. The Third Wild Beast and the 
Harlot developed. Chaps. 148-158. 

21. Fifth Seal Period. Safety and Prosperity of the Witnesses, and the 
Power of the Kingdom. Chaps. 159-176. Here history ends, and inquirers 

must refer to prophecy for knowledge of the future. 

Period 22.— Sixth Seal Period. Chap. 109: 16-20. Seventh Trumpet. Chap. 

111:6, 7. Seventh Last Plague. Chap. 115: 11. 
Consummated Age; Millenium. Chap. 109' 19, 20. 118 and 119. 

Period 23. — Seventh Seal Period. The New Heaven and Earth. 

Analysis of the contents, and indexes, are placed at the end of the work. 



INTRODUCTIOK. 



1. Sources of Ancient History. — The earliest historian known to us is 
Moses. There may be bricks, slabs, pillars, or superstructures of various kinds, 
lying in ruins, overgrown with vegetation, or buried in the earth, on which may 
be inscribed histories much older than Moses, but when found, we might not be 
able to correctly read their words, decipher their hieroglyphics, nor interpret 
their pictures. Moses has saved from oblivion an ancient dialogue between Job 
and four pious and intelligent friends; and what may yet be learned from docu- 
ments preserved in countries east and north of Assyria, south and west of Egypt, 
and north of the Mediterranean sea, we don't know; but we must not mistake 
poetic fables nor phantastical pictures for authentic history. 

2. Character of the Age of Moses. — When Moses wrote, about two thou- 
sand five hundred years of the world's history had rolled away, and left us 
without any authentic history of the times, or satisfactory record of passing 
events. The few rays of historic light reflected from the pages of Moses, and 
the customs of later ages, show us that in some places man had sunk into the 
lowest depths of degradation ^ ; perverted the plainest truths of tradition in others^, 
and reversed the whole order of creation in others. If the existence of a Supreme 
Intelligent Being was admitted. He was disregarded, or considered too exalted 
to interfere with government of the world. Man, the noblest and most hon- 
ored of all creatures upon earth, was the slave of superstition, bowing down in 
servile reverence to the meanest reptile and vilest image ; woman, his equal, 
companion, and second self, was treated as an inferior order of the brute creation^; 
and children, the dearest objects of animal affection, were inhumanly sacrif ced 
to demons. Science could not, or would not and did not, counteract this immoral 
tendency that was brutalizing the human family till it was becoming a disgrace 
to the animal species, and a scorn and derision to the spirit world^. 

3. Extent of Polytheism. — To what extent Polytheism had established 
itself among the nations beyond Chaldea or Assyria, in the north and east of 
Egypt and the sea, and in the south and west, we can not learn from the writings 
of Moses; but we find it iii Chaldea in the days of Abraham^; and Baal or 
Babylon became an early antagonist to the Kingdom of God ^. When Abraham 
visited Egypt, Pharaoh appears to have had a better knowledge of God than 
Abraham, but when Joseph became viceroy of Egypt, we find an established 
priesthood united with the civil government, and it permeated every grade of 
society'^. Phenicia, containing Tyre and Zidon, was an early devotee to the most 
cruel Polytheism-^planted colonies and established Polytheism in them ; and the 
Cananites practiced the same rites before the time of Moses. As a specimen 
of Phenician Polytheism, expressed in terras and in accordance with Grecian 
mythology, we will give a treaty of the Carthagenians, who were a Phenician col- 
ony: This treaty was concluded in the presence of Jupiter, Juno, Apollo; in the 



(1) Gen., 18:20; Lev., 18th; Rom., 1, 21-32. (2) Chp., 1. (3) Hm , Vol., 1, p. 19; note 17. 
(4) See Encl'pd., R. K., Gods and Idols; Horn, Intro.. VoJ. 1, p. 16-21; Mosh., Vol. 1, p 16- 
18; Willson Ancient History, p. 22-27. (5) Josh., 24, 2-15. (6) Encl'pd., R. K., Art. Babel, and 
Roll., Vol. 2, p. 53. (7) Roll., Vol. 1, p. 142-5. 



14 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOrED. 

presence of the Demon of the Carthagenians, of Hercules and lolaus; in the pres- 
ence of Mars, Triton, and Neptune; in the presence of all the confederate gods of 
the Carthegenians; and of the sun, the moon, and the earth; and in the presence 
of the rivers, meads, and waters; and in tlie presence of all the gods who possess 
Carthage^. Though this treaty was made by a colony, and after the time of 
Moses, we may safely conclude it presents a specimen of the Polytheism of the 
ancient Phenicians. And it accords with what we shall tind in Egypt; and as 
Egypt and Phenicia planted colonies in Greece, and civilized it, we may take the 
Greek mythology as a fair exhibition of the Egyptian and Phenician Polytheism, 
under different names. 

The Phenicians taught the Greeks navigation, writing, and commerce ; and the 
Egyptians taught them the knowledge of their laws and policy, gave them a taste 
for arts and science, and initiated them into her mysteries^. The Hindoos believe 
their sacred book, "Yedas," was written two thousand years before Christ, or 
about the birth of Abraham. It sets forth the doctrine that there is one 
unknown true Being, All-present, All-powerful — the Creator, Preserver, and 
Destroyer of the universe. This Supreme Being is not conceivable by vision, or 
by other of the organs of sense. But the prevailing theologj^ throughout it 
speaks of God as the soul of the universe, or the universe itself. In Him the whole 
world is absorbed; from Him it issues; He is entwined and interwoven with all 
creation. All that exists is God; whatever we smell, or taste, or see, or hear, or 
feel, is the Supreme Beingi. Through all the eastern countries idolatry was 
divided into two principal sects — that of the Magi, who worshipped fire, and that 
of the Sabians, who adored images. The Sabians' religion arose among the Chal- 
deans, and they believed the seven planets were inhabited by as many intelli- 
gences, who were to those orbs what the soul of man is to his body, and repre- 
sented Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, Mercury, Yenus, Diana — or the Moon, 
by so many images or statues, in which they imagined those pretended intelli- 
gences, or deities, were as really present as the planets themselves. In time, the 
number of their gods considerably increased, and this image-worship from Chal- 
dea spread itself throughout all the East, passed into Egypt, and at length came 
among the Greeks, who propagated it through all the western nations. 

The Magi abhorred images and worshipped fire, looking upon that on 
account of purity, brightness, activity, subtility, fecundity, and incorruptibility 
as the most perfect symbol of deity. Their chief doctrine was that there were 
two principles, the one causing all good which was represented by light, and the 
other causing all evil, which they represented by darkness. 

The most ancient worship of Polytheism was that of the sun, moon, and 
stars^. The cruel and debauching rites of Polytheism were practiced in tlie land 
of Canan in the time of Moses^. The Persians adored the winds, thunder, and 
lightning^, the water, and the earth, and sun, as so manj^ deities^. The scienced 
priesthoods may have been atheists, and taught to worship as gods what they 
themselves regarded as parts and properties of a material creation. Varro says, 
that, by Jove, he understood ether; by Juno, air; by Neptune, the^sea; by 
Naiads, fountains; by Cybele, the surface of the earth; by Pluto and Proserpine, 
its bowels ; by Ceres, the fruit-producing force; by Dryades, the lives of trees; 
by Yulcan, fire; by Bacchus, the moisture of bodies^. But however philoso- 
phers or priests may have regarded them, the people were taught to venerate 
them as gods and to perform rites to appease their wrath and secure their favor; 
and to emancipate the people from this degrading bondage, Moses wrote the true 
origin and rank of all these heathen gods. See Deut., J, 15-20. 



(8) Roll., Vol. 1, p. 191-189. (9) Roll., Vol. 2, p. 238. (1) Swinton Oatlines, p. 52-53. 
(2) Roll., Vol. 2, p. 214-220; Job, 26:27. (3) Lev., 18, and Deut., 12:31. (4) Enclpd. R. K., 
Gods. (5) Roll.. Vol. 2, p. 215, and Gibon, Vol. 1, p. 79 and note. (6) Comp. Com'ntry, Vol. 5, 
p. 179; Rom., 1:25. 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

4. Condition and Chakacter of Israel. — About four hundred 3^ears before 
the mission of Moses, the Jehovah God had made a covenant with Abraham, in 
which he engaged to be the god of his seed, and to give them the land of Canan. 
No other god had risked his credit as an intelhgent, foreseeing, and almighty 
god, and no other people bore such a token in their flesh of any such transaction, 
covenant, and future engagement with any god. At the time of Moses' mission, 
nothing was more improbable than the fulfillment of this covenanted engagement. 
The seed of Abraham was held in the iron grasp of the most degrading slaver}^, 
by one of the most scienced and powerful, but most superstitous, nations of the 
time, and they were so reduced to servile dispositions that they would rather be 
well-fed slaves than secure independence and prosperity by a little inconvenience 
for a short time; and so addicted were they to Polytheism'^ that after they were 
delivered from bondage in a most miraculous way, they made a calf, and wor- 
shipped a vanquished god of Egypt. 

5. The Task for Moses. — Moses had to teach them who the God of Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob was, and what he was, put them in possession of the 
promised country, and guard them against the impositions of Polytheism. They 
had a mark in their flesh that reminded them of their promised inheritance, illus- 
trious ancestors, and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; but they were 
reduced to slavery and their children murdered ; they knew not the name of the 
God of Abraham, knew not whether he was one of the gods worshipped in 
Egypt or not, and did not know whether he had any power in Egypt, or was able 
to overrule the gods of Egypt and deliver them out of the hands of Egypt. 
They had learned to serve false gods, and perhaps had lost faith in the God of 
Abraham, or thought he had forgotten them and his covenant, too. 

6. Competency of Moses to Narrate Past Events. — For forty years 
Moses was in the royal court of Pharaoh, and was learned in all the arts and 
sciences of Egypt ; for forty years he was an exile in Midian, and experienced in 
the school of adversity; and forty years more he was engaged in the great work 
of his mission. But not to his education are we indebted for the knowledge he 
has communicated. He stops not to reason; he stoops not to philosophize; he 
produces no witnesses to testify — but he gives laws with authority and records 
events as one having knowledge adequate to the undertaking and whose veracity 
could not be impeached. He claimed to be sent by the Jehovah, God of Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to speak by his authority; he considered his preten- 
sions fully established by the stupendeous miracles wrought in the sight of those 
for whom and to whom he wrote. In the name of Jehovah, the God of Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob, he compelled the magicians to acknowledge his acts to be 
done by the hand of God; he executed judgment upon all the gods of Egypt, 
and destroyed the pride and military power of the dynasty that acknowledged 
not the indebtedness of Egypt to Joseph^. He led his rebellious, thickheaded 
pupils through the Red Sea, provided water and food in the wilderness in the 
most miraculous manner, led them by heavenly signals adapted to their intelli- 
gence (and so obvious, a horse could not misunderstand them), and he gave the 
law from oif a mountain quaking, burning, and smoking, which filled them with 
terror they could not mistake for imposition. The Israelites saw, heard, felt, and 
witnessed for themselves; believed his mission, and submitted to his authority, 
though against their most cherished lusts. 

Although we did not witness his miracles, we have seen the Kingdom of 
God developed successively and consecutively amidst sunh. discrepent vicissitudes 
for nearly six thousand years, in such exact accordance with his programmes that 
we acknowledge his competency to write the history of the past or delineate the 
programme of the future. 



(7) Josh., 24; 2, 14, 23. (8) See chap. 20-22. 



16 THE KINGDOM OB^ GOD DEVELOPED. 

7. Moses not a Historian. — We have called Moses a historian, but this is 
not properly correct, for he has not given a full or minute account of any person, 
place, of thing to satisfy the curiosity of the reader ; nor has he given sufficient 
information to enable us to form an adequate conception of the history of the 
human race, or to philosophize on the phenomena of nature. Six patriarchs 
could have handed down to the time of Moses a history of the world from the 
first man. Adam, Methuselah, Shem, Isaac, Levi, and Amram^, could have 
communicated it to Moses. Besides these, other patriarchs were contemporary 
with these, and we know Job and his friends derived knowledge from ancestors^. 
Moses and his contemporaries certainly had more knowledge of the past than he 
has communicated to us; and had he designed to write history he would have 
given a larger volume and fuller accounts. 

Moses did not write to teacli the arts or sciences, but to secure the moral 
reformation of man and the salvation of the world. He was not lecturing to a 
class of docile pupils on sciences, which they wished to learn and reduce to prac- 
tice, but to a mass of uncultivated slaves addicted to animal gratifications, habits, 
and practices, which he condemned and prohibited, and who relied on the testi- 
mony of their senses, but had no faith in complex ideas and abtruse reasonings 
and knew nothing about mathematical calculations nor philosophical instruments. 

Moses was a legislator, having one particular object in view, and if we would 
understand him aright we must view everj-thing he wrote from this legislative 
standpoint. He was legislating against the encroaching and overshadowing 
Polytheism of his day. Having gained their confidence by evidence addressed 
to their senses, it would have been unwise to destroy or weaken that confidence 
by teaching, directly or indirectly, a science that contradicted the testimony of 
their senses ; but, having inflicted defeat and shame on these fictitious gods, it 
was wise to go on and show that these gods, or things sacred to gods, were only 
creatures inferior in rank to man. The first great principles to be settled were 
these : Is there a Supreme God? Who is he? What is he? Where is he? Moses 
asserts: "Hear, O, Israel; the Jehovah, thy God, is one Jehovah !" and in His 
name he performed all His mighty works before their eyes and gave them the 
law. Thus he proved to them that Jehovah, the God of Israel, was above all 
the gods of Egypt and objects known to them. Then, to obviate any supersti- 
tious regard for the gods of the nations and for their idols, he gives the true 
origin of all the deified objects and their respective rank and relation to man. 

8. Scriptures do not Teach the Sciences. — Moses does not speak of crea- 
tion and the relation of its difi'erent parts as if he knew or believed what modern 
science teaches; neither do any of the sacred writers. What they intend to teach, 
they teach clearly, but in doing this they must necessarily speak of other things 
inseparably connected. In doing this they generally, or alwaj'S, represent these 
things according to the opinions, conceptions, and perceptions of those of that 
time and place, without ever correcting erroneous opinions or imparting better 
knowledge on those subjects. They represent the universe in three divisions, as 
heaven, earth, and sheole or hades^. Earth is always made the standpoint, 
and heaven is above, and sheole is below, and the sun and all celestial bodies 
rise and set^. The operations of the human mind are located in the heart, kid- 
neys and bowels*. In predicting future events the prophets represent them as 
performed b}^ ancient instruments and according to ancient customs 5. It is not 
probable that the battle of Gog will be fought with bows and arrows, or the Jews 
will be carried in arms and litters; and not a hint is given in regard to modern 
instruments of war or modes of travel. 



(9) See chap. 4, §12; chap. 6. §7; chap. 7, §9. (1) Job, 8:5-10, 15:17-19. (2) Job, 11:7-9; 
Ps., 139:7-10. 16:10, 11; Eph., 4:9,10. (8) Ps., 19:4-6, 50:1; Eccl., 1:5. (4) Rom , 10:10; Prov., 
8:5; Jer., 17:9, 10; Gen., 43:30; Ps., 16:7; Job, 15:35; 1 John 3:17. (5) Ezk., 38:45, 39:3,9; Is., 
49:22,66:20. 



INTKODUCTION. 17 

Bat this does not prove these writers did not understand the true science of 
things. The Psalmist, in showing the ownership of Jehovah, says: He hath 
founded the world upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Job, in 
showing the majesty and power of God, says: He stretcheth out the north over 
the empty place and hangeth the earth upon nothing. And again, he represents 
heaven as supported by pillars^. Though Paul represents man as believing with 
the heart, yet when he speaks of the renewing of the image of God in the soul, 
he represents the mind according to the best philosophical view^. Holiness 
belongs to the innate dispositions, knowledge to the intellectual faculties, and 
righteousness to the voluntary power. The most scienced preachers of the 
present time speak of the new heart, the deceitfulness of the heart, etc., to 
represent the character of human soul; and yet they consider the soul as acting 
through the head, or brains in the head. Scientists, even in lectures of philos- 
ophy and making almanacs, say the sun, moon, and stars rise and set, — go south 
and return north, — and do not shine sometimes. They have marked out the 
heavens into districts to suit our little earth, as if it was indeed the mother of the 
universe and center of creation. Now, if philosophers, in lecturing on science, 
can not avoid subjecting the universe to our little earth, and representing things 
as they appear and not as they really are, must we find fault with the reformer 
seeking the regeneration and salvation of the human family, because he speaks of 
subjects and phenomena as they appear to the senses ? The scriptarian has no 
right to interfere with scientists, and scientists have no right to interfere with 
scriptarian s. The root of all evil is in man's immoral degradation. Reform that 
and all will become intelligent and happy; and the wise reformer will not contra- 
dict the prejudices of the ignorant on natural phenomena to the hindrance of 
moral reformation. The antagonism is not between scripture and philosophy, 
but between true religion and false religion. What and who is God? What is 
man? and what is his relation to God, and to all creation? These are the ques- 
tions debated by Moses with the priests of Polytheism. Whether the accounts 
given by Moses were communicated to him by inspiration, as the programmes of 
the future were, or were compiled from ancient records or tradition, is of no 
importance to us. His writings have been endorsed by our Lord and Saviour, 
Christ, to be the Divine truth. If communicated by revelation, Moses may not 
have known anything more about creation than what he wrote, but the Inspiring 
Spirit did. Prophets did not always comprehend the whole subject of which they 
revealed a part ; and how much more ignorant they may have been in sciences 
the scriptures do not pretend to teach. But my opinion is that Moses compiled 
what suited his object^. See Chap. 27:20. 



1 in^?F'".^f=?^ J^^'2^='^'ll- (7)Rom., 10:10; Eph., 4:24; Col., 3:10. (8) Matt., 11:2-4; I. Pet., 
1:10-12, and 1. Cor., 18:9-13. f > ^ ; , , , 



CHAPTER I. 



THE CREATION.— Genesis 1:1-31, 2:4-25. 



1. Universe Created. — In the beginning God created the heavens and the 
earth. Raise your eyes to the heavens and look out through the atmosphere into 
space; contemplate the blue sky with all its shining orbs and fleecy clouds, which 
kings, priests, and peasants have worshipped in wondrous adoration. Look 
around upon the earth with its mountains and valleys, its rivers and rills, its 
oceans and lakes, its meadows and forests, with all its animate and inanimate 
objects. The God of Abraham made all of them. The Chaldeans held the 
world to be eternal^; so did Ocellus, Lucanus, and Aristotle^, and others. Epi- 
curus and others maintained that the world was formed by a fortuitous concourse 
of atoms, which were eternal^. The Hindoos held that God was the soul, and 
the universe his body^; Zenophon and others taught the same, and that the 
universe is one with Deity i. In direct opposition to all these notions, which were 
the source or offspring of Polytheism^, Moses asserts -that all had a beginning 
and were not eternal; all were created, and were not produced by some internal 
energy developing itself outwardly, and that God created them all, and was 
distinct from them, and as independent of them as the potter was from the vessel 
he made out of the mortar he mixed. Jehovah is the sole, independent, self- 
existent God, who gave being to the whole universe. So Moses teaches and 
every scripture confirms. 

2. Standpoint of Yiew. — Unscienced minds regard this world as the center 
of the universe, and from this standpoint they view all creation, and contemplate 
every part according to its apparent relation to the earth. The man wishing to 
inculcate philosophy and exhibit everything in the universe according to its 
true character, position, and relations, must encounter these prejudices and con- 
vince men that the testimony of their senses has a boundary; and beyond this, 
the internal powers of the mind must regulate the conclusions; and even these 
philosophers have districted the universe in accordance with the districts of tlie 
earth, and speak of the position and motion of celestial bodies as they appear 5. 
But the statesman and moral reformer may accomplish their benevolent designs 
without interfering with these confirmed opinions. Moses accommodates his 
accounts of the creation to these universal habits of conception, and makes the 
earth the standpoint and center of all his narrations; he speaks of the earth first, 
and then of other parts of creation as they appear and relate to it. 

3. Condition of the Earth. — The earth was without form and void or 
empty; and darkness covered the face of the deep, or abyss. The condition was 
one hard to be described in the Hebrew language so as to give an adequate idea 
of it. Polytheism called it Mother Earth — broad-breasted earth, the mother of 
the gods, who produced Uranus, or Heaven, the mountains, and the barren and 
billowy sea. Then she married Uranus, the most ancient of all the gods, and 
from this union came the Titans and Cyclopes, and the gods of the wintry season <5. 



(9) ADt Hist., Vol. 2, p. 89. (1) Encp. R. K., Cosmo^any. (2) Idm. Epicure. (3) Swint., 
p. 53; Intro., § 3. (4) Idm. (5) Intro., § 8. (6) Will., p. 22. 



CHAPTER I.: SECTIONS IV. -V. 19 

But she was a disorganized, obscure mother, incapable of taking care of men or 
gods. She was a dreadful creature, where neither gods nor men could either see 
or survive a minute; and so she remained till the Jehovah God reduced her to 
order. 

How long the earth remained in this chaotic condition from its first existence 
Moses does not say; how many changes of organization and disorganization it 
had experienced he does not tell; but it was not a goddess or mother to anything 
at this time, and could not help herself. Alas ! if the mother of all things falls 
into such a predicament, who will take care of the children? But as to her 
existence and condition, Polytheists agree w^ith Moses. With them, the first in 
order of time was Chaos, containing all the seeds of nature '^; it was eternal, sub- 
ject to a constant succession of uncertain movements regulated by chance^. 
Thus Chaos was eternal, and chance was the unintelligent, unmeaning, designless 
controller that stammered it around into an organized earth; and then earth pro- 
duced gods, men, animals, and vegetations. The Phenicians, Babylonians, and 
Egyptians seem to have adhered to this theory^. So the philosophers may have 
taught ; but with the people. Chaos was a god and the father of Erebus and 
IS'ight^. 

Darkness covered the face of the deep. With this statement Polytheism 
agrees, when it says that Chaos beget Erebus — that is. Darkness. Mythology 
turns facts into fiction, and makes gods out of anything. Hesiod says that Chaos 
was the parent of Erebus and Night, from whose union sprang the Air and Day. 

4. Darkness and Light Separated, and Day and JSTight Produced. — This 
chaotic mass was not a habitation for man, nor a god entitled to his homage; but 
it was indebted to the God of Jsrael for existence and for adjustment and order. 
It was not Mother Earth, nor a goddess, Terra^. The spirit, or wind, of God 
moved upon the waters, or agitated the chaotic mass. The Hebrew word, 
Rvh, ruah, literally means wind, that blows, whether air or breath, and being 
the most subtle thing known to the ancients, was used to denote spirit, whether 
divine, angelic, or human ; hence the subject matter, or context, must determine 
its application. The wind of God agitated it, or the spirit of God moved upon 
it and viewed it. And God said, Light exist ! and light existed. God saw it 
was good, or looked upon it with approbation, and separated it from darkness, 
making them occupy the same place at difierent times. Then followed a succes- 
sion of night and day. Evening was: morning was — one day. The heathen 
mythology of the gods and goddesses appears to be founded on this order of crea- 
tion. Chaos begot Darkness and Night, or Erebus and Nox; and they begot the Air 
and the Day (Aer and Dies) 2. First is Chaos, then Darkness covering Chaos and 
ending in Twilight, as night has done ever since ; the Air is moving upon the 
waters, or chaotic mass. Light appears and lasts till night, and this is called a 
Day. But did Hesiod get his idea from ancestors, or from Egypt, or from the 
Israelites ? Hesiod makes them gods and goddesses; but-Moses shows them to be 
creatures and not objects of worship. But of decided antiquity was the doctrine 
of the Magi of Persia. They held that there were two coeternal, coordinate 
beings, of whom they thought the Light and Darkness to be proper emblems — 
the one the author of all good, the other the author of all evil^. It matters not 
how the philosophers viewed it, the people adored Light as a good god, and 
Darkness as an evil god ; but Isaiah told them that Jehovah formed the light and 
created darkness; made peace and created evil. So I conclude that Moses reported 
this part of creation work to guard Israel against this source of Polytheism. 

5. Length of Days. — The man of science asks. How long were these days ? 
There are two classes of philosophers detrimental to the simplicity and truths of 
the scriptures; the one wishes to make the scriptures support his theories, the 



(7) Will., p. 22. (8) Encp. R. K., Cosmog. (9) Leverett Dictionary Chaos. (1) Leverett Dic- 
tionary Terra. (2) Encp. Cosmogany. (3) Comp. Comnt. Isa., 45:7, and Roll., Vol. 2, p. 218. 



20 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

other hates God and labors to subvert revelation by theories of his own making. 
The Hebrew word means a day, or a period of darkness and period of light, and 
is subject to the same figurative uses as our English word, day, and may be used 
to denote a long or short period of time. The judgment of mankind is called 
the last day and the day of judgment. But in Revelations we learn that from 
the first resurrection and the perdition of the Beast and False Prophet till the 
second resurrection, one thousand years transpire*, and this corresponds with 
the work to be done and the persons to do it. The Living and the Dead are to 
be judged 5. Every idle word^ and secrets brought to lights Christ in human 
nature^ and the saints must judge 9. The day of adversity and day of pros- 
perity ^ denote times of indefinite duration; and so in many cases. 

But these days consist in a period of darkness followed by a period of light. 
Evening was: morning was — one day. Geologists have divided the formation 
of the earth into seven periods, and they find fossil remains of vegetation and 
animals in the different strata, and they occur in the order of creation given by 
Moses, the first created in the lower strata and the last in the upper. From this 
coincidence, they conclude, that these days of Moses are the same as the periods 
of geology; and thinking it impossible, or at least not plausible, that so much 
work and so many changes could have been done in so short a time, they con- 
clude these days denote long periods. Now, coincidence does not prove identity, 
and there is no other evidence that they denote the same periods. Moses is not 
teaching geology or any other science, but contradicting the teachings of Poly- 
theism and denying the divinity of their gods. All these geologic periods may 
have transpired before the chaotic state described by Moses, or before the time 
the Spirit, or Wind, of God moved upon the waters, which may have been 
pressed to the surface by the sinking of the weightier matter. Darkness was 
upon the deep, or abyss (tehvm), but the Wind of God moved upon the waters 
(hemmaym). For anything said by Moses, the world may have been organized 
and disorganized ten thousand times, from its creation till the time he describes 
it as empty and void, and then it may have been reduced to its present order in 
six natural days of twenty-four hours, by the wisdom and power of God. How 
long did it take Christ to heal the diseased, increase the loaves and fishes, raise 
the dead, or calm the tempest^? He spoke, and it was done: he gave command, 
and it stood fast^. 

It is not usual for Jehovah to work by miraculous force unless to prove the 
mission of his servants or the truths of his revelations, and whatever importance 
a miraculous display of power might have been to other intelligent beings in the 
universe, it could be of no use to man, who did not witness it. Whether every 
day's work sprung into perfection simultaneously, and in an instant, or were pro- 
duced gradually, and at different times during long periods, we can not deter- 
mine by the language of Moses or by the sublime language of the Psalmist, for 
other events gradually pj-oduced by means are represented as accomplished in an 
instant*. The scriptures everywhere refer all subjects, objects, events, condi- 
tions, and results, to the one Great First Cause, without noticing the agents, or 
intermediate and connecting circumstances. The great object is to raise man's 
thoughts of fear, love, adoration, obedience, dependence, and accountability, 
above all intermediate objects and agents to Deity himself. 

We can not determine the length of these Mosaic days unless we knew the 
causes and the rapidity of the transition. If the first light moved in tides, 
waves, clouds, and pillars, how long was it moving around the earth? Was it 
caused by the influence of some heavenly body? How long was the earth turning 
on its axis? Was the earth's motion at first sluggish and imperceptible, and 



(4) Rev., 20:4-5, 12-15; see chap. 118. (5) 11. Tim.. 4:1; I. Pet , 4:15. (6) Matt., 12:36. 
(7) Rom , 2:18 (8) Acts., 17:31. (9) I. Cor., 6:25 (1) Ecc. 7:14. (2) Matt 14:19, 20; John, 
11:43, 44; Mark, 4:33-9. (3) Ps., 33:9. (4) Jer , 4:23-27; Habk,, 3d; Ps. 29, 136:13, 17, 18; Com- 
pare Ex.: 14:21; Numb., 21:21-25, 33-35. 



CHAPTER I.: SECTIOKS VI.-VIII. 21 

did it accelerate till it arrived at its present rate of motion at some subsequent 
time ? Moses' words must be understood, as all other words in all other docu- 
ments, in their primary sense, unless subject matter, or context, shows that they 
must be taken figuratively. Philosophers may amuse themselves with these diffi- 
culties, but the theologian has nothing to do with them. Jehovah has taught 
that he made them all; and has communicated this truth in a way adapted to 
man's conceptions, that man might know his own rank in creation and not 
become a superstitious slave to his own subjects and enemies. The object of 
Moses was not to teach how it was done, but who did it: not philosophy, 
but theology- When Moses wrote, man in scienced Egypt was a slave to 
superstition^. 

6. The Firmament. — This expanse or firmament of air called heaven, which 
presses liquids down into channels and basins, and raises vapors above our heads 
and holds them there till they descend in rain or snow, — where clouds roll, winds 
blow, lightnings play, and storms rage, — is not a god, produced by earth, to be 
worshipped under the name Uranus, Caelium, or any other Polytheistic name, 
but is as much a creature as man himself, and as much dependent on the Jehovah 
God. Nor is the Serene, above clouds and storms, the home of gods, nor the 
progenitor of any god ; nor is it a supreme god to be adored under the name of 
Jupiter, Zeus, or any other name. JN either are the dews, rains, snows, hail, 
winds, storms, thunder, and lightnings, the children, grandchildren, nor great- 
grandchildren of Uranus, nor of Aether. But this expanse is, so far as it relates 
to man, for a servant to keep water below and above, and make the world 
inhabitable for man, beasts, and birds. There is no god but the God of Israel. 

7. Seas and Lands. — Moses asserts the collection, disposition, and distribu- 
tion of the waters into oceans, seas, and rivers, and the production of the dry 
land to be the work of the God of Abraham. He will not acknowledge Oceanus 
and his wife Tethys to be the progenitors of rivers and sea nymphs ; nor Nep- 
tune to be god of the sea; nor his wife Amphitrite to be a goddess ; nor will he 
admit Neptune's son Triton a god to calm, the sea and call back the rivers and 
raise storms by blowing a conch-shell ; nor will he recognize as sea nymphs the 
fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris. God made the sea and the dry land, and 
will give them to man; but will not allow them or any property in them, or 
attribute of them, to be venerated as gods, goddesses, or nymphs ; nor will he 
allow himself be worshipped in them, as the soul of them. But Egypt wor- 
shipped the Nile, and various nations had their sacred rivers, and fountains, and 
sea gods and nymphs, to which and whom they made supplications, and pre- 
sented offerings to appease their wrath and secure their favor. 

8. Vegetation Produced. — If the dry land had no god but the Atheists' 
Chance, it would have remained a barren waste forever: if it was the body or 
part of a body, of which God was the animating soul, or if it had an inherent, 
self-existent, creating energy, it would have produced vegetation without the 
authority or creative power of any gods. But contrary to Atheists, Pantheists, 
and Sceptics, Moses says, God commanded it to bring forth grass and herbs and 
fruit trees, producing the seed for their future propagation; and all the diiferent 
kinds, or species, immediately appeared. Now the Greeks and Latins wor- 
shipped Saturn as god of sowing and reaping ; Ceres, his daughter, as goddess 
of grain; Sylvanus, as god of the woods; Pan, as god of the mountains and 
pastures; Faunus, of woods and fields; Priapus, of gardens and vineyards, and 
Bacchus, god of wine, and inferior goddesses, called nymphs, were numerous; 
Oreades were nymphs of the mountains and hills ; Dryades were tree nymphs ; 
Nereids, sea nymphs ; and Naiades were water nymphs^. The Egyptians wor- 
shipped leeks and onions ; the Sclavi and others adored trees and forests ; the 
Gauls and others paid a particular devotion to the oak ; and it was no other than 



(5) Roll., Vol. 1, p. 142-7, chap. 2, § 3. (6) Levrt. Lex ; see Intro., § 3; Yarro. 



SS I^HE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

wheat, corn, seed, etc., that the ancients adored under the name of Ceres and 
Broserpina"^. But Moses asserts that all these productions of earth were at iirst 
originated by the Jehovah God, and were perpetuated bv the seed, or power of 
reproduction given to them ; and so no other god was entitled to veneration for 
them. The Atheistic element shows itself in these gods; tlie gods are multiplied 
for the people, while the priest believ^es matter to be eternal, but modified by 
chance or some inherent energy. 

9. The Luminaries. — According to mythology, Hyperion was the father of 
the Sun, Moon, and Morning Dawn, or Sol, Luna, and Aurora^. The stars were 
grooped into constellations, and were reckoned meritorious persons and things 
translated to the heavens and advanced to divine honors. In the Sabian worship, 
the planets Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, Mercury, Yenus, and Diana, or the 
Moon, worshipped by the people in the East^, were believed to be inhabited by 
intelligent souls, which were also present in the images of them. The Chaldean 
astrologers denominated the Sun, Mars, Yenus, Mercury, and Jupiter, The 
Interpreters of the gods^. These heavenly luminaries were the noblest objects of 
worship and were most extensively worshipped, but their rites were most cruel 
and impure. Different names were applied to them, but their smiles were life 
and their frowns were death. But Moses affirms that Light existed on the earth 
three days before any of them peered through the mists, or upper clouds, and 
smiled upon its surface. They, too, are the creatures of the Jehovah God, who 
also gave them their position out, through, and beyond our atmosphere, which 
reflects, refracts, and converges their rays till they touch the earth, and the 
clouds often veil their faces. They were not placed there as objects of fear or 
adoration ; but so far as man is concerned with them, they are for signs and 
seasons, time-tables and calendars; and to give light to man and his dominions. 
Not gods, but servants. I shall not add more about them from Polytheistic 
mythology; enough has been produced to show the antagonism against which 
Moses was guarding the children of Israel. 

10. The Mosaic Standpoint of Observation. — Science now maintains that 
the Sun is the center of this system of planets, and it is not plausible that the 
earth existed three days before the sun was created. But this was not the theory 
of the professed scientists of former ages; and the sacred writers never pretend to 
correct errors in philosophy and arts, but always accommodate their language 
and teachings to the opinions and conceptions of the time and place^. Whether 
the Holy Spirit did or did not instruct them in philosophy, the sacred writers 
never pretend to teach the sciences nor to reveal future improvements in the arts, 
but labor to secure the moral reformation of the human family. This being once 
accomplished, man has the intellect to discover sciences and invent arts; and 
Jehovah did not create man for indolence and luxury. The mission of Moses 
was not to teach true science nor oppose false notions about the universe, but to 
restore and establish the true religion of the True God, which God had cove- 
nanted to preserve in the family of Abraham, for a blessing to all nations. It was 
Moses' business to show who was God, and what was the relation between God 
and man, and what relation man had to the rest of creation. 

What Scripture intends to reveal is clearly taught ; but while doing this, 
other subjects are necessarily noticed, by the way, and are generally spoken of 
according to their appearance, or the opinions of the time and place, and accord- 
ing to the comprehension of those to be taught. Deity himself is often 
spoken of as a man, and even as a beast, with all his bodily members, feelings, 
passions, and infirmities. So the whole universe is viewed from the earth, as if 
it was the center. Such it was then considered, and such we contemplate it yet, 
and even so speak of it in lectures on astronomy. Had Moses presented the 



(7) Encp. R. K., jfods. (8) Levrt. Lex. (9) Roll., Yol. 2, p. 218. (1) Ant. Hist., Vol. 2, p. 89 
(2) Intro. § 7, 8 



CHAPTER 1.: SECTIONS XI.-XIV. 23 

relation of the earth to the Sun, Moon, and Stars in any other way, he would 
have contradicted the testimony of his pupils' senses, and raised all the priests 
and philosophers against his religious teachings. His miracles were sustained by 
the testimony of their senses ; but the true relation and position of the earth to 
the heavenly bodies would have been condemned by their senses, and his teach- 
ings rejected. Moses presents the facts of creation according to the concep- 
tions and comprehension of his disciples ; so here he presents these luminaries 
on the fourth day, as the testimony of eyesight would have conceived, had his 
pupils been on earth to witness their first appearance ; and it matters not whether 
these orbs were never luminous before this fourth day, or had been shining for 
ages, and the mists, or clouds above, had never suffered them to show their faces 
before. In cloudy weather we have light and darkness, night and day, without 
Sun, Moon, or Stars. So earth never knew their influence, use, service, nor 
divinity, to the fourth day; and Moses denies their divinity and asserts them to 
be servants to man — for signs and for season, for time-tables and calendars. 

11. Water Animals. — Poor, degraded man, with all his science and power, 
has bowed in humble adoration and servile fear before every species of animated 
creation : the fishes and monsters of the deep and the winged fowls of the air 
have had divine honors from man, and gorgeous temples have been builded for 
their worship. The Syrians and Egyptians adored fishes and the crocodiles. 
Dagon was partly a fish. What were the Tritons, Nereids, Syrens, etc., but 
fishes? Several nations have adored serpents, particularly the Egyptians, 
Prussians, Lithuanians, Samogitians, and others. Insects, as flies and ants, had 
their priests and votaries, and Ballzebub of Ekron was a fly god. Among the 
birds, the stork, raven, sparrow-hawk, ibis, eagle, grisson, and lap-wing have had 
divine honors — the last in Mexico, and the rest in Egypt and at Thebes 3. But 
Moses says they were produced from the water by the word of God, and were 
created with the power of self-propagation, as the herbs and grasses, without any 
special gods or goddesses to watch over them. They were not gods, nor the 
property of any goddesses ; and man may not worship them, nor any imaginary 
god in them. 

12. The Land Animals. — Cattle, beasts, and reptiles have been worshipped 
by man, and his humble petitions and heartrending cries have been poured out 
to them. Four-footed beasts have had their altars, as the bulldog, cat, wolf, 
baboon, lion, ox, goat, and crocodile, in Egypt and elsewhere ; rats and mice in 
Troas and at Tenedos ; the hog in Crete, the weasel at Thebes, and the porcu- 
pine throughout all Zoroaster's school^, and the elephant. But Moses says that 
they sprung out of the earth at the command of Israel's God, having no divine 
prerogatives in themselves, and do not belong to any special deity who ought to 
be propitiated by man. God made them in all their classes, varieties, and indi- 
vidualities, and gave them the power of self-propagation without the special care 
of any inferior gods or goddesses, who might demand the homage of man. 

13. Rain, so important to the productions of the earth, is not an object of 
worship, nor under the control of any particular deity ; but is a creature of the 
Jehovah God, who had adorned the earth with herbs, grass, and trees before he 
caused the rain to descend, or created man to cultivate the ground. The earth 
was watered by a mist, or fog. Perhaps the mist shut out the face of the sun 
till the fourth day's work was done. 

14. Man's Origin and Rank in Creation. — From what ignoble origin did 
man spring ? He fears and worships everything but Jehovah, the great Creator 
and governor of all things. Heathen mythology says Prometheus formed man 
from clay, and gave him life by fire brought down from heaven ; and for this he 
was chained to a rock, to be eaten by vultures^. Notwithstanding the relative 



(3) Encp. R. K., gods and Dagon. (3) Joseph, p. 591, § 28. (4) Levrt. Lex. 



24 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

degradation of man, acknowledged by liis fear and reverence for every species of 
creation, Moses asserts his superiority over every part of the material universe. 
Every other creature is represented as created or produced by the simple com- 
mand to exist ; but the creation of man was preceded by deliberation and consul- 
tation : Let us make man. All other tilings were created after their own species, 
but man was created in the image and after the likeness of the Great Creator. 
Both the male and the female had this honor. In the image of God created he 
him : male and female created he them. Man was made to govern everj^ 
creature that flies in the air, swims in the water, or moves on the ground. The 
propagation of his species is not under the control of any special god or goddess, 
requiring offerings and devotions from progenitors, but is an inherent law of his 
creation, and the positive command of Jehovah. The earth was not his parent, nor 
god, but was put under his control, and all its productions were given to him for 
his own use and for the support of his animal kingdom. Every part of creation 
answered its design, tilled its place, obeyed its laws, and harmonized with the 
whole. All was good, perfect, and happy. A perfect contrast to what the tribes 
of Israel saw around them when Moses wrote this account. 

15. The Authority of Moses. — On what authority did Moses contradict the 
heathen mythology and expect the Israelites to believe him? On the same 
authority he taught Pharoh and his priests and princes to know and fear the 
Jehovah God, and delivered his brethren. Authority that wisdom and power, 
honesty and knavery, ignorance and stubbornness, love and hatred. Atheism, 
Polytheism, and Pantheism, could not resist. 



CHAPTER II. 



MAN IN HIS PEIMITIYE STATE.— Genesis 1:26-31, 2:4-25. 

1. Formation of Man. — The Jehovah God of Israel, formed the body of 
man out of earthy material, and putting his lungs in motion, made him a living 
breath. The Hebrew word, Nephesh (translated. Soul), means Breath. This is 
its primary meaning; and unless subject matter, or context, shows it to be used 
differently, should be translated accordingly. Here it literally describes a 
natural phenomenon — a continual breathing, as living water denotes a perpetual 
spring. This term, Breath, whether in Hebrew or Greek, is sometimes used to 
designate that intellectual, immortal spirit that animates the body, but is never 
applied to Deity, Angels, or Satan; but the term. Wind (translated, Spirit), is 
applied to them^, and to the disembodied soul of man. At death, Solomon says, 
"The body returns to dust, and the spirit — wind — returns to God who gave it."^ 
Had soul-sleepers attended to the primary meaning of the word "Breath," or 
its corresponding word in either Hebrew or Greek, and consulted the subject 
matter or context in Ezekiel, they would not have found any evidence that the 
soul of man dies. "The breath that sins shall die," is^ "The individual that 
sins shall die," and not his soul. 



(1) John, 4:24; Heb., 1:7, 13, 14; Mark, 5:2, 12, 14, 15; Matt., 12:24-28. (2) Eccl., 12:7. 
(3)Ezek., 18:20. 



CHAPTER II. : SECTIONS II. -VI. 25 

2. Condition of Man. — Man, like all other parts of creation, was perfect 
when he came from the hand of the Creator, and is not an improvement of some 
inferior order of animals: bnt at the present time he is below his original stand- 
ard. Man was the noblest creature that ever animated a material body, and 
woman is the same. Man was created in the image of God, and woman was 
created in the image of the man before he degenerated. She is not an inde- 
pendent, or rival being, to counteract man's authority and defeat his government. 
The head of the woman is the man: the head of the man is Christ, and the head 
of Christ is God^. She was made of a rib taken out of man's side, and given to 
him for a suitable companion, and to share his bliss. 

3. Woman and Marriage. — The marriage relation is not under the govern- 
ment of any heathen god or goddess, as Juno, but was instituted by Jehovah, 
and must be governed by his laws, and not by man's caprice, nor the licentious- 
ness of false deities. Man is the head of this material creation, woman is next, 
and they two — not half a dozen"^ — are one flesh. She is not his slave, as we 
find her in all heathen countries; nor to be separate from him in the Kingdom of 
God*^. I have not all the teachings of Polytheism which Moses contradicts; but 
we see its effects in heathen countries. Whether Moses speaks literally or 
figuratively effects not his teaching. 

4. Innocence and Purity. — Shame is not a deitj, nor the production of 
a deity; but was unknown in a state of innocence. The animal propensities 
being under the complete control of the rational spirit, they were not ashamed 
of the development of their sex, nor incited to unholy emotions or desires. 
These are derangements of the sexual laws. 

5. Government and Dignity of Man. — Man was not only designed and 
qualified for government, but was put in possession of his kingdom, and all his 
subjects were classified and named by himself. He was their king, and not their 
devotee. Man's perceptive and reflective powers of mind must have far sur- 
passed his present knowledge of animated nature, when he could at once abstract 
their properties and classify them according to their species. Different animals 
were sacred to different gods; and in Polytheism, when the giant Typlion made 
war against heaven, the gods became frightened and fled, and assumed different 
shapes, so the giant did not know then;i. And no wonder he did not, for Jupiter 
became a ram; Mercury an ibis; Apollo a crow; Juno a cow; Bacchus a goat; 
Diana a cat; Yenus a fish, etc. '^ Now, as man was lord of these animals, these 
gods should have worshiped man, instead .of man worshiping these gods and 
venerating these animals sacred to them. When Moses wrote, the wise men of 
the nation had become fools. Though philosophers may have venerated some 
attribute in the animal, the people worshiped the animal, or some fictitious deity 
in it or over it. 

6. Sabbath, Gen., 2:1-3. — To commemorate the true origin of everything 
we see, time was divided into periods of Seven Days, and the Seventh Day was 
blessed and consecrated to Divine worship for man's moral cultivation. From 
our knowledge of man as we find him, we know him to be a two-fold being, and 
of a three-fold development. He has a material body, curiously organized, and 
subject to all the laws of matter, and this physical organization is animated by a 
spirit possessing all the properties and powers of mind; and he exhibits the 
physical, mental, and moral developments. His occupation in cultivating ground, 
training vegetation, governing animated nature, and witnessing the phenomena 
of creation, would give him constant physical and mental employment; but as 
his happiness and success depended on his moral deportment, he must have time 



(5) I. Cor , 11:3. (*) Matt , 19:5; Mark, 10:8. (6) I. Con, 11:1-13; Mark, 10:6-9; Matt., 19:18. 
(7) RoL, Vol. 1, p. 145; Jos. Apion,p. 600, § 12. 



Zb THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

to cultivate his moral nature. To accomplish this moral culture, God conse- 
crated every seventh day to be a day of rest and devotion 8, that man might be 
continually reminded of his God, and his relation to Him, the origin of all 
things connected with his sphere of government, and his relation to them, his 
servants and subjects. The period of the years was regulated by the sun; the 
months by the moon; but that of the weeks is of positive institution, and can 
not be traced to anything in physical creation. Yet this division into seven days 
appears in the history of the Patriarchs' transactions, and was adopted by the 
Hebrews, Egyptians, Chinese, Greeks, Romans, and northern barbarians^. The 
Sabbatli was a memorial of something not seen in the physical worlds, and must 
have originated in positive enactment or legislation^. It was a reminder to 
Israel every week that the gods of the heathen were creatures inferior to man. 

7. The Garden of Eden — Jehovah had prepared a choice spot of earth 
in Eden, which Moses calls "a garden," rich and beautiful, with every species 
of vegetation, and in this paradise he placed our first parents, Adam and Eve; 
and they were not allowed to be idle loafers, but must cultivate and keep it. 
Man must govern the breath-animated nature or creatures, and also cultivate a 
garden already prepared. It was a royal garden, presenttng a miniature of all 
the world, and nature in perfection, with the bespangled heavens overhead. 
What a glorious scene was illuminated with the sunbeams in the day, and silvered 
at night by the mellow light of the moon and the twinkling stars. On every 
side, expanding to the horizon boundary, lay the Garden of Eden. A river 
flowing out of Eden, watered the garden with its vapors and moistures. As it 
leaves the garden it divides into four channels, flowing on to the gulf or ocean. 
That river was the Euphrates, that emptied into the Persian gulf. As man was 
given dominion over the fishes and monsters of the deep, and the smallest 
swimmers of the rivulets, here were four channels to his royal home. See ! the 
waters are waving and circling with animation. On the banks stands the lofty 
forest, robed in living green, interspersed with saplings and shrubs in health and 
bloom. Over there, on the hill slope, you see the larger fruit trees of every 
description, bending under endless varieties of fruit, or decorated with fragrant 
blossoms. Here the countless varieties of shrubbery unfold their produce and 
beauty. But stop describing what can not be described. Just look and see. 
Every plant, shrub, and tree that is good for food and pleasant to the eye adorns 
the landscape, and not one of them sacred to any god or goddess. All are man's, 
for food, perfume, and beauty, — home decorations. There, too, are man's terres- 
trial animals of every species, — classified and named by Adam, — standing, reclin- 
ing, or sporting among the trees, shrubs, and flowers. All of them acknowledge 
man for their lord and king, and know nothing of those false gods to whom the 
Polytheists made them sacred. Yonder are the swans and sea-gulls, with other 
varieties of water fowl, swimming in the river, or skimming over the surface and 
dipping their wings, to man's delight, and never thinking of a heathen deity. 
All around, on trees, shrubs, and flowers, see all flj^ing fowls and birds of richest 
plumage, and listen to their sweetest sounds and most melodious songs. The 
heathen gods in all their glory did not equal Adam and Eve in Paradise. Yonder 
is the lamb sleeping with the wolf; there the kid is pawing the leopard; here the 
fatling is butting the lion; and the cow and the bear are smiling on the calf and 
cub sleeping together. Look at the serpents twined around the branches of trees 
and coiled on the ground, glistening in the sunbeams and shining in the moon- 
light! Why, a sucking child might play on the hole of the asp, and a child just 
weaned might put its hand in the cockatrice den 3. This is Paradise. Nothing 
will hurt here. Listen to that dove cooing on the tree of life, just over the eagle's 
head, and look at that hawk picking strawberries with the hen and chickens! 

(8) Ex , 20:8-11, 31:12-17; Isa., 58:13, 14. (1) Comp. Cmmt. in loco., Horn's Intro.; Joseplius 
Apion. (2) Mark, 2:27, 28. (3) Isa., 11:6-9. 



OHAp^rER III. : sEctioNs i.-ii. ^? 

But where are Father Adam and Mother Eve? Yonder they stand near the tree 
of life, immersed in shrubbery and flowers, and shadowed by a canopy of vines 
loaded with grapes. Ye ry good! Perfect! Perfect! Physically, mentally, 
and morally perfect! Just as Jehovah, the God of Israel, intended they should 
be. O Jehovah ! restore us to Paradise. Thank God, such a time is coming"^", 
when the New Jerusalem, descended out of heaven, shall possess all the excel- 
lencies of nature and perfection of arts. But between this Garden of Eden and 
New Jerusalem of Palestine we have a world of storms and earthquakes, dun- 
geons and torturing machines, burning stakes and inquisitions, devastations and 
deaths. O Lord! carry us safely through. The Dragon, the Beast, and False 
Prophet have had their day, and now we are grappling with their Three Frog 
Spirits; and we think the Second Advent of Christ and the Consummation of 
the Kingdom of God are very near. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE FALL AND EXPULSION.— Genesis, 3. 

1. Two Trees and Positive Institutions. — Among all the trees of the 
garden, two call for attention in particular. They are both central trees, — in the 
middle of the garden, — and, so far as I can see, there is no difference between 
them. But one of them is called "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and 
Evil," and might be called the "Tree of Death." Of all the vegetable produc- 
tions of the earth, this only is forbidden: but this they must not touch or eat 
upon pain of death, though good for food and pleasant to the eye. Man was 
created under inherent physical, mental, and moral laws, and perhaps knew and 
obeyed them all, and was perfect and happy. Yet it pleased the Creator to give 
man positive laws and institutions, and that his present destiny should be regu- 
lated by them. As Moses did not teach anything about the geology of the earth 
nor the astronomy of the heavens, so he did not teach anything about the phy- 
siology of the human body, philosophy of the mind, nor the inherent moral 
principles governing man's relations, but confines himself to positive laws and 
regulations. 

2. Laws of Nature and Positive Laws. — Had no positive regulations 
been made with man, and man had been left to follow the laws of his creation, 
by instinct or reason, then he must abide the necessary consequences of his 
actions and mental operations, for God is just, and will deal with all His creatures 
according to the laws of their creation. If he observed the laws of health, he 
would have a strong, robust, and active body, but if he violated them, the con- 
sequences were disease and pain. If he observed the laws of mind, his mind 
would become powerful, but if he violated them, he would become 
deranged and idiotic. If he obeyed the moral principles of his relations 
to God and his fellow creatures, he would be happy and make society happy 
around him, but if he violated those principles, he would become vicious and 



* Romans, 8:19-23. 



28 THE ItlNQDOM OJ' GOD DEVELOPEt). 

miserable, and produce the same in society around him. Degeneracy once 
commenced, must continue in the order of cause and effect to an indefinite 
extent, and no remedy from generation to generation, like the fallen angels. 
Violate moral principles, and observe physical and mental laws, men would 
become strong and skillful devils; and perhaps this is what the antediluvians 
did, for they were monsters, and lived to great ages and were very skillful. To 
observe physical laws, and violate the mental and moral laws, man would become 
a strong and robust brute, like a grizzly bear. To violate all the laws of man, 
he becomes vicious, idiotic, weak, and pitiable. To violate the laws of mind, 
and observe the laws of body and morals, — if that were possible, — he would 
become a slave to superstition. But coming under a positive regulation, with 
positive, or arbitrary, rewards or penalties affixed, and all laws of creation placed 
in subordination, the Creator could, in justice, arrest moral degradation by 
physical punishment. If the angels came individually from the hand of the 
Creator with full knowledge of the laws of their creation, — as we suppose they 
did,-^ — then every one stood or fell as his own choice or act; but mankind, 
descending by generation from one or more primo-genitors, would have their 
destiny fixed by the necessary consequences of parents, actions, and society 
around them, without any choice of their own. But if man came under a 
positive system, constituted superior to tlie laws of creation, then a system of 
grace, or favor, might be inaugurated, by which those born in sin might be 
reformed and saved at last. See § 15. 

3. The Tree of Life. — The penalty affixed to eating the "forbidden fruit" 
was death. But after this penalty was incurred, man must be debarred the 
"Tree of Life," or he might still be immortal. He knew good before, but now 
evil also, and can do it, and make earth a hell; so his death must be sure, and 
no pardon. What Jehovah had promised man in respect to the Tree of Life we 
are not told; but immortality appears to be inseparably connected with the eating 
of the fruit. So man must be expelled from the garden, and cut oft' from the 
Tree of Life, till the New Jerusalem descends upon Mt. Zion, and "The King- 
dom of God" is consummated on the earth*. The work of the Kingdom of 
God is to reinstate man in Paradise, and restore to him the government of the 
world. Then the Tree of Life will furnish leaves for the healing of the nations; 
and perhaps here, had man been injured by any malevolent agent, or had uninten- 
tionally violated any law of his nature, he would have escaped the necessary 
consequences by eating of the Tree of Life; and as his children dispersed 
they could carry sprouts with them, and plant them in their gardens — memorials 
of positive government, and pledges that God would give revelations and positive 
laws and regulations when necessary for man's improvement and happiness. If 
he ate of the forbidden fruit, he was subjected to death, and all the consequences 
would follow every violation of every law of creation; but if he avoided that 
tree and did not eat of its fruit, then he was exempt from the consequences of 
violating any law of creation, if he ate of the Tree of Life. Thus the bitten 
Israelite was saved from the bite of the fiery serpents by looking upon the brass 
serpent on the pole^. 

4. Evil and the Evil One. — That the whole creation is under the bondage 
of corruption, and traveling and groaning in pain 3, is observable to all. Philos- 
ophy has taught that evil is essential to existence, and Polytheism has taught 
the worship of an evil demon, to appease his malevolent disposition and render 
him propitious to man*. But Moses asserts the Jehovah God of Israel to 
be supreme over all evil powers, and able to preserve the objects of his care from 
all malevolent beings. God's works are perfect, — supremely good; and evil is 
not a constituent element in creation, nor an accidental defect. Nor was it 

(4) Gen., ,'^:22-4; Rev., 21:9-27,22:1-5. (2) Kum., 21:6-9. (3) Rom., 8:19-23. (4) Chap. 1, §4; 
Hrn., Vol. 1, page 16, note 8. 



CHAPTER III.: SECTIONS v.- VIII. 29 

introduced by a superior power, beyond his control, or not responsible to him. 
That malevolent agent is under the curse of God, and doomed to perdition, and 
shall be destroyed by the seed of the woman. It is not to be feared or rever- 
enced by man, but to be resisted and conquered. 

5. Man's Responsibility for it. — This evil was permitted by Jehovah, for 
some reason not given ; perhaps, to teach man implicit obedience to positive law 
and prepare him for an higher sphere of existence; and man was forewarned 
against it. Satan could not introduce this derangement in creation, without 
man's cooperation and knowledge. Man is king and not Satan. The woman 
was deceived, but the man was not^: but for some reason not given — perhaps his 
attachment to Eve — he disobeyed God, and plunged his whole dominion into the 
bondage of corruption. This was the origin of evil in this world. 

6. The Serpent and Satan.— Among the animals worshipped by degraded 
men the serpent held a conspicuous place in the most polished and powerful 
nations^. But Moses teaches that it is an enemy to man, and had been the 
instrument of all his miseries. It was not a Deity, but it was cursed by the 
God of Jacob to its present insidious and degraded condition. Man still 
possesses the power to crush its head and exterminate it from his habitation, 
while its power against him is represented as only able to bruise his heel. Now, 
as man must have some material symbol for every invisible being, the serpent 
became the apposite representative of Satan, who is the chief invisible adversary 
of man"^. How degraded had man become, when he feared and worshiped a 
reptile he was able to crush without incurring any more injury than the wounding 
of his heel. But this physical degradation is not greater than his spiritual sub- 
jugation to Satan. 

7. Penalty and Consequences. — The penalty was death — "to die — thou 
shalt die:" or, "In the day you eat that fruit you are a dead man "^. This 
penalty has been literally executed upon Adam; and Christ, the second Adam, 
has secured the literal resurrection of the dead^. This mental and moral 
derangement, which has so degraded human nature, flowed out of this act of 
disobedience as a necessary consequence, in the order of cause and effect; and 
had man continued to eat of the Tree of Life, and so escaped the penalty, he 
would have become an immortal, incarnate devil, and this world a hell itself. 
Whatever death may be to the wicked, it is mercy to the pious and friendship to 
the world. And when the wicked are restored to immortality, to what depths of 
degradation and misery of soul and body will they descend, in the order of 
cause and effect ? Think ! Reflect ! Be wise ! 

8. Woman's Curse and Relative Position. — Although woman had led man 
into the transgression, and was subjugated by her own desires, or deranged pro- 
pensities, and the immoral state of society, to his rule, and liable to his abuse, 
yet she had not lost her relative position to man nor her importance in the King- 
dom of God. She shall be preserved in producing her offspring, although 
suffering pangs and sorrows^, and her seed shall destroy the adversary and 
restore this creation of ours to primitive rectitude, glory,- and happiness. She is 
of superior importance, and is still an heir with man in his exultation as well as 
in his degradation, and should have access with him into the house of God and 
receive his protection and fellowship. Paul says, "The head of the woman is 
the man, and the head of the man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God^." 
This was the order in man's primitive state and what is required in the Kingdom 
of God. But the subjugation threatened after the fall was a curse, and most 
fearfully has it been inflicted on her in all heathen countries and in times of inva- 
sions and revolutions; and in the very rites of Polytheism she has been degraded 



(5) I. Tim., 2:11. (6) Cmp. Com. Gen., 3:1-5; Job, 26:13; Thalh. Ant , p. 61-3. (7) Rev., 
20:2, 12:9. (8) I. Kin^, 2:37-42; II Sam,, 19:28; Gen., 30:37; I. Sam., 14:44. (1) I. Cor., 15:21, 22. 
(2)1. Tim., 2:15. (3) I. Cor., 11:1-12. 



30 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

to the brutish lusts of men, by laws*. But this curse no more justifies such 
degradation by man than the curse of man authorizes woman to sow Canada 
thistle and cockleburr in his cornfield and wheat, to make him sensible of his 
own curse. 

9. Man's Curse. — Man was doomed to support himself and those dependent 
on him, in toil, weariness, and pain, till he returned to the dust. Why should 
noxious weeds, thorns, and thistles grow in defiance of man, while fruit, herbs, 
plants, and trees are produced and preserved with so much difliculty ? It is not 
the work of a particular, malignant deity, who must be propitiated by offerings 
and criminal rites; but is the penalty of man's rebellion, inflicted by Jehovah, 
who is the sole object of worship. Evil was not a whim of some capricious deity, 
nor is the remedy an uncertain notion or favor of an inexorable demon. 

10. All Parties Punished. — Sin had now entered the world, and death by 
sin, and has passed down upon all men because all have sinned^. Death is not 
a grim monster devouring the human family, but the sentence of a just and holy 
God, who is a friend and deliverer of all those who are willing to be reconciled 
to him. Death is rest and sleep to the pious. Adam was not excused because 
tempted by his wife and only companion. Eve was not excused because deceived 
by the serpent. The serpent was not excused because it was only an instrument 
under control of the mighty adversary. All are punished. The only obligation 
to obey was the command ; no reason given for the command nor evil conse- 
quences pointed out. it is commanded, and that is reason enough. Commands 
must be obeyed implicitly. 

11. The Only Help and Hope. — Shame now entered the world, and is neces- 
sary for the virtue of fallen man. They were ashamed of themselves as created by 
Jehovah, and made themselves scanty covering of leaves ; but Jehovah clothed 
them with skins. We find no permission to eat animal flesh before the flood ; 
but we do find them offered as sin offerings^, l^ow, as Moses had taught all 
about sacrifices, in the law given to Israel, it was not necessary to say much 
about it here, unless there was something different about it. Thus man was 
taught that he must now be pardoned, fed, and clothed by the sufferings of the 
innocent. Blood, or life, secures his atonement; flesh feeds him, and the skin 
clothes him; and yet the victim has committed no sin against God or man. The 
Lord did not teach them how to clothe themselves, but how to obtain that by 
the death of the innocent. Not independence by learning and seeing the proper- 
ties and laws of creation, but dependence on free favor obtained at the expense 
of the innocent. Thus Adam saw what death was, and what was his own fate. 

12. Origin of Sacrifice. — When Moses wrote, sacrifice was common among 
all nations; and having taught its object and law in his legislation, he here attests 
its origin. It was not originated by voracious deities, who took pleasure in 
gorging themselves with flesh and blood, but by Jehovah, to teach man the way 
of reconciliation to him, and his dependence on free grace, secured by the suf- 
fering and death of the innocent, and obedience to the positive laws of God — they 
must be respected. 

13. How Seduced. — The language of the serpent was insinuating and decep- 
tive. It did not impeach God's veracity, but insinuated that there was a misun- 
derstanding; for God knew they would learn by experience — "get their eyes 
opened" — the distinction between good and evil, and be gods ; and surely ye will 
not die, for there is the Tree of Life given to you, and while ye eat of that ye 
cannot die^! And thus Satan quoted scripture and argued with Christ in the 
wilderness^. Persuade a man that God's covenants, oaths, and promises are 
ambiguous, equivocal, and can not be understood nor depended on. and he is 
prepared to receive any mystification and perversion of them. The woman 



(4) Hrn., Vol. 1, p. 1M7. (6) Rom. 5:12. (7) Gen., 4:4. (8) Gen., 3:22 (9) Luke, 4:10. 



CHArTEKIII. : SECTIONS XIV. -XV. 31 

becomes bewildered. If we eat of the one we live, if we eat of the other we die; 
and what if we eat of both ? Having admired the fruit and desired more knowl- 
^edge, she yielded to the deception; felt no harm; was emboldened, and gave 
some to Adam, with the importunity of a fallen woman under the infatuation of 
a new discovery. Adam was not deceived^; he knew the result, but yielded to 
the solicitations of his wife, hoping that God would provide a remedy^. 

14. Consequences of Eating the Fkuit. — This fruit was not poisonous, or, 
by the laws of creation, they would have suffered the effects ; but no physical 
evil appears to have followed. The penalty was fixed, and man was under the 
death sentence. But by disobedience he had violated the moral principles of 
his creation, and the natural effects followed immediately. A consciousness of 
guilt haunted him, and fear drove him from God. While innocent, he could 
hope that God would provide a remedy ; but guilt once contracted, hope is fled. 
Not like Peter did he come to meet his Lord ; but like Judas, fled from him. 
Then, mentally deranged, he thought to hide from Omnicience. So the enemies 
of Christ, in the great day of his wrath, will call on the mountains to fall on 
them and hide them from his face^. When discovered and convicted, like Saul, 
when challenged with disobedience about Amalek, they rolled the blame on 
others ; but not like David, when convicted, did they confess themselves sinners. 
Like Cain, they left the place for meeting with Jehovah ; and if he had 
not sought them, they had never returned to him. The innocent may think 
repentence, confession, and reconciliation very easy, but once conscious of guilt, 
they dread to see the face of the injured. But some may have so brutalized 
themselves that tliey are past feeling, and tremble only when they see vengeance 
impending. 

15. IS^ECESsiTT OF PosiTivE Laws. — Whether or not positive laws and 
institutions were necessary for man's government before the fall, they are indis- 
pensable after it; for we find him deranged in all the inherent laws of his crea- 
tion — physical, mental, and moral. It is doubtful if man, even in a state of 
perfection, could have decided on what was best, and have sustained his elevated 
and happy state, without positive laws given by the all-wise God; at least, thev 
were convenient and saved much reasoning and investigation, and God would 
have man respect the dignity of these positive laws as much, or more, than the 
laws of nature, and, therefore, punishes their violation. Man must obey Posi- 
tive Laws. The laws of nature may be sufiicient for the brute creation, but the 
same instincts, or propensities, would now degrade, make miserable, and extin- 
guish the human race. 

Man was created in the image of God : but this could not be in regard to 
his body, for it is material, and God is a Spirit^. Paul speaks of being renewed 
in the image of God — in Holiness, Knowledge, and Righteousness^, l^ow, to 
be renewed implies the thing has been destroyed, or defaced, or impaired. 
Christians will not be renewed, physically, till the resurrection; but his emo- 
tions, desires, and afiections, have been renewed into holiness, and his intellec- 
tual powers have been renewed into the divine knowledge of God, of himself, 
and of their mutual relations, and his powers of volition have been renewed into 
the choice of righteousness, according to God's laws or revealed will. Hence, 
we conclude : Man's moral character was perfect, and every innate disposition 
pure, or in its right place, whether animal or spiritual; his intellectual powers 
were clear and certain in their operations, and, on all subjects within man's 
sphere of knowledge, his conclusions were correct, and his volitions, or deter- 
mination and choice, were exactly right, just, and the best. How, then, did 
they fall V^' 



^ (1)1. Tim., 2:14. (2) Rom , 8:20. (3) Rev., 6:16; Luke, 23:30. (4) John, 4:24. (5) Col., 3:10; 
Eph., 4:23, 24. (*)Chp., 26:3, 6, 7-10. 



32 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

16. Disquisition on the Fall. — Man had the image of God, but he was 
not God : there was a boundary to his sphere of knowledge, and a limit to the 
powers of his mind. If he extended his investigations beyond this, he must 
depend on some other intelligent being. All data for reasoning were not in his 
possession. He knew what God commanded him, and the penalty annexed to 
eating that fruit. But what God might do after the penalty was inflicted, to 
restore him to his happy position and condition, he did not know ; and he had 
no experience to teach him the consequences upon his spirit in its mental and 
moral nature — nor did any one tell him. God requires obedience, without giving 
the reasons. His love to God was supreme, but he loved Eve better than life 
and dominion without her. She was partly himself; and the animal attachment 
was most powerful, and they were kindred spirits. Congeniality of Spirits 
makes strong attachment and confirmed friendship. When this is strengthened 
by animal attachment, the fellowship is perfect, and the union stronger than 
death. Such persons have preferred death in its worst form to separation. 
This attachment was no imperfection of his nature. David had hard work to 
choose between three judgments ; but choose he must, and did^. So Adam 
had his choice — solitude or death. For aught he knew, God might restore them 
both, after the penalty had been endured ; or, after death, their spirits united, 
might dwell with angels. He subjected the creation in hope'^. 

17. Continuation of Disquisition. — But Eve was deceived^. Where, then, 
were her reasoning powers ? They were not infinite, they had their boundary. 
There was no more wrong in talking with the serpent than for me to talk with 
my dog or horse. It is not necessary to suppose that the serpent was endowed 
with the power of speech. Eve's perfect knowledge of her animal subjects and 
their natures would enable her to converse with them, as we now converse with 
a horse or dog. I^or was she forbidden to look upon the tree or talk about it. 
It looked well and was good for food, and knowledge was desirable; but a penalty 
was aflixed to the eating of it. That penalty was Death — literal death — no 
evidence it was anything more. There, too, was the Tree of Life, and if we eat 
of that we can not die. The serpent says: "There is a mistake : your death is 
not certain, but your increase of knowledge is. Does the serpent twine around 
its branches and eat of the fruit? It is wise! It does not die! Perhaps it tells 
a lie ! What is a lie ? Eve never saw one — does not know what it is. Man does 
not learn by intuition, but by known facts. Suspicion and distrust are taught by 
experience. Why distrust the serpent? She might as well distrust a sheep. 
But God commanded to not touch nor eat : yes, or die. She has her choice. 
Experimental knowledge and death, or simplicity and life. She has her choice. 
And what is death ? A separation of the spirit from the body, and the disorgan- 
ization of the body. And then, a loss of dominion and separation from this 
breath-animated creation must necessarily follow. Is that all? And even this, 
the serpent says, is doubtful, or not possible. And then, there is the Tree of 
Life, and if we eat of that we can not die. She made her choice ! and we know 
the rest. 

18. Disquisition on the Fall — Concluded. — What was the penalty, and 
how did our first parents understand the terra, "Death?" Did they, by it, 
understand all the consequences that have followed from the disobedience?^ 
If they did, we can not see how they were mentally or morally "very good," 
or perfect. (Figurative uses of words can not be admitted in preference to the 
literal meaning without evidence, and all evidence, here and elsewhere, requires 
the literal meaning — to dust return. f) But if they understood it literally, as we 
supposed, the consequences might not have been within the compass of an 
unexperienced human mind. Does any one ask, "Why did not the Lord show 



(6) I. Chron , 21:11-13; II. Sam., 24:13, 14. (7) Rom., 8:20. (8j I. Tim., 2:14. (*) Eph., 2:1, 
5; Col., 2:13. (t) Gen., 3:19. 



CHAPTER III. : SECTIONS XIX. -XXI. 33 

them?" We answer, " Why did not He create them and all animals incapable 
of sinning and suffering?" Jehovah is an absolute sovereign, and knows His 
own business. We are His creatures and must learn and obey His will. The 
penalty of sin is death; the sting of death is sin; the strength of sin is the law^. 
God has created all things under laws, and sin is the violation of law^; and the 
consequences are misery and woe And in the physical world these consequences 
are so excruciating that death is a mercy. The penalty inflicted on David was, 
"The sword shall not depart out of thy house all thy days." But the conse- 
quences growing out of that crime were worse than the death of his three sons. 
The penalty inflicted on Saul was the loss of the throne to his family; but the 
consequences growing out of his rebellious and unsubmitting spirit were most 
deplorable. The consequences of violating the physical, mental, and moral laws 
of creation are more intolerable than a lake of fire and brimstone. The final 
perdition of the wicked, we suppose, is the consequences necessarily growing out 
of their immoral character, mental perversions, and physical transgressions; and 
the necessary consequences of Adam's sin was derangement of his innate dispo- 
sitions, mental operations, and physical organization. Physical sufl'erings are 
terminated, till the resurrection, by death. Hence, to the righteous, the penalty 
is a favor. 

19. How Long Adam Stood. — For aught we know, man may have occupied 
Paradise many years before the fall. In that state of innocence the animal 
propensities, being entirely under the control of the spirit, and so many objects 
of interest to occupy the mind and exercise the body, the thought of offspring 
may never have entered their minds or aroused their desires. The fact that no 
children are mentioned as born in that happy state is the only evidence of any 
kind to support the idea of a short sojourn there. The Patriarchs were old 
before credited with children. 

20. Fallen Condition. — Man is now cast out of the garden, and the way 
of the Tree of Life is guarded by cherubim and a sword of flame. And thus 
the last prospect of escaping death is taken away, and the sentence, "To die, 
thou shalt die," is impressed on the retina of the eye. He must toil for food, 
and his subjects must get theirs where they can find it. Power becomes law, 
and violence and suffering spread through all breath-animated creation. How 
long Adam retained the respect and control of the breath-animated creation we 
are not told. We may suppose that the imposed enmity was immediately 
displayed by the serpent, which was cursed to an ignominious life in the dust. 
Man, occupied in toil, would lose his interest in his subjects, as I have in liter- 
ature and science, and that perfect knowledge of their constitution and dispositions 
necessary to their government. 

21. The Keal Seducer. — Who the real seducer was, that made an instru- 
ment of the serpent, must have become known to man by this time. He cer- 
tainly knew the serpent was not capable of itself to thus reason and communi- 
cate such knowledge ; but what intellectual spirit animated it, he might not 
know. Now, he knew there was an adversary to man in the spirit world, who 
had gained a victory over him, and instigated his animal subjects against him. 
This advers9ry is called The Old Serpent, The Diabolous, and Satan 3, and as 
the seducer to this sin-incurring death had the power of death^. Whether he 
understood the victory promised to the seed of the woman to extend to this 
spirit adversary, Moses does not say ; but from the fact that sacrifice was insti- 
tuted and offered in faith s, — and yet it is impossible that blood of brute animals 
could take away human guilt, —we conclude he did. Hence, "The Serpent" 
would remind him always of the invisible adversary, Satan ; and, although he 



(1) I. Cor., 15:56; Rom., 6:23. (2) I. John, 3:4; Rom., 4:15, 5:13. (3) Rev., 12:9; 20:2- 
(4) Heb., 2:14. (5) Heb., 11:4, 10:4. 



34 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

might blame woman with the Fall, he must depend on her seed for final deliver- 
ance and resurrection. So in the Revelations to John we find The Serpent, 
The Woman, and Tlie Child ^. Pictures have always been used to communicate 
knowledije, and some nations have this great truth represented in a manifesta- 
tion of Yishnu and a serpent biting his heel; and again, the serpent is repre- 
sented with Yishnu' s heel crushing its head. The Gothic mythology preserves 
traditions coinciding with the first promises of the Messiah, in the person and 
actions of Thor, the eldest of sons, a middle divinity, a mediator between God 
and man, who bruised the head of the great serpent, and slew him. Among the 
Hindoos, there appear two sculptured figures in one of their oldest pagodas, 
representing an incarnation of Yishnu trampling on the crushed head of the ser- 
pent ; and, also, of it encircling him in its folds, and biting his heel'''. A prin- 
ci'ple of evil was worshiped in very early times, under the name of Seth — the 
Satan of Egyptian mythology. Sin is represented as a great serpent, the enemy 
of gods and men, slain by the spear of Horns, the cliild of Isis. Isis was a god- 
dess. Osiris appears on earth; dies by the malice of the evil-one; was buried; 
rose again, and will judge the dead^. 

22. Moses's Object in Giving this Nakkative. — Considering the facility 
of handing down history by oral communication, from one Patriarch to another, 
the knowledge of creation and the world's history must have been extensive in 
the days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in whose families it could have been 
preserved till the time of Moses^; and had Moses designed to teach history or 
philosophy, he would have necessarily left us a large volume. But enough is 
written to show us the beginning and development of the Kingdom of God, 
which is the theme of the whole Bible. And, if anything is unsatisfactory, or 
ambiguous, in his short narratives about the ages before the Flood, it must be 
elucidated by his laws and institutions given to Israel. 



INCIPIENT AGE— Chap. i-22. 

Erom Adam to Abraham. About 1-2078 A. Jf., 07^ to Moses^ A. Jf., 2513, 
or B. a 1191. 

Antagoni%ms. Satanic Development till the Deluge^ A. M. 1656-7, B. C 

231:8-7. 

CHAPTER lY. 



ADAM'S POSTERITY TO NOAH, A. M. 1-1656.— Genesis, 4-5. 

1. Ancestors and Noted Persons Deified. — A second source of lieathen 
gods was men of extraordinary characters for something good or bad; but Moses 
shows that such men never were constituted deities, but were awarded the 
common lot of men. 



(6) Rev., 12. (7) Comp. Cmnt., Gen., 3:15. (8) Thalh. Ancnt., page 62. (2) Intro., § 7, 8 



CHAPTER IV. : SECTIONS II. -IV. 



35 



2. Cain and Abel not Gods. — Moses tells us next of Adam's sons, who 
were heirs of his own destiny, and born in his own image after the falL Two of 
these are introduced to our view — Cain and Abel. Cain was a cultivator of the 
ground, and Abel a keeper of sheep. Cain was not a god of farmers, or hus- 
bandmen : but made an offering of fruits unto Jehovah. And Abel was not a 
god of shepherds: but sacriiiced some of his flocks to the God of Israel.^ Here 
we have positive evidence that sacrifice had been instituted, and some kind of a 
promise had been given to it, which was a foundation for faith and hope. ^ 
According to the Law of Moses, Cain's was a thank-offering, and AbePs was a 
sin-offering. Jehovah gave the preference to Abel's, which was offered in faith, 
or confidence, that he was accepted and his sins pardoned according to promise. 
He did not offer it to feed Jehovah, as the heathen did to their gods. Cain did 
not acknowledge himself an offender against God, nor seek any pardon, but 
complimented Him with a tribute of thanks, without acknowledging the dignity 
of the law and his own condemnable violation of it. 

3. Continuation of Section II. — Judging from what, we find to have been 
the custom of the Patriarchs^, we conclude they brought their offerings to Father 
Adam, who ofiiciated as priest. How Jehovah manifested His preference, we 
are not told; perhaps, by fire consuming Abel's offering, and leaving Cain's 
untouched; or, by communication to Adam. In Cain, we see how degenerated 
man had become in so short a time ; he was angry, and showed it in his counte- 
nance. The Lord condescended to reason with him, and told him it was all as 
he chose to make it. If he did well, he should be accepted; and, if he could 
not stand in judgment on his own good works, a sin-offering lying at his door 
was at his disposal. He could offer a sin-offering as well as Abel. Or, the 
language may be understood thus : If thou doest well, thou hast the excellency, 
being the first born, and subject to thee shall be Abel's desires, and thou shalt 
rule over him ; but if not well, sin lies at thy door like a monster, and thou 
shalt be destroyed. This did not satisfy Cain's degenerated disposition; but he 
had an altercation with Abel, and, when by themselves in the pasture, or field, 
he killed his brother, and concealed his murder. However, the Lord interrog-. 
ates Cain about his brother, in the presence of Adam and the rest of the family, 
as I suppose from the narrative. Cain lied, and indignantly asks : "Am I my 
brother's keeper ? " Thus we see him morally deranged, and guilty of lying and 
murder ; and mentally deranged, he supposes he can hide crime from God, and 
insult Him with impunity. The Lord let him know the blood was visible to 
Him, and His justice demanded vengeance ; and so He denounced a curse on 
him. Cain cowers, and complains of the sentence. Being driven out from the 
family, and the crime being known, all would combine to kill him, and no 
account would be taken of him ; as his presence would not be expected in their 
meetings, so his absence would not be noticed. The Lord, however, gave him 
most satisfactory evidence that he should not be killed; but he should cultivate 
the ground in vain, and be a wanderer. He put a mark upon him that none 
could mistake, and threatened the rest with a seven-fold vengeance if any one 
should avenge the blood of Abel on his head. 

4. A Guilty Conscience. — A consciousness of guilt will drive a man, or 
angel, from heaven. Cain did not wait to be expelled by the family, but went 
of his own accord from the presence of the Lord, or from that place where 
Jehovah was worshiped by Adam and his children, and where offerings were 
made, instruction given, and government established. This was the first divis- 
ion in the human family. Cain builded a city east of Eden, for fear of his breth- 
ren, or the beasts of the earth. A consciousness of a separation from God, and 
a determination not to confess or repent, begets dread of God, suspicion of men, 
and fear of beasts. He called t^e city Enoch, after his son Enoch. Here was 

(3) Heb., 11:4. (4) Gen., 8:20; Job, 1:5. 



36 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the first murderer, but he did not become a god and obtain divine honors by it, 
but he became a vagabond; and here was the first city for defence, but it was 
not constructed by a god. 

5. None of Cain's Offspring were Gods. — Of Cain's famil_y w^e have five 
patriarchs, given by name. Of these, Lamech was the last, and is noted for three 
sons and one daughter, and for impiety. Of his sons, Jabal was author of herd- 
men dwelhng in tents, or wandering lierdmen; but he was not a god, nor enti- 
tled to the worship of lierdmen and robbers. His brother, Jubal, was the 
author of instrumental music, or the £:reatest improver of the harp or organ; but 
he wa^ not constituted a god to preside over musicians, nor to receive tlieir wor- 
ship. Their half-brother, Tubal-Cain, was the founder of brass, or copper and iron 
factories, or one that made great improvement in the art — a whetter of every arti- 
ficer in brass and iron; but he was no more than a descendant of Cain, and met the 
same fate as his brethren. His sister was Naamah, but I see no reason for men- 
tioning her, unless she was some one of the heathen goddesses. — Pleasent. 

6. Descendants of Cain were not Gods. — Lamech was an impious man, 
and had two wives, and may have been the introducer of Polygamy. But he is 
not 'a god, and cannot protect the institution, whether he be worshiped or not. 
Pie used the mercy of God to Cain as an encouragement to violence. He said he 
had killed, or would kill, a man on receiving a hurt or wound; and if Cain, who 
slew his brother without a cause, must be avenged seven-fold, surely he should 
be avenged seven ty-and-seven fold. He was, no doubt, one of those who filled 
the earth with violence, and provoked the Deluge. 

7. Seth Becomes Patriarchal Heir of the Promise. — When Adam was 
one hundred and thirty years old, his son Seth was born. Mother Eve gave 
him this name because, as she said, God had appointed her another seed in place 
of Abel, whom Cain slew. We cannot pass over these words without comment. 
Jehovah had promised her seed a complete victory over the adversary that 
had seduced her. She called the first son "Cain," which means Gotten, 
obtained, or acquired. When her second son was born she called him "Abel," 
— vapour, or vanity — as if disappointed. Now, if the right of primogenitor 
descended from Adam to the last Patriarchs, Cain, like Esau, became the heredi- 
tary chief Patriarch after Adam. But in giving the preference to Abel's offer- 
ing, the Lord rejected Cain, as He did Esau, and chose Abel because his heart 
was right with God. Then this important seed must come through Abel. Abel 
is murdered, and Cain is a fugitive and vagabond from the presence of Jehovah 
and the assemblies of the family. Who will succeed Father Adam as chief 
Patriarch in this center of divine worship and human government? For he had 
other sons and daughters. After these events, another son is born, and she calls 
him Seth, because God had constituted him, in Abel's place, for her seed having 
the promise. Through him the victorious seed should come at last. Paul's rea- 
soning on Abraham's seed will apply in all its force to her seed^. 

8. Distinction Between the Heirs of the Kingdom of God and of the 
Kingdom of Darkness. — When Seth's son Enos was born — A. M. 235 — we 
are told, "Then began men to call on the name of the Lord," or Jehovah. The 
phrase, "calling upon the name of the Lord," is a phrase used in the New Testa- 
ment to designate God's people i. It cannot be taken here literally, for men had 
always called on His name and offered sacrifices to Him. But now, Cain hav- 
ing abandoned the presence of the Lord and Llis service, a distinction arose 
between those who, with Adam and Seth, called on the Lord, and those with 
Cain, who did not. Kindred spirits will collect together. After Adam, Seth 
was chief Patriarch of the one, and Cain of the other. Those with Seth would 
be called in, or after, the name of Jehovah. And as soon as men began to mul- 
tiply, we find the distinction: "Sons of God, and Daughters of Men." Now, 



(9) Gah, 3:16. (1) Acts, 22:16; Rom., 10:13; I. Cor., 1:2. 



Chapter iv.: sections ix.-xii. 37 

these distinction^, "Sons of God"^ and "Children of Men" ^ are used in 
Scripture to designate the pious and impious; and so thej must be understood 
here. 

9. Chronology and Genealogy Reckoned in Seth's Line. — The geneal- 
ogy of men, and chronology of time, was reckoned through the Patriarchs of 
Seth's line. The number, including Adam to Noah, is nine — two more than in 
Cain's Hne — and embracing a period of 1,056 years. The eighth Patriarch in 
Seth's line was Lamech, the same name as the sixth in Cain's line, but of very 
different character. They must have found some difficulty in cultivating the 
ground, for, when Noah was born, Lamech said: "This same shall comfort us 
concerning the work and toil of our hand, because of the ground which the 
Jehovah has cursed." 

10. Contemporary Patriarchs. — Those Patriarchs lived long, so that most 
of them conversed together. Lamech was born fifty-six years before Adam died, 
and saw all the Patriarchs. Noah might have received the blessing of them all 
except Adam, Seth, and Enoch. They all begat sons and daughters, besides 
the Patriarchs, or High-fathers. It is evident Moses did not write with the 
design of teaching history any more than philosophy, or he would have given 
fuller and more satisfactory information on many very important subjects. But 
he keeps his eye on man's degeneracy into corruption and idolatry. Of these 
Patriarchs and their times he tells us nothing but what contradicts the Polytheism 
of the nations. These all died but one, who was translated; but he was not 
deified. If any of the hupnan family were entitled to divine honors it was 
Enoch, who was translated to heaven without tasting death. But the worship of 
ancestors was never allowed by Jehovah, nor practiced by those Patriarchs 
whose posterity was not cut off by the flood. 

11. They Opposed Corruptions. — Enoch delivered a remarkable prophecy, 
which is not recorded by Moses: That God was coming with his holy myriads, 
to execute judgment upon the impious^. This prediction shows that these 
Patriarchs vigorously opposed the inroads of corruption in their day, which, 
it also shows, was deep-rooted malignity and heaven-daring impiety. These 
Patriarchs pointed their apostatizing brethren and children to future but certain 
perdition. Among the people of Seth wickedness prevailed till the whole earth 
had become corrupted and all flesh had corrupted his ways on the earth. 

12. Satanic Impiety. — It is not probable that Polytheism existed before 
the flood ; for the long lives of the Patriarchs made it impossible to lose the 
knowledge of the true God before that time. Adam lived nine hundred and 
thirty years, and died seven hundred and twenty-six years before the flood. 
Methusalah, born two hundred and forty-three years before Adam's death, and 
three hundred years before his father Enoch was translated, was contemporary 
with Noah six hundred years, and died the same year the flood came, being 
nine hundred and sixty-nine years old. Any departure from the living God 
must have been knowing, willful, heaven-daring impiety. The greatest part of 
heathen gods were progenitors, heroes, or inventors, transformed to deities; but 
the long lives of these Patriarchs would prevent their being deified before the 
flood, being contemporary with most of the generations. The language of 
Moses and Enoch does not imply ignorance, but impiety, corruption, and violence. 
All the beastly impurities of Sodom and the Canaanites, and all the violence of 
Zealots in Jerusalem, and the Atheists in the French Eevolution. 



(2) Rom., 9:14. (3) I. Sam., 26:19. (4) Jude, 14, 15. 



CHAPTER Y. 



THE DELUGE, A. M. 1656, or B. C. 2348.— Genesis, 6, 7. 

1. The Wickedness of Men. — And God saw the wickedness or men was 
great in the earth, and that every purpose, desire, and cogitation of his mind 
was continually for evil, and nothing else. That the Cainites, having abandoned 
the divine presence, should become monsters in vice and violence is but a 
legitimate result, for they were men of genius and enterprise, as we have seen*. 
There were giants among them in size, power, and renown. Their daughters 
were fair and beautiful in their physical development, and fascinating in their 
appearance. These proved a snare to the Sethites, who, without reflecting on 
the consequences, married among them without restraint. The offspring of these 
mixed marriages became mighty and renowned as the Cainites. Moses prohibited 
these mixed marriages in Israel. 

2. Mother's Influence. — Such is woman's influence upon and reLation to 
her offspring, she impresses her own image on them. Afterwards education and 
influence may counteract first impressions: but a mother's training and impres- 
sions generally shape the character and destiny of the child. The scepter of 
a woman on the throne can not affect the destiny of a nation as much as her 
home influence and training of offspring. The man may be physically and 
mentally superior, but if his wife be his adversary, he will find himself an isolated 
being in the midst of his own family. The state of society, public education, 
and other circumstances may make exceptions; but the destiny of a nation or 
church depends on the wives and mothers in them. She may destroy her own 
influence by imposing the duties of a mother upon nurses and teachers; but if 
true to her animal relations and influences, she will govern her children when she 
is cold in her grave. 

3. Giants.- — This influence may be used for good or evil. In the present 
instance, it was evil. The earth was corrupt before God, and filled with vio- 
lence. All flesh had corrupted His way on the earth, and God determined to 
destroy every breath-animated creature. These giants were men of notoriety, — 
physically and mentally mighty, — and of heaven-daring impiety: but were not 
gods, nor able to war against the God of Israel; and Jehovah, without any 
exhibition of himself, destroyed them by the flood. 

4. Abhored of God. — So abhorent to Jehovah was the corruption upon the 
earth that, to give man some conception of it. He speaks of it after the manner 
of men: It repented Him that He had made man, and it grieved Him to the 
heart. Man, have you ever done anything that at first pleased you ; and did it 
turn out at last disastrous, and revolting, that you regreted with deepest regret, 
and were grieved with a most heartfelt pain, that you had ever made it? Well, 
your opposition and detestation to the cause of that disastrous result is not equal 
to Jehovah's detestation to that corruption, wickedness, and violence that had 
ruined His creation, which He had pronounced very good, and looked upon with 
approbation. The God of Israel, unlike the heathen deities, abhors all corrup- 
tion, wickedness, and violence, and has and will punish it. God will destroy the 



(*) Chap. 4, § 5. 



CHAPTER v.: SECTIONS Y.-IX. 39 

work of His own hands before He will let corruption and violence hold domin- 
ion over this earth. This wretched state of the earth was the result, in the order 
of cause and effect, of our first parents' disobedience. 

5. LoNG-SuFFERiNG OF GoD. — But the Lord showed himself long-suffering, 
and merciful, and not willing any should suffer^. But reform they must. He 
gave them a hundred and twenty years to reflect and repent, while he kept the 
threatened destruction before their eyes, and sounding in their ears : part of that 
time, at least. He set Noah to building a great water-craft before their eyes, 
which must have attracted their attention, excited their curiosity, and, no doubt, 
received their ridicule. To their jests and interrogations, Noah preached repent- 
ance, in view of the impending destruction, and glad tidings if they reformed 
and accepted a safe retreat in the Ark. 

6. Character of Noah. — Noah was perfect in his generation; or, an 
upright man having a conscience void of offense toward God and man. And 
enjoying communication with God in the spirit, he walked according to the 
divine will conscious of His presence in every time and place. Like Enoch, he 
walked with God. He was not a perfect man; but believing in Jehovah, became 
heir of the justification, or righteousness, by faith, and was a preacher of 
repentance and righteousness ''. With all his imperfection he confided in God, 
whether He promised good or threatened evil ; and showed his faith by preach- 
ing to the people, and building the Ark before the flood appeared. 

7. Ground of Acceptance With God. — This is the only ground of accept- 
ance with Jehovah, since the fall of Adam. God is perfect — -just in all His 
ways, and holy in all His works; He is of purer eyes than to look upon sin; and 
without holiness no man shall see him^. This is the standard to which all must 
attain; but in this state of imperfection, faith is made the ground of acceptance; 
and God deals with him as though he were righteous. He does not keep a rec- 
ord of good and bad deeds, and so deal with man according to which preponder- 
ates ; but those confiding in Him, and laboring to be restored to His image. He 
pardons all their sins, and bestows on them every good as a free gift, or favor. 

By faith, Abel offered an acceptable sacrifice; Enoch walked with God, and was 
translated to heaven; and Noah builded the Ark, and was saved. But without 
faith it is impossible to please God. 

8. Ark, and Distinction Between Clean and Unclean. — Noah was about 
four hundred and eighty years old when he was commissioned to warn man, and 
build the Ark; and he must have had a sorry time with his fellowmen. His 
admonitions, no doubt, were like Lot's to the men of Sodom — but idle tales, and 
treated with ridicule. He had three sons who, with their mother and wives, 
were the only persons saved with him in the Ark. That man might be always 
reminded of a distinction between good and evil, holiness and polution, a dis- 
tinction had been made, or constructed, among animals, of clean and unclean. 
The clean were put into the Ark by sevens, and the unclean by twos. 

9. First Installment of Adam's Disobedience. — We have now received 
the first installment of Adam's act of disobedience. To what extent he degener- 
ated, we are not told; and how far he reformed, we do not know; but his son, 
Cain, was born in his own likeness, and degenerated into an impious vagabond. 
In violation of every animal tie, and moral principle, he murdered his pious 
brother, and thought to deceive the omniscient God by the dint of hard lying. 
Having cowered under his sentence, the Lord secured him from the just fate he 
anticipated from the hands of men; but a consciousness of guilt drove him from 
the divine presence, and banished the thought of God from his heart. The only 
way to prevent this consequence is to confess and repent, like David. Cain's 
posterity followed his example, and continued to violate those moral principles 



(5) II. Pet., 3:9; I. Pet., 3:19, 20; II. Pet., 2:5. (6).Heb., 11:7. (7) Habk., 1:13; Heb., 12:14. 



46 TiiE KINGDOM OF GOt) DEVELOt^iiD. 

that, by nature, should regulate all man's relations, and the necessary conse- 
quences followed. They dreaded Jehovah ; delighted in corruption and violence 
more than in their own happiness; hated one another, and were cruel to the 
brute creation; and finally absorbed the Sethites, and destroyed the pious. 
They do not appear to have so much violated the laws of body or mind: for 
they were men of genius, physically strong, and lived long. And perhaps these 
giants were the Titons of heathen mythology, who waged war against Jupiter, 
or the gods, and perished by his thunderbolts, - or were crushed by the mountains 
hurled on them^. No doubt, dreadful thunders accompanied the pour of rain; 
and drowned bodies may have been buried in mountain ravines by deposits of 
mud, or engulfed in fissures of the earth. And this may be the foundation of 
the legends of the giants' war with heaven. 

10. Probation Ended. — The one hundred and twenty years of probation 
drew to a close; the Ark was finished, and the animals were stowed in it. Noah 
and his family take their last look on the old world and its millions of inhabi- 
tants, and enter the Ark which is shut up by Jehovah. Thus, we are assured, 
a final separation will take place between the righteous and the wicked^. The 
impious inhabitants were prosecuting their business and pleasures, or violence 
and corruption, without any regard to the long-threatened destruction. The rain 
began to pour down from the clouds, and waters burst up through fissures in the 
earth: consternation seizes these monsters of corruption and violence. They 
are lost! 

11. Tradition of the Deluge. — Moses is more minute in his account of 
the flood than of any other subject yet treated of, because the nations had more 
perverted traditions about it^. The Ark, according to the traditions of the Gen- 
tile world, was prophetic, and was regarded as a kind of temple, or residence, 
of the Deity. It comprehended all mankind within the circle of eight persons, 
who were thought to be so highly favored of heaven that they were at last 
reputed to be deities. Hence, in the ancient mythology of Egypt, there were 
precisely eight principal gods; and the ark was esteemed an emblem of the sys- 
tem of the heavens. The ark was also esteemed a symbol appropriate to Bac- 
chus, and, in his processions, idols and other mysteries referring to that deity, 
were inclosed in it; and it was the same among the Egyptians. The sacred alle- 
gorical chest, anciently carried in the Dionysiac procession, commemorated the 
instrument of preservation, by means of which a family of mankind escaped 
destruction, when involved in the calamities which accompanied the Deluge^. 
Some of them commemorated that event by religious rites, and made it a source 
of Idolatry. Moses ascribes the flood, the Ark, the wisdom, foresight, and pre- 
servation of Noah, to the God of Jacob, who alone is entitled to divine honors. 

12. An Evidence of Positive Interposition. — The history of the Deluge, 
being fully attested by its efl"ects on the earth, its records on the mountain tops, 
and by traditions among the nations, furnishes apposite proof and illustrations of 
God's positive relation to man, and his absolute government of the world. He 
has made creation, with all its dispositions and laws, subservient to the Kingdom 
of God. Not by the atmosphere and water did the Deluge occur; but by the 
interposition of a superior, invisible power who, one hundred and twenty years 
before the occurrence, proclaimed it by Noah against the wickedness of the 
inhabitants. It stands a universal witness of God's hatred of sin, and of His 
power and determination to punish the violation of moral principles by positive 
penalties. The God of Israel was then known to be the God of the whole earth, 
and the judge and disposer of every nation and country. 



(1) Job, 26:5. Note in Comp. Cmnt. (2) Matt., 25:31-46 (*) Levrt. Lex. Titon. (3) Encp. 
R. K. Ark J Hun. Vol. I., pp. 74-5; Comp. Cmnt., Gen. 6. 



OMAPTER YI. : SECTIONS I. -It. 4:1 

18. The Satanic Development of Antagonism to the Kingdom of God. — 
This was the first policy of Satan, under guise of the Serpent, who impeached 
Jehovah's veracity, and lack of benevolence to man, and taught man to prefer 
animal gratification to subordination to Jehovah, and spiritual lowliness and 
enjoyment. He instigated men to open rebellion and heaven-daring impiety. 
But here this policy is defeated, and man is taught that he cannot rebel against 
his Creator with impunity. 



CHAPTER YI. 



TEANS ACTIONS WITH NOAH, A. M. 1656, ok B. C. 2348. 

Genesis 8 and 9. 

1. Man Continued in His Sovereignty. — Thus all animated creatures on 
the earth were indebted to man for preservation, and certainly were not entitled 
to the divine honors paid to them by the Egyptians, and other nations, when 
Moses wrete. The flood did not reverse the primitive order of creation ; but 
Jehovah remains the sole possessor and sovereign disposer of all things ; and 
though chastised, man is still constituted lord of this world, with authority to 
force obedience upon all animals of the air, earth, and water, and to use them 
for food as he did the vegetable productions ; the deep degradation of man, and 
his servile awe and superstitious fear of animate and inanimate objects, was his 
own sin and folly. Worshiping what was given him for food and service! 

2. Parents Respected, but Not Deified. — Not much is said about Noah's 
family ; but still enough to show that, with all their distinguished privileges, 
they were not constituted deities, nor entitled to divine reverence from their pos- 
terity. They all died. Although the worship of ancestors was not tolerated by 
the Divine Being, yet respect to parents is essential to the welfare of society, 
and He punishes dishonor done to them. Noah made wine, and, becoming 
drunk, shamefully exposed himself, which his youngest son. Ham, seeing, did 
not conceal but reported it to his brothers, and they managed, in a becoming 
manner, to cover their father. When Noah became sober, he predicted future 
prosperity on Shem and Japheth; but servitude on one of Ham's sons, as a pun- 
ishment on Ham's irreverence for his parent. Thus, while Moses gave the 
standard of rectitude in the law, he does not conceal the fact that these Patri- 
archal ancestors did not come up to the standard, but were condemned by it. 
Polytheists attribute base, cruel, and shameful crimes to their gods, and consider 
themselves authorized, and even obligated, to follow their examples. But Moses 
and other Scripture writers present Jehovah as just and holy, and when they 
present the blemishes of pious men they show Jehovah's disapprobation of their 
sins, and that they are unworthy imitation and divine reverence. Bacchus was 
worshipped as the god of wine ; and in his worship all the people got drunk. 
But Moses represents Noah as shamefully disgraced by the act. Jupiter, the 
chief of the heathen gods, is represented to have dethroned and maltreated his 
father, Saturn; but Moses represents Ham as cursed, in the fate of his son 
Canaan, for disrespect shown to a drunk father. I do not know that Noah knew 
before the intoxicating properties of wine; but this act is not to be justified, even 
if excusable. 



42 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

3. Primitive Religion. — Nations were fond of boasting a divine origin for 
themselves, and divine honors for their progenitors; but Moses guards Israel 
against their impositions, by giving the origin of all nations: which was from 
these three sons of I^oah. It is reckoned that the Jupiter-Amon, or Hamon, 
worshiped by the Egyptians, was their projenitor. Ham — the most impious son 
of Noah. The religion taught by Moses was not an innovation or improvement 
on the mythology of the heathen, but the true religion of Noah and his family, 
from which their posterity had fallen. Israel might not follow the nations, but 
must shed a light over them, and be a model to them. 

4. The Rainbow an Evidence of God's Positive Government. — Man is 
reminded of his positive relation to Jehovah; and that only by the sufferings 
and death of the innocent and holy, can he obtain divine favor. Having vio- 
lated the laws of creation, he is under the bondage of corruption, and can expect 
no acceptance by them. Noah knew this and immediately offered in sacrifice, of 
every clean beast and fowl, to Jehovah. For this purpose, he had preserved a 
seventh one of every clean species. The Lord manifested His acceptance by 
making a covenant, in which the elements and laws of creation were subjected to 
the welfare of man. Of this covenant, a visible memorial was presented to all 
nations. The Rainbow was constituted that token. It was not placed there as 
an object of adoration, but for a reminder that Jehovah was not bound by the 
laws of creation in His dispensations of wrath and favor to fallen man. He sent 
the fiood to drown the wicked, without consulting the laws of creation ; accepted 
a sacrifice of clean, innocent animals ; and covenanted future good to man, not- 
withstanding his demerit. Seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and 
winter, day and night, shall not cease. We may thank God for these arrange- 
ments, but must not adore them as gods, nor importune any fancied deities on 
account of them. God will not destroy the human family again, to preserve the 
true religion, but will let the nations pursue their own course for a time; and 
will compel one family to retain it, and through that family reclaim the world to 
the true religion. (See Chap. 9, § 16, and 10:5.) 

5. Man, the Most Sacred of All Animals. — Human victims have been 
sacrificed upon heathen altars under various notions and pretexts, and tender 
infants have been roasted to death in the embraces of the fiery Moloch; but 
Moses teaches that human life is most sacred, and cannot be taken away unless 
by authority from Jehovah. Therefore, every beast, however venerated or val- 
ued, that kills a man, must be put to death. And if any man — Priest or King — 
sheds blood, by man must his blood be shed. For of all this visible creation, 
man alone was created in the image of God — the Creator — and is the most 
sacred animal on the earth. Therefore, every man is constituted the avenger of 
the murder of his fellow man. "At the hand of every man's brother will I 
require the blood of man." The law is positive and explicit, and the govern 
ment that has taken this unpleasant duty out of the hands of individuals, and 
protects the murderer from death, must answer to God for the unavenged, inno- 
cent blood. You might as well tell us that every precept in the Ten Com- 
mandments is a prediction and not a command, as tell us that this is only a 
prophecy. The context forbids any such perversion: Surely your blood of your 
lives will I require * '" * at the hand of every beast ^ ^ -^^ and at the 
hand of every man's brother. This law was modified in the law of Moses, 
which provided cities of refuge for the accidental murderer. As Moses was the 
legislator to Israel, and writer of this piece of history, if any discrepancy 
existed between them he would have noticed it. The law of Moses must be the 
exponent of this law, and either sanction or abrogate its precepts.* 



(*) Chp., 32:4; Numl., 35:9-34. 



OHAPTEEvii. : SECTioi^s i.-ir. 43 

6. Primitive Keligion. — In the year of the world, 1657, or about that time, 
and about nine hundred years before Moses wrote, the human family set out 
anew from a pious fountain, with the correct knowledge of the great Jehovah, 
and the true religion. They also knew their relation to Jehovah and way of 
acceptance to Him, their relative superiority to all visible creation, this world's 
subjugation to them, and woman's companionship and fellowship with man. 
What a contrast to the age when Moses wrote; and how necessary was this short 
account of the origin, design, and uses of visible phenomena to a successful con- 
test against Polytheism and moral corruption. 

T. Communications from Adam to Moses. — E"oah had lived six hundred 
years before the Flood, and had been contemporary with all the Patriarchs 
except Adam, Seth, and Enoch; and he lived three hundred years after and was 
contemporary with all the Patriarchs down to Terah, the father of Abraham. 
Shem, his son, was contemporary with Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah before 
the Flood, and lived iifty years after Isaac was born. Thus Adam, Methuselah, 
and Shem could have transmitted the story of creation, and the history of the 
world for over 2,000 years, to Isaac, the son of Abraham; and Isaac could have 
told it to Jacob's sons, who went down into Egypt. Noah was an experienced 
preacher and doubtless preached to his posterity after the Flood, as he had done 
to his father's and forefather's before that catastrophe. Whether he taught the 
arts and sciences known before the Flood, or not, we are not told; but undoubt- 
edly he taught the true religion of the great Jehovah. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE DISPERSION OF MEN. A. M. 1770-1848; or B. C. 2234-2156. 

Genesis, 10, 11, A. M. 1770. 

1. The Earth Districted into Nationalities. — In the days of Peleg, the 
fourth from Shem, and one hundred and thirty years after the Flood, and two 
hundred and twenty before the death of Noah, the earth was divided into 
national, or family, districts; and the sons of Adam, or of man, were separated 
by the Most High, and perhaps through the agency of Noah. Jehovah had 
blessed Noah and his family, and commanded them to multiply abundantly in 
the earth; and here he divided to them their inheritance. The lust of power 
induces the impious to usurp the government of nations; and where their nations 
are large and powerful, they are enabled to oppose extensively and with success 
the religion of Jehovah. The interest of divine religion among unregenerated 
men requires them to be divided, having different interests, and both cooperating 
with and counteracting each other. In this way the Lord has retarded degen- 
eracy and protected his truth in the earth. 

2. Districts. — The descendants of Noah were divided into three divisions, 
and then subdivided into sixteen according to the number of his grandsons; and 
then divided again among their children. The children of Japheth, divided into 
families and tribes, were settled in Europe, Asia Minor, and along the western 
and northern shores of the Caspian sea, and thence east and north. The Shem- 
ites, according to their families and tribes, were located east from Shinar, and 



44 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

south to the Persian gulf and north to the Caspian sea, and thence north and 
east. The children of Ham, according to their families and tribes, were settled 
westward to the Mediterranean sea and along its north shore, and south to the 
sea of Arabia, and thence into Africa. His son Misraim peopled Egypt, where 
Moses was born. 

3. Central Government Attempted. — How many, or whether any 
acquiesced in this districting of the earth, we are not told; but all, speaking 
the same language, could have easy intercourse, and if they chose, could con- 
solidate and form a central government. It appears that something of this kind 
was attempted by some or all of them. In the Book of Judges we often read of 
Israel being enslaved and then delivered; but on close examination we Und it 
was only a part of them; and so it may be here. Had Moses' object been to 
write the history of mankind, or of the nations, we might be obliged to consider 
the whole race of mankind engaged in the transaction; but as his theme is the 
Abrahamic economy, we are not necessarily required to consider him referring to 
any but those nations more or less connected with the history of Israel. Now 
Abraham's possessions were from Egypt to Assyria : so this transaction may be 
limited to those intermingled and neighboring nations. It is not probable that 
Noah, Shem, and Japheth, and other Patriarchs, would engage in the impious 
attempt to build the tower of Babel. If this took place in the days of Peleg, and 
if the nations were districted in the days of Peleg, it is not probable that all of 
them would congregate afterward to build the tower. Nor is it plausible that 
Noah or his sons, who had witnessed the fearful destructions of the old world, 
would rebel against the Most High when he divided the nations in the days of 
Peleg, who obtained this name from this event. But if it took place after he 
was thirty years of age, his son Peu would have been entitled to that name, or 
some one later born; hence the first districting must have taken place in first 
thirty years of Peleg, when Noah, Shem, and Japheth, and others, were living 
and in authoritv. 

4. Central Government Attempted — Concluded. — A part may have 
intended to found a central government, and then subject the rest, willing or 
unwilling. Those migrating south and southwest, which would be the Hamites 
and some of Shem's offspring, discovered the bottoms of the Euphrates and 
located there. These founded a city and undertook, by mutual consent, to build 
a tower of great dimensions and tremendous height, for the express purpose of 
preventing a dispersion of -their numbers, and of securing a central government. 
Whether or not they designed to rebel against Jehovah, had the scheme been 
accomplished, easily could some Nimrod, Pharaoh, Senacherib, or Nebuchad- 
nezzar have seized the reins of government, and then persecuted the truth and 
established idolatry. 

6. The Red-Dragon Policy of Satan Originated. — The policy of Satan, 
after the Flood, was to establish Polytheism; and then, in the multitude and 
confusion of millions of gods, to lose the knowledge of Jehovah and all true 
religion. This was his second policy, or Bed-Dragon antagonism. While the 
awful judgments of, God upon the impiety of the Antediluvians was depicted 
before their eyes by the marks of the Flood, and the story of their terrible 
destruction was fresh in their memories, Satan did not attempt to instigate man- 
kind against Jehovah. But he insiduously insinuated the idea of many gods^, 
and the importance of reverencing ancestors, kings, and heroes, and their right 
to divine worship. The mass of mankind being unholy and ungrateful to Jeho- 
vah, are always ready for any scheme of apostacy; and, if united in one govern- 
ment, can easily crush the pious, darken and corrupt the knowledge of the true 
God, and abolish His religion. 



(1) Horn, Yol. I., pp. 16, 17. 



CHAPTER VII.: SECTIONS VI. -IX. 45 

6. Confusion of Speech. — The Lord acknowledges man's mental and physi- 
cal abilities to accomplish this and other great undertakings, notwithstanding his 
fallen condition. Where God withholds His judgment, and permits man to 
develop his powers of mind and body in great improvements in art and sci- 
ences, man becomes self-sufficient and impious; and then, yielding to the gratifi- 
cations of his animal propensities, he becomes cruel and degraded. Here God 
interposed positively and suddenly, and confused their conception of words in 
relation to ideas, and confounded their organs of speech, so they could not plan 
nor work together. The difference of language among those who were not 
engaged in this affair, has been produced by natural causes according to the laws 
of creation, as have also been their different features and complexions. Thus 
their central government was defeated; and their unfinished tower remains, 
under the name of Birs Mmrod, an evidence that Jehovah does interfere by pos- 
itive interpositions in the government of man, while he does not release him 
from the laws of creation. 

7. Dispersion. — We need not suppose that all the people in Shinar 
approved of the project; but they yielded to distinguished leaders, of whom 
Nimrod is supposed to be chief, but perhaps Ham himself was their leader. All 
Moses says about Kimrod is, that he was a distinguished hunter, and the 
founder of great cities in that country, as was also Asshur. Tradition and super- 
stition say the tower was built for idolatry, and Nimrod proclaimed himself the 
Son of God, and caused himself to be worshiped for a god ; and that the tower 
was ruined by storms and lightning. This may be true or not, for anything said 
by Moses. But Nahor and Terah served other gods beyond the river Euphrates. 
When they were divided by their language, the pious Patriarchs involved in this 
rebellion, and others who had not obeyed the first order, may have led their 
confused families unto the districts previously allotted to them; where, overawed 
by this judgment attested on their language, they would establish the worship of 
the true God. But the impious would continue, like Cain, in their impiety and 
rebellion, though divided into tribes, nations, and countries, by languaere and dia- 
lects, which they would attribute to accident, or a strange occurrence. 

8. Its Relation to the Kingdom of God. — Thus the evils resulting to the 
Kingdom of God from the concentration of power and interest was, for a time, 
obviated. And by the time one government had swallowed many others, and 
become formidable, Jehovah had established the knowledge of himself and the 
true religion in the family of Abraham. And by this account, Moses guarded 
the Israelites against the imposition of hero gods. He gave the origin and dis- 
persion of the nations, the origin of their different languages, and of that monu- 
mental tower of Babel which, in Moses' day, was devoted to the worship of 
Belus. Belus is supposed to be Mmrod ; and Jupiter-Amon, Ham. 

9. Contemporaries of Abraham. — Moses now turns to the history of Abra- 
ham, who was born A. M. 2008, and 352 years after the Flood, and two years 
after the death of Noah; and he was contemporary with all the Patriarchs of 
his own line from Shem down, except Peleg and Nahor, and was one hundred 
and fifty years old when Shem died. Isaac was fifty years contemporary with 
Shem, one hundred and twenty with Jacob, and thirty-three with Levi. Joseph 
was thirty when he stood before Pharaoh; seven years of plenty and two years 
of famine made him thirty-nine, when Jacob came into Egypt, who was then 
one hundred and thirty. Now, one hundred and thirty minus thirty-nine equals 
ninety-one, the age of Jacob when Joseph was born; which was the last of the 
fourteen years Jacob served for wives. But he served seven years before mar- 
riage, and Levi was the third child, and could not have been more than four 
years older than Joseph: thirty-nine plus four equals forty-three, the age of Levi 
when he came into Egypt. Then one hundred and thirty minus forty-three 
equals eighty-seven years, the age of Jacob when Levi was born; one hundred 



46 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

and twenty years contemporary with Isaac, minus eighty-seven, equals thirty- 
three years Levi was contemporary with Isaac. Levi lived one hundred and 
thirty-seven years: one hundred and thirty-seven minus forty-three equals 
ninety-four years in Egypt. From the Covenant to the Law was four hundred 
and thirty years; from the Covenant to the birth of Isaac was twenty-five years; 
from the birth of Isaac to the birth of Jacob, sixty years; from the birth of 
Jacob to the birth of Levi, eighty-seven years; and Levi lived one hundred and 
thirty-seven years; and Moses was over eighty when the Law was given, which 
equals three hundred and eighty-nine years. Now four hundred and thirty 
minus three hundred and eighty-nine equals twenty-one, the chasm of years 
between Levi and Moses, to be filled by Kohath who lived one hundred and 
thirty-three years, and Amram one hundred and thirty-seven years, equals two 
hundred and seventy years. But the mother of Moses was a daughter of Levi, 
and most likely saw her father. Amram certainly saw Levi and Moses. We 
read of Miriam, Aaron, and Moses coming out of Egypt when Moses was eighty 
years old. One hundred and thirty-seven years, minus eighty, equals fifty-seven 
years of Amram's life which fills the chasm to Levi, and sixteen years contem- 
porary; but allow forty years contemporary with Moses, and we have forty-six 
with Levi. Then we have Kohath, who came into Egypt and lived one hundred 
and thirty-three years surplus; and so in all our calculations, we have long lived 
Patriarchs to add to the spliced joints. 



CHAPTER YIII. 



INCIPIENT AGE CONSIDERED. 

1. Teansition from the Nations to Abraham. — With Abraham Jehovah 
introduces the preparatory age of that institution afterward called "The King- 
dom of God." The time from Adam to Moses we call the "Incipient Age" 
because we know so little about its development during that time. The dispen- 
sations of the Preparatory Age were to restrain and reform the whole human 
family, while the Old Serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, labored to corrupt 
and destroy the true religion. Having confused the language at the building of 
Babel, and divided mankind into tribes according to the sons and grandsons of 
Noah; and having dispersed them over the face of the earth, with different dia- 
lects and interests, he left them under their patriarchal system of instruction and 
government to choose their own way till the time of Christ ; then he com- 
manded, and still commands, all men of all nations to repent, and come into 
"The Kingdom of God" and submit to the government of his Son, Jesus 
Christ^ 

2. Patriakchal. — Patriarch means high, or chief father, or, as our Indians 
would say, the "Great Father." When the father of a family lived nine hun- 
dred years he might be a great sovereign if he retained all his posterity under his 
control ; and when infirm or deceased, he would leave his eldest son the Great 
Father, or Patriarch, of a mighty nation, composed of many fathers and families. 



(5) Acts, 14:16, 17:30-31; Matt., 28:19; Mark, 16:15-16. 



CHAPTER VIII. : SECTIONS III. -VI. 47 

This dignity could descend in the line of the first-born of the first-born, to the end 
of time, if nothing deranged the order. The Patriarch was both high priest and 
supreme magistrate ; officiated at the altar and commanded in the field, as did 
Abraham. Now a succession of pious Patriarchs would keep the true knowledge 
of the true God in their nation, and shining all around them. But sometimes the 
eldest son was impious, like Cain, or profane, like Esau; and when he came into 
the chief authority, would cause an apostacy, like the kings of Israel and Judah. 
Or this son, or any other one, might leave the family and found a new govern- 
ment, «as did Cain and others; and then, by force or influence, might conquer or 
corrupt the parent government, and then eradicate true religion and establish the 
false. 

3. Patkiakchal. — While families divided and subdivided and kept in small 
tribes, true religion might find an asylum in some of them for many generations. 
These Patriarchs might confederate for mutual protection, like Job and his pious 
friends, and thus maintain or propagate the worship of the true God. But if any 
great nation or conquering power made the religion of Jehovah their national reli- 
gion before the conversion of the Roman Empire, we have never found it on the 
pages of history. But as we know very little about the antiquities of the remote 
nations, such may have been the case among the families of Japhet and Shem, 
afar off' in the north and east, and even of Ham, in the interior and southern part 
of Africa. The pious have often migrated to obscure spots and solitary wilder- 
nesses; and persecutions have driven them into the snow-clad mountains and 
thirsty deserts, as the history of Christianity will show. 

4. The Wat of Acceptance wth God always the Same. — Jehovah is the 
same in all times and places: and so is the way of acceptance witli him. This is 
by faith, or confidence in Him, however revealed. And this way of acceptance 
has been secured by the sufferings and obedience of his Son, Jesus Christ. By 
the laws of creation, however philsophically developed and clearly understood, 
there is no hope, for they have been violated, and the necessary consequences are 
pain, degradation and woe. As seen in our first parents and their offspring, the 
tendency is to hide from God and become more degenerated, cruel, and miser- 
able. In revealed religion, revelation takes the place of philosophical knowledge 
of creation and its laws; and faith in Jehovah takes the place of perfection accord- 
ing to Nature's laws, and prayer takes the place of the connection between cause 
and effect, so far as positive religion goes. 

6. The system of grace, or free favors, is not designed to supersede the laws 
of creation, but to restore us to that standard of nature. Nature is creation as 
it came from the hand of God. Where we know the laws of creation, whether 
moral, mental, or physical, we must obey them out of love to God, to ourselves, 
our fellowmen, and the irrational creatures. To violate any known law of crea- 
tion, and expect God to prevent the consequences, is to tempt God, and this is 
forbidden by revealed religion^. But where a consciousness of failure or trans- 
gression oppresses and deters us, our consolation and encouragement is, "We 
are saved by grace," and by confidence in Jehovah we possess and enjoy that 
salvation. Here we recruit and try it again. Nature has no remedy for its 
violated laws, and the consequences must follow. Nature can never pardon, for 
God is just, and will deal with all his creatures according to the laws of their con- 
stitution, or creation. But free grace has a pardon and a remedy secured by 
Jesus Christ, and accepted and enjoyed by faith. Chap. 9:5-15. 

6. The Election of Abkaham not a Rejection of other Patriarchs. — By 
faith, Abel, Enoch, Noah, and many others beside Abraham, obtained the divine 
favors. The election of Abraham to a special relation and peculiar work did not 
deprive other nations and Patriarchs, or individuals, of the blessings of free grace 



(6) Luke, 4:9.13; Matt., 4:7; Deut., 6:16. 



48 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

which they already enjoyed. They were left to walk in the way of their own 
choice''': but if they once apostatized and lost their light, they could not be 
restored till blessed through the seed of Abraham. Jehovah would not again 
destroy the world to restore them to truth and holiness before Christ came. 

Y. Their Knowledge of God. — We know they were all taught the doctrine 
of free grace in the sacrifices they offered by faith, as Abel did. They were 
taught to discriminate between the clean and unclean animals, and their sacrifices 
must be of the clean and innocent. They had a promise that the woman's seed 
should bruise the serpent's head, while the serpent should bite his heel : and this 
promise has been handed down by tradition to the present day in picture 
writing^. Now, rude nations understand pictures ; and they know man has an 
invisible adversary who instigated that serpent. They also knew that neither 
Cain nor Abel, nor any other of her seed, had extirpated the serpent, or con- 
quered the Satan who was still governing the mass of mankind. And their 
descendants expect that to be done by a manifestation of Yishnu, one of their 
gods, or Horus of Egyptian mythology. Hence they must have looked for that 
" seed " in the future, and that it was in some way connected with a manifesta- 
tion of the .Deity. Without the shedding of blood there was no remission of 
sins^; and yet it is impossible that the blood of these sacrifices could take away 
sins^. Hence they must have been taught Christ, the Savior, as a lamb slain, 
from the first, or foundation of the world. And they had scarcely less knowl- 
edge of the design and nature of sacrifice than Moses gave to Israel : it taught 
them to respect the dignit}^ of divine laws. 

8. Our Ignorance of the History of the True Keligion among the 
Nations. — But the pious were pilgrims and sojourners on the earth, and the 
impious imposed an influence on their offspring till truth was lost. Jehovali had 
once interposed by the Flood, and again by the confusion of tongues, to break 
the power of the impious and to give the ascendency to truth and righteousness : 
but what more he did for the nations, by judgments on the wicked and revela- 
tions to the righteous, we do not know. Moses now leaves the world and follows 
the family of Abraham till his own time. Here and there we get a glimpse of 
the nations; but how long and howiaithfully many Patriarchs and prophets 
contended for the truth of Jehovah will not be known till Christ returns and 
rewards his faithful ones. 

9. A Plausible Yiew of It. — But while we start out with Abraham we 
leave a Melchisedic, King of Peace, and Priest of The Most High God, and an 
Abimelech, who acted in the integrity of his heart, and was commended of God. 
And even Pharaoh appears in a better light than Abraham. Perhaps, in the 
tribes removed far from Babel, the knowledge and religion of Jehovah remained 
in comparative purity for many centuries. With the confusion of tongues, and 
division of interests, degeneracy could not spread so rapidly nor conquer so 
extensively as before the Flood. But here we must bid them a long, long adieu, 
and a dark good-night, till they come in contact with the Kingdom of God. ''It 
is quite evident that in the oldest time of the Aryan race, in so far as those times 
have left us any record, not only had the idea of a Personal God been fully con- 
ceived, but such a being had been described, and addressed in language and under 
symbols, which are comparable with the sublimest imagery in the visions of Pat- 
mos." Nor is this true only of the Aryan race. It seems that in Egypt, also, 
the most ancient conceptions of God and His moral laws were infinitely superior 
to those entertained in later and historic times. And when we consider that a 
people's conception of God, and His laws of justice, truth, purity, etc., is really 
the guage of that people's advancement in intellectual and moral abilities, and so 
of their preparation for the loftiest civilization, we cannot but be intensely inter- 
ested in the oldest records of this conception. "The most ancient piece of 



(7) Acts, 14:16, 17:30, 31, 29. (8) Chap. 3, § 21. (9) Heb., 9:22. (1) Heb., 10:4. 



CHAPTER IX.: SECTIONS I. -II. 49 

poetry in the literature of the world," is said by scholars to be the Egyptian 
" Book of the Dead," and in this we have a hymn which, according to the Duke 
of Argyll, describes the Divine Deity as the Maker of Heaven and Earth, as the 
Self-Existent One, and the elementary forces of nature as His instruments. He 
alone is the true living One, and is to be adored as living in the Truth, and in 
Justice. He is the unchangeable and unchanging Rule of right in the moral 
world, and of order in physical causation. Here we have the truth, in the 
words of M. Renouf, where he says that ''the sublimer portions of the Egyp- 
tian religion are not the comparatively late results of a process of development 
or elimination from the grosser. The sublimer portions are demonstrably 
ancient; and the last stage of the Egyptian religion, that known to the Greek and 
Latin writer, was by far the grossest." 



THE INCIPIENT AND PREPABATOEY AGE, SPLICED. 

From Ahraham to Moses, A. M. 2075-2433, or B. C. 1929-1571. 
Red dragon antagonism of Satan. See Chap. 112. 
Period Eir St. Placing of the Witnesses. — 67^^^.9-16. 



CHAPTER IX, 



ABRAHAM'S CALL AND COYEJ^ANTS. A. M. 2083-2107, or B. C. 

1921-1897.— Genesis, 12, 13:14-18 ; 15 and 17:1-17. 

1. Abraham and Babel. — With Abraham, Jehovah began to prepare a 
power, or kingdom, to conquer and govern the world. At first it must be on the 
defensive, while Polytheism is developing its power and character ; and then it 
must become aggressive, and destroy the power of the Old Serpent and crush his 
head. Abraham was of Mesopotamia, or that tract of country between the rivers 
Euphrates and Tigris, and from the northern part of it. His native place was 
not far from the Tower of Babel, and most likely his ancestors were in that 
dispersion. This Tower became the site of the great city of Babylon, so noted 
in history and so conspicuous in the development of the Kingdom of God. The 
Tower itself became the Temple of the Sun ; and if it was not \hQ first temple of 
idolatry, it became the most powerful antagonist to the worship of Jehovah. 
The Chaldeans were astronomers and philosophers ; and no doubt pretended, 
in the days of Moses, to be the fountain of wisdom and religion. 

2. How Far Infected with Polytheism. — ISTot all of Shem's posterity were 

exempt from idolatry : for Joshua tells us that Terah served other gods beyond 

the Euphratesi. Perhaps Babylon was the native place of idolatry, and all 

tribes near it were affected with the apostacy. And perhaps the families of 

Noah were more interspersed, or commingled, in that surrounding country than 

in remoter districts. It is hard to tell how far Polytheism had advanced ; but 

they certainly could not deny the existence of Jehovah yet, as Shem was still 

alive, and the history of the flood was fresh in their minds, and its marks before 
—4 



50 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

their eyes. Joshua says Terah served other gods beyoDd the floods^; but 
Laban swears by the God of Abraham and Nahor, the God of their father — who 
was Terah 2 — yet himself had gods that Kachel stole. They perhaps acknowl- 
edged one great, Supreme Being, but considered him so far above human con- 
ceptions, and too great to superintend these inferior creatures on earth, and so 
worshiped inferior objects. Of these the sun held the first place, next the moon 
and stars, and then ancestors, heroes, and animals. 

3. Cause or Polytheism. — But the true origin of both Atheism and Poly- 
theism is moral depravity and an aversion to the attributes of Jehovah. They 
did not choose to retain their knowledge of Jehovah, nor think about Him ; nor 
were they grateful to Him for His favors, nor thankful for His mercies. They 
tried to darken their own minds with foolish reasonings and vain speculations 
about Him, instead of confiding in Him and implicitly obeying His will. Some 
thought there was no God, and others had gods by the millions and made to suit 
their own corrupt propensities^. Atheism and Polytheism are twin brothers : 
the first is generally the priest and the second the devotee. 

4. Not Sopek-excellent by JSTature. — Abraham was not chosen on account 
of the purity of his ancestors or their fidelity to Jehovah and the true religion ; 
nor was he the best man of his day. Melchizedek was confessedly a greater and 
better mau^, while Pharaoh and Abimelech appear as good, if not better. In 
his transactions with the latter two he showed a lack of adequate knowledge of 
Jehovah and a want of confidence in His power and protection. His relation to 
Sarah was contrary to the law afterward given by Moses, and his connection with 
Hagar was contrary to the original law of marriage^. But the Lord disciplined 
him till he became stronger in faith and sound in knowledge. Perhaps Sarah 
bore him no children because their union was in violation of man's animal consti- 
tution. She was his half-brother's daughter, or his father's granddaughter. 

5. A Subject of Grace and Positive Laws. — But this furnished an occa- 
sion to manifest the positive government of God in the kingdom of grace, which 
He was setting up in the kingdom of nature. Barren by violation of- the laws ot 
creation and past age according to the same laws, she embraced a son by special 
favor, according to the promise. Abraham became illustrious by the special 
position given him in the Kingdom of God, and by his strong faith matured by 
trial and cultivation. See § 15, 16. 

6. He was a wandering grazier and a wealthy prince ; transacted business 
with kings and with servants, and gained a hvelihood by labor and wisdom. 
He became a teacher of true religion, was a priest at the altar, a general in 
battle, and a king among domestics and dependents. He showed the weak- 
ness of man when he denied Sarah to be his wife and suff'ered her to be 
taken into the house of Pharaoh and the harem of Abimelech. He feared man 
and despaired of protection from God. Again, confiding in the Lord, he fought 
the combined forces of the conquors of five kings, and recovered the captives 
and spoils of Sodom, which he restored gratuitously to the spoiled. Despairing 
of legitimate seed, at the instigation of Sarah, he tries to obtain the promise by 
her handmaid. Again, having obtained the promise, he obeys the divine com- 
mand to offer up his only legitimate son. In short, he was but a fallen man, and 
by the favor of God he became what he was. 

7. By what means he became acquainted with Jehovah at first, or what was 
the extent of his knowledge, we do not know ; but when the God of glory 
appeared to him in the Mesopotamia and gave him a command and promises, he 
immediately obeyed, and left his native land to become a pilgrim stranger. 
Thus he secured the promises. He believed Jehovah, and like Noah, became 
an heir of the righteousness by faith. Melchizedek, the king of Salem, known 



(1) Josh., 24:2, 14, 15. (2) Gen., 31:53. (3) Rom., 1:17-32. (4) Heb., 7:7. (5) Mark, 10:6-9. 



CHAPTER IX. : SECTIONS VIII. -XII. 51 

among contemporaries as ''The Righteous King of Peace," and ''Priest of the 
Most High God," was greater than Abraham; received tithes of Him and con- 
ferred a blessing upon him, but was not chosen to such distinguished honors. 

8. Interview with Melchizedek. — What a noble sight! Two pious 
Patriarchs, noted witnesses for Jehovah and truth, in the midst of encroaching 
idolatry, darkness, and corruption, meeting and mutually acknowledging each 
other. Abraham, flushed with victory and loaded with spoils, acknowledges 
Melchizedek's priesthood, giving him the tenth : Melchizedek rejoiced to meet a 
powerful conquerer that acknowledged the true God, and blessed the Most High 
God, and then blessed Abraham as his servant^. 

9. Was a Prophet of Jehovah. — The Psalmist calls Abraham a prophet, 
and so did the Lord to Abimelech ; and he builded altars and offered sacrifices, 
leaving these altars behind him wherever he went to witness for the most high 
God. Silent witnesses for Jehovah ! Did any pious pilgrim happen on them in 
solitude and bow his knee in adoration and overflowing gratitude and thank the 
Lord that another worshiper of the true God still sojourned on earth. 
Polytheism having obtained prominence among the nations, it became necessary 
to distinguish the true God by some appellation, as, "The Most High God," 
"God Almighty," and afterward, "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." 
Like the Samaritans of later days, the people may have yet feared the Lord, but 
worshiped their own gods, whether ancestors, heroes, or demons. By the name 
"God Almighty" — one able to do all things and fulfill his own promises — did 
Jehovah reveal himself to Abraham, and told him to walk uprightly and not 
deviate from righteousness, to aid the Lord to fulfill His word. Thus was 
Abraham reproved for his connection with Hagar. 

10. First Covenant. — After more than two thousand years (A. M. 2083) of 
the world's history has passed away, the Jehovah appeared to Abraham in Mes- 
sopotamia, or Ur of the Chaldees. and told him to leave his country and his 
kindred, and become a pilgrim stranger in a land to be shown him, promising, 
on compliance, to make out of him a great nation, and to bless him and make his 
name great; make him a blessing; bless his friends and curse his foes; and in 
him should all families of the earth be blessed. Upon the exhibition of 
Abraham's faith and obedience in oflering up Isaac, this covenant was trans- 
formed to an oath, and this blessing to the nations is promised to his seed.* 

11. Second Covenant. — After his separation from Lot — about A. M. 2091 — 
Jehovah promised to Abraham and his seed all the land he could view from his 
position at BetheP. After the blessing of Melchizedek, God repeated the prom- 
ise of a numerous seed, and the possession of that land. Abraham asked for 
some token of evidence that he should inherit it. The Lord told him to prepare 
the covenant victims ; and, after dark, caused symbols of His presence — a smok- 
ing furnace and a burning lamp — to pass between the pieces. In the same day, 
the Lord made a covenant with Abraham to give him and his seed after him, 
"the whole land from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates." Thus they were 
placed between two of the most learned, and powerful, and idolatrous nations on 
the earth 8. 

12. Third Covenant. — In A. M. 2107, when Abraham was ninety-nine 
years old, and one year before Isaac was born, Jehovah eAtered into the ever- 
lasting covenant of circumcision with him ; in which he pledged all the land of 
Canaan for an everlasting possession to his circumcised seed, and that He would 
bo their God^. The condition to be fulfilled by Abraham and his seed was : That 
every male ofl'spring, or servant, born in the family or bought with money, 
should be circumcised. The age fixed for the reception of this rite in the flesh 
was the eighth day, when it could be performed without pain or danger ; but to 

(6) Gen., 14:18-21. (*) Gen., 12. (7) Gen., 13:14-18. (8) Gen., 15. (9) Gen., 17. 



52 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the old it occasioned excruciating pain and suffering!. It was a rite the nations 
would not be likely to adopt when Israel was prosperous, nor could the Israelites 
easily obliterate it in time of adversity. It was in their flesh an everlasting cov- 
enant. And there it is yet, after three thousand seven hundred and sixty-five 
years of prosperity, adversity, national existence, captivity, slavery, and disper- 
sions—A. D. 1865. 

13. Third Covenant. — When the Lord commenced talking about this cov- 
enant about to be made. He was interrupted by Abraham falling on his face. 
Then the Lord talked with him about the former covenant, and assured him of 
its fulfillment; and changes his name to Abraham because he had been consti- 
tuted the father of many nations, or a multitude of nations by that promise : 
"In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."^ 

14. Antagonism to Polytheism. — Here is now erected an institution directly 
against the Polytheism of the nations, with a guarantee, that in this contest the 
nations should not be cursed, but blessed by it. Abraham must have a great 
nation of his own ofi'spring by Sarah, which, up to this time, was contrary to all 
evidence. This seed must be circumcised, and shall possess a given tract of land 
for an everlasting inheritance. Jehovah is pledged to be their God in defiance 
of Polytheism, and in this seed must all nations look for their salvation. Every- 
thing about this institution is of a positive, even miraculous nature, and is not 
dependent on the laws of creation, but on the sovereign will of the Creator. 

15. Nature Subjected to this Positive Arrangement. — We do not say 
the subjects are freed from the laws of creation, but the institution itself may 
enjoin obedience to those laws, or suspend and counteract them. The revealed 
will of God is the supreme law of this institution of grace, or free favor. It is 
not to be inferred that God had not governed the world since the fall of Adam 
by an absolute sovereignty, and dispensations of grace, and had not taught men 
salvation by free grace. But so far as known to us. He never pledged himself to 
force any individual, family, or nation, by interfering dispensations to preserve 
the truth and obey His laws. 

16. Conclusion of Section 15. — The family of Seth might accept divine 
favor, and pursue after peace and holiness, and enjoy the fruits thereof; or they 
might mix with the Cainites, apostatize, and abide the necessary consequences. 
They might reject faith and salvation, and violate any and every moral principle, 
but obey every mental and physical law; and so, by consequence, become intel- 
lectual and physical monsters in corruption and violence during long lives. But 
the decree of death they could not pass, while the cherubim and flaming sword 
guarded the Tree of Life. Any of the Patriarchs after the Flood might obey 
moral laws, and have holy families and happy offspring, if they did not become 
effeminate, and so subject themselves to the conquest of the impious. Or violat- 
ing moral laws, and observing mental and physical laws, they might found pow- 
erful, idolatrous empires, as Egypt, Assyria, and Chaldea, and others. But not 
so in this institution. Jehovah will be their God, and will maintain all the 
rights, and exercise all the authority of God. If instruction is necessary. He 
will give it ; if favors are needed, they shall have them, though nations must be 
destroyed, the waters be divided, and the sun stand still. If punishments are 
necessary, they shall have famine, war, and pestilence — whether there be any 
natural cause for them or not. All other Patriarchs were left to the conse- 
quences of their own teachings and influences, till Christ's advent, when all are 
commanded to repent, or be disciplined as the children of Israel^. The intro- 
duction of this institution did not impose any necessity or inducement upon 
other Patriarchates, or nations, to apostatize ; nor did Jehovah engage to refuse 
them any more protection, or revelations. (See Chap. 26, §§ 3, 5, 7-18.) 



(1) Gen., 34:25; Josh., 5:8. (4) Gal., 3:8. (*) Acts, 14:16; 17:30, 31. 



CHAPTER X. : SECTION X. 53 

17. Delay Cultivates Faith. — Jehovah did not put Abraham immediately 
in the possession of this land, for the iniquity of the Ammorites was not full^. 
Pious men sojourned there, and could preach the truth and worship the true 
God. Also, He saw proper to train His people to look forward in hope and 
back in fear, and not be moved by delays, or the insulting derision of adversa- 
ries boasting the failure of covenants, oaths, and promises: they must remember 
what He has done, observe what He is doing, and depend on what is to be done. 
If disappointed in our calculations, and the adversaries deride our hope, this will 
make our hope more prominent ; and when realized, will be witnessed by more 
persons, and be more triumphant. 

18. Makes the Event More Conspicuous. — Some things covenanted and 
confirmed by oath are yet in the future : all families are not yet blessed in Abra- 
ham's seed. They must be wanderers four hundred years, which would test 
their faith in Jehovah, and be brought into bondage, that would make their 
hearts faint: but that nation shall be judged, and Israel brought back with great 
riches. This would revive their faith, and they would say: "This Jehovah is 
our God! We have waited four hundred years for Him, and have not been put 
to shame." This hope could not be forgotten nor concealed while they bore the 
mark of circumcision in their flesh, and were prevented by it from seeking a 
home elsewhere. The bondage of Egypt made this hope die within their 
breasts ; but after all discouragements, it was realized- by millions, and witnessed 
by the nations. 



CHAPTER X. 



TEAINING OF ABRAHAM. A. M. 2083-2107, or B. C. 1921-1897. 

Genesis, 12:20. 

1. Abraham's Knowledge of the Divinity. — Abraham had imbibed Poly 
theism, and with his father, Terah, had served other gods beyond the 
Euphrates^; and this notion influenced him to deny his wife, for he thought 
surely Jehovah was not in that place, but confined to some other locality. Abi- 
melech, however, could ask triumphantly: "Whatsawest thou, that thou hast 
done this?" for he could, with a clear conscience, in the presence of God, call 
his people a righteous nation. To eradicate these impressions, and confirm him 
in the knowledge and worship of the true God, Abraham was given special priv- 
ileges and discipline. Polytheism teaches there are many gods, and every 
country has its god. The prophet, Jonah, imbued with this idea, attempted to 
escape from Jehovah by fleeing to another country''^. Abraham may not have 
lost the knowledge of the True God, which he may have learned from Shem, the 
son of ISToah ; but he may have imbibed the notion that every land had a subor- 
dinate deity, and so served the gods of Chaldea when in Mesopotamia. So 
when Jehovah appeared to him in Chaldea, he may have recognized Him as the 
God of the Patriarchs, and obeyed at once. Wandering about and meeting Him 
everywhere, speaking, acting, and conquering in His name, and by His aid, he 
at last recognizes Him as the True God. 



(5) Gen., 15:16. (6) Josh., 24:2, 14, 15. (7) Josh., 1:3, 



54 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

2. The First Lesson. — His first lesson was in Eo:ypt, where he found that 
God spoke to Pharaoh, and the Egyptians heard and obeyed him, and he was 
sent away safely with all that he had. His second lesson was from Abimelech, 
who was pious and upright, and with moral firmness reproved both Abraham 
and Sarah, and afterward treated him as a brother prince. Jehovah honored 
Abraham as a prophet, in answering his prayer for Abimelech, and both were 
taught that He was the God of favor, as well as of creation, and is an absolute 
sovereign, and not under the laws of creation. His third lesson was from Mel- 
chizedek, king of Salem, who blessed him in the name of the most high God, 
possessor of heaven and earth. Abraham acknowledged him as a priest, and 
paid him tithes of all; and, in talking with the king of Sodom, borrows this des- 
ignation of Jehovah: "The Jehovah — Tiie Most High God, possessor of heaven 
and earth." His fourth lesson was from Jehovah himself, when Abraham took 
Hagar for a concubine. He says: "I am God Almighty; walk before me, or as 
in my presence; and be thou perfect." Here he was taught to confide in Jeho- 
vah at all times, and in all places, and for all things, and without regard to gods 
or difiiculties, and to maintain an unblemished walk and conversation. 

3. A Personal Interview. — After this the Lord granted Abraham a 
friendly and personal interview. In company with two angels. He accepted acts 
of hospitality, repeated His promise of a son, and made known the destruction 
of Sodom and the cause. Here, we must observe, ail these manifestations of 
Jehovah were by that divine personage called "The Son of God:" for Christ says, 
"No man hath seen God at any time : the only Begotten who is in the bosom of 
the Father hath revealed Him."^ "The Father has no man seen, nor can see."^ 
Paul says: "He dwells in light, to which none can approach : whom no man 
hath seen, nor can see."^ If Adam, and the other Patriarchs down to Abra- 
ham, knew that "The seed of the Woman" which was to destroy Satan, was the 
incarnation of this Jehovah — the Son, — and traditions preserved among the 
heathen indicate that they did, — then, when the blessing of all tribes was guaran- 
teed to Abraham, those of his day and afterward must look for this incarnation 
among his seed. And if they wished their ofispring to be preserved from idola- 
try, and to participate in those blessings, they must locate them near his family. 
For of his seed must this " Son of God" come ; and with no other one did Jeho- 
vah covenant to preserve their seed from idolatry and Polytheism. 

4. Wickedness of Sodom. — While Abraham found pious Patriarchs in liis 
wanderings, he also found debased and desperate men. Such were the inhab- 
itants of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and ^eboim. He and his nephew. Lot, 
were so wealthy in flocks and herds that they could not dwell together, and Lot, 
having his choice, sojourned in the fertile plains of Sodom. But the men of 
Sodom were sinners before God, exceedingly violent and brutish, and with their 
filthy conversation vexed Lot's righteous soul continually 2. His discourse and 
example did not reform them, but their society proved the ruin of his family and 
fortune. They had plenty and were at ease^, and became impious, debased and 
cruel ; and had they remained and mixed with the nations, they would have made 
the world as bad as before the Flood. The Lord saw proper to circumscribe 
their influence and make them a monument and a warning to others. He had 
covenanted with Noah to not destroy all flesh again ; so he now checks impiety 
before it becomes universal"^. 

5. Destruction Inflicted. — Having constituted Abraham the head of a new 
institution for the protection of truth and overthrow of impiety, he acquaints him 
with his design and the reason. Abraham interceded for Sodom, perhaps on 
Lot's account ; and from this intercession we learn that not ten persons could be 



(8) John, 1:18: 6:46. (9) Matt., 11:27; I. John, 4:12. (1) I. Tim., 6:16. (2) II. Pet, 2:8. 
(3) Ezek., 16:49. (4) Gen., 18-19. 



OriAi^TER xi. : SECTioiJ i. 55 

found there to create a moral influence : hence reformation was hopeless. For 
Abraham's sake, though he had not importuned for three, Lot and two daughters 
were saved ; but his wife, married children, and property, were destroyed. This 
visitation was not produced in the order of cause and effect, by the sins of the 
people; but by positive interference was their wickedness punished and their bad 
influence destroyed. The catastrophe was made known beforehand to Abraham, 
and was executed by two angels, who personally delivered Lot, after his warning 
was derided. Hence it was no accidental freak of nature, though the spectators 
might so regard it. 

6. Sovereignty of Jehovah Shown. — Thus Abraham was taught that 
neither the gods of countries and places, nor creation and its laws, could stand 
before the Jehovah. Atheism, Polytheism, Pantheism, and Deism : no God, a 
god for every place and country, and no revelation from God, were confounded 
at once before Abraham, when he saw the flame ascending to heaven in the sight 
of the whole surrounding country ; and no doubt Abraham and Lot related all 
that they knew about it. What a record for Lot to transmit to his posterity ! 
Family and property both destroyed, and himself and two daughters saved by 
the direct and personal interposition of two angels ! All his after-posterity was 
the fruit of drunkenness, and incest with his two daughters, and their patrimony 
was poverty : all caused by this awful catastrophe. The event could not be for- 
gotten while the Moabites and Ammonites existed : for their illegitimate origin 
grew out of it ; and there stands the Dead Sea between Moab and Judea. 



CHAPTER XI. 



ONE PROMISE REALIZED AND FAITH MATURED. A. M. 2107 or 
2108-2180, OR B. C. 1897-1822.— Genesis, 21-25. 

1. Isaac Born, and Ishmael Cast Out. — After twenty-fi\^e years' wandering 
and training, Abraham embraced the promised son, Isaac, when one hundred 
years old ; and thus one promise was obtained, and that, too, contrary to the 
laws of creation. He might now look forward with bright and joyful anticipa- 
tions of the future: but his polygamy began to produce its legitimate fruit, and 
sent a pang through his heart. The illegitimate son was the older, and began to 
persecute the promised heir, and showed that a separation was necessary; and 
Ishmael, being now fourteen years old, must be cast out of the promised inher- 
itance. (Gal., 4:29.) But Ishmael, too, must be preserved, a monument, to 
be a witness of this new dispensation ; and so his character and destiny were 
foretold and left on record for generations to come. There he is as the record 
foretold. Do you ask his history? Its origin is inseparably connected with 
this new institution, and shows the laws of nature cannot give inheritance 
in the Kingdom of God, although miracles must be wrought to fulfill the prom- 
ises, or authorized expectations. The casting out of Ishmael did not separate 
him from the favor of God, nor necessitate him to imbibe the corruptions around, 
and fall into idolatry ; but being left a Patriarch to his own offspring, and not 
under the control of Isaac, he might establish the true worship of Jehovah among 
them, like Melchizedek, Job, and others did. . 



56 l^HE :&lNGbOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

2. Abraham's Faith Tried. — Abraham being now strong in faith, was sub- 
jected to a severe trial of faith, love, and obedience. He had been promised an 
innumerable posterity by Isaac long before any evidence of his existence could 
be found, and through him the blessing of the whole world ; and now he is 
commanded to offer him up in sacrifice, which will blast all his expectations. 
Abraham's love for the long-expected son of his old age must have been very 
strong ; but love to God and confidence in Him led to obedience, which is the 
genuine evidence of faith and love. And perhaps by this transaction, Abraham 
and others were taught that free grace was sure : for if he, with all his imper- 
fections, could sacrifice his beloved son and only heir to the promises, so would 
Jehovah give up his only begotten and well beloved son to suffering and death 
for the salvation of man by free grace. Abraham predicted a truth when he 
answered Isaac: "God will provide himself a lamb." But what he meant, and 
how he understood the whole transaction, we do not know. He expected to kill 
Isaac and make a burnt-ofi'ering of him, expecting him to be restored from the 
ashes. "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be thou perfect," sounds 
in his ears. Abraham remembered, believed, and obeyed; and it was recorded 
for our admonition and imitation. 

3. The Cave of Machpelah. — Sarah died, aged one hundred and twenty- 
seven years, and was buried in the promised land, where another monument 
witnessed to her seed in after generations, that the God of Abraham was able 
and faithful to fulfill his promises. Though the land was given to Abraham by 
divine conveyance, registered in the Court of Heaven, yet Abraham bought the 
Cave of Machpelah at the required price for a family sepulchre. 

4. Isolation of Isaac. — After this Abraham took another wife named 
Keturah, who bare him six children, who received gifts and were sent away, like 
Ishmael from Isaac, during Abraham's lifetime. Thus Isaac, like Abraham, 
was separated from his relatives and all family influences. Abraham was also 
careful that Isaac should not be united by marriage with the families in the prom- 
ised land, nor influenced by them: but sent to his own relations, and had his 
nephew's daughter brought from her relations and wedded to Isaac. Thus he 
guarded against the evils of mixing with the impious in marriage, and against 
family influences. He would not even allow his servant to take Isaac to see her, 
if she refused to come with the servant. 

5. Our Participation in the Blessing of Abraham. — Abraham lived one 
hundred and seventy-five years; one hundred of which were spent in wandering 
about as God directed him, and died four years before Eber, the father of Peleg; 
and of the sixth generation back of his ancestors, and twenty-five years after the 
death of Shem, the son of ISToah. He was buried in his purchased sepulchre by 
Ishmael and Isaac, and we in America honor him as our Father Abraham, 
although we are descendants of Japheth. All the blessings we now enjoy flowed 
to us from that Patriarch, through that promise : "In thee shall all families of 
the earth be blessed." "^ ^ ^ "A father of many nations have I constituted 
thee." Had Moses fabricated the whole storv, he could not have foreseen this 
most improbable of all unaccountable phenomena: our ancestors were northern 
idolaters, but after more than three thousand years we are blessed through 
Abraham and his seed. Ponder these facts well. The Bible proves itself to be 
the Word of God. 

6. Though Abraligm was honored above all men of his day, and was strong 
in faith and implicit in obedience, yet, as his history shows, he became what he 
was by the grace of God, and not by the laws of nature nor the philosophy of 
creation. He died, not having received the promises, but beholding them afar 
ofi"'. Preserve the deed for this Cave of Machpelah. After four hundred years 



(7) Rom., 11:13, 16, 17; Gal, 3:8; Heb., 11:13. 



CHAPTER XII, : SECTIONS I. -111. 57 

of wandering and bondage his seed shall settle around it and inquire into its his- 
tory, the origin of their tribes, and the design of their nationality. They will 
learn that the God of A^braham is a sovereign and almighty disposer of events, 
although they may not be philosophers nor know anything about the laws of 
creation or kingdom of nature. Ishmaelites, Keturites, and Edomites remember 
this family sepulcher with filial reverence, while Israel is lost in Egyptian bond- 
age, but recollect it belongs to Jacob, who shall yet inherit the land. 

7. Piety of Eleazer. — The deep-toned piety, the short but fervent prayer, 
the confident expectation of an answer, and firm belief in the guidance of 
Jehovah, exhibited by his old servant, Eleazer, shows how effectually the train- 
ing of Abraham had engrafted the true knowledge of the true God on the minds 
of his household. Sach was the Patriarchate bequeathed to Isaac. 



CHAPTER XII. 

HISTORY OF ISAAC. A. M. 2107-2288. B. C. 1897-1716. 

Genesis, 25-28. 

1. A YiEW OF IsAAO. — The history of Isaac is very short. He was fifty 
years old when Shem died, forty when he took Kebekah, sixty when Jacob and 
Esau were born, seventy-five when Abraham died, and one hundred and eighty 
when he died. Once he denied his wife, like Abraham, and passed her for his 
sister in the court of a younger Abimelech, king of Gerar. The conduct of that 
prince on that occasion shows he had not lost all the virtues of his father, what- 
ever may have been the character of the Philistines, his subjects. Isaac loved 
game meat, at least when he was old, and because Esau supplied him with that 
favorite dish, he was partial, and tried to transfer the divine blessing of Jacob 
unto him. Perhaps he had forgotten what was told Rebekah before their birth. 
He appears to have led a peaceful life with the neighboring princes, or chiefs ; 
and notwithstanding his divine title to the land, when the Philistines quarreled 
with him about his wells, he removed and digged others till he found room and 
quiet. He had but two children, and but one wife, who was his cousin's daughter. 

2. Covenants Reaffirmed to Him. — During a famine in the land, Jehovah 
appeared to him and forbade him to go into Egypt, but to dwell among the Phil- 
istines. Perhaps Polytheism was now established in Egypt, and a wicked king 
reigned over the land. Here the Lord reaffirmed the promises to Abraham, and 
the same were repeated to him at Beersheba. Isaac had been a sojourner with 
his father seventy-five years, and was thus trained from his childhood to the 
knowledge and service of the true God. He was pious, but not perfect. Moses 
presents no perfect model to the Israelites but Jehovah himself. 

3. Was Imperfect. — Had Isaac been governed in regard to his two sons by 
the divine will as revealed to Rebekah, he had saved much trouble, pain, and 
hard feelings. Had he appreciated moral worth and divine revelation as he did 
good venison, or game, he might have separated Esau from Jacob, as his father 
separated Ishmael and the sons of Keturah from him. But a perfect man is 
hard to find. When the heathen deified their ancestors who were guilty of 
crime, they worshiped them as the patrons of those crimes, and thus animated 



5B THfi Kingdom of Got) developed. 

themselves in the practice of the same; but Moses shows the imperfections of his 
ancestors, and condemns them by his teachings and laws, which were from God. 

4. Rebekah. — Not much is said about Rebekah; but if she called Isaac 
"Lord," she did not scruple to defeat his purpose, nor was she very conscien- 
tious about how she did it. Had she remembered the lesson given to Abraham: 
''I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be thou perfect," and had she had 
faith to leave God's business to himself, she might have obviated some bitter 
consequences that followed by the perverted laws of nature. Esau was a wicked 
man, and disappointment produced revenge. The children of grace must not 
violate the laws of creation, or they must expect to suffer the consequences. 
God may prevent the consequences, but he has not engaged to do so. 

5. Actions and Consequences — Jacob shall receive the promises, but must 
first suffer the consequences of his mother's folly. She, too, must receive a pang, 
when she sends oft' her darling son, and Isaac must discover the murderous dis- 
position of his favorite child. How much faith she had in that promise, "The 
elder shall serve the younger," I do not know; but she wisely planned his 
escape, and found a powerful argument to induce Isaac to cooperate. She 
expressed her disapproval of the daughters of Canaan, and fear of Jacob follow- 
ing Esau's example. Isaac acquiesced, and blessing Jacob with the blessing of 
Abraham, sent him to her brother, Laban, for one of his daughters. So far she 
was successful, her plans being in accordance with the unknown providence of 
God ; but in the subsiding of Esau's anger, and her sending for Jacob in a short 
time, she was disappointed. She never saw Jacob return, and Esau's revenge 
gave way only to covetousness. (Chap. 13, §§ 8-10.) 

6. Genesis, 26 and 27. Providential Government. — Here Moses brings 
to view the providential government of God, which also belongs to the king- 
dom of grace. In this God uses the moral, mental, and physical laws of 
creation, and permits, controls, prohibits, combines, and compels persons and 
things to produce certain events that the agents and actors never knew, designed, 
nor intended. In nature every cause produces, by the laws of creation, certain 
efiects; and where man understands these laws, he can work prodigies. In 
grace, God holds all creation in His hands, as an absolute monarch, and 
enforces, suspends, or counteracts the laws of nature, according as He promises 
or threatens. But it is only in Christ, or for what He has sufi'ered and done, 
that He will interfere with His laws of creation. In providence, He uses both 
the laws of nature and prerogatives of grace to accomplish the end. 

7. The younger shall have the prominence, as foretold, but it shall not be 
accomplished by miracle, nor by the direct and obvious interposition of God. 
The uninstructed spectator will not see any power nor intelligence in it, nothing 
but a fortuitous combination of accidents or chances. Here are two sons; the 
blessing of Abraham would make them both great: but the right of primogenitor 
will give Esau the preeminence, while Jehovah has said that Jacob shall be the 
greater. How will this be accomplished ? We shall see. 

8. Esau and Jacob were both a little out of the course of nature. Isaac and 
Rebekah were cousins, and twenty years married without children, and in answer 
to Isaac's entreaty for her, these children were granted. From circumstances 
attending their birth, the elder was called Hairy, or Esau, and the younger. Sup- 
planter, or Jacob. Jacob was born fifteen years before the death of Abraham, 
and one hundred and twenty years before the death of Isaac. The birthright 
belonged to Esau, who was a profane person and treated sacred things with lev- 
ity and disrespect, and sold his birthright for one mess of lentiles, or beans. 
(Heb., 12:14) A man in Mt. Yernon ofi'ered to sell his interest in Christ for 
twenty-five cents. Esau was a crafty hunter, and obtained his preference by sup- 
plying his father with game; Jacob was a plain farmer, dwelling at home, and 
was his mother's favorite. The blessing of Abraham was the choice part of the 



CHAt^TER :^II. t SECflOlJS ix.-xil. 59 

birthright. Esau despised it, and Jacob desired it. Esau came from hunting, 
hungry and faint, as hunters often do; while Jacob, farmer-like, had plenty. 
Esau asked for some of his red pottage. Jacob asked to buy his birthright. 
Esau said it was of no use to him, for he was about to die. Jacob did not 
depend on Esau's word, but asked him to swear to him; and Esau confirmed the 
sale by an oath. Jacob furnishing him with bread and lentiles, Esau filled him- 
self, forgot all about death, and walked oft* as if nothing had happened. Thus 
he despised his birthright, or perhaps calculated to take it by force if he should 
ever want it. Jacob would never have thought of purchasing it at so small a 
price, had he never heard Esau speak contemptuously of it. Nor would Esau 
have sold it so cheaply, while his partial father had all his ffocks, herds, and food 
in abundance, unless he despised it. Even supposing it to be in the time of fam- 
ine, if Isaac could keep his flocks and herds without migrating to Egypt, there 
could have been no necessity for such a bargain. If there was, what did Esau 
live on afterward? And what did Father Isaac and Mother Rebekah do? Thus 
Jacob purchased from his murderous brother what was his by divine right. 

9. The prophetic blessing of Isaac was yet to come, which by divine right 
belonged to Jacob, but Isaac designed it for Esau. What must be done? ''I 
am G-od Almighty; walk before me, and be thou perfect," was the reproof to 
Abraham. Wherefore did Sarah laugh? "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" 
was Sarah's reproof. Let Jacob wait, and see whether the Lord will grant it to 
Esau. But Rebekah believes in helping the Lord, and she must use the means. 
She believes in means and ends — causes and consequences. Well you shall have 
them till your heart aches and hope expires. 

10. Esau, true to his character, formed by marriage an alliance with the 
Hittites, and took two wives, — daughters of two chiefs, — which gave him a power 
over Jacob in that country. This was a grief to both parents; but his venison 
still secured the partiality of Isaac. Esau placed an high estimate upon his 
father's blessing; and he was not the last wicked man who had a superstitious 
regard for the blessing of parents, priests, and pious men. But Rebekah 
obtained the blessing for Jacob by stratagem, deception, and lying. 

11. Esau, finding himself disappointed, determined to murder his brother 
as soon as Isaac was dead. This wrath Jehovah overruled for the training of 
Jacob for the important place he occupies in the Abrahamic economy. Jacob has 
obtained the blessing, but has entailed upon himself a train of evils, causing him 
suffering and loss. Jacob must leave home to save his life; or, for his blood, 
Esau must be killed, according to the law given by Noah ; and thus, as Rebekah 
said, she would lose both in one day. (Chap. 6, § 5.) 

12. But Esau must live and be strong and wealthy, according to Isaac's 
blessing, and his posterity must remain a standing monument and independent 
witness to the Abrahamic covenants, till their truth be established beyond all dis- 
pute. Implacable enemies to Israel, but incontrovertable proof to their divine 
calling and high mission in the earth. Thus, with Ishmael, the sons of Keturah 
and Esau, God provided witnesses on the south, north, and east of Israel, from 
Egypt to the Euphrates, that Jehovah is the true God and Israel his chosen 
people. The origin and history of these nations, with the Amonites and Moab- 
ites, proves this position beyond dispute. They may serve other gods, but their 
history shows their idolatry to be an apostacy from the God of Abraham, who 
was confessedly their progenitor and a worshiper of Jehovah. How long these 
families acknowledged Jehovah, I don't know. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



HISTOEY OF JACOB IN EXILE. A. M. 2244-2265, or B. C. 1760-1739. 

Genesis, 28-33. 

1. Leaves Home. — Jacob leaves home and travels through a country 
divided among Patriarchal chiefs, to search for his uncle Laban : where he is in 
danger of being diverted from the Abrahamic economy by the family influences 
of his mother's kindred. Whether Jacob had imbibed the idea that every place 
had a different god, and that Jehovah was confined to places where he had altars, 
or whether the existence of God was a myth to him, we cannot tell; but he did 
not expect to find Jehovah in Luz. Jacob is now a representative character, and 
the hope of the world is in him. Re left his home at Beersheba, or "Oath- 
well," and traveled to Luz, where he camped for the night, and resting his head 
on a stone pillow he fell asleep. 

2. Lesson Taught at Bethel. — This place he called Bethel, or House of 
God. Here Jehovah taught him that a constant communication between Heaven 
and earth was kept up by the angels, under the supervision and control of 
Jehovah, who is the God of Abraham and Isaac. Instead of many gods gov- 
erning different localities, where they were entitled to divine honors, this world 
is governed by the God of Abraham and Isaac, and His angels are constantly 
going and returning in their errands of mercy and wrath — to save Lot, or destroy 
Sodom. Here Jehovah promised to take care of him here and where he was 
going, and to bring him safely back, fulfill all his engagements to him, and to 
secure to him all the promises made to his father. 

3. His Yow. — Impressed with awe and reverence, Jacob exclaimed: ''The 
Jehovah is in this place and I knew it not ! This is the house of God and gate of 
Heaven." Here he erected a stone pillar, which he annointed for a memorial 
and witness, and vowed three things: If God would be with him, keep him, pro- 
vide for him, and return him safely to his father, then the Jehovah should be 
his God, that stone should be God's house, or Bethel, and he would give the 
tenth of all he had to the Lord. Jacob never forgot this interview, nor aposta- 
tized from this engagement. 

4. Protected in Syria. He went on to Laban, who proved to be a covet- 
ous, hard, dishonest man; who designed to make Jacob and his posterity vassals, 
dependent on his own tribe or Patriarchate. But the special protection of 
Jehovah sustained Jacob under impositions, rewarded him for his labor and suf- 
ferings, and delivered him from the power of Laban. This Providential care was 
known to Jacob and acknowledged by him. 

5. Situation and Escape. — While here, the Lord appeared to Jacob and 
told him to return to his fatherland and kindred. Laban and his sons, no doubt, 
intended robbing Jacob, under the pretext that it sprang from his stock; and 
showed it in their countenances and private conversation. Jacob observed the 
one and heard the other : but to return, was to meet his bloodthirsty brother. 
This condition was well calculated to make Jacob feel the consequences of his 
mother's folly and cunning strategy. But Jehovah, the God of nature and also 



CHAPTER XIII.: SECTIONS VI. -XI. 61 

of grace, appeared to him in his trouble and promised to be with him. This was 
his only hope. Apprehending Laban's designs, he slipped away with all his 
property and gained three days' travel on Laban, who, gathering his kindred, 
gave pursuit and overtook Jacob on Mt. Gilead. 

6. Polytheism of Laban. — Then God interfered in a dream and intimidated 
Laban, who, in referring to this interposition, calls Him: "The God of thy 
fathers;" not "The God of our fathers." Laban was now a Polytheist, and 
though he did not disown Jehovah, but recognized Him as "The God of Abra- 
ham and Nahor and of their father," yet he had other gods, whose images 
Rachel had stolen without Jacob's knowledge. She had imbibed her father's 
Polytheism and stolen his gods. 

7. Consequences of Sin. — Jacob designates Jehovah as "The God of his 
fathers — the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac." Their interview was 
sharp and Laban's designs apparent ; but Jacob prevailed by the known inter- 
position of Jehovah. All these evils grew out of Jacob's sin in obtaining the 
blessing, otherwise he might have got Rachel, or both, as Isaac got Rebekah. 

8. Reconciliation of Jacob and Esau. — But Esau's anger was not turned 
away, nor had Rebekah sent for Jacob, as she hoped, and he dreaded the inter- 
view. He first sends a messenger to Esau with words of submission and recon- 
ciliation: but Esau, without answering, gathered four hundred men of his 
Hittite allies and came to meet Jacob before he got back to Isaac, and no doubt 
intended his father should never see Jacob nor hear tell of him. On hearing 
this news Jacob was distressed and took the case to God. Here he not only 
petitioned, but also argued the case with God. The Lord had told him to 
return, and promised to deal well with him: but aspects are threatening, and 
danger is near. He acknowledged his nothingness and God's mercies, and asks 
deliverence from Esau, whose vengeance he had provoked, and which had not 
subsided in twenty years' absence. 

9. He then concluded to work for a reconciliation, by bestowing largely of 
his property. Thus, while taught to depend on God's mercy and favor he must 
suffer some of the consequences of his distrust and folly. After Jacob had pre- 
pared an immense present for Esau, Jehovah favored him with an interview, 
which was commemorated, by his posterity, by not eating of the sinew that 
shrank in Jacob's thigh. Jacob could not forget it nor regard it as a fantastical 
dream, for the next day he was lame. 

10. Here he obtained a blessing and his name was changed to Israel, or 
prince of God. He believed that God existed and all his help was there, while 
Esau had allies and could raise an army. Esau's covetousness for wealth over- 
came his vengeful disposition, though, perhaps, he thought to make Jacob a 
dependent, or to kill him secretly and make his family servants. Jacob used 
some deception, in holding out the idea of following on as the family and flocks 
could endure, till he came to Mt. Seir, the home of Esau. But he journeyed on 
to Succoth, and there settled down. 

11. Thus Jacob learned, ^in the school of experience, to trust in God 
Almighty and to walk before Him in uprightness. Jehovah's witnesses must 
not reproach His cause by their conduct to others. Jacob safely returned and 
peacefully settled down in the land promised to him, purchased a piece of that 
land at Shechem, and building an altar to the God of Abraham, called it : El- 
Elohe-Israel : God, the God of Israel, the name, Jehovah, not being known. 
This altar, in a land of Polytheism, would teach the beholder that Israel's God 
was not a common God of that country, but the one that had protected and 
guided Jacob according to promise, and had given him that new name. A God 
near at hand and not inaccessible, as the heathen deities. Jacob had certain 
evidence of His existence, presence, fidelity, and protection. 



CHAPTER XIY. 



JACOB'S FAMILY. A. M. 2272-2275, ok B. C. 1732-1729. 

Genesis, 34:-36. 

1. False Gods Among Them. — While dwelling liere we get a view of Jacob's 
family, who do not exhibit many traits of moral excellency. Shechem, the son 
of Hamor, appears better than Simeon and Levi, who were treacherous and 
cruel. We find among them, or among the servants and herdsmen, false gods, 
which Jacob buried under the oak tree by Shechem. The murder of Hamor and 
Shechem and their household by the sons of Jacob, made a removal necessary, 
and a terror from God upon the neighborhood prevented them from taking ven- 
geance on Jacob's family. 

2. Jacob at Bethel, and Return to Isaac. — At the commandment of the 
Lord, Jacob removed to Luz, or Bethel, where he first knew the Lord and 
anointed the stone. There he built an altar which he called El-Bethel, or God 
of Bethel, the distinguishing name of Jehovah not yet being known. Who is 
the God of Bethel? The God of Israel. Here Jehovah renewed to him all the 
promises to Abraham, without regard to Esau's birthright or blessing, and also 
renewed to him the name of Israel; and here Jacob erected a pillar of memorial 
for after generations. From here he removed and came to his father, Isaac, at 
Mamre and the city of Hebron. But Rebekah had been laid in the Cave of 
Machpelah, and was not there to embrace her beloved son. (Gen., 49:31.) Youth 
was gone, but Jacob was another man, and full of experience and sorrow. 
Rachel was dead, but not laid in the family sepulcher. A pillar marked her 
grave and witnessed the spot to her children after their deliverance out of Egypt. 
During this journey we learn of the brutish conduct of Reuben, Israel's eldest 
son. His circumcision and heirship by relation to Abraham, did not make him 
holy. He was brutish, and almost as bad as some of the gods of the nations. 

3. Esau Removes and Becomes a Nation. — Perhaps Jacob's liberality to 
Esau had good effect upon him, and produced a reformation. While Jacob 
dwelt with Isaac, Esau removed entirely to Mt. Seir and possessed Edom, where 
he became great, and left his children permanently settled in their future home; 
while Jacob's seed continued pilgrim strangers for centuries after. 

4. Immorality of Jacob's Sons. — The history of Jacob's sons shows some 
hard cases among them, whose conduct could not impress the Polytheists with a 
very favorable opinion of the religion they professed. In the covenants with 
Abraham, Jehovah promised to be a God to his seed, but did not promise to 
regenerate their innate dispositions and give them eternal life; and though we 
may find impious persons among them, the covenants were not broken, nor were 
they cast out. Reuben and Judah were guilty of incest and licentious acts, 
which the law of Moses afterwards condemned to death. Simeon and Levi were 
treacherous and bloody; and having induced the Shechemites to become circum- 
cised, came upon them when too sore and stiff to help themselves, and murdered 
the whole city. Ten of them were implicated in the intended murder and 
actual selling of Joseph into slavery; and they grieved their aged father with a 
heartless lie about his supposed death by some wild beast. 



CHAPTEKXV. : SECTIONS I. -i:. 63 

5. A E'atukal Catise.— a natural cause for their impiety may be found in 
Jacob's polygamy, who had thirteen children by four mothers. The two sisters, 
who were his wives, showed hostile rivalry well calculated to produce animosity 
among their children. They were not goddesses, nor superior to other women. 
The natural law of marriage, which Christ cites as superior to the law of Moses, 
was: "A man shall leave his parents and adhere to his wife, and they two shall 
be one flesh." This law appears to have been wholly disregarded by many 
Patriarchs, and the consequences have been animosity, contention, and murder. 
The boys were early entrusted with the management of their father's stock, at a 
distance from him, and doubtless they fell into bad company; perhaps, the influ- 
ence of servants. The sons of the concubines were noted for wickedness, which 
Joseph reported to his father. Though the laws of creation are subject to the 
laws of grace, yet generally, if the children of grace violate the laws of nature, 
they must suflfer the consequences in this life. 

6. Benjamin and Joseph Excepted, — Of Benjamin we have neither good 
nor evil said ; but Joseph appears the most suitable to succeed Jacob as Patriarch 
of the family. He too, like Jacob, must be schooled in adversity before he 
becomes the chief Patriarch, and must be advanced to that station by the Provi- 
dence of God, subduing the hostility of his brethren. In the history of Joseph, 
we have clear and indisputable evidence of an overruling intelligence, who is 
able to accomplish his purpose. 



CHAPTER XV. 



TKAmiNG OF JOSEPH. A. M. 2276-2287, or B. 0. 1728-1717. 

Genesis, 37, 39, 40. 



f 



1. Joseph's Piety and Destiny. — Joseph and Benjamin were supernatural 
children of a barren woman, and were the youngest of the family. Joseph 
appears to have been pious from childhood, and to have disapproved of the wick- 
edness of his brethren, which increased the hatred already generated against the 
son of the beloved wife. Jacob loved him and showed his partiality, which 
increased the brothers' hatred. At length Jehovah showed Joseph the prefer- 
ment that awaited him, which Joseph innocently told to his father and brethren. 
Jacob reproved what appeared an aspiring disposition over the family that might 
prove a source of trouble, but noted the dreams as prophetic ; but his brethren 
hated him still the more. The design of Providence was now revealed: Jacob 
considered it, and the brethren deter Qiined to prevent it. We may not under- 
stand or elucidate God's sovereign determination with man's free-agency, but 
here it is. The design is made known, and every one is acting his part with a 
free will ; but the impious brethren, while they correctly interpret the dreams, 
are determined to defeat the purpose. 

2. Providential Governments Noticed. — Jacob himself furnishes the 
opportunity by sending his darling boy to see how his brethren fared. Joseph, 
unconscious of any danger, hunts them up and approaches them in friendly inno- 
cence. The demons see him in the distance and determine to kill him and 



64 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

attribute it to some evil beast like themselves, and thus defeat his dreams. He 
arrives; they seize him and strip the innocent youth! Every tie of nature is 
dead ! and hell-born hate is in flame ! Incestuous Reuben dreads the guilt of 
blood, or sees the double anguish of his weather-beaten father. He says : '^Siied 
no blood ; Jehovah will require it. This was his law to Noah, and ye cannot 
escape. Here is a dry pit ; cast him in and let him starve." l^o sooner said 
than done. Keuben separates from them that he may, without their knowledge, 
restore Joseph to his father. Incestuous Reuben, you are the best one of them 
all. 

3. Joseph has his anguish in the pit. I will not attempt to describe it. The 
fiends, with stifled consciences, sit down to eat and drink. They look in the dis- 
tance. Merchants are coming. A new expedient, not so criminal and more 
profitable, suggests itself: Sell him into slavery. These merchants are of the 
seed of Abraham, whether pious or impious, I do not know; but they would 
speak the same language. Joseph is drawn out of the pit and sold to the 
Ishmaelites, and disappears. These fiendish brothers have done their part to 
defeat the revealed purpose, and now others, knowing nothing about the purpose, 
must do their part to accomplish the design. Actuated by a love of gain, these 
merchants sell Joseph in Egypt to the captain of the guard, who wanted a slave. 

4. Joseph Knows and Feaes the God of Abraham. — Joseph was taught in 
childhood the story of Abraham's God, and now, deprived of protectors and 
friends, he confides in Jehovah alone as his only hope. He believes Jehovah is 
in Egypt : feels under His eye and fears to sin before Him. This faith and piety 
kept Joseph from sin and the debauchery of Egypt, but subjected him to impris- 
onment ; and he lay in irons because a licentious, lying woman could not seduce 
him from the path of rectitude. Still his upright conduct and faithful service 
secured his master's confidence, who committed the care of the whole prison to 
him. This brought him in contact with two ofiending officers of Egypt. These 
ofiicers dreamed ; Joseph interpreted, and so it came to pass. He told them his 
wrongs, and asked them to importune justice. Their dreams were realized; but 
still he is forgotten by the favored butler. The word and purpose of the Lord 
tried him in prison, and taught him to depend on Jehovah alone. (Ps. 105:17-19.) 
All other refuge failed him. 

5. Unnatural Conduct of his Brethren. — The brethren departed, killed a 
kid, soaked Joseph's coat in the blood, and sent it by some one to their father : 
but with all their wickedness, could not themselves present the coat, tell the lie, 
and witness the anguish of their father. Reuben returns to deliver the boy, but 
he was gone ! The dreaded scene at home was pictured in his mind. Where 
could he go to escape the sight. Reuben would have defeated the purpose of the 
Lord out of compassion to the boy, or regard to his father : but he knew it not. 
Joseph says, in the end: "It was not ye that sent me here, but God sent me to 
preserve much life." (Gen., 50:20.) 

6. Jacob's Sorrows. — Jacob recognizes the coat and imagines Joseph torn 
and devoured. He refuses to be comforted, but hopes to meet his son beyond 
the grave. "I will go down into Sheole unto my son mourning." In all his 
famil}^ Jacob found not another kindred spirit; and earth had no pleasures for 
him. Rebekah had died while Jacob was with Laban, and now Isaac dies, ten 
years before Jacob stands before Pharaoh. Jacob is an exile in the promised 
land and his troubles are not ended. His sons, instead of comforting him in his 
old age, are bringing down his gray hairs in sorrow to the grave. Famine in the 
land makes it necessary for them to remove their flocks and herds, or to import 
grain. Jacob advises the latter policy. This famine was not the production of 
man, but forms a link in the chain of events that led to the fulfillment of Joseph's 
dreams. Jacob's sons go down into Egypt for grain, where they had sent 
Joseph as a slave, expecting thus to defeat his dreams forever. 



CHAPTER XYI. 



JOSEPH IK EGYPT.— Genesis, 40, 50. A. M. 2287-2369, or B. C. 1717-1635. 

1. Promotion. — Joseph had interpreted the butler's and baker's dreams in 
prison, and according to his interpretation the events took place : the baker was 
executed and the butler restored to his office; but Joseph was forgotten in prison. 
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, dreamed, and all the wisdom of Egypt could not inter- 
pret his dreams. Then the butler remembered his faults and tells Pharaoh, who 
has Joseph immediately brought. Joseph interprets the dreams and shows 
Pharaoh that Deity presides over the destinies of nations, and was now apprising 
him of coming plenty and famine, that he might provide against distress. 
Pharaoh acknowledged a deity, and that his spirit, or intelligence, was in 
Joseph, and selected him as the most suitable person to superintend this import- 
ant business. Joseph was advanced to the supreme government of Egypt: only 
on the throne was Pharaoh greater than he. 

2. The Brethren's First Yisit to Egypt. — The seven years of plenty 
came, and Joseph had all the surplus grain stored up in the cities. Then fol- 
lowed the seven years of famine, which extended over Canaan, and was so severe 
that large stockraisers could not find sustenance for their flocks and herds. 
Jacob hears of grain in Egypt, and advises his sons to abandon their gloomy 
looks, and go into Egypt and import food. Into Egypt they came, and bowed 
down to Joseph without recognizing him. Joseph knew them and understood 
their language, but concealed the fact and talked with them through an inter- 
preter. He remembered his dreams, and their hatred and cruelty; took them 
for spies, and caused them to experience the enjoyments of his prison for one 
night. Then he retains Simeon in prison, who was, perhaps, the instigator of 
Joseph's wrongs, and sends the others home with strict orders to bring Benjamin 
the next time. 

3. The Divine Purpose Stands. — Whether Joseph indulged in a little 
revenge, or wished to reform his brethren, or to get his brother Benjamin into 
Egypt to share his honors and riches, I cannot tell: but the will of God was to 
bring Israel into Egypt, and teach these sons of Jacob to know and fear Him. 
They had undertaken to rebel against His promotion of Joseph, and to defeat 
His purpose. Jehovah has given moral principles to govern man's relations, 
and if man will observe these the designs of heaven will be accomplished with- 
out suff'ering to man; but if man will not observe these, the Divine purpose will 
be accomplished though nations perish. 

4. The Second Visit. — The bondage of Israel in Egypt was foretold to 

Abraham (Gen., 15:13-16), and the promotion of Joseph over his brethren was 

made known in a dream. Joseph's dreams have been realized, and his father 

and brethren know it not yet; but Israel is not yet in Egypt. The sons of Israel 

return, and with the desired food comes another sorrow to Jacob's heart. 

Simeon is in prison, and Benjamin is demanded by the lord of Egypt. Man can 

brave the morning storms, if he be permitted to enjoy a pleasant evening. But 

Jacob is old now, and his evening is darkened with impending storms. ''Joseph 

is not ! Simeon is not ! And now ye will take Benjamin ! All these are against 
— 5 



66 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

me!" His sons may now feel the consequences of their perfidy and wickedness. 
They cannot get grain without Benjamin be with them. Jacob distrusts them, 
and will not consent. They feel their condition. Reuben and Judah offer a rash 
and foolish guarantee for the safe return of Benjamin to his father. Necessity 
compels, aud Jacob bows before the will of God, though the anchor of his soul 
is gone." "God Almighty, give you favor! If I am bereaved, I am bereaved!" 
They return, but not without apprehensions. A mystery troubles them; their 
purchase money had been returned in the grain sacks! and they fear it was for a 
pretext to enslave them and their beasts. The guilt of Joseph's blood haunts 
them now, and vengeance hangs over their heads. The scene changes ; and for 
a while all is joy and festivity, and they depart in peace. But Joseph's strata- 
gem to secure his brother Benjamin soon frustrates their hopes, and brings all 
to despair again. A consciousness of innocence could not embolden them to 
defy the wrath of Egypt, for the guilt of other crimes had cowed them down, 
and they own a crime they never committed, and surrender themselves to bond- 
age and all its consequences. The sovereign contents himself with Benjamin; 
but Jadah states the case as it stood between him and his father, and requests to 
remain a slave in Benjamin's place. Joseph yields to nature ! gives up his 
plans ! makes himself known ! and sends for Israel. 

5. Jacob's Surprise. — Jacob hears the news but believes them not, though 
he sees his eleven sons before him safe. But the carriages and presents from 
Joseph convince him that it is even so. Now they may remember Joseph's 
dreams, and their own designs and consequences, and be convinced of the exist- 
ence and overruling providence of the God of Abraham. Once more hope 
brightens Jacob's countenance, and he exclaims: "Enough ! Joseph is yet alive, 
and I will go and see him before I die." 

6. Dangers in Egypt. — Jacob concludes to go down into Egypt, but some 
serious difficulties are in the way, and Isaac had been forbidden to go there. The 
country from Egypt to Assyria was divided among small tribes so that the fami- 
lies of Abraham could dwell there in safety, and hold equal power there with 
any of them, and retain their own religion. Since Abraham had destroyed the 
power of the four confederate kings, no other government had attempted to sub- 
due the whole country. But Egypt had a consolidated government, an estab- 
lished religion, and an organized priesthood, and was able to absorb or enslave 
Israel, and suppress their religion. 

7. Jacob Encouraged. — But the God of his fathers appeared to him at 
Beersheba, when he offered his last sacrifice in the promised land, and encour- 
aged him to go down into Egypt, assuring him of his Divine presence there and 
a safe return after they had become a great nation. Joseph should live to close 
his eyes and see him safely buried. So Jacob came into Egypt with all his 
family and possessions, being one hundred and thirty years old, and dwelt there 
seventeen years. 

8. The Patriarchs were not constituted deities. The visits of Jehovah to 
the Patriarchs were peculiar honors and great encouragements, but they were 
few and far between, leaving sufficient time to try their faith and patience. They 
were not elevated above the infirmities, cares, labors, trials, and incidents com- 
mon to mankind. They were not deities, but men of like infirmities to ourselves, 
and improved by experience and became noted by faith in Jehovah. Jacob was 
full grown in the love of Jehovah and confidence in Him, and in the hope of the 
fulfillment of those promises, though yet they were afar off. 

9. Jacob's Faith and Predictions. — Jacob made Joseph swear to bury him 
with his fathers in the cave of Machpelah. They were all pilgrims and heirs of 
the same distant hopes, and perhaps he thought it would be a strong inducement 
to his seed to look upon that as their home, and regard Egypt as only a place of 
sojourn. He says to Joseph : "I die, but God will be with you and bring you 



CHAPTER XVI.: SECTIONS X. -XIV. 67 

into the land of your fathers again." He took the two sons of Joseph into the 
adoption as heirs of the promises to Abraham, but left any more he might have 
to inherit the wealth of Egypt ; and if they would, they might witness for the 
God of Jacob, too. He also foretold the destiny of his children and their 
respective tribes, that future generations, witnessing the fulfillments, might know 
there was no afterthought nor chance work with Jehovah. 

10. Jacob's Language. — Jacob's language to Joseph is entitled to particu- 
lar notice. He rehearses God's covenants and promises to Abraham, Isaac, and 
himself, and designates Him ''The God before whom my fathers, Abraham and 
Isaac, walked. The God that led me all my life long until this day. The Angel 
who redeemed me from all evil." 

11. Jacob's Funeral. — Having closed his eyes in death, Joseph proceeds 
to bury him in the cave of Machpelah. The Egyptians accompanied the sons of 
Israel with chariots and horsemen in long procession, and make a bitter lamenta- 
tion over Jacob in the threshing floor of Atad. The inhabitants witnessed it, 
and called the place Abel-mizraim — the mourning of the Egyptians. Thus wit- 
nesses multiply to the hope of Israel. Jacob is buried like a prince by his 
beloved son Joseph, two hundred and thirty-two years after the call of Abraham, 
and two hundred years before the time of the sojourning and bondage of his 
children expired. This hope was not concealed till the promises were realized, 
but was openly acted out, and witnessed by Canaanites and Egyptians. Such a 
mourning could not be forgotten soon, as the place bore the appellation, and the 
public procession out of Egypt must be long remembered there. 

12. Knowledge of God in Egypt. — To what extent idolatry in Egypt had 
progressed we cannot tell, but perhaps while they worshiped many gods, they 
acknowledged one Supreme Being. Now Joseph always acknowledged Jehovah 
in all his actions, and his master perceived that the Lord was with Joseph, and 
had blessed him on Joseph's account. Joseph attributed the dreams and inter- 
pretation to God, who he represents to be the author of them, and sent the 
plenty and the famine. Hence the Egyptians could not but acknowledge the 
supremacy of the God of Israel. When Jacob came down into Egypt and was 
settled in Goshen, a memorial of the famine and provision made against it by 
Joseph, was fixed, and the evidence could not be denied nor forgotten. And 
Joseph's position must have spread the account through all the tribes and 
nations knowing anything about Egypt. 

13. A Demonstration Against the Red Dragon. — Thus the Kingdom of 
God made a demonstration upon the dominion of the red dragon, and no doubt 
confirmed many about to apostatize, and recovered some who had apostatized 
from the fear and worship of the True God. And now the war begins in earn- 
est. Jehovah was pledged by covenant and oath to keep Israel from idolatry 
and Polytheism, and through them to reconquer the whole world and reform it. 
Before we enter upon this decisive battle, let us take a look into the outside 
world. 

14. Religion of the Nations. — What was the condition of the remote 
north and east descendants of Shem and Japheth in regard to Polytheism, we 
cannot tell. The Rig-Yeda of the Hindoos, and the Shoo-King of the Chinese 
show they at first believed in one God, the sinfulness of man, the necessity of 
prayer, confessions, and sacrifice^; but how long they retained it we know not. 
Those contiguous with the Hamites, and mingled with them from the Euphrates 
to Egypt, were more or less given to the doctrine of many gods. In Egypt we 
find an organized priesthood, composed of scientific men and magicians, or men 
of arts who contended with Hoses'". To what extent, and how long the seed of 
Abraham, through Ishmael, the Keturhites, and the children of Esau dwelling 

(6j Harper's Mag., April, 1872, p. 778; Encp. R. K, Hindooism. (7) Thlh. Anct. Hist., pp. 
61-66. 



68 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

between Egjpt and the Euphrates, resisted the encroachments of the Old Ser- 
pent's idolatry, we cannot tell. But we find a man in Uz, with four pious and 
intelligent friends, who acknowledged Jehovah, and advanced the cause of truth 
and virtue. 

15. Joseph's Faith and Death. — Joseph fills the conspicuous position 
assigned to him in the Providence of God, with honor and piety for eighty 
years. He acknowledges the God of his fathers on all occasions, and kept the 
promises continually before him. He pardoned his penitent brethren, acknowl- 
edging their deed to be the hand of God to accomplish a great object; and nour- 
ished them and their families in Egypt, as the servants of the God of his father. 
When he came to close his journey of life he assures his kindred, the ofiPspring 
of Israel, of the certain fulfillment of covenants made with Abraham, and obli- 
gates them to transfer his bones to the promised land. He lived one hundred 
and ten years, and dies about one hundred years before the mission of Moses ^, 
of which time we have no particular history of Israel. 

16. State or the Peomises. — When Jacob came into Egypt his family 
numbered but seventy^ individuals, and about one hundred and ninety years out 
of the four hundred of pilgrimage and bondage had passed away, and Israel was 
not yet a great nation as promised to Abraham. But it was promised to Jacob 
that his seed should multiply there into a great nation. Joseph survived his 
father fifty-four years, and left about one hundred and forty years of sojourning 
yet to be completed. During this period Joseph's embalmed corpse, deposited 
in a niche in the catacombs of Egypt, reminded Israel of the promises, their 
deliverance, and future home : for they were bound by an oath to carry this 
corpse of hope into the land of promise. Thus the programme of the greatest 
drama ever enacted in the world was kept constantly before them. And down 
to the present day, the whole scene has been programmed, and acted out accord- 
ing to those programmes. While some promises have been realized, others are 
in the dim future. 



(8) Chap. 7, § 9. (9) Gen., 46:26, 27. 



Period Second. A. M. 2430-2513. 

The Red Dragon in his First Head., or Egyptian Headship., assails the 
Kingdom of God and is Defeated.— Chap. 17-22. 

CHAPTER XYII. 



THE ENSLAYEMENT OF ISRAEL. A. M. 2430, or B. C. 1574. 

Exodus, 1. 

1. Change in the Throne of Egypt. — As the time of the promises drew 
on, the people of Israel increased rapidly, and filled the land of Goshen which 
had been assigned to them. But now the Old Serpent bestirs himself to defeat 
the council of Jehovah, and destroy this institution of the Kingdom of God. 
A new power arose in Egypt, by invasion and conquest, hostile to the former 
Pharaohs of the Memphite dynasty and all their friends, which acknowledged 
no debt of gratitude to Joseph's descendants nor kindred. The Satan that 
brought the Chaldeans and Sabeans to plunder Job, caused the throne to pass 
into the Theban dynasty, which would be hostile to the former house, and all its 
friends^. Jehovah permitted this so far as to make His name known to the 
nations, and prove to Israel that the God of Abraham was the True God, above 
all the gods and powers of Egypt, and held all creation at His disposal. 

2. The Subjugation of Israel. — The first object was to enslave Israel, and 
so prevent their increase, and subdue their free and independent spirit. The 
next was to destroy all the male children as soon as born. But the more they 
were oppressed the more they increased, and the midwives evaded the order to 
murder the infants. Then all the friends of the government were ordered to 
drown every son they found. Thus the Old Serpent had the extinction of Jeho- 
vah's witnesses perfectly arranged, while the power and priesthood of Egypt 
were perfected for the perpetuation of Polytheism, and the rejection of Jehovah. 
The whole cause of Jehovah and His people appears to be in the hands of Pha- 
raoh and his friends. 

3. The priesthood of Polytheism is the bone, muscle, and nerve of the 
red dragon. The power of the priesthood has always been very great in all 
nations, and in every age; they have always been jealous of their influence and 
interest, and zealous to inculcate their superstitions, and prevent any reforma- 
tion. They formed the body of the dragon, while the princes made the heads. 
While they pretend to great knowledge and superior wisdom, they keep the mass 
of the people in ignorance, and inculcate superstition and beastly immorality. 
Christianity experienced their influence in civil government, and hostility to true 
religion under pagan Rome, and truth has felt their flendish malice in the cor- 
rupted Christian churches. The priesthood of Egypt formed the second and 
ruling power, and rendered the government more of an ecclesiastical than a civil 
character. If the king was not of their number when elected, he was soon initi- 
ated, and his interest identified with theirs. They were men of arts and sciences, 
and in the days of Moses were the most learned of that day 2. Here both wis- 
dom and power were combined to support Polytheism, and to reduce Israel to 
perpetual bondage, and extinguish the knowledge of Jehovah. 



(1) Anct. Hist., YoL I., p. 99; Cmp. Comnt. Ex , 9:8; Town., note 19, p. 150. (2) Rol., Vol, 
I., p. 141; Anct. Hist , Vol. I., pp. 61, 66, 67. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



BIRTH AND MISSION OF MOSES. A. M. 2433-2513. Exodus, 2-4. 

1. Moses Born. — At this critical time Moses, our historian, was born of 
parents who contided in the promises to Abraham. The promise of deliverance 
was onl}^ about eighty years in the future, and if this Egyptian policy succeed 
these promises must fail, which is impossible ; so they undertake to preserve 
their young son 3. They hide him three months, and then make him a little 
waterproof house, or box, of rushes, and placed it in the flags where Pharaoh's 
daughter was accustomed to bathe, while his sister Miriam watched the result 
from a distance. The princess found and adopted him for her son. Through 
Miriam's strategy his own mother became his nurse, without the fact being dis- 
covered. Here the means instigated by faith were adapted to the end, and by 
Divine Providence, proved successful. 

2. Zeal for His Brethren. — From his parents he obtained the knowledge 
of his ancestry and their high destiny, and he never lost sight of the glorious 
prize, though afterwards scienced in all the learning of Egypt. Heir by adoption 
to the highest honors and wealth of Egypt, he preferred the heritage of Abraham 
though necessitated to endure affliction with his brethren. Learned in all the 
wisdom of Egypt, full of love for his people — Israel — and zeal for Jehovah, he 
must yet be trained in the school of adversity, and personally taught by Jehovah 
himself. Confident in his own abilities, he undertook to rescue his brethren 
from injustice, and prepare them for selfgovernment; but defeated by their 
obstinacy, he fled to Midian where he remained for forty years, became a shep- 
herd, and appears to have abandoned his cherished desire and glowing hope. 

3. Called of God. — After all self-confldence is destroyed, and while quietly 
leading his flocks around Mt. Horeb, a strange sight catches his eye: a copse, or 
bush, is all aflame but never consumed. He turns to philosophize on the phe- 
nomenon, when he gets his first interview with the God of his fathers. He is 
filled with awe and trembling, but obeys the voice out of the burning bush 
which claims to be the voice of his fathers' God. He receives a commission to 
save Israel ; but knowing the learning of the Egyptian court, and conscious of 
how much he had lost during forty years' absence, he shrank from the task, 
though it had been the great object of his life. He had not yet learned to con- 
fide in the Almighty, and to undertake every work in His name. The Lord 
having promised him Aaron for a speaker in the court of Pharaoh, he consents 
with apparent reluctance. How should a weather-beaten, exile shepherd speak 
in the learned court of Egypt! 

4. Returns to Egypt. — He returns. But through despondency, neglect, or 
the opposition of wife and her relations, his two sons were not circumcised, as 
enjoined in the covenant to Abraham, while he undertook to secure to Israel the 
things promised in that covenant. Thus, while about to restore the knowledge of 
the true God, and put Israel in possession of their inheritance, he was about to 
set an example of discretionarj^ obedience to divine commands, instead of prompt 
and implicit compliance. The Lord met him at his lodging on the way, and 



(3) Heb., 11:23-27. 



CHAPTER XVlII. : SECTIONS v.- Vlll. 71 

made a demonstration to kill him, when his wife circumcised the two boys and 
reproached him with the bloody covenant. Then the Lord restored him, and 
sent him on his mission. 

5. Evidence to Him. — Kot only had the Lord appeared in a miraculous 
manner to Moses, but also gave two miraculous signs, wrought by his own hands, 
that he might be fully satisfied that he was not laboring under any delusions of 
mind, but everything about the affair was a reality. The Lord never required 
belief in any manifestation of himself, or His will, without unmistakable evi- 
dence adapted to the intelligence of the individual. He also gave Moses a pre- 
diction, soon to be fulfilled, for establishing his faith after the deliverance out of 
Egypt: they should serve God on that mountain, although not at all on the road 
from Egypt to Canaan. 

6. The E^ame of Israel's God. — A difficulty occurred to Moses about a 
name for the God of Israel. In Egypt were many gods of different names. 
Was any of these The Almighty God of Abraham? In writing the history of 
the past ages Moses has used the name ''Jehovah," and has put it in the mouth 
of different individuals; but they must have designated the Deity by some other 
term, for by that name was he not known to Abraham, however it might be with 
others, and with those before his day. Moses asked for a proper name to desig- 
ignate Him to Israel, and distinguish him from the false gods of the nations. 
And he received the designating phrase: ''Ahyh ashr ahyh." Changing the "A" 
into " Y," and the "ashr" into ''vau," or ''Y," we have: '' Yehe-vau-yehe" — 
''I exist, and exist"; which compounded make -the word: " Yehovah — or angli- 
cized, "Jehovah." "Thus shalt thou say to the children of Isael: 'The Jeho- 
vah, God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God 
of Jacob hath sent me unto you. This is my name forever, and my memorial 
to all generations.' " Under this name must all the battles of the Lord be 
fought, and in it must all victories be achieved. 

7. If the Hebrew was the language of the Patriarchs till the confounding of 
speech at Babel, I suppose the Deity was designated by the term Yehovah; or 
before Polytheism existed, the term God, Ellohim, was sufficient. But when 
Terah's family mingled with Polytheists, and Abraham was called out of Chal- 
dea, Abraham did not know that the God that called him was the Yehovah, or 
only God of the former Patriarchs. But now Moses and Israel are taught that 
the God of their fathers is The Jehovah of' all time, of all places, persons, and 
things, and the only Deity. 

8. Moses Meets Aaron. — Moses returning meets Aaron, his older brother, 
in the wilderness, for the Lord had directed Aaron to meet him there. And 
Moses told Aaron all the Lord had taught him. Here some Harmonists place 
the date of the Eighty-eighth Psalm, which is very apposite to the condition and 
feelings of the pious Israelite waiting for the salvation of his people, but crushed 
down under oppression, and finding neither friend nor helper among the families 
of Abraham, nor in the nations of the earth. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



PRESENT WORTH OF JACOB'S BLESSING. 

1. Estimate of Esau. — Infidelity has always laughed at the promises, and 
derided the hope of believers, and here was a fine opportunity for them to 
indulge in their malignant wit. No doubt the rejected families of Hagar, 
Keturah, and Esau furnished many such profane persons who, trading in Egypt, 
would have ample opportunity to witness the slavery of Israel. Wonder how 
much uncle Jacob would take for his birthright? I think father Esau made a 
good exchange that time ; it is not worth a mess of beans. I am glad it did not 
descend to us. I would rather live by my sword and bow, and serve uncle 
Jacob. How gloriously we deserve him! sitting on our own mules, laughing at 
cousins working up that mortar, making bricks, and building cities for these 
shaved faces! I wonder if uncle Jacob thanks grandmother Rebekah for that 
stolen blessing? She had better made mittens for the brick-worn hands of some 
of our cousins. Well, I do not want anything to do with either birthright or 
blessing. I do not believe in either ! It is all nonsense. 

2. Ishmael's Estimate. — "Well, Ishmael, what do you think about being 
cast out of the inheritance?" '*It did seem a little hard at first, but now I 
would not exchange destinies with the child of the promise." "That brick-making 
would not suit your wild, roving disposition?" "No; I would kill those task- 
masters." "You would not stand that flogging?" "No; I would collect my 
half-brother, the sons of stepmother Keturah, and thrash the Egyptians." 
"But how do you like the idea of being cast out? " " Oh, we children of Hagar 
and Keturah got plenty of gifts and a very good blessing, and we made a very 
good speculation on Joseph." "Yes, it was you that made uncle Jacob go down 
into Egypt, and now we think yon ought to help him out." "Let the God 
Amighty look after them; and if he does not, let them bring a suit for damages. 
He was very particular about His covenants with Abraham, and had mother 
Hagar cast out. We have nothing to do with the covenants." " Hush! Here 
comes old Eliphaz, the Tinanite, one of Job's friends." 

3. The Pious Yiew. — "Well, father Eliphaz, we have been discussing the 
condition of our cousins, and think uncle Jacob did us a good turn when he pur- 
chased father Esau's birthright, and stole his blessing." "Well, he did not do 
us any harm, for they belonged to him by divine right, and ought to have been 
given him without any trouble. Father Esau got a good inheritance, and it 
remains for us to improve it, and retain the true worship of the True God, and 
be at peace with Israel." "Well, I think we will not quarrel with him about 
his high destiny in a brickyard." "That slavery is part of the programme, 
and will end in a short time, and they will come out with great riches, and pos- 
sess the land of Canaan, and our tribes and all nations will be blessed in them. 
But if we be enemies and curse them, the God Almighty of Abraham and 
Isaac will curse and destroy us, and all nations that do the same."* "Yes, 
father Eliphaz, live in hope if you should die in despair. Four hundred years is 
a long hope; and when did it begin? When Isaac was mocked by Ishmael? 
Well, we will see: they will come our way, I suppose?" " Yes, we will see; 
for the God of Israel is the Almighty God of Abraham and Isaac, and will keep 
His word, and let all the seed of Abraham walk before Him and be perfect, 
and all will be well whether in the covenant or out of it." 



(4) Gen., 12:2,3. 



CHAPTER XX. 



FIRST MESSAGES TO ISRAEL AND PHARAOH. A. M. 2513, 

Exodus, 4-6. 

1. Message to Israel. — And Moses and Aaron gathered all the chiefs, 
elders, and old men of Israel, and told them all the Lord had spoken to Moses. 
That He would show great signs and wonders, and compel Pharaoh to drive 
them out, willing or unwilling; and thej should obtain great riches before they 
departed, and should possess the land promised. The truth of this message was 
attested in the full sight of all the people, by the miracles God had appointed. 
The news being desirable, were believed without hesitation ; and learning that 
they were commiserated, and their deliverance undertaken, they bowed their 
heads and worshiped Jehovah, the God of their fathers. 

2. To Pharaoh. — After this Moses and Aaron went unto Pharaoh and his 
cabinet, and spoke: "Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: 'Let my people 
go that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.' " Here is the demand of 
the God of Israel upon Pharaoh, vicar-general of the red dragon, presented by 
two defenceless men in the midst of the most intelligent, powerful, and Polythe- 
istic cabinet on the known earth ^. Pharaoh's answer is prompt, positive, and 
determined: '' Who is Jehovah, that I should obey his voice, and let Israel go? 
I know not Jehovah, neither will I let Israel go." They tell him it is the God 
of the Hebrews, and they fear He will destroy them by the sword or pestilence, 
which would be a loss of their service to Egypt. But Pharaoh disregards Jeho- 
vah and His sword and pestilence, so he orders them all to their burdens, and 
made their slavery most galling. Thus the battle is begun. 

3. The Disappointment. — The joy of the Israelites was turned into heavy 
groanings, and they wished the curse of that Jehovah, who Moses said had sent 
him for a deliverer, upon the heads of him and Aaron. Moses was disap- 
pointed, discouraged, and vexed, being as ignorant of the work to be done, and 
the manner of doing it, as Pharaoh himself. He complains: ''Why hast Thou 
sent me to make matters worse? Thou hast not delivered at all!" Moses' 
great learning was of but little ui^e here : he must be taught of God. The Lord 
informs him that he should see Pharaoh drive them out by force, and glad to get 
rid of them. 

4. Difficulty to Convince Either Israel or Pharaoh. — The Lord 
rehearses His former covenants and promises to their fathers, assuring them that 
he commiserated them, and would deliver them with great power and severe 
judgments, and make them His peculiar people, and fulfill all His engagements, 
adding: "I am The Jehovah." Moses reported all this to the Israelites, but 
they were so disheartened, chagrined, and mad they would not listen to him. 
And now it will be as hard to persuade Israel to follow Moses out of Egypt, as 
to get Pharaoh to let them go. But all this was necessary to make their deliver- 
ance manifestly the work of Jehovah — to confirm them in the belief of his exist- 
ence, and interposition for them as His people, and His government of them. 
Thus Egypt and Israel are as stubbornly prepared to test the truth of Moses' 
mission as any infidel could wish. The Lord informs Moses that He will harden 
Pharaoh's heart to hold on to Israel, till He multiplies the evidence of His exist- 
ence, power, government, and relations to man; and the Egyptians shall know 
that "the God of Israel is the Jehovah of all times, places, persons, and things." 

(5) Rol., Vol. I., pp. 142-145. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



THE CONTEST. A. M. 2513. Exodus, 7-14. 

1. Ex., 7:11-13. First Miracle. — Moses renews his demand, and confirms 
his mission by a miracle. Pharaoh calls on the priesthood of Polytheism to 
checkmate Moses, the prophet of Jehovah, the only true God. These priests 
were men of science and accustomed to magical arts and cunning tricks, so they 
cast down wands of charmed or mesmerized serpents, and they became alive. ^ 
Though Aaron's rod devoured all their serpents, and again became a rod in his 
hand that all could examine, yet Pharaoh did not believe it anything more than 
superior magic. 

2. Had Moses confounded them at first, they would have abandoned the 
contest; but led on by the hope of counterfeiting his miracles, these masters of 
science, and priests of many gods, were brought out so conspicuously into the 
conflict, they could not retreat without disgracing their system of false religion. 

3. Ex., 7:14-25. Second Miracle ajstd First Plague. — The first demon- 
stration upon the gods of Egypt was against the Nile, their sacred river and first 
of their gods, and rival of Heaven : honored with feasts, sacrifices, and rites of 
worship, ^ which, in defiance to all their water and river gods, was turned into 
blood by the stroke of Aaron's rod. Moses renews his demand in the name of 
Jehovah, God of the Hebrews, promising to teach Pharaoh the knowledge of 
Jehovah by turning their waters into blood by the stroke of his rod. Pharaoh 
refuses to let them go; and in his sight, and in the presence of his servants, and 
the priests, Aaron smote the river, with its canals, ponds, and reservoirs, and 
they became blood: and the fish, which some worshiped and others used for 
meat, died, and their waters stunk. Loathsome gods ! The priests and people 
were alike polluted, and their rites of purification were rendered impossible for 
seven days. But by digging they got water; and the magicians counterfeited, to 
some extent, this miracle also : and Pharaoh saw nothing divine about it. 

4. Ex., 8:1-15. Third Miracle and Second Plague. — The second demon- 
stration was on the frog deity of Egypt, which was sacred to the sun, and 
regarded as an emblem of preservation in the inundations of the Nile. ^ Moses 
renewed his demand in the name of Jehovah, and threatened Egypt with more 
frog gods than they could take care of. All the people, and even the servants, 
should be compelled to see, feel, and ask. What does all this mean? For they 
should be in their beds, dough-troughs, ovens, on their tables, and every place : 
so they can worship them in every place, and at any time. Pharaoh refused ; 
the frogs came, and the magicians counterfeited this miracle, also, in their own 
way. But all the military power of Pharaoh, the wisdom of the priests, the 
tricks of the magicians, and power of their gods could not drive them away. 
So Pharaoh tried hypocrisy. He calls Moses and Aaron, and asks them to 
entreat the Jehovah for him, promising to let the people go, and sacrifice. 
Moses asks him to specify a time, and he sets the morrow. Though the time 
was short, the work was done when Moses prayed to Jehovah. The frogs died, 
and were gathered into heaps, and the land stunk with dead gods. But when 
the plague was removed, Pharaoh refused to fulfill his promise. 



(6) Anct. Hist., Vol I., p. 105. (7) Anct. Hist., Vol. I., pp. 19, 106, 107. (8) lb., p. 107j 
Town., note 7; Ex., 8:1-15. 



CMApTer :^j5:i. t sections v. -vit. t5 

5. Ex., 8:16-19. Fourth Miracle and Third Plague. —Hitherto Janiiis 
and Jambers had withstood Moses by counterfeiting his miracles, and no doubt 
all persons had become interested in the contest, for all suffered by the plagues, 
and the Israelites desired the deliverance demanded by Moses in the name of 
Jehovah. The contest was in the land of riches and traffic, where nations could 
witness or hear the result; and, having become conspicuous, it was now time the 
head magicians should be defeated, and compelled to acknowledge the genuine- 
ness of Moses' miracles. Now the Egyptian Polytheism assiduously inculcated 
physical purity, though it induced immoral pollution, and guarded against any 
approaches to their temples with animalcula on the votaries ; so the next demon- 
stration was against the most sacred temples, worship, and physical purity of 
their gods, priests, and altars^. To attempt a counterfeit of this miracle would 
be to insult their gods, profane their temples, and pollute themselves with their 
own hands, in the eyes of the people. 

6. The third plague appears to have been inflicted without giving Pharaoh 
an opportunity to avoid the punishment ; for y^erhaps he had forfeited the word 
of a king. Aaron, at Jehovah's command, smote the dust with his rod: all the 
dust became lice in man and beast. The magicians attempted, or pretended to 
attempt, to counterfeit this miracle ; but it was so contrary to their professed 
religion, that they had never studied up anything of the kind, and so had no 
provisions made for the occasion. They were defeated, and were compelled to 
acknowledge this to be above human power, and to be the finger of a god, or 
God the Supreme. This was not an acknowledgment of the God of Israel, but 
simply that Moses was aided by one of the many gods. Thus they were whipped 
at their own game, but neither they nor Pharaoh were converted. They did not 
acknowledge Jehovah to be the only True God, and Supreme Creator and 
Governor. 

7. Ex., 8:20-32. Fifth Miracle and Fourth Plague. — This plague is of 
doubtful interpretation : for the word, Arab-swarms, denotes a mixture. Some 
have concluded it to mean swarms of beasts of prey; but this does not suit the 
context, nor other portions of the Scripture referring to it. They did not devour, 
but annoy. It is more probable that every kind of annoying insect is intended : 
amontr these were the gad-fly, or hornet, and the Egyptian beetle, both of which 
occupied a place among their sacred creatures i. Moses is directed to demand in 
Jehovah's name, the privilege for Israel to go and serve the Lord, with the 
threatening, upon refusal, of swarms that they dare not resist without sacrilege. 
But the land of Goshen, where Israel dwelt, should be exempt from these vener- 
ated gods; and thus show that they were compelled to locate where Jehovah 
said ; and His people they should not touch. Perhaps Israel now believed again 
in Moses, and so should not be tormented by these Egyptian gods. The 
time set was the next day. Pharaoh refused : the swarms came, and the 
land was ruined by them. The king, priests, and people were visited by their 
gods. Voracious gods, or sacred to a god ; and could not be killed, although 
tormenting, without incurring the wrath of that god. Pharaoh can not stand it. 
He calls for Moses and Aaron and gives them permission to sacrifice to their 
God. To this Moses objected, because they must sacrifice to Jehovah animals 
the Egyptians worshiped, which would provoke their fury, but proposed going 
three days' journey into the wilderness. Pharaoh agreed to let them go, but not 
far; but they must entreat for him. Moses promised to do it on the morrow, but 
warned Pharaoh against the deception he practiced in regard to the frogs. The 
Lord removed the swarms, and though Pharaoh saw everything done as Moses 
promised, he hardened his heart and broke his word. Different people also 
worshiped deities who were believed to defend from flies: as Baalzebub, of 



(9) Anct. Hist., Vol. I., p. 108; Town., note, 8; Ex. 16-19. (1) Anct. Hist., Vol. I., p. 108: 
Town., note, 9j Ex., 8-20. 



76 



THE KINGDOM OF GOB DEVELOPED. 



Ekron, Hercules at Rome, and Jupiter at Elis, who had titles, as flj-expellers^. 
But none of the gods of -Egypt could deliver them. So Pharaoh had to entreat 
Moses to entreat Jehovah, the God of Israel ; and then the swarms were totally 
expelled. But Pharaoh was not converted. 

8. Ex., 9:1-7. Sixth Miracle, ok Fifth Plague. — The Black Bull was a 
chief object of worship ; and the ram, the heifer, and the he-goat were objects 
of sacred adoration, either on account of their usefulness or because sacred to 
some imaginary god: so the fifth demonstration was on these sacred objects 3. 
Moses made his demand in the name of the God of the Hebrews, and threatened 
judgment on the stock of Egypt tomorrow ; but excepted the stock of Israel. 
Thus a distinction was made which showed that intelligence guided the disease. 
This would tend to enrich the Israelites and impoverish the Egyptians. The 
grievous murrain destroyed all kinds of stock, so that no stock god, nor stock 
sacred to a god, escaped the scourge of the God of Israel, whose name is 
Jehovah. Pharaoh sent to Goshen and found all the stock of Israel safe, as 
Moses promised ; though they were not regarded by Israel as gods, nor yet 
sacred to any god. But Pharaoh thought he could stand the loss, and so stub- 
bornly refused to yield to the God of Israel. 

9. Ex., 9:8-12. Seventh Miracle, or Sixth Plague. — The Egyptians 
offered persons in sacrifice to their gods, and the priests were accustomed to 
scatter the ashes to obtain a blessing from them. Heliodorus says : They paid 
divine honors to the Nile and revered it as the first of their gods, and declared 
him to be the rival of Heaven, since he watered the country without the aid of 
clouds or rain. The principal festival of this imaginary god was at the soltice, 
when the inundations of the Nile commenced ; then they sacrificed red-haired 
persons, who were principally foreigners, to Typhon, at Busiris, Helispoles, and 
other places, the power said, to preside over tempests, by burning them alive 
and scattering their ashes in the air for the good of the people. These victims 
may have been selected from the Israelites^. The sixth demonstration brought 
a curse by the ashes. By Divine command, Moses took handfuls of ashes from 
the furnace, perhaps the very same the Egyptians used to secure a blessing, and 
sprinkled them toward Heaven in the sight of Pharaoh, and they produced 
grievous boils on man and beast. Thus they were tormented by their own sacred 
rites in defiance to their gods ; and their priests and magicians could not stand 
before Moses, on account of the boils, to scrutinize his miracles. They could 
tell the people that the ashes they sprinkled brought blessings, but the ashes that 
Moses sprinkled spoke for themselves, and the priests felt them, too. 

• 10. Ex., 9:13-35. Eighth Miracle, or Seventh Plague. — Bain, fire, and 
thunder seldom or never disturbed the climate of Egypt at any period of the 
year, and less might they be expected at that season when the barley was in 
head, and the flax in boUe^. Here they might worship J sis, who presided over 
water, and Osiris, the lord of fire, for their uniform and peaceful climate, without 
ever having their faith tested by a storm, or their hopes disappointed. But 
Jehovah would teach Israel at the expense of Egypt and unbelievers among 
themselves, that neither Isis nor Osiris, could deliver their devotees out of His 
hands. Moses renewed his demands upon Pharaoh, threatening all Jehovah's 
plagues upon him and his people and servants, that they might know there was 
none in all the earth like the God of Israel. Moses also told him Jehovah pre- 
served and exalted him for the very purpose of resisting His demands, and thus 
to furnish an opportunity to display Jehovah's powev, and so cause His name and 
power to be conspicuously declared throughout all the earth. The plague now 
threatened was hail, which would prove more or less destructive, according to 



(2) Comp. Comnt., Ex., 8:30; Bryant. (8) Town., note, 10, Ex., 9:1-8; Cmp. Cmnt., note, 
Ex., 8:25. (4) Anct. Hist, Vol. I., pp 19 and 109; Town., note, 11, Ex.. 9:8-12; Cmp. Cmnt., 
note, Ex., 9:10; Bryant. (5) Anct. Hist., Vol. I., p. Ill; Town., note, 12; Ex., 9:13-35; Cmp. 
Comnt., note; Ex. 9-18. 



CHAPTER XXI. : SECTIONS XI. -XIV. 77 

their belief or stubbornness; and so Moses warned them to shelter everything 
they did not want destroyed. Here we discover some converts in Egypt: those 
who believed Moses and Jehovah the God of Israel, sheltered their servants and 
stock, but the unbelievers did not. Moses stretched forth his rod toward Heaven 
as commanded, and the Jehovah sent thunder, hail, and fire, which did the work 
throughout all Egypt, except Goshen, where Israel dwelt. Pharaoh is terrified 
and sends for Moses and Aaron, and confesses himself and people wicked and 
Jehovah righteous, and asks them to entreat the Jehovah for him; confesses he 
had proof enough, and promises unconditionally to let Israel go immediately. 
Moses told him he would spread out his hands as soon as he was out of the city, 
and the storm should then cease immediately and entirely; that he might have 
the most satisfactory proof that the whole earth, Egypt not excepted, belonged 
to Jehovah, as everything instantly obeyed His word. But Moses also told him 
that he and his people would not yet fear the Jehovah God. Moses entreated ; 
the storm ceased ; and Pharaoh hardened his heart. 

11. Ex., 10:1-20. ]NiNTH Miracle, or Eighth Plague. — The Lord tells 
Moses to go again to Pharaoh; but he was stubbornly hardened, and so were his 
servants, and they would still resist. The design of these plagues was to teach 
Israel that their God was ''The Jehovah," and that they should teach these 
proofs of His existence and government to their remotest generations. The 
deliverance of Israel was an easy matter ; but their instruction was the important 
object, and would cost these masters of science and of Egypt all they were 
worth. So Moses goes to Pharaoh and makes his usual demand, threat- 
ening him with locusts, — more than he or any of his ancestors had ever seen, and 
most destructive, — and then he turned and went out. Through the importunity 
of his servants, or officers, to let Israel go, who also asserted that Egypt was 
already destroyed, Moses and Aaron were brought back. Pharoah now off'ered 
to let the men go and sacrifice, but would not allow them to take their families 
and property. With this Moses refused to comply, and was driven out from the 
presence of Pharaoh. 

12. Now the Egyptians worshiped Isis and Serapis, the conservators of 
plenty, and the deities that controlled all destructive insects and animals, tlie 
winds, and the Red sea, which formed an inseparable barrier to the locusts of 
the Arabian desert^. But Moses, as commanded, stretched out his hand with 
the rod over Egypt, and the Jehovah sent an east wind all that day and night, 
which brought the Arabian locusts across the Red sea, and they devoured 
Egypt. Pharaoh is frightened, calls Moses and Aaron in haste, confesses his 
sin against them and their God, Jehovah, asks to be forgiven this once only, 
and to be entreated for with Jehovah, their God, and this death by starvation 
averted — this once only. Moses went out and entreated the Jehovah, who sends 
a west wind and sweeps them clean into the Red sea, and thus hardened Pha- 
raoh's heart again. 

13. Ex., 10:21-27. Tenth Miracle, or Ninth Plague. — Without warning 
Pharaoh any more, or giving him any opportunity to avoid the judgment, Moses 
is ordered to stretch forth his hand toward heaven, and to smite the land of 
Egypt with darkness that might be felt. Pharaoh had already acknowledged the 
superiority of the God of Israel, and had to confess his sin, and ask forgiveness 
of Him, and it was not necessary that he and his priesthood should confess 
before the people that He was the Supreme God. That point was conceded. 
But must He be obeyed ? Or may kings and nations trifle with Him as with 
their false gods ? 

14. Now the sun, moon, and stars were the sublime st objects of worship 
among the nations, and are mentioned in the dialogue of Job and his friends i. 
In the undisturbed climate of Egypt they might be worshiped as deities whose 

(6) Town., note 13; Ex., 10:1-20. (1) Job, 31:26-28. 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

favors could be calculated upon with absolute certainty, and their benign influ- 
ence was above the control of anything known to them^. Hence the controlling 
of these was a display of supreme power. So Jehovah shut out their light from 
the Egyptians, that they saw not one another nor arose from their places, in 
ordinary cases, for three days. Thus, while enveloped in a cold, damp, dark 
fog, they had sufficient time to experience the horrors of a guilty conscience, 
intensified by superstitious dread, while the Israelites had light in their dwell- 
ings. Thus, while the people of Jehovah had these luminaries for servants, 
those who worshiped them as supreme deities were immersed in darkness. 

15. Pharaoh called to Moses : " Go serve the Jehovah: only let your flocks 
and herds remain, but take your little ones." Moses, however, will not com- 
promise, but contest it to the bitter end. The object was not deliverance, but 
the establishment of a great fundamental truth : Is there a true God, and is 
Jehovah, the God of Israel, that deity? That the Egyptians and neighboring 
nations were Polytheists is certain, but Pharaoh and the priests may have been 
Atheists. At first Pharaoh affirms he did not know Jehovah, neither would he 
obey Him, nor let Israel go to worship Him in the wilderness ; after he had suf- 
fered, he consented to their worshiping Him if they returned to slavery ; after 
more sufl'ering, they might all go if they left their property to him. He was 
now poor, and needed their flocks and herds. He shows more covetousness and 
Atheism than superstition, and when his Atheism staggers his avarice restores it. 

16. Multitudes would believe in Jehovah did not their guilt prevent. The 
Jews would have believed- in Jesus of Nazareth, had He not required moral 
purity. While the judgments press heavily, Pharaoh's rational powers prevail, 
and he submits to Jehovah ; but when relieved his innate disposition prevails, 
his covetousness controls, and he rejects evidence. The root of human derange- 
ment, or the bondage of corruption, is in man's innate disposition, or the 
immoral tendencies of his sensibilities. How often, under favorable circum- 
stances and wholesome influences of society, do individuals manifest piety and 
reformation ; but when these are removed they fall back into former lusts, and 
plunge into deeper vices. Atheists and infidels have prayed while danger 
impended, but when that was passed they ridiculed their own weakness, as they 
were pleased to call it. And in their cases it was not magnanimity nor piety. 

17. What influence these wonders had upon Israel, we may judge from the 
effect produced. When Pharaoh increased their slavery, Moses attempted to 
comfort them by the assurance of great deliverance ; but then they would not 
listen to him : but now when Moses assures them of their speedy and sudden 
departure, they prepare for the exodus. No fear of being disappointed and ridi- 
culed prevented them from preparing. They selected the lamb, prepared the 
Passover, sprinkled the blood about their doors to save iheir first-born from the 
destroying angel, prepared for a sudden expulsion, dressed and ate the Passover, 
then first instituted, and made ready for the journey. No apprehensions that 
all was in vain. And through fear, friendship, or policy, their Egyptian masters 
gave them whatever they asked ; so, as directed by Jehovah, they got some 
small compensation for their cruel bondage. The governing part of Egypt 
looked upon the Israelites as peculiarly favored by their God as no other people 
had ever been ; and Moses had become famous in all the land of Egypt as 
superior to all kings, priests, and magicians, and Pharaoh and his officers could 
not but acknowledge his power. 



(2) Town , note 15j Ex., 10:21; Anct. Hist., Vol. I., p. 112; Cmp. Cmnt., note; Ex., 10:21. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



THE YICTOEY, MEMORIAL, AND DELIVERANCE. A. M. 2513. 

Exodus, 10:28, 29; 15:1-21. Numbers, 33:6-8. 

1. Eleventh Miracle, or Tenth Plague. — In the first governments in the 
world, the highest honors and offices were reckoned to the first-born, who 
became the patriarch, priest, or king, and therefore, next to God, was the great 
object of interest and homage, and reckoned sacred to the gods — and such he 
was to the true God. So a blow upon the first-born was a judgment inflicted at 
once upon them and their gods. Jehovah hardens Pharaoh's heart till he 
inflicts this double blow in the sight of all Israel ; and if any of them resisted 
the evidence already given they might try it again, and neglect the Passover and 
sprinkling of blood, as their safety depended upon these. But most or all of 
them believed now that the Jehovah was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
and that he was greater than all the gods of Egypt, and had sent Moses to 
deliver them, and that he would do it. 

2. The Time Comes. — Moses announces to Pharaoh and his court this a\i'ful 
judgment, — the exemption of Israel from it, — and that then he would lead Israel 
out of Egypt triumphantly. Pharaoh ordered Moses out of his presence, threat- 
ening him with death if he ever saw him again. Moses replied : ''That is well 
said ; I will look into thy face no more." 

3. Moses called the elders of Israel and told them to prepare, as already 
instructed, for the Passover and the Exodus. They obeyed. While eating the 
Passover lamb, all packed and ready for departure, all Egypt arose in one wild 
cry of panic and furious grief, imploring Israel to depart. The Jehovah, at mid- 
night, had smitten with death all the first-born of Egypt, from the heir on the 
throne to the first-born of the prisoner in the dungeon, and of all cattle. No 
blinded chance, nor unintelligent messenger of death mistaking a younger for the 
elder ; just the first-born, as Moses said ! No more ! No less ! No other ! 
The brother or sister at their side was perfectly safe ! No awkward blow, no 
glancing stroke touches them ! This is not the work of blind disease. Pharaoh 
cannot deny it. It is the work of Jehovah, the God of Israel. All Egypt is 
struck, and knows who did it, and why it is done. Here Jehovah reclaimed 
His own ; for the first-born of man was His for divine service, and the first-born 
of other animals was His for sacrifice or revenue. 

4. Moses and Aaron are called in the night, and ordered to be gone with all 
they claimed, and asked to leave behind them their blessing on Egypt or Pha- 
raoh. The frightened Egyptians were urgent for their departure, fearing that 
they should all be killed, for they did not know whether it would stop at the 
boundary Moses set or not. The Israelites were prepared, having eaten the 
lamb, but had to pack their unleavened dough as it was in the troughs, and bake 
it next day in their journey. They marched out triumphantly next day, in the 
sight of all Egypt. All the Egyptians had to bury their first-born, and upon all 
the gods of Egypt the Jehovah, God of Israel, had executed judgments. (Ex., 
11:12; Numb., 33:1-5.) Thus Polytheism was confessedly defeated before the 
world. 



80 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

5. Thus Israel was devwered by the judgments of God upon the nation 
that oppressed them, as had been promised to Abraham about or over four 
hundred years before, or four hundred and thirty years from the wanderings of 
that Patriarch. And though but seventy Israelites in number when Jacob went 
down into Egypt, they now numbered six hundred thousand men of war, 
perhaps including proselytes, besides women and children, and trained servants 
(Numb., 11:4), with Hocks, and herds, and great wealth. This deliverance and 
nationalizing of Israel was no afterthought with Jehovah, but had been promised 
more than four hundred years beforehand ; and the bones of Joseph, which 
Moses carries along, reminded Israel of the hope of that Patriarch, and attests 
to them by the recorded oath that their deliverance was no enterprise of Moses' 
origination. 

6. The Passover. —Ex. , 12:1-30, 43-50; 13:1-19.— Having impressed the 
great truths of the existence and government of Jehovah upon their minds, 
an annual feast was ordained of a peculiar character, to perpetuate these impres- 
sions, and transfer the knowledge of these wonderful events to future genera- 
tions. The time and manner of its celebration, and the unleavened bread were 
well calculated to commemorate the closing scenes of their departure. But what 
was there in all these transactions that required this lamb to be roasted, and 
entirely eaten, with bitter herbs, and not a bone to be broken ? This might 
remind them of their bitter bondage and entire deliverance, or their safe deliver- 
ance while the Egyptians came to a bitter end. But perhaps they were taught 
to see prefigured in it the sacrifice of Christ, which was and is the only securing 
cause of all acceptance by free grace witli Jehovah, though as yet He had not 
sufi'ered, nor was a bone of Him broken. Uncultivated minds may discover 
more mystical instruction from rites, pictures, and transactions, than more 
scienced intellects. But the ostensible object of the Passover was to remind the 
Israelites of their deliverance by demonstrations that proved their God to be 
The Jehovah, who was superior to all the gods of Egypt, and controlled the ele- 
ments in creation. 

7. This institution was not invented hundreds of years after the events it 
commemorated, but before they all had occurred ; and was the first time eaten 
that same night they were ordered out of Egypt. Like the Lord's Supper, it 
was in anticipation of the event : showing that the Institutor knew all before- 
hand. Another custom was established at that same time in commemoration of 
the final catastrophe : all the first-born of man and beast were devoted to the 
Lord's service, and must be given to that purpose, or redeemed according to 
value. These things were instituted and recorded at the beginning in the 
national records. 

8. The Route. — Israel is now delivered from bondage, and intellectually 
convinced that their God is a great God, superior to all the gods of Egypt, and 
that Moses was His commissioned servant ; but they were not regenerated by the 
Holy Spirit, nor freed from animal lusts. When the cause of God requires 
them to deny themselves animal gratification, and to face danger, we may find 
them indulging in unbelief, and caviling at the Divine service. The shortest and 
least difticult way to the promised land was through the Isthmus of Suez, 
between the Red sea and Mediterranean ; but if they were disposed to return 
into Egypt, they could do so. Now the warlike Philistines were on this route, 
and unless strong in faith and weak in lusts, they might refuse to march into 
danger, and so return into Egypt, But the Lord designed to educate them for 
His own service, and raise up their children under His own tuition ; therefore, 
He led them away from their promised land, into the wilderness, and against 
the impassable Red sea. 

9. Cloudy Pillar. — Jehovah did not stop giving them supernatural evi- 
dence of His existence, and interposition in the affairs of the world, and that He 



CHAPTER XXII. : SECTIONS X. -XIII. 81 

has other laws than those of creation, and another government besides that of 
nature. He guided them by a cloud that intercepted the scorching rays of the 
sun by day, and at night shone as a massy pillar of fire. The psalmist of Israel 
expresses it thus: "He spread His cloud for a covering by day, and afire to 
shine by night." (Ps., 105:39.) By this means they were forced to follow what- 
ever way the Jehovah directed ; while the Egyptians, fearing worse judgments, 
urged them out of the land. Thus they were led against the Red sea, in the 
wilderness. 

10. Twelfth Miracle, or Eleventh Plague. Ex., 13:17-22, 14-16; 
Numb., 33:6-8. — The Jehovah designed to finish His work in a manner that 
would not be forgotten, and could not be concealed by Polytheism, nor the 
knowledge of it restricted to a few ; but Egypt and all nations should know 
Jehovah, the God of Israel. So He leaves Pharaoh and his ofiicers and priests 
to their infidelity and covetousness. Having buried all their first-born, they 
reflected on the loss of their slaves, by whose labor the ruin of Egypt might be 
repaired ; and hearing they had taken the wrong direction, and were enclosed by 
the wilderness and the Ked sea, and thinking their God ignorant of the right 
road and deficient in knowledge, determined to force them back into servitude. 

11. Pharaoh mustered all the military force of Egypt, and pursuing after 
Israel found them by the sea, just as he wished it : and perhaps thought Jeho- 
vah had gone asleep, and chance had turned at last in favor of Egypt. The 
Israelites, beholding them, cried out, and began upbraiding Moses with their 
destruction, telling him he had brought them against their will ; they had remon- 
strated with him in Egypt to let them alone in serving the Egyptians, and that 
they preferred slavery in Egypt to death in the wilderness. Thus we see they 
had but very little more faith in the Jehovah than the Egyptians, and cared as 
little about the blessings of Abraham as did Esau. So effectually had the Old 
Serpent done his work, and so hopeless were the promises to Abraham when the 
time for their fulfillment drew near, Moses cries: "Eear not; but stand still, 
and see the deliverance of Jehovah," no doubt expecting to see the Egyptians 
destroyed from Heaven; but he was commanded to move forward, and not stand 
crying to Jehovah. A little faith in Jehovah, and a great fear of Pharaoh, 
induced Israel to obey. 

12. As ordered, Moses stretched out his rod over the sea, in the sight of 
terrified Israel ; and by a strong wind the sea was divided and walled up on both 
sides of the passage, like a wall of ice. The Lord saw proper to not divide the 
waters instantly, but gave Israel time to struggle between hope of deliverance 
and fear of the impending destruction ; and while this was doing he moved the 
cloud behind Israel, which still illumined the way, but was intense darkness 
to the Egyptians and prevented them from overtaking Israel. The sea was 
opened before, and the Egyptians driving behind in crazy madness ; and Israel, 
impelled by faith and fear, followed Moses into the yawning gulf, and the frantic 
Egyptians followed hard after. But their chariots drove heavy, and the wheels 
came off and troubled them, so their courage failed, their Atheism forsook them, 
and they at last said : "The Jehovah fights for Israel ; let us retreat." But too 
late ! Moses, as directed, stretches out his rod ; the waters roll together ; 
Pharaoh and his host are lost ! The next day their dead bodies were cast ashore: 
the Israelits saw them; but whether they spoiled them or not we are not told. 

13. Traditions. — The Memphites relate : That Moses being well acquainted 

with the country, watched the influx of the tide and made'the multitude pass 

over the dry sea. But the Heliopolitans relate : That the king with a great 

army, accompanied by the sacred animals, pursued after the Jews, who had 

carried off with them the substance of the Egyptians ; and that Moses, directed 

by a Divine voice to strike the sea with his rod, touched the waters, which 

divided, and the host passed over on a dry way. But when the Egyptians 
— 6 



82 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

entered along with them and pursued them, fire flashed against them in front, 
and the sea returning, overwhelmed the passage. Thus the Egyptians perished 
both by fire and the influx of the sea. ^ The lightning may have been tire from 
the cloud. 

14. Song of Deliverance. — Israel came safely through, and their way back 
to Egypt was efiectually cut ofi" by the Eed sea. Their faith revives, their fears 
subside, and hope and joy inspire their tongues. This great closing scene in 
Egypt was commemorated in a song of praise to Jehovah by Moses and Israel. 
In this song they acknowledge Him to be their God and the God of their fathers, 
and promise to prepare for Him a habitation or permanent place of worship, and 
to exalt His name, which is Jehovah. He is acknowledged to be superior to all 
gods ; glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Their deliverance 
out of Egypt was by almighty power displayed in wondrous works that could 
not be mistaken by the most stupid, nor disputed by the most stubborn infidel. 

15. Greatness of Jehovah. — All the power and wisdom, arts and science 
of Egypt, had combined against Jehovah ; but He had triumphed over them all. 
Arts and nature, gods and men, beasts and insects, obey His word pronounced 
by Moses ; and here stand His people, on the opposite shore of the Ked sea, 
redeemed from bondage without their own cooperation or efl'ort, singing a 
triumphant song over their vanquished masters, and boasting with a transitory 
faith the anticipated fulfillment of all the promises to Abraham. They also 
counted on the influence those wondrous deeds would have on the nations, pre- 
venting them from opposing Israel in their journey, or resisting them in pos- 
sessing the promised land. And they sing the everlasting praise of Jehovah. 

16. Destruction ISIecessary to Reformation. — There never has been a 
reformation in religion, without great destruction of life and property. Satan 
may obtain the ascendancy by peace and compromise, but when in power he will 
not jield a single point without great destruction and miser}^ The wicked com- 
plain of punishment ; but without that, truth and righteousness would perish in 
the earth. 

17. Bones of Joseph. — Here are the bones of Joseph who, about one hun- 
dred and fifty years before, had firmly calculated on this deliverance, and took 
an oath of the tribes that they should carry his bones with them into the prom- 
ised land. Look on these bones, and learn ; this was no new scheme of Moses, 
but a continuation of a work commenced before his day, and was planned and 
superintended by a wisdom and power greater than Abraham ever possessed. 

18. Inflijence on the Nations. — What influence these wonders wrought for 
Israel had upon Polytheism, we have no history to tell. Probably, like the 
Samaritans transplanted by Shalmaneser and Ezerhaddon, they feared the Jeho- 
vah, but worshiped their own gods. ^ If any piety towards Jehovah remained 
among the nations it was strengthened to endure a while longer, for these events 
were known among the nations, and remembered. This ruling dynasty in Egypt 
was destroyed, and the power friendly to Israel regained the ascendancy, and so 
could not forget the means of their own promotion as well as the deliverance of 
Israel, however unwilling their priesthood might be to chronicle events so dis- 
honorable to their proud nation, and so demonstrative of the falsehood and 
defeat of their imposing religion by which they held their supremacy in the gov- 
ernment. The priesthood of any false religion will do anything to retain their 
power and influence. They will conceal the truth, or deny it, and forge whole- 
sale lies ; but in this case it would take generations to obliterate these facts from 
the minds of the common people. 



(3) Anct. Hist., Vol. I., pp. 114, 115; Josephus, Anct. Bk. 9, chap. 16, p. 61, note. (4) II. 
Kings, 17:24-34. 



ciiArxER XXII.: section i. 83 

The people of Jericho heard of these events, and forty years ^terward 
feared Israel on account of them;^ and more than three hundred years after this 
the Philistines refer to these judgments. ^ 

19. The Second and Third Policies of Satan. — Thus the second policy of 
Satan was defeated. ^ This is the first direct effort of the red dragon to defeat 
the covenant with Abraham to keep witnesses for the true God, and through 
them to counteract Polytheism and Atheism, and regenerate the world : and 
Egypt is the first head of the red dragon antagonism. Israel is redeemed to 
witness for Jehovah. Egypt and all nations within information have learned 
that Jehovah exists, and does concern himself about the affairs of this world ; 
is superior to Egypt and all its gods, and He is the God of Israel. The blessing 
of the world is promised through them, and it was covenanted with Abraham, 
their illustrious progenitor. Let the nations keep an eye on Israel, and see if 
Jehovah, their God, can do all He has promised. Can He give them the prom- 
ised land ? That is the next question ; and every delay or apparent failure will 
strengthen Polytheism, and the vigilant priesthoods of the nations will use it to 
counteract the infiuence of the wonders wrought in Egypt. Jehovah is a god, 
and the God of Israel, and greater than the gods of Egypt ; but is He greater 
than all gods, or the gods of other nations? That is the next question, or third 
policy of the invisible adversary called Satan. Can He put Israel in possession 
of the promised land ? 



Preparatory Age Established. A. M. 2313-4033. 

Period Third. A. M. 2513-90. Levitical Institutions Established and 
the Promised Land Possessed. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



FROM THE RED SEA TO SINAI. A. M. 2513.— Exodus, 15:22-27; 16th, 

17th, 19th; Numbers, 33:9-15. 

1. Training of Israel. — Moses has now taught Israel to know the Jeho- 
vah, and by irresistible evidence induced them to acknowledge Him to be their 
God. He has delivered them from bondage without any effort, choice, or exer- 
tion of their own ; but they are in the wilderness, cut off from Egypt, the land 
of plenty, by the impassable Red sea, and may need all their faith, love, and 
obedience to bring them into the promised land. They must live by faith : for 
there is nothing here for such a multitude. A hard school for the children of 
lusts and slavery. "That man does not live by food alone, but by every word 
of God," — "that the life was for something more than to eat and drink, and the 
body for something more than to wear clothes " (Deut., 8:3 ; Matt., 6:25 ; Luke, 
4:4), was a lesson they had to learn before they could possess the promised land, 
and fulfill the design of their national existence. This they must learn, though 
it might take forty years' training in that wilderness, and waste all their men of 
lust and war, and this training must be left on record for the profit of after 
generations. 



(5) Josh., 9:11. (6) I. Sam., 4:7-9. 6:5, 6. (7) Chap. 7, § 5. 



84 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

2. First Lesson. — God's covenants with Abraham did not insure their 
regeneration by the Holy Spirit, but subjected them, when necessary, to fearful 
judgments. He will be their God, though He should destroy the great majority 
of them. Having given vent to their triumphant feelings, they journeyed three 
days toward their promised land, when they began to experience the depriva- 
tions of the wilderness. Though they might yet have bread, they were destitute 
of water in such quantities as they needed ; when they found enough it was so 
bitter they could not drink it, and they murmured against Moses lor bringing 
them into such difficulties. Moses did as God directed, and the waters were 
sweetened ; and then He taught them here that they must be teachable and obe- 
dient, or suffer like the Egyptians. Impious men think if they acknowledge the 
Lord, He is under such obligations for the honor that He should supply their 
wants, humor their whims, and allow them to do as they please. But they are 
chosen for their own honor and good, and for obtaining this object they must be 
submissive and obedient. 

3. Second Lesson. — Their next halting place was an oasis in the desert, 
where they found twelve pools of water, and seventy palm trees — a gem of 
delight in an ocean of distress : an apposite presentation of these transient scenes 
of enjoyment in this world of hostility to God. When they left this refreshing 
spot, they suffered Imnger; and instead of asking Jehovah for help they mur- 
mured against Moses, accusing him of bringing them into the wilderness to kill 
them with hunger, and wished to God they had died by the ileshpots of Egypt 
where they had all they could eat. They could murmur but not pray. They 
would work like oxen if fed like pigs, but found no pleasure in spiritual exer- 
cises of the mind. Moses told them that they should know that it was not he 
but Jehovah that brought them out, and for proof of this they should have flesh 
in the evening without killing their flocks and herds, and in the morning they 
should have bread. So in the evening fowls came in all abundance, and in the 
morning the manna lay over the ground. But such distrust and murmurings 
were unsuitable in a people witnessing for the true knowledge of the true God, 
and Aaron told them to come near the presence of the Jehovah, who had 
himself heard their murmurings ; and looking, they saw the glorious shechinah 
of the Jehovah in the cloud. By such minute and particular interpositions, they 
were continually taught that Jehovah was their God, and they were wholly 
dependent on Him. 

4. Manna. — They were directed to gather a certain quantity for each 
person; but unmindful of the directions, some gathered rnore, and some less; 
but when measured they had just the same, and could not alter the gift. Some 
reserved for future want, and could not depend on Jehovah daily, but it produced 
worms and stunk ; so they were compelled to depend daily ou Jehovah for their 
rations, which were distributed exactly in time, and quantity. An exception 
was made for the Sabbath, when none fell : but a double portion fell on the 
morning of the sixth day, and kept good for the Sabbath. Thus they had con- 
tinually before them the evidence of Jehovah's government, and discipline. A 
portion of the manna was preserved in a vessel in the ark, for a memorial to 
after-generations : until the religion of Jehovah should be established in the 
promised land. 

5. Water from the Rock. — But the discipline of Jehovah was not pleasant 
to them, and they showed their discontent upon every trial. Again they lacked 
water ; charged Moses with killing them and their children ; demanded water, 
and were ready to stone him. Moses called upon the Lord, who supplied them 
with running streams from a hard' rock smitten with Aaron's rod, in the sight of 
all the elders of Israel. This event was commemorated in the name of the place: 
"Temptation and Strife." Here they had tempted the Lord, or tried Him, 
saying : "Is the Jehovah among us, or is He not ?" After all His promises and 



CaAPfER XXIS^.: SECTIONS 1. -It. 85 

wondrous works in their deliverance, their daily bread supplied from above, the 
cloud spread over them, and now flowing streams from the flinty rock supplied 
by the stroke of a rod at the word of God. 

6. Battle with Amalek. — The next training is in a battle with Amalek, an 
old warlike nation near Egypt, where they were accustomed to trade. Joshua 
selected men and fought, while Moses represented the help of God and their 
dependence on Him. When Moses dropped his hands, Amalek prevailed ; but 
when he held them up, Joshua prevailed ; thus showing Israel whence their help 
and success came. This was so conspicuous that Aaron and Hur supported his 
hands until sundown, when Amalek was defeated. Thinking the wonders in 
Egypt not sufficient to prove the existence, power, and government of Jehovah, 
and perhaps enraged because his market was spoiled for a time, Amalek 
attempted to plunder and destroy Israel while untrained to the wilderness and 
war ; but in the 65*0 rt furnished additional evidence to Israel and the nations. 
This event was remembered by an altar, built there on* that occasion, and called, 
"The Jehovah-my-banner "; and a prediction was given for proof to future gen- 
erations and recorded in a book : "That this Amalek should be blotted out of 
the earth." 



CHAPTER XXIY. 



GIVING OF THE CO YEN ANT AND THE LAW AT SINAI. A. M. 

2513.— Exodus, 19, 20 ; Numbers, 33:15. 

1. Covenant of Adoption. — Their wants all supplied, they come to Sinai, 
where the Lord gives them laws for their elevation and government. Moses 
goes up into the mountain and the Jehovah gives to him the terms of a covenant 
for Israel. After reminding them of what they had seen in Egypt and of His 
special care over them in the wilderness, he adds: "Now if ye will obey my 
voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto 
me above all people— for all the earth is mine — and ye shall be unto me a 
kingdom of priests and a holy nation." Moses came down and reported these 
terms to the people, and they responded altogether : "All that the Jehovah has 
spoken we will do." So Moses returned this answer unto Jehovah. 

2. Evidence of the Divine Communicaton. — But the people had shown a 
dissatisfied and rebellious disposition, and might sometime impeach Moses with 
fabricating this covenant and the laws given under it ; so the Jehovah manifested 
His presence with displays they could not dispute nor forget, and spoke so that 
they could hear Him without a lingering doubt of the fact, and called Moses to 
the top of the mountain. The people must be taught the necessity of holiness 
in their approaches to the Jehovah ; so they must wash and abstain from animal 
gratification ; reverence and awe were inspired by the manifestations attending 
the Lawgiver. (Chap. 28, § 13.) A boundary was set to their approach, and it 
was death for them to go beyond it. 



86 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

3. The People Witness tor Themselves. — The Jehovah came down on the 
mount, amidst thunder and lightning, the sounding trumpet, and tlie quaking 
mountain, and in the hearing of all the people pronounced the Ten Command- 
ments. ^ Moses had led the people to the boundary to meet with their God 
themselves, and not depend on liis representations ; but so terrible were the 
manifestations of His presence, thej removed afar off and requested Moses to 
hear and report to them. This display was more than their nerves and guilty 
conscience, could stand. Tlierefore the people stood afar off while Moses drew 
near the thick darkness where their God was ; and Jehovah gave to him those 
Taws, or that part of "The Law" which theologians have called judicial, or 
civil laws. ^ 

4. Angel of the Covenant. Ex., 23:20-33. — From this darkness, out of 
which the God of Israel spoke to Moses in the hearing of the people, came the 
promise of a leader to Israel. This is a mysterious personage, often appearing 
in the development of the Kingdom of God. Here He is called God's Angel, or 
Messenger, and possesses the name peculiar to the Deity alone ; that name is 
Jehovah. His present work was to keep them in the way and guide them into 
their promised rest. He has the power to punish or pardon, and must be 
obeyed. He is now the leader of Israel, whether He be the Jehovah in the 
cloud and on the mercy-seat, or the Angel of the Covenant : and we must notice 
Him wherever met in any other character than that of Jehovah.* 

5. Polytheism Prohibited. — They must not serve the gods of the nations, 
but destroy every vestige of idolatry in their promised land : which should be 
from the JRed sea to the Sea of the Philistines, or Mediterranean, and from the 
desert in which they were now wandering to the Euphrates river. They must 
form no alliance with the inhabitants nor have any fellowship with them, lest 
they or their children should be seduced into Polytheism. 

6. The Covenant Ratified. Ex., 24. — Moses came and reported all these 
laws; and all the people answered : "AH the words which the Jehovah has said, 
we will do." Then Moses recorded all these laws and words in a book ; builded 
an altar of unhewn stone, ^ and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes, under the 
hill ; and the priesthood not yet being appointed, he sent young men to offer 
burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings of oxen unto Jehovah : half of 
the blood of the calves and goats he sprinkled on the altar ; read the covenant 
again from the books, so all could hear; they answered again, "All that Jehovah 
has said will we do, and be obedient." Then he took the other half of the blood 
of the calves, or oxen, and of the goats, "^ and sprinkled the book and the people, 
saying, "Behold the blood of the covenant which the Jehovah has made with 
you concerning all these words." 

7. Divine Presence Witnessed. Ex., 24:9, 25-31. — The covenant being 
ratified, Moses, Aaron, and two sons, and seventy of the elders of Israel, went 
up by invitation of Jehovah, and saw the God of Israel; and did eat and 
drink and did not die. His appearance was most glorious, and under His feet 
was the appearance of a pavement of sapphire stone, and as it were the body of 
heaven in clearness.'^ But what did they see? For no man has seen the Deity 
at any time. ^ It must have been the Jehovah angel, who was their leader.® 
Nadab and Abihu were stricken dead for oftering strange fire, and all these sev- 
enty elders, except Caleb and Joshua, murmured and rebelled, and fell in the 
wilderness :'^ and had they not witnessed this appearance, they would have 
denied the account. The stubborn hostility of the Israelites made them the 
more unexceptionable witnesses to the wonders recorded by Moses. They saw 
no similitude of God, but the Son of God himself, who has revealed the inacces- 
sible and incomprehensible Jehovah. 

(1) Ex., 19:9. 20:22 25th. (2) Ex., 21, 23:1-19. (*) Chap. 10, § 3. (3) Ex., 20:25. (4) Heb.. 
9:19. (5) Chap. 10, § 3. {*) Ezk., 1:22-8. 10:1, 2, 4, 18, 19. 8:4. 11:22-3. (6) Chap. 24, § 4. 
(7) Chap., 28:13. 



CHAPTER XXIV.: SECTIONS VlII.-XIl. 8? 

8. What Moses Received in the Mount. — Out of this company of witnesses, 
Jehovah called Moses up into the midst of the cloud. Moses left the people 
under the care of the elders, with Aaron and Hur at their head, but took Joshua 
up the mount with himself. For six days the cloud covered the mount, and on 
the seventh Moses was called up into the midst of the cloud, and passed through 
it up into the higher part of the mount. And the glory of the Jehovah abode 
upon the mount, appearing to Israel like devouring fire. Up here Moses 
remained forty days, and was shown the likeness of heavenly things in a model 
for the tabernacle and its furniture. ^ Here also were given those laws, or that 
part of the law called by theologians ceremonial laws, or laws regulating the 
religious worship of the nation. And at the close of the visit he received two 
stone slabs, containing the Ten Commandments, written with the finger of God. 
These commandments had been already proclaimed from oif the quaking moun- 
tain, in the hearing of the people. 

9. Charactek of the Laws. — All these laws were adapted to obviate the 
degrading influences of Polytheism, and to elevate the people of Israel morally, 
mentally, physically, individually, and nationally above all other nations, and 
make them models of excellence and happiness. No system of Polytheism gave 
such just and holy laws, and philosophy has never been able to improve them. 
Some philosophers have received great credit for theories left by them to their 
pupils. But the greater probability is that, instead of originating tliose ideas, 
they only mystified those truths revealed to Israel, or handed down by tradition 
from the holy Patriarchs. Grecian and Roman philosophers traveled to find 
knowledge:^ and proud, human wisdom will not take the simple truths of God 
without giving them a coating of imaginary science, or metamorphizing them to 
suit national interests, human pride, or animal gratifications. 

10. Character of Polytheism. — The heathen mythology found a pattern 
for every corruption in some one or other of their gods, and made laws and rites 
of worship that engendered and compelled cruelty, debauchery, and injustice ; 
and the nations of Canaan to be utterly destroyed by Israel had become brutish, 
so the land is represented as spewing them out : as we learn from the laws of 
Moses forbidding those crimes. Men and women had become so degraded as to 
cohabit with beasts, and so inhuman as to burn their children to death in the hot 
embraces of the fiery Moloch ; and extirpation was the only cure for them, as 
the deluge was for the old world, and fire and brimstone for Sodom and 
Gomorrah.^ 

11. Laws Based on Divine Authority.— Nq false gods of any nation gave 
such laws as these, nor could the gods themselves stand to be tried by these 
laws. These laws were all obligatory, because Jehovah had given them, and not 
because of their utility or adaptation to the end. Modern theologians have 
divided these laws into moral, judicial, and ceremonial, and reckon the first as 
most important and binding on all nations : but inspiration makes no distinction, 
and calls them ''The Law," "The Law of God," and "The Law of Moses;" 
and the Prophets condemn Israel as much for eating pork as for shedding inno- 
cent blood, for both were disobedience to Divine authority, and rebellion against 
Jehovah. Scripture never dismembers the law, nor restricts obedience to any 
part ; but whoever breaks one precept is guilty of all. He has broken the law 
and insulted the Lawgiver. (James, 2:10.) 

12. Unity and Division of Israel. — In these laws Jehovah provided for 
His worship continually, and made the tribe of Levi, which He chose instead of 
the first-born, to depend for their sustenance on the success of the true religion. 
And He made the sanctuary the center of all religious influences for all the 
people, whom He divided into thirteen tribes. These tribes were prohibited by 
law from consolidating into one mass, and losing their distinctive inheritance, 

(8) Heb., 8:5, 9:23. (9) Joseph, Apion, pp. 586-7; § 22, 607; § 40. (1) Leviticus, 18. 



88 THE Kingdom o^ god de^VeloPeD. 

and separate interests (Numb., 34), but were united in one sanctuary, and one 
priesthood. Thus, while in their domestic and civil relations they might form 
distinctive peculiarities and interests, in their religion and concourse at the 
sanctuary they preserved a unity and similarity, and had a common object that 
combined them against idolatrous nations. While they obeyed the Lord, and 
acted in combined force in mutual protection, they could conquer the neighbor- 
ing nations ; but if they disobeyed Him, and left everyone to struggle by them- 
selves with the nations, they became easily vanquished and enslaved. 

13. Did These Laws Exist Before Moses. — Whether Jehovah had ever 
revealed all these laws and rites to the old Patriarchs, history does not tell ; but 
most likely He had, and we know that many of them were known to those 
persons or Patriarchs mentioned by Moses, and the nations have many laws and 
rites bearing a strong resemblance to them. But as the nations perverted the 
knowledge of Jehovah, they corrupted His laws and ordinances. 

14. Israel's High Calling. — The priesthood was restricted to the family 
of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi ; and the head of these was the high priest, wlio 
had all the tribes engraved on his breastplate. He acted as mediator between 
God and Israel, who inquired of God through him by the Ephod, and he made 
the atonement for thetn. The knowledge, worship, and service of Jehovah was 
the supreme object of the existence of the nation, and they were to be to the 
nations what the priesthood was to them. They were designed to be a kingdom 
of priests, and nation of saints, or holies. (Ex., 19:6.) Every law and institu- 
tion was designed to transform them into the image of the Holy God. And 
every promise was upon condition of implicit obedience, and was counterbal- 
anced by threatenings for disobedience. But neither the covenants with Abra- 
ham, nor the law by Moses promised regeneration or eternal life. The law 
demanded and enjoined holiness, love, and every virtue ; yet it promised none. 



CHAPTER XXY. 



THE GOLDEN CALF.— Exodus, 32, 33. 

1. Israel Infected with Egyptian Idolatry. — Notwithstanding their 
promptness in covenanting, before Moses returned from the mountain, the Israel- 
ites had induced Aaron to make an image of the Egyptian sacred bull, Apis ; 
and having offered sacrifices to it as the god, or representative of the God that 
brought them up out of land of Egypt, were indulging in playing and dancing 
when Moses and Joshua returned. They had learned to confide in Moses as a 
leader, but so deeply rooted was the Polytheism of the nations, and the idolatry 
of Egypt, they could not confide in the invisible Jehovah. This violation of 
their covenant just ratified must be punished, or the rising generations will be 
imbued with a pleasure in those rites. 

2. Reclaimed. — When Moses and Joshua returned, and found them in the 
midst of their hilarity, Moses broke the tables of the law, for they had broken 
the covenant, and Jehovah was now freed from his engagements, and might 
reject or destroy them. Then Moses destroyed the image, and its material, so 
the people could not recover their gold of which it was composed, enameled, or 
adorned ; and the brittle material he reduced to fine dust which he mixed with 
the water, and made them drink their god. Jehovah proposed to destroy them, 
and fulfill His covenant with Abraham by making a great nation out of Moses. 
But Moses interceded for them lest the Egyptians should be glad, and Polytheism 



OHAl^TER XXV. t SECflOi^S III.-V. 89 

triumph over the Jehovah God, and recruit their shattered power. The 
Lord was angry with Aaron to have destroyed him ; but Moses prayed for him, 
also, at the same time. So the Lord punished them by the mutual slaughter of 
three thousand men. He also threatened to not go with them but to destroy 
them in a moment, which made them mourn. Thus made sensible of their sin, 
and Jehovah's detestation of it, Moses gave them their choice to accept the 
Jehovah, or reject Him. He pitched a tabernacle outside the camp, naming it 
''The Tabernacle of the Congregation," and all that sought the Jehovah 
repaired unto it. Then Moses went out to it, and the rest stood in their tent 
doors, and watched him enter the Tabernacle ; then the cloudy pillar descended 
and stood at the door ; then they all worshiped in their tent doors. Thus they 
were reclaimed from their Egyptian idolatry, and found that their God had no 
fellowship with the gods of Egypt. 

3. Moses Intercedes for Israel.— Moses was fully sensible of the conse- 
quences to the true religion if Israel was now rejected, or destroyed, and asked 
the Lord to forgive them ; and if this could not be done otherwise, to blot his 
name out of the roll of His saints, or peculiar people. But the Lord answered 
He would blot out those individuals that sinned, and thus the nation should be 
perpetuated for the sake of the true religion. Distinguished privileges and 
honors were here given to Moses. Though he had heard the voice of Jehovah 
out of the burning bush, conversed with Him on official matters, done wonders 
in His name and by His authority and power, and had been with Him forty days 
in the mountain receiving the law by the ministration of angels,^ yet he had 
never conversed with Him face to face as with a friend, like Abraham did, till 
now in this tent of the congregation, and in the presence of Joshua. Moses' 
prayer and argument for the people, and his simple petitions for the symbol of 
God's presence to go with them, must be meditated on to be appreciated. With- 
out that symbol of the Divine presence, what could he do, or how convince the 
nations that his work was the cause of Jehovah, and Israel was God's people ? 
Moses also requested to see the Divine glory, but this was impossible for human 
nerves to bear; it struck Paul down, and made him blind. ^ But Moses was 
favored with a view of it at a distance, after it had passed him. Paul speaks of 
that unapproachable glory, ^ and the nations had retained some knowledge of it. 
Jehovah assures him of his acceptance, friendship, and success, and this encour- 
aged him in all after time. 

4. People Made Sensible of Their Sin. It appears as if they had not 
apprehended any offense in this act of idolatry, and had not intended to abandon 
Jehovah nor rebel against Moses. But they must be taught that Jehovah is a 
jealous God, and a consuming fire,* and will not fellowship with Polytheism in 
any form or degree. They are not taught its pernicious consequences to man, 
but its crime against Jehovah. He does not lead them as a philosopher, but like 
a sovereign ; they must be holy, because Jehovah commands it. They may 
serve Him because they love Him, and delight in His work, as Moses, Joshua, 
and Caleb did ; but they must do it because He commanded it to be done. 

5. The Law Added to the Covenants of Abraham. — -The law of Moses 
was added to the covenants of Abraham because of transgression (Gal., 3:19, 4: 
1-7) ; multitudes of his seed were stubborn and rebellious transgressors that 
must be governed by force and interest. Did the covenants with Abraham 
insure the regeneration of his seed, the covenant at Sinai, and law of Moses had 
been unnecessary ; for being regenerated they would, when taught, obey with 
delight out of love to God, and His attributes and service. But such not being 
the case, the Lord proclaimed His sovereignty in bestowing favors and inflicting 
vengeance (Ex., 33:19, 34:4-9), but did not exclude them. Christianity 
excludes, but does not punish. 



(3) Acts, 26:13. (4) Acts, 7:53. (5) I. Tim., 6:16. (*) Deut., 4:24. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



LAWS, RITES, AND INSTITUTIONS: OBLIGATION TO OBEY, 
OBSERVE, AND KEEP THEM. A. M. 2513-251L 

Exodus, 34^0. 



'J 



1. Tablets of Commandments Renewed. — Moses was again called up into 
the mountain, and the tables of the law renewed, and a peculiar honor was put 
upon him that was a standing miracle to them, proving his divine mission : his 
face shone with a glory they could not look upon. Aaron and the people discov- 
ered this before Moses was aware of it. After this the people offered liberally, 
and worked willingly till the tabernacle, after the divine pattern, was finished 
with all its furniture, and everything for the worship of the sanctuary, and 
appear pleased with their high calling, and rejoiced in perfecting the divine 
worship. 

2. Object. — As the great object of their national existence was the restora- 
tion of the knowledge and service of the true God, and to secure the reforma- 
tion and advancement of all nations, all their laws, and institutions, and customs 
were subservient to the same object. They had of necessity civil and domestic 
laws and customs, which belong not to the development of the Kingdom of God, 
and some things were permitted, and common, that cannot be tolerated in the 
intermediate or consummated ages of the kingdom. For a digest of these laws, 
rites, and institutions, see Home's Introduction. ^ 

3. Moral Laws did not Originate with Moses. — Moral principles are 
obligatory on all intellectual beings, in all times, and places ; not because they 
are found in Moses' law, but because they are the laws of creation, and cannot 
be violated without most pernicious consequences. They are as essential to 
individual and social happiness, as the laws of health are to soundness of body, 
or the laws of mind to mental development and improvement. Ignorance of 
those laws will not prevent the penal consequences of their violation. Moral 
principles are those laws regulating relationship ; and are comprehended in love, 
and emenate from it. ^ Man sustains four relationships : to God, to himself, to 
mankind and angels, and to the irrational animated creation, or creatures. He 
should love God supremely, love himself, soul and body, love men and angels as 
well as himself, and love the rest of animated creatures in subordination to these. 
This is the moral law of creation, and cannot be violated with impunity, nor 
observed without happy consequences, though God had not given a revelation to 
man. 

4. The Ten Commandments. — In the law of Moses, Jehovah enjoined this 
fundamental moral law, on which hangs all the law of Moses, and teachings of 
the prophets. Love to God, or Jehovah, must be supreme ; and love to neigh- 
bors as to one's self. ^ Some have taught that all moral laws were compre- 
hended in the Ten Commandments; and, by making them require or forbid 
everything of a moral nature, have given them a wide range. Whether this is 
done logically, or not, we shall not stop to inquire ; but certainly, supreme love 



(8) Vol. IL, pt. 2. (9) Rom., 13:10. (1) Matt., 22:36-40. 



CHAPTER XXVI. : SECTIONS V.-VIll. 91 

to God and man, on which all these commandments are founded, require or 
forbid all mental and physical actions of a moral nature. But did the Israelites, 
or any but these subtle theologians, ever understand them in this manner, or so 
regulate their conduct by them ? The young man in the Gospel could answer 
Jesus: "All these have I kept from my youth up; what lack I yet?"^ Paul 
says : "Tried by the law, he was blameless •,^ but the good he would do, he did 
not; and the evil he would not do, that he did."f How could he do this, if he 
understood the law of Moses commensurate with the moral law ? And many of 
these divines never discovered that any of these commandments forbade habitual 
dram-drinking, lest they should cause a brother to oiFend ; but Paul taught, That 
love forbade him to eat meat offered to idols, if it cause a brother to offend. ^ 
Whatever in these commandments is dictated by love to God, or man, is moral 
law, and is binding on all men, at all times and places i"^ not because given at 
Sinai, but because the inherent law of man's being. 

5. Positive Laws. — Positive laws or commands are binding on those to 
whom given, if known ; but to obey them or violate them without a knowledge 
of their existence, produces no consequences, good or bad. God may affix some 
positive or arbitrary penalty or reward to secure obedience when known, and 
may give the reward or inflict the penalty though the action was done in ignor- 
ance. Where God gives laws or institutions, love to Him and to man requires 
us to possess and keep them ; and, if it is within our power, to know and do 
them, we may be punished with arbitrary evil for not using that power, and 
being ignorant ; or may be left to simply do without the arbitrary or positive 
reward. God has not given a discretionary power to obey or disobey. 

6. Excellence of Mosaic Laws. — Positive laws and institutions given to 
Israel are not binding on any other nation or people ;^ nor on them, beyond the 
particular object for which given. Hence, any of them may expire in their 
fulfillment. Love may dictate to keep holy Sabbaths,"^ but positive enact- 
ment must determine what days shall be Sabbaths. Love may dictate the preser- 
vation of human life and property, but the wisdom of God can best determine 
how this can be done, and positive enactment by Jehovah determines the 
manner. All laws given by Jehovah are the best that can be enacted for the 
time, place, and object designed, and it would be well for civil governments to 
follow them. None better for the government of societies of mixed characters 
than the laws of Moses ; the laws of Christ are for regenerated persons who love 
God supremely, and other persons as themselves ;''' their object is to reform indi- 
viduals and societies, and to eradicate evil : civil laws are to protect persons and 
property, restrict evil, and prevent crime ; and no laws better for this purpose 
than those given by Moses. Now, since Christ came, the kingdom is divested of 
this civil appendage, and its severest penalty is : Exclusion. ^ 

7. Lev., 1-T. — Dignity of Law Sustained. — Punishments were awarded to 
crimes ; but also a way of pardon, and reconciliation to God was provided by the 
law. But they must be impressed with a sense of the enormity of sin, the 
dignity of divine laws, and the difficulty of restoration into the favor of God ; 
so, without shedding of blood, or sacrificing life, there was no remission of sins ; 
and without holiness, or purity, none dare approach the sanctuary of Jehovah. 
If any refused this reconciliation with God, they must be cut off from the nation. 

8. Atonement. — Atonement is the same as reconciliation, and implies that 
the parties were at variance, or, as sometimes expressed, "they were two 
people," but for some reason had become one— are united. The conditions of 
this reconciliation complied with, secures the atonement. The Hebrew word so 



(2) Matt.. 19:20; Luke, 18:21. (3) Phil, 3:56. (f) Rom , 7:14-25. (4) Rom., 14:15; I. Cor., 
8:9-13. (*) Isa , 58:13, 14. (5) John, 3:19-21. 14:21-24; I. John, 2:5. 5:3. (6) Acts, 15:19-29. 
I. Cor ,5:11-13. (*) Isa., 58:13-14. (7) John, 3:3, 5-7; Matt., 5:20, 18:3; John, 1:12, 13. (8)Matti., 



92 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

translated means a covering; and thus it is said: "The priest shall make an 
atonement for him." That is, "make a covering for him" from the wrath of 
God ; or cover up his sin, that it cannot be found. An atonement without the 
consent of both parties is impossible. Under the law, Jehovah prescribed the 
conditions, promising reconciliation when thej were complied with ; and when 
the offender complied, producing the victim, and confessing his sin. He mani- 
fested His consent to be reconciled : then the officiating priest, as mediator, 
finished the rite, and pronounced the atonement perfected. Under the Gospel, 
Jehovah provides the victim, which is His only begotten Son (John, 1:29-36), 
and promises reconciliation with all that believe in Him (John, 3:15-18, 36), or 
become His disciples : when any one complies, the atonement is completed by 
the Mediator, who is Christ himself — the victim offered. He that believeth in 
the Son has eternal life, and shall never come into judgment, but has passed from 
death into life. But the unbeliever shall not see life ; but the wrath of God 
abides upon him, because he has refused the reconciliation. The atonement is 
limited to those complying with the conditions. 

9. Importance of Atonement. — Such is the constitution or disposition of 
man, and all other animals, that respect to laws are essential for their welfare 
and government. Let the brute creation violate law with impunity, and they 
become ungovernable, and destroy their own food, shelter, and comfort, and 
torture each other, but train them to obedience, and one man can drive a six- 
horse team with one line ; a yoke of oxen by his voice, or the motion of a rod ; 
another can govern a thousand sheep, or a drove of cattle. Let animals know 
they must obey laws, and then, by mildness, they can be managed with ease. 
Men must respect law and order, or they will ruin themselves, and destroy one 
another. Man must obey the moral, mental, and physical laws of his creation, 
or become miserable beyond conception and description. And in man's positive 
relation, it is just as necessary for him to respect the dignity of positive laws as 
to observe the laws of creation. If the father, the teacher, or civil ruler suffers 
the laws of the family, the school, or of the country, or army to be violated with 
impunity, anarchy will follow ; and these authorities will find themselves 
trampled in the dirt, and their government subverted. Now God gave Adam a 
positive law, and neither love nor intelligence prevented him from disobedience ; 
and God inflicted the penalty — death. Though Adam was created in the image 
of God, his offspring have all been born in his own image after the fall, and 
with this innate propensity to sin, and the example universally presented to him 
from childhood, by all rational and irrational animals, he always chooses evil, 
and prefers the violation of law to obedience, Now, in securing reformation by 
positive laws and institutions, it is necessary the dignity of these be sustained, 
and man be taught the importance of obedience. 

10. The Supreme Law Dignified by Christ. — Now in the ground work of 
redemption, it was necessary that the supreme law, requiring implicit obedience 
to God, be dignified by having its commands obeyed, and its penalties inflicted. 
This was undertaken, and, at the appointed time, accomplished by the pure and 
innocent Son of God, manifested in human nature.^ This being accomplished, 
God can be just, or act according to that law, and yet justify any sinner he 
pleases, and on whatever conditions he sees proper;^ and then he may counteract 
the consequences of transgressions, by fruits of this obedience and suffering. 
The positive penalty inflicted was death, and so he nmst be positively debarred 
the Tree of Life ; and the positive gift bestowed on the redeemed is eternal life, ^ 
and so they must be granted the life-giving agency of the Holy Spirit — securing 
their regeneration, sanctification, and comfort, ^ and all the happy consequences 
must follow. 



(3) Isa., 42:21. 58:4-6, 10-12. (4) Rom., 3:21-26. (5) Rom., 6:23. (6) Rom., 8:1-16, 26, 27; 
Luke, 11:13. 



CHAPTER XXVI. : SECTIONS XI. -XII.. 93 

11. Redemption. — Eedeemer, redeemed, and redemption are terms often 
used in relation to this greatest of events. But these terms, like many others in 
revelations about divine things, are used figuratively, and must not be pressed to 
get everything out of them common or necessary in the redemption of persons 
or property in transactions of men, for there is but one point of resemblance : 
they were lost, but are now recovered. It may be profitable to trace out anal- 
ogies, and thus enrich our thoughts with many views of divine things, if we do 
not get into disputes, and inculcate false and pernicious doctrines ; but when we 
wish to philosophize and dispute, we must use terras with scientific accuracy 
and precision. 

12. Redemption by Christ. — In redemptions among men there is valuation 
and costs regulated by laws, customs, or special agreement. Thus, so much is 
to be paid for such a quantity or such a number ; and moral principle and humani 
usages require the fulfillment according to law or contract. But here — "the 
sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law""^ — the dignity of the 
law is maintained and its authority restored and respected ;^ so there is not 
anything in the law or justice of God holding any sinner in rebellion or cap- 
tivity. ^ Thus the strength of sin is gone and the captive is free ; but who will 
be reconciled to God and obtain the gift of eternal life, will depend upon the 
conditions upon which it is bestowed ? Are they to be compelled unconditionally 
to receive it, or is it free to all on certain conditions? The prophet says, "He 
has magnified the law, and made it honorable;" and the apostle says, "God 
can be just and the justifier of all that believe ;"i and Christ says it is restricted 
to those believing in the Son of God,^ or become the disciples of Christy accept- 
ing His instructions, depending on Him, and receiving His laws. These are the 
conditions to all that hear the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Those that know 
not these things will not be damned by that supreme broken law, which Christ 
magnified and made honorable. But if by nature or out of an internal love to 
the attributes of God they improve the light they have, they will condemn both 
disobedient Jews and Christians, and will be saved by free grace on account of 
what Christ has done and suffered, though they did not know the God possessing 
these attributes in perfection and never heard of the Savior while they were on 
earth. ^ Such persons will accept the Gospel when they understand it: it will be 
glad tidings to them. This is the condemnation : "That light has come into the 
world, and men love darkness because their deeds were evil ;^ but those loving 
these attributes will come to the light whenever they see it, will receive reproof 
and seek the sanctification by the Gospel. 

13. Foe Some Sins, no Atonement in the Law. — The dignity of the laws 
given by Moses must be maintained, while a hope of reconciliation and fellow- 
ship with God was also given to the Israelites. For some sins there was no 
expiation by the law of Moses. ^ If any guilty of these crimes desired reconcil- 
iation with God, they must obtain it, if they did obtain it, as the old Patriarchs 
did before Moses reported the law : that is, supposing those Patriarchs had such 
knowledge. ^ The law left them nothing but a fearful looking for judgments and 
fiery indignation. But for other sins, pardon was provided in a way that the 
dignity of the law was not impaired. They must confess the sin, furnish a 
victim according to their ability, and witness the suffering, death, and burning to 
ashes of the innocent, for them. Some assert that the Patriarchs of old and the 
Israelites under the law did not expect expiation by these sacrifices and purifi- 
cations, but only looked through them to Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, the 
true source of atonement and sanctification. If so, through what types did they 
look for expiation and cleansing when guilty of those crimes where no rites were 
provided 'i or, was reconciliation in such cases never known until David taught 



(7) 1 Cor., 15:56 (8) Isa., 42:21. (9) Rom., 7:4, 6. (1) Rom., 8:21-6. (2) John, 3:36. 
(3) I. Pet, 4:6; Rom., 2:12. 3:20. (4) John, 3:19-21. (5).Heb., 10:26-8. (6) Ps., 51:16, 17. 



94 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

it in the Fifty-first Psalm ?^ We may give them credit for more philosophic 
knowledge than they possess, or we may give them less. Free grace is secured 
by the obedience and sufferings of Jesus Christ, and in the gospel is offered to 
all ; but can not be obtained by any without faith in Him, which is the condition 
required. 13ut may not the ancients have understood it secured thus, and yet con- 
sidered it could not be obtained without complying with the conditions of sacri- 
fices and purifications ? Or, they may have believed in salvation by free grace 
without knowing how it was secured. If any understood these rites as only 
shadows and not conditions of reconciliation, the most of them had lost it before 
Paul's day. 

14. Atonements by the Law. — So far as the Scriptures had developed the 
Kingdom of God at that time, reconciliation and access to God were secured in 
the law by sacrifices and purifications. There is the sanctuary, on its north 
side is the table of shewbread, in the south side is the .golden candlestick with 
its seven lamps burning pure olive oil ; between these, or in front of the veil, 
stands the golden altar on which are burnt the sweetest incense. Beyond the 
veil, or curtain, is the Most Holy place, where is the golden censer and the 
chest, or ark, of the covenant, covered with gold. In the ark is the covenant, 
or law, covered with the lid which is the mercy seat, and on it dwells the glory 
or shechinah of Jehovah. In this ark, with the tablets of the covenant, is a 
vessel of manna, and Aaron's blooming rod. Before the sanctuary, in the court 
of the priests, is the altar for burnt offerings, and the laver and its basins for the 
priests to wash at. 

15. Into that Most Holy apartment, none but the high priest, fully robed, 
and purified, can enter ; and he must carry blood of sacrifices, and spinkle it on 
the mercy seat, as a memorial that life has been taken for the sins of the people. 
That mercy seat covers the covenant often broken by Israel. A cherub on each 
end tries to look through, or into the mystery, and the glory abides between 
them. What do I understand by all this? There is glory, a covenant, mercy, 
angels, food, and a witness of the priesthood to Aaron ! But I cannot see it, but 
must depend eji testimony ; and it cannot be entered without blood, purification, 
and incense. There the atonement is made once a year by a mediator, the high 
priest. All this must be done, but I cannot see it, for the sanctuary, or holy 
place, is between it and me. 

16. In that Holy place are always bread, plenty of light, and sweet fellowship 
— ascending incense ; but into it I may not enter, but must send a priest, as medi- 
ator between God and me. In this court of the priest is the altar where atone- 
ments are made. I can bring my offering, confess my sins, and see the victim 
suffer and bleed for me. I can wash my clothes, and bathe myself in water some- 
where ; but more I cannot do ; farther I cannot go, and beyond the veil I cannot 
look. A mediator must make the atonement, and witnesses must tell me the 
rest. So what is prescribed for reconciliation and acceptance, I can do ; believing 
the Lawgiver will fulfill His promise, and pardon my sins, and I have faith in 
Him. Beyond this I may not know anything, and yet be happy. And this is 
all I have found, as yet, in the Sacred Book. Some may have understood these 
things as did Paul after Christ came ; but no such instructions are on record 
before the Fifty-first Psalm was written, and it is not likely many of them had 
the intelligence or inspiration of David or Paul. 

17. Reconciliation Without the Law. — Where there was no reconciliation 
by the law, the criminal must bear the judgments of God with guilt oppressing 
his conscience, or find acceptance in some way not made known by Moses. 
David was guilty of two crimes for which no atonement was provided, nor puri- 
fication prescribed. The dignity of the law was maintained by the Lawgiver 
commuting the sentence of death to civil war, and murder in his own family — 



CHAPTER XXVI. : SECTIONS XVIII. -XIX. 95 

worse than death. "^ David found consolation in the fact : "A broken spirit is a 
pleasing sacrifice to God, and He will not despise the broken and contrite 
heart. "^ The woman taken in the perpetration of a crime to be punished with 
death bj the law, was pardoned by the Savior, with the admonition to sin no 
more. ^ Christ did not contravene the law, nor absolve the civil authority from 
executing its penalty, but taught there was a higher source of reconciliation with 
God ; and though one might die by the law, he might be saved by free grace. 
Where did David get his knowledge ? JSfot from the covenant with Abraham, 
nor from the law of Moses. He may have obtained it by inspiration, or that 
knowledge may have been preserved from the pious Patriarchs by pious persons. 
We learn from Jude, that knowledge had descended from the days of Enoch till 
the time of Christ, which is not recorded in the Bible. "^ There may have been 
many such records as the Book of Job, and so we may give Israelites and Patri- 
archs less credit for knowledge than they deserve, and we might give them 
more ; but we will follow the development as given in the inspired volume. 
However, what we have found authorizes us to conclude that the future condi- 
tions and eternal life were not determined by the law of Moses : whether all or 
any of the Israelites so understood it or not. And they might believe in free 
grace, and reconciliation, without knowing how it was secured, or being able to 
reconcile it with justice, and respect for law. 

18. Sanctification means to make holy, and the model set before Israel was 
their God: "Be ye holy; for I, the Jehovah, your God, am holy."^ Holiness 
is the concentration of all purity ; or, in a scientific sense, everything in its place. 
Physical purity was taught them in all their religious rites. The general law 
was : Whatever can endure the fire must pass through the fire, but previously 
they must be sprinkled with the water of separation ;"^ and whatever cannot 
endure the fire, must go through the water. This water of separation was pure 
water, with ashes of the red heifer put into it. These ashes contained the blood 
and all of the heifer, and the person coming in contact with them was reckoned 
unclean, but 3^et they were essential to purification ; which, in case of a person, 
was effected by washing the clothes, and bathing the flesh in water. ^ Without 
the shedding of blood there was no remission for sin,^ and there can be no 
sanctification without such remission ; hence, in all purifications there must be 
blood to represent justice and reconciliation, before there can be purification. 
The tabernacle and its furniture were ceremoniously purified by blood : but, in 
fact, its purity w-as derived from its consecration to the Holy God and His 
service, and existed in the association of ideas. In the case of the leper, ^ the 
blood of a bird was mingled with pure water, and twice sprinkled on him ; and 
he must shave himself, wash his clothes in water, and bathe his body. All puri- 
fication of persons must be actual, and not fanciful; the touch of the unclean 
polluted the clean, but the clean did not purify the unclean. ^ What the Israelite 
understood by all this, I shall not pretend to say, for we are not told ; but I 
would understand it, from the Christian standpoint, to teach that sanctification 
and justification must go together. First justified by the blood of Christ, and 
then sanctified in the whole person by the Holy Spirit. But without atonement, 
and sanctification by the law, no one could have access to the God of Israel, or 
enter His courts. ^ 

19. Design of Rites and Institutions. — One of three objects may have 
been designed by these rites, structures, and institutions, or all three ; or in some 
cases one, and in others another object. Paul calls them shadows of good things 
to come, but not the effigy or fao simile of the things themselves \'^ and again, 



(7)11. Sam., 12:10-14. (8) Ps., 51:16, 17. (9) Jolin, 8:3, 4, 5, 11. (*) Jude, 14, 15. (1) Lev., 
20:7, 21:8. 19:2. (*) Numb., 31:19-24; II. Kings, 5:10-14; Lev., 11:32. (2) Numb., 19. (3) Heb., 
9:22; Lev., 17:11. (4) Lev., 14:1-9. (5) Hag., 2:11-13; Numb., 19:22. (6) Numb., 19:20. 
(7) Heb , 10:1. 



96 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEYELOrED. 

"the shadow, but Christ is the body^ or substance;" and again he calls the 
sanctuar}^ the Most Holy, and the high priest entering on the great day of atone- 
ment, a parable, or similitude, of Christ's entering Heaven, and making recon- 
ciliation for His people 1. But did they, like shadows, exhibit the full and exact 
outline of the object, and guide unerringly to it? Or, in comparison with the 
gospel dispensation, were they only as shadows, compared with the body that 
cast them ? And if they were parables, or similitudes, did the Israelites under- 
stand them ? Some may have understood them as types, prefiguring Christ, His 
work, and sufferings ; but most of them looked no farther than to the rites, struc- 
tures, and institutions themselves. The Jews of Christ's day had not learned by 
them that Christ must be crucified^. 

20. As shadows were they understood ? But we cannot suppose the most 
intelligent or inspired did not inquire and reason about the design, and come to 
some conclusion. However necessary it was to observe and respect them, in 
order to obtain reconciliation and access to God, some persons taught their 
inferior importance. Samuel told Saul these offerings were not so acceptable to 
Jehovah, as obedience;^ and the prophets taught their insufficiency to take away 
sin, and true piety was more pleasing to God."* The songs of Israel declare God 
had no pleasure in eating the flesh, or drinking the blood of these victims, but 
preferred thanksgiving, and the performance of vows. ^ In another, the psalmist 
presents some faithful one declaring God neither delighted in, nor required, nor 
would have these offerings; but proclaimed himself come, in a body provided 
by God, to do the divine will. ^ This, Paul attributes to Christ, in superseding 
these institutions, by the sacrificing of himself in that bod}^ provided. With 
these passages recorded, we must conclude that some at least viewed these as 
types, prefiguring something superior, though the mass may have been ignorant 
of any such reference. But if all found as much gospel in them as some typical 
preachers find in many persons, places, and things, the disciples of Christ would 
have understood the certainty of His death, and resurrection. '' 

21. Antagonistic to Polytheism. — Another design may have been to insti- 
tute an antagonism to everything in Polytheism. Some of the animals accounted 
unclean by the law were worshiped as gods among the nations, while others, 
clean, were sacrificed to Jehovah ; and many practices in the rites of idolatry 
were condemned in the law, as abominations not to be tolerated. Perhaps 
everything in these rites, structures, and institutions was directed against some- 
thing in Polytheism, and answered their design. 

22. For Association of Ideas. — Another design njay have been to furnish 
material objects to communicate immaterial ideas, and moral qualities, through 
the association of ideas. If we trace our scientific abstract terms back to their 
origin, we will find they at first expressed material ideas, or represented physical 
objects. Thus we find the Scriptures use the terms breath, wind, hearts, reins, 
and bowels, to denote the mind, or its operations ; and the house of God, to rep- 
resent Heaven ; the glory and mercy seat, to denote God's excellency, and access 
to Him ; and the altar and offering, to denote reconciliation, friendship, and 
fellowship. Now, if corresponding lectures were delivered to the people at their 
feasts, these rites, structures, institutions, persons, places, and things would 
furnish way-marks to aid the memory, and a medium of religious thought. The 
uneducated see more in pictures and symbols, than scienced minds accustomed 
to abstract terms. 

23. Man is also subject to emotions, desires, and affections, which are 
aroused by sensible objects surrounded with associations. Awe and rever- 
ence are also inspired by external surrounding objects and circumstances and a 



(8) Col., 2:17. (1) Heb., 9:2-12. (2) I. Cor., 1:23; Luke, 24:25, 26,46; Acts, 17:3. (3) I. Sam., 
15:22, 23. (4) Mica., 6:6-8; Isa , 1:11-15, 17-20; Amos.5:21, 20; Jere., 7:21-23. (5) Ps ,50:7-15. 
(6) Ps., 40:6-9. (7) Heb., 10:1. (8) Col , 2:17. 



CHAPTER XXVL: SECTIONS XXI 7. -XXVI. 97 

devotional frame of mind induced or infused. Sacred times, persons, places, 
and things become centers for devotional, just, and holy feelings to cluster 
around and furnish mediums for pious thoughts and conversation, and are 
reminders of everything pertaining to man's moral character and eternal interest. 
Thus the wilderness and Jordan came to designate our journey through this life 
of sin and woe, and our exit in death : Canaan and the Promised Land is used 
by the associations of ideas to denote Heaven; and "The Lamb of God" 
became a title of Jesus Christ. 

24. Sustained a Ministry and Separated Israel from tpie Nations. — 
Many of the offerings were eaten, and perhaps were principally designed to 
furnish food for the people and ministers during the feasts, when and where they 
received most of their religious instructions and cultivated their national unity 
and friendship. And some rites and customs were designed simply to keep 
Israel separated from all nations and their idolatrous customs. But it would take 
too much time and space to enumerate all objects designed and ends accom- 
plished by the Mosaic institutions. It is hard for persons accustomed to the 
gospel light and abstract sciences to understand and appreciate a dispensation 
adapted to that nation and that age of the world. Unscienced preachers have 
the most success with the unlearned masses of the people ; but circumcision and 
the law was an unbearable yoke. 

25. A. M., 2514. Lev., 8-9; Ex., 35-40. The Tabernacle and its Fur- 
niture. — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had built altars for offerings to Jehovah, 
and left them as witnesses for Him to the nations and tribes where they Had 
sojourned. But Moses, by Divine command, constructed the Tabernacle, 
ordained a regular priesthood, and organized a national worship. This was yet 
in the wilderness, and, so far as we know, was the only palace of the True God 
on the earth at that time and for centuries after: it is the only one that has 
resisted the encroachments of ''The Old Serpent," and left its memorial in the 
pages of history or cut in the rock. It was only a Tabernacle, or tent, to be put 
up, or taken down and removed, as occasion required. A feeble structure to 
rear against the Gibraltars of Polytheism. There was no image in it ; and the 
shechinah, or glory, between the cherubim on the mercy seat, or lid of the 
Ark, in the Holy of Holies, was the only symbol of the Divine Presence, and 
the box of the covenant was the most sacred thing therein found — it was "the 
Ark of the God of Israel." The cloud that guided and sheltered Israel abode 
in a particular manner upon it ; and at the first, the glory of the Jehovah tilled 
it. When it was completed, Jehovah acknowledged in the sight of all Israel 
that this was His palace on earth, and these rites were instituted by Him : for 
He consumed the sacrifices by fire from Heaven and filled it with His glory, so 
that Moses could not stand before it. This fire was to be perpetuated on 
the altar as the sacred fire. Nadab and Abihu undertook to burn incense 
with common fire, but were killed by the fire. Thus Israel and the priests were 
taught respect and reverence for holy things and divine authorit}^ ^ 

26. JjEv., 23, 25. Instruction. — To furnish time for mental cultivation and 
divine instruction,* Jehovah gave them the Sabbath, new moons, and divers 
feasts and fasts. Three of these feasts must be kept at the Tabernacle by every 
male ; which furnished an opportunity for mutual communication and alliances 
between all their tribes, and unity of feeling and interest. For the support of 
His religion, the Lord appointed the Tenths, the redemption of the first-born, 
sacrifices and offerings, voluntary offerings and donations. The priests and 
Levites were dependent on these for sustenance ; must give their time to relig- 
ious rites and the instruction of the people ; and were distributed among the 
tribes, in cities of their own, having outlets for cultivation in time of need"^. 
Having triumphed over all gods, demons, and men in Egypt, all communications 



(8) Lev., 10:1, 2. (*) Deut.. 31:11-13. (*) Numb , 35, 

—7 



178 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

12. Convinced, but not Reformed. — Ahab told Jezebel these mighty 
proofs of the sole divinity of Jehovah : the dearth, the fire from Heaven, and 
the rain, according to Elijah's word ; but demon-like, she will not submit to 
Jehovah, but resolved and vowed revenge on Elijah. She sent this determina- 
tion to Elijah, assuring him he should be killed. If evidence was all that was 
wanted to prove the sole divinity of Jehovah, Israel would never have gone after 
other gods. The people were convinced, but not converted. However, apos- 
tacy was arrested, and the pious were fortified anew with arguments against 
Polytheism. There were over seven thousand in Israel who had never acknowl- 
edged the divinity of Baal, but they were unknown to Elijah. Polytheism is a 
disease of the heart, and not of the head. 

13. Elijah in the Wilderness. — Disappointed in the result of this trium- 
phant proof to Israel, Elijah started into the wilderness to go to the mount of 
God, but for. what purpose is not stated. His journey is romantic. He left his 
servant, and went alone into the wilderness, and sat down under a tree or shrub, 
fatigued and discouraged, and exclaimed: "Enough, O Jehovah! Take away 
my life, for I am no better than my fathers ! " He lies down exhausted, and is 
covered over with balmy slumbers. No Arabs feed him here ! But angels, 
those guardians of the pious, prepare his repast ! The angel touches him, and 
tells him to eat. He arose and eat, and lies down again to sleep in the lone 
desert. Like Samson, unfellowshiped by one kindred spirit, and stricken 
through with the stubbornness and impiety of Israel, he lies down again to 
slumber in solitude. "Enough, O Jehovah! Take away my life, for I am no 
better than my fathers ! " Methinks he dreamt of peace, of green pastures, and 
quiet waters in other lands. What more could be asked, than what was promised 
to Israel. But they won't obey, and the pious cannot enjoy these promised 
blessings there. 

14. Elijah in Horeb. — But he had started to meet God where the last cov- 
enant with Israel was made, and did he expect to find the same manifestations of 
the divine presence still there? Why not go to Jerusalem ? Again, the angel 
awoke him, and bid him eat, for the journey was too much for his strength. He 
arose and eat, and started on his lone journey, and, without any more food, 
appeared in forty days on the Mount of God. But what is here? Mount 
Horeb ! rocks and caves ! no Moses ! no Aaron ! no Joshua ! no trumpet ! no 
voice ! Lone exile of eartli ! Dost thou seek kindred spirits among these 
barren rocks? Nothing but disappointment here ! " Oh, that I knew the secret 
place where I might find my God ! " Forty days' journey from God's promised 
land without food, and none here ! If no enjoyment among the people of 
Jehovah in the promised land, can any be found among these barren rocks? No 
accommodations here for weary travelers, but this cave. He enters it and takes 
up his lodging, as if he intended it should be his sepulchre ! 

15. Interview. — Behold, the word of the Lord came to him in the cave, 
saying: " What doest thou here, Elijah?" He answered : "I have been very 
jealous for the Jehovah, God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken 
thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword ! 
and I only am left, and they seek my life ! " The voice said : "Go forth out of 
the cave, and stand upon the mount before the Jehovah." A great and strong 
wind rent the mountain, and broke the rocks in pieces, but the Jehovah was not 
in the wind ! An earthquake followed, but the Jehovah was not in the earth- 
quake ! A fire flashed all around, but the Jehovah was not in the fire ! These 
mighty agents were Jehovah's servants, and when He saw proper. He could 
blast, engulf, or burn up all His adversaries in a moment ; but He is long-suf- 
fering, and gives time and admonitions to repent, while His own servants must 
toil on and suff'er for others. A small, quiet, unexcited voice was heard, that no 
human voice, witnessing such phenomena, could have commanded. Elijah 
wrapped his face in bis mantle, and stood in the entrance of the cave. The 



CHAPTER XLVII. : SECTIONS XVI. -XIX. 179 

voice said, in a low, quiet tone: "What doest thou here, Elijah?" Elijah 
repeated his former answer : " * ^ ^ They seek my life, to take it away. " 
No phenomena in creation could obliterate this deep impression in his soul. " I 
have labored in vain ; unless God does something, I can do no more ! " Here 
the Lord tells him of more than seven thousand in Israel who never acknowl- 
edged Baal ; but destruction before reformation must now be expected. Elijah 
must return and anoint, or cause to be anointed, three ministers of wrath. 
Elisha must take his place, as Jehovah's prophet to Israel. Jehu must destroy, 
Ahab and Baal out of Israel, and Hazael must waste the power of the ten tribes. 
Elijah returned to appoint his successors. (I. Kings, 19:9-21.) 

16. Reduced and Depressed Condition of Israel. — I. Kings, 20:1-4:3. — 
The Lord continued teaching Ahab and Israel by predictions and direct inter- 
positions. By assassination, civil war, and emigrations to Judah, the army of 
Israel was reduced from eight hundred thousand in the days of Jeroboam to 
seven thousand in the time of Ahab; while Judah could muster above one 
million. This one fact should have taught Israel the truth of Moses' laws and 
the stability of Jehovah's covenants and government. Syria had now recovered 
from its subjugation by David, and had been courted by the throne of Judah for 
alliance against Israel. In this low and enfeebled condition, the Syrians, who 
had become innumerable and had wasted the north of Israel, undertook the easy 
task of capturing Samaria and subduing Israel. They had been vanquished 
and exhausted by the concentrated power of Israel under David; now Israel had 
been reduced by division and civil discord, while Hadad has concentrated the 
power of Syria, and his son has become strong; and now Ben-Hadad considered 
himself able to subjugate Israel without the aid of any gods. Syria had been 
taught to know and fear Jehovah, and the Lord now intended that knowledge 
should not be lost to the pious in Syria and Israel. 

17. Promises Verified. — Since the great victory of Elijah over the prophets 
of Baal, a prophet of Jehovah may now approach Ahab without fear of Jezebel. 
A prophet told Ahab in the name of the Jehovah to look at that great multitude 
of the Syrians, and the Lord would deliver them into the hand of Israel. Ahab 
is very docile, and is willing to be instructed and directed by Jehovah, for he 
well knew Israel had no power against such an army; and the Syrians were 
defeated with a great slaughter. A prophet told Ahab the Syrians would try it 
again, and told him the reason. The Syrians now fear the Jehovah, as their 
ancestors did, but thought Him only a hill-god, and concluded to fight Israel on 
the plain, and were sure of victory. 

18. Ahab Fears Jehovah. — It was evident Israel could not stand against 
Syria; for the Syrians filled the country, while the Israelites pitched against 
them like two little flocks of kids. The Lord informed Ahab that He would 
destroy that second multitude, and they should know He was the Jehovah; and 
the Syrians were defeated with the loss of one hundred and twenty-seven 
thousand men, and Ben-Hadad submitted to Ahab. Ahab never asked counsel 
of the Lord, but made his own treaty; and a prophet informed him that his 
friendship for Folytheists would prove the destruction of himself and people. 
Thus was Israel and the Syrians taught for the present to fear Jehovah, and 
evidence of His government was provided for the future. This information 
made Ahab sad; for he had learned to fear Jehovah, though he did not love 
Him. 

19. Fate of Jezebel Foretold. — I. Kings, 21. — We find Jehovah was not 
forgotten by all in Israel, nor His laws entirely disregarded. Ahab wishes to 
purchase Naboth's vineyard, and Naboth refuses to sell the inheritance of his 
fathers. Ahab is displeased, but will not take it by force. Jezebel was not to 
be daunted by anything; and by false witnesses and murder secured the vineyard 
by confiscation. Ahab went to take possession, but met Elijah, who told him his 



180 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

doom and the fate of Jezebel. This brought Aliab to open confession ; and all 
Israel saw that Ahab was convinced that Jehovah was the God of both Israel 
and Syria. Jezebel's power was palsied by the great EHjah-reformation, but she 
was still the same. 

20. False Prophets. — I. Kings, 22:1-40. II. Chron., 18. — In the death 
of Ahab, Israel was favored with another proof of Jehovah's government and 
the truth of his prophets. Here we discover another source of apostacy, which 
doubtless had its influence in establishing the worship of the calves of Jeroboam. 
These were false prophets, professing to prophecy in the name of Jehovah. 
These instigated Ahab to the fatal battle, promising him victory in the name of 
Jehovah. This appeared very probable, as Ahab had obtained the alliance of 
the powerful kiug of Judah. But in opposition to four hundred of these false 
prophets, Michaiah, the true prophet of Jehovah, predicted Ahab's death, and 
called the attention of all Israel to the result. This prediction could not be 
overlooked ; for Ahab commanded Michaiah to be imprisoned and afflicted till 
his return in safety, which he never did. Michaiah would not have answered 
Ahab, had he not regarded the presence of Jehoshaphat ; he was a bold prophet, 
and Ahab hated him. Ahab was wounded in the battle, and died, and the dogs 
licked his blood. His life went for saving the life of Ben-Hadad, as the prophet 
foretold ; he was killed, as Michaiah predicted ; and the dogs licked his blood, 
as Elijah had informed him beforehand. Often reproved, confuted, and con- 
vinced, he fell at last. 

21. Elijah Defeats Ahaziah. — I. Kings, 22:50-53. II. Kings, 1. — Ahaziah 
sat on his father Ahab's throne, but was nothing the wiser or better for his 
father's experience. He became sick, and sent not to Baal, nor to the calves of 
Jeroboam, but to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron. This was stubbornness. Their 
false gods had been defeated in every contest; but he would not acknowledge 
the true God of Israel. Elijah met the messengers, and sent them back with 
the assurance of his death, because of his stubborn rejection of evidence and 
determination to not acknowledge Jehovah. Twice the king sent fifty men to 
capture Elijah; and at Elijah's word they were consumed by fire. The third 
captain besought the prophet for the lives of himself and his fifty men. Elijah 
went with him, and repeated the message to the king. Ahaziah died, having 
followed the steps of Ahab, Jezebel, and Jeroboam. 

22. Evidence Given to Jehoram. A. M. 4108-3120. B. C. 896-881.— 
II. Kings, 3:1-27. — Jehoram now took the throne, and met the fate predicted 
by Elijah ; but the Lord did not destroy him without first giving him and Israel 
proof of his existence and government. On the division of the kingdom of 
Solomon, the subjugated nations north, east, and west, fell to Israel; and now 
Moab rebelled, and Jehoram got the king of Edom and the king of Judah to 
help him reconquer Moab. Doubling the south end of the Dead sea, they were 
about to perish for water in the wilderness of Edom. Jehoram acknowledges 
Jehovah's hand, and impeaches Him with gathering these three kings together 
to destroy them. Jehoshaphat inquires for a prophet of the Jehovah, and Elisha 
is produced ; bat he bids Jehoram go to the prophets of his father and mother ; 
and said if he did not respect Jehoshaphat he would not look toward Jehoram. 
But as it was, he told them Jehovah would furnish water without rain or wind, 
and would deliver Moab into their hands, and they would destroy the country. 
The water flowed along from the direction of Edom, and filled the country. 
Moab was deceived and defeated. Jehoram reformed so far as to put away his 
father's image of Baal, but he adhered to the sins of Jeroboam ; and perhaps for 
the same reason that induced Jeroboam to establish it. 

23. Elijah Translated. A. M. 3108. B. 0. 896.— II. Kings, 2.— The 
Lord saw proper to give his pious servants additional evidence of a happy abode 
for his faithful witnesses, up in heaven, or out in the universe. For this purpose 



CSAPTER XLVll.: SECTIONS XtlV. -XXYI. 18l 

he chose his most zealous and faithful servant, Elijah. This translation of 
Elijah was known to the sons of the prophets beforehand ; and they told Elisha, 
who knew it also, and was determined to stick by his teacher as long as possible; 
and no excuse Elijah made could divert him from his purpose. The school of 
the prophets watched from a distance, and witnessed what happened. Elijah 
divided the Jordan, and both passed over and walked on till separated by a 
chariot and horses of fire; and Elijah went up in a whirlwind, in sight of Elisha 
and of the prophets watching from Jericho. Elisha exclaimed, "My father! 
My father! The chariots of Israel and the horsemen." Elisha had requested 
of Elijah a double portion of the spirit animating and controlling him; and 
Elijah had promised it if Elisha witnessed his ascension. Elijah's mantle fell; 
Elisha picked it up, and returning, smote the Jordan, exclaiming, "Where is 
the Jehovah, God of EHjah?" That Jehovah was present was proved by the 
waters dividing and Elisha passing over. Having witnessed these events, the 
prophets watching from Jericho said, "The spirit of Elijah rested upon Elisha." 
They came to meet him, and bowing to him, acknowledged his competency to 
teach them. Elijah went up in a whirlwind, and the prophets insisted hunting 
the country, lest the wind, or spirit of the Jehovah, having taken him up, should 
have cast him upon some mountain or into some valley. Elisha objected : but 
they insisted till he consented ; and fifty sons of strength searched three days, 
but found him not. Elisha had no doubt of his ascension into Heaven like 
Enoch. Thus Israel was shown that Jehovah was the God of Heaven, and 
Elijah had been His prophet ; and the miracles and predictions of Elisha proved 
that the same spirit rested on him. 

24. Elisha Takes His Place.— II. Kings, 2:19-25. 4. 5. 6:1-23.— This 
event, which should have turned every heart to God, only provoked their hos- 
tility and derision. Youth, at Bethel, followed Elisha, expressing the taunt and 
derision they learned from parents, and older persons, telling him to go up along 
with Elijah. They said: " Baldhead, go up! Baldhead, go up!" But he 
proved his own mission in a way that taught the impious parents and friends a 
lesson they never forgot : of these youth, forty-two in number were destroyed by 
two bears. Elisha wrought miracles, proving to all who witnessed them that he 
was a true prophet of the true God. He increased the widow's oil, brought the 
dead child to life, allayed poison in food, fed one hundred men with small quan- 
tities of food, made iron swim, healed the leper, and captured the Syrians. 

25. Naaman, the Syrian. — The Syrian's knowledge of Jehovah is shown 
in the case of Naaman^ the leper ; and the way the captives from Israel taught 
the knowledge of the Jehovah, is seen in the talk of the little girl that waited on 
his wife. Naaman was a great Syrian general, and in their raids had captured a 
little girl of Israel who waited on his wife. This little girl knew Elisha and 
Jehovah, and believed in them, too. l^aaman was a leper, and the little girl 
said the prophet in Samaria would heal him, if he applied. This was not 
treated as children's talk, but was believed, and made the base of action, for the 
Syrians knew the power of Jehovah, and of His prophets. The king of Syria 
sent a present, a royal letter, and Naaman to be healed, to the king of Israel. 
This astounded Jehoram, who had not the common sense of the little captive 
girl ; he thought it impossible, and that this was only a pretext for a quarrel. 

26. The I!^ations Learning to Fear Jehovah. — Elisha sent the king word 
to send Naaman to him, and Syria should know that Jehovah's prophets were 
not all dead, nor banished from Israel. The history of Israel was well known 
in Syria, and so was their apostacy ; and this may have emboldened them to 
fight the armies of Israel, while they feared their prophets. Naaman is cured, 
at the word of Elisha, and avows himself a convert to Jehovah, and a rejecter 
of all other gods ; but he was an high ofiicer, and had to accompany the king in 
his devotions to Kimmon, and he hoped Jehovah would excuse him in that 



182 tHE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

official act. This may give us an idea how those acted who were convinced that 
Jehovah was the true God. They did not stand up for the truth, at all hazards, 
like the prophets of Jehovah. We also see the nations are learning that Jehovah 
is with His prophets, when He is not with the kings and armies of Israel ; and 
they are learning to fear the prophets more than they fear Israel. The Lord is 
preparing the nations for a change, in the development of the Kingdom of God. 
The people rebel, and Jehovah delivers them into the hand of the enemy, but 
He sustains His prophets ; hence, the nations will learn to conquer Israel, while 
they fear Jehovah and His prophets ; and when the land of Israel is desolated, 
her captive children, impressed by the teachings and miracles of the prophets, 
will teach the nations to know and fear Jehovah ; and though philosophers and 
statesmen may not believe their wondrous stories, they may pick up the true 
morality, and take a hint respecting the being of the true God ; and the pious, 
in retirement, will discover the attributes of Jehovah, and love them. 

27. The Syrians Captured by Elisha. — II. Kings, 6:8-23. — Another cir- 
cumstance taught the Syrians, and surrounding nations, to fear Jehovah and His 
prophets, while they executed His punishments upon the nation of Israel. The 
Syrians laid ambushes for Jehoram, but Elisha informed him, and he saved 
his life several times. This led the king of Syria to suspect spies, or treason in 
his camp ; but his servants informed him that Elisha told the talk of his bed- 
chamber to the king of Israel. So he sent a great army to capture Elisha; but 
Elisha captured them, led them into Samaria, and delivered them into the hands 
of Jehoram. Jehoram wished to kill them, but Elisha prevented him, and had 
them refreshed, and sent safely home. This stopped their raids. 

28. Elisha Shows Hazeal His Future Barbarity to Israel. — II. Kings, 
8:7-15. — When Ben-Hadad was sick he sent to meet Elisha, and to inquire of its 
termination. Elisha told Hazael the part he would act in destroying Israel. 
Thus, the nations were taught beforehand what Jehovah was about to do, and 
why He did it ; so when they conquered Israel they could not attribute it to 
themselves, nor to their gods. They were taught His holiness, by His pun- 
ishing Israel's wickedness. Jehoram had no excuse for his rebellion against 
Jehovah, for he had special favors shown him that ought to have converted lym 
from the sins of Jeroboam, and induced him to establish the worship of the true 
God. 

29. Jehoram Hardened in Apostacy. — II. Kings, G:24:-33. — Ben-Hadad 
besieged Samaria till the famine was so great that women eat their own children. 
Jehoram believed Elisha had some power to control this famine, as Elijah had 
in the time of Ahab, and vowed, in the name of Jehovah, to behead the 
prophet. Being prevented by the elders, he acknowledged this evil from the 
Jehovah, and concludes it useless to wait upon Jehovah any longer. He had 
abandoned Baal, and returned to the calves and demons of Jeroboam. Jehovah 
had favored him before, and he was expecting it again ; but being disappointed, 
he now gives up all respect for Him. He will worship the calves without any 
reward, but will not serve Jehovah unless served by Him. 

30. Restored Not the Worship of Jehovah. — II. Kings, 7. 8:1-6. — But 
Elisha predicted abundance of food within twenty-four hours. This prediction 
was ridiculed by the king's noblest officer ; but his own fate was foretold, and 
came to pass. The Syrians fled, leaving all their stores ; and the starving 
people, rushing out of the gate for food, trampled that officer to death. He saw 
the abundance, but did not eat of it. Jehoram was delivered again, but did not 
restore the worship of Jehovah ; and though preserved from the Syrians by the 
prophet, he must now fall by the hand of Jehu, according to the word of Elijah. 
Elisha sent a young prophet, and anointed Jehu to cut off the house of Ahab, 
and destroy Baal out of Israel, as Elijah had ordered. 



(3llAt*TEK XlVIi.: sections XXXI. -XXXIII. 183 

81. Three Destroyers on the Stage. — II. Kings, 8:7-15. 9:1-26, 30-37. 
10:l-28.-^Hazael was now king of Syria, having dethroned the dynasty of 
Hadad. Thus we have Elisha, Jehu, and Hazael, the three Elijah was told to 
anoint to finish up the work he had begun. Jehoram had been wounded in 
battle with Hazael, and was at Jezreel to be healed when Jehu came against 
him. Jehoram was slain, and left to the dogs in what had been the vineyard of 
Naboth.2 Jezebel was thrown out of a window, and trodden down by the cav- 
alry, and was eaten of dogs, by the wall of Jezreel. The sons of Ahab, seventy 
in number, were beheaded ; and by a strategism, all the worshipers of Baal were 
destroyed at once. Thus, Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel, and boasts of his 
zeal for Jehovah, and refers with confidence to the prediction of Elijah he had 
fulfilled, as the words of Jehovah.^ This destroyed the pernicious friendship 
between the kings of Israel and Judah. 

32. Jehu's Impiety. — The language of Jehu's men to him, when anointed, ^ 
shows the soldiers looked upon the young prophets as a set of crazy fools, but 
were willing to have their influence when it suited their designs. Though Jehu 
saw the supreme divinity of Jehovah demonstrated, yet he adhered to the sins 
of Jeroboam, and reestablished the worship of the calves as the national religion. 
The worship of Baal was debasing and cruel, embracing human victims, and was 
practiced by the surrounding nations. Perhaps that of the calves was not so 
brutalizing ; and being Egyptian, was not so likely to merge the Israelites into 
the nations. Baal represented the sun, and was the supreme God of the 
Asiatics. The calves represented On, of Egypt, who represented the sun also. 
Joseph's wife was a daughter of the priest of On. Baal was destroyed out of 
Israel, but the calves of Beth-Aven were retained. Jehovah was acknowledged, 
feared, and rejected. Jehu had more Atheism than superstition. 

33. Severe Judgments. — Having prepared many of the rising generation, 
by the teachings and miracles of the two greatest prophets of Israel, to carry 
His truths to the nations, the Lord began to give over the impious to the sword, 
and the pious to captivity. Hazael smote Israel in all their coasts, burned their 
strongholds of defence, slew their young men with the sword, dashed children to 
pieces, and ripped up pregnant females. ^ Severe judgments ! but nothing less 
will correct the rebellion and impiety. The pious will remember the threatenings 
in the law of Moses ; and in afflictions, or captivities in strange lands, they will 
teach the fear, hope, and service of Jehovah, the Grod of their fathers. He has 
fulfilled both the promises and threatenings, and now come the captivities 
threatened by Moses, and announced by Ahijah. ^ They must pass the 
Euphrates. The territory of Israel has become contracted; all east of the 
Jordan, and on the north, down to the south end of the sea of Galilee has been 
captured; 6 and the pious can serve Jehovah about as well among the nations 
as in the promised land, under their own kings. Judah also had captured, and 
fortified cities and territory on the south. '*' 



_ (2) II. Kings, 9:25-6. (3) ll. Kin^s, 9:11-13. (4) ll. Kin^s, §:7-15. 10:82-3. 18:3-6. (5) I. 
tongs, 14:15-6. (6) I. Kings, 15:20. (7) II. Chron., 13;19. 17:2. 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 



EEIGK OF JEHOSHAPHAT. A. M. 3090-3115. B. C. 914-889.— I. Kings, 

22; 11. CiiKON., 17-20. 

1. JuDAH Yert Prosperous. — Jehoshaphat commenced his reign in the 
fourth year of Ahab, king of Israel He garrisoned the cities of Judah, and those 
Asa had captured in Ephraim, and could muster one million one hundred thou- 
sand men, besides those in the garrisons. His citizens loved him and made him 
presents ; and the nations brought him presents, which must have been on 
account of his fidelity to Jehovah, and His worship, for he was not a conquerer ; 
and he became rich. IS'o doubt many in the nations, becoming acquainted with 
Jehovah in the time of David and Solomon, hoped to see that religion extend 
over the earth, but they had been vexed and discouraged in seeing the apostacy 
of Solomon, and the division of the kingdom. [N^ow, seeing that worship 
restored by Asa, and promoted by Jehoshaphat, they were rejoiced, and sent their 
aid to advance the cause of the true God. Among these were Philistines and 
Arabians. 

2. Government and Religion Eight. — His heart was lifted up in the ways 
of the Jehovah, and he sent priests and Levites to the princes with the book of 
the law, to teach throughout the cities. He took away the idols, altars, groves, 
and the remnant of the Sodomites; and the Lord established his kingdom. He 
sat judges throughout all the fenced cities of Judah, and charged them to fear 
the Jehovah, who sat with them in judgment, and with him was no iniquity, nor 
taking of bribes, nor respect of persons, and they judged not for man but for 
the Jehovah. A suitable psalm for the occasion is the Eighty-second, composed 
by Asaph, and is supposed to have been written at this time. He established a 
supreme court in Jerusalem, composed of the priests, Levites, and chief of the 
fathers of Israel, charging them to act courageously in the fear of Jehovah, and 
he would be with them. In the matters of the Lord, the chief priest, Amariah, 
was over the court; and in the king's matters, Zebadiah, ruler of the house of 
Judah, was the royal attorney. Jehoshaphat's subjects were largely composed 
of emigrants from Israel, and this supreme court in Jerusalem represented the 
interests of all ; they were, in fact, the united tribes of Israel governed by the 
throne of David. This court was a representative body, and Jehoshaphat 
delegated to it part of his absolute authority; and thus a wicked king might be 
counteracted in apostacy. But no system of government can stand against 
corruption. Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any 
people. ^ A second time Jehoshaphat went out through the land, from Beer- 
sheba to Mount Ephraim, and brought the people back to the Jehovah, God of 
their fathers, before he established the judges in the fortified cities. 

3. They Trust in Jehovah. — The Moabites, Ammonites, and Mount Seir 
conspired against Jehoshaphat, and brought an overwhelming army against him. 
Jehoshaphat proclaimed a fast, and all the cities of Judah congregated to ask 
help of the Jehovah. He stood and praved in the assembl}^ confessing Jehovah, 
the God of their fathers, dwelling in Heaven, and ruling all kingdoms of the 



(8) Prov., 14:34. 



CHAPTER XLVIII.: SECTIONS IV. -VIII. 185 

nations, and that He is almighty and gave them their country. He supplicated 
assistance against that great multitude, confessing their own inability to stand ; 
and he pleaded the approved prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple. 

4. Gained a Yictory. — The spirit of the Jehovah came upon Jahaziel, who 
informed them they should triumph without fighting. The battle was God's, 
and not theirs; and they should stand and witness the deliverance of Jehovah. 
Jehoshaphat bowed, all the people fell to the ground and worshiped the Jehovah, 
and the Levites praised Him with a loud voice. Jehoshaphat exhorted the 
people thus: " Believe in the Jehovah, your God; so shall ye be established; 
believe His prophets and ye shall prosper. After consultation, he appointed 
singers to praise Jehovah, for His mercy endureth forever. 

5. The Slaughter. — When the Jews began to sing, the children of Amnion 
and Moab exterminated those of Mount Seir and then destroyed one another, 
before Judah saw them. The spoil taken by the Jews was very great, taking 
three days to gather it. On the fourth day they assembled in the valley of 
Blessing, or Berachah, and blessed the Jehovah, and sung psalms One Hundred 
and Fifteen and Forty-six. Then with the king in front, they returned to 
Jerusalem, with music and joy. The surrounding nations heard that Jehovah 
again fought for Judah, and feared to make any more combinations against the 
throne of David while the Jews served the Jehovah. The nations were now 
learning the conquests of Israel were on account of their rebellion and sin against 
Jehovah, and not on account of the power of the invading gods and armies. 
The gods of Israel were disposed of by the kings ; but the kings of Judah were 
governed by Jehovah. Judah, though weak at first, had become great and 
strong; and Israel, though strong at first, had become small and weak. 

6. Jehoshaphat's Error. — But Jehoshaphat committed a great error when 
he joined afi&nity with Ahab and feasted with him. On his return the prophet 
Jehu accosted him thus: "Shouldest thou help the ungodly, or impious, and 
love them who hate the Jehovah? Therefore is wrath upon thee from before 
the Jehovah." Jehoshaphat did not ignore his religion on account of Ahab or 
his sons; but when Ahab desired his help against the Syrians he refused the 
flattery of the false prophets, and must have a true prophet that would not 
worship Baal, though Ahab hated him ; and when he went with Jehoram against 
Moab, he must have Elisha consulted. True, this brought these two prophets 
before the people of Israel, and their predictions being verified, furnished evi- 
dence for Jehovah and against the false prophets. Perhaps Jehoshaphat hoped to 
reform Israel ; but the only way to reform the impious is to testify against them. 

7. Reproved, but Persisting. — Jehoshaphat continued his affinity with 
Ahab, and undertook a partnership sea-expedition with his son Ahaziah ; but 
Eleazer prophesied against the expedition and partnership, and the ships were 
wrecked. In a second expedition, Jehoshaphat would not let the servants of 
Ahaziah go with his ; or first, the servants went in different vessels, and 
served their different gods. But he continued his alliance with Jehoram, and 
the punishment grew out of the friendship, in the natural order of cause and 
eff'ect. His son Jehoram married Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, who proved 
Kerself equal to her mother, Jezebel, in wickedness and murder. Thus, like 
Solomon, Jehoshaphat sapped the foundation of his own prosperity, by fellowship 
with Polytheists and atheists. 

8. Judah and Israel Contrasted. — About eighty-one years have rolled 
away since Jerusalem was pillaged by Shishak, and Judah has become rich and 
powerful. The land must have been as fertile as Moses promised, in case of 
obedience (Chap. 70, § 4), to have supported such a dense population. Thus, 
the nations witnessed the fulfillment of the promises given by Moses, in the his- 
tory of Judah ; and of the threatenings, in the history of apostate Israel. Thus, 
Judah, in union with Israel, lost but one battle in one hundred and forty-one 



186 l^HE :^N(}DOM OP' aoD DEVELOfED. 

years — froQi the return of the Ark from the PhiHstines, till the division of the 
tribes. Five years after, Rehoboam's apostacy was checked by the invasion of 
Shishak. Then reformation and prosperity returned for eighty-one years more, 
making two hundred and twenty-seven years of victory, with but two defeats. 
Since the division, Israel has disobeyed and suffered by famine, civil wars, and 
invasions, till her territory is contracted to Samaria, and her power and riches 
are gone. Nothing but impiety could prevent Israel and the nations from 
believing in Jehovah, and serving Him. No miracle is equal in evidence to this 
consecutive development of the kingdom of God. In every possible way, is 
the power and government of Jehovah manifested. He is the God of Israel ; 
but He is the God, without Israel ; and He disposes of Israel, and the nations, 
just as He tells them by the prophets He will do. All the nations, from Egypt 
to Assyria, are as inexcusable for their Polytheism as Israel. 



Period Seventh. A. M. 3115-3262. B. C. 889-742. 
Partial Apostaoies and Reformations^ and Corresponding Adversities and 
Prosperities. 

CHAPTER XLIX. 



APOSTACY AND REFORMATION IN JUDAH. A. M. 3115-3194. 

B. C. 889-810. 

1. Jehoram of Judah. — II. Chron., 21 ; II. Kings, 8. — Jehosaphat scat- 
tered his sons into fenced cities, and enriched them with presents, and gave the 
throne to Jehoram. Jehoram followed the sins of Ahab, having Athahah for 
wife and counselor ; slew all his brothers, and different princes of Judah — I sup- 
pose, those resisting his idolatry. He built high places in the hills of Judah, 
caused the citizens of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and compelled Judah to 
it. Here is persecution to force the pious into wickedness, as Ahab, instigated 
by Jezebel, did in Israel. Would the pious be worse situated under the Syrians ? 
A writing of Elijah was sent to him by some of the pious in Israel, who had 
preserved it, denouncing the wrath of Jehovah upon him, for his apostacy and 
murders. Edom and Libna revolted ; the Philistines and Arabians, who had 
made presents to Jehoshaphat, made a raid into Judah, and carried off the king's 
substance, wives, and sons, except Athaliah, and her son Jehoahas, or Ahaziah. 
The Lord smote him in the bowels with an incurable disease ; and in two years 
his bowels dropped out, as Elijah's letter threatened him. 

2. Jehoahaz, or Ahaziah. — II. Chron., 22 ; II. Kings, 9. — Ahaziah came 
to the throne, and had his mother, Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, for 
counselor ; and he, too, walked in the ways of the house of Ahab. He went to 
visit Joram, or Jehoram of Israel, at Jezereel, and Jehu killed him and forty of 
his kindred, when he destroyed the house of Ahab. The Jezebel policy was 
uniting the thrones of Israel and Judah in Zidonian Polytheism. 

3. Athalia Usurps the Throne. — II. Chron., 22-24; II. Kings, 11. — ■ 
When Athaliah saw her son was dead, she murdered all the royal seed she could 
find, and usurped the throne of David for six years. But Joshabath, daughter 



OHAi*TJ:tt XiAx.i sScTloNs iV.-\^i. 187 

of Jehoram, and wife of Jehoiada, the high priest, took Joash, an infant son of 
Ahaziah, and hid him in the temple six years. Then Jehoiada, the priest, and 
I suppose, chief of the senate, gathered the princes, showed them the young 
king, anointed him, had him guarded, and slew Athahah. All this evil came 
upon Jehoshaphat's family, and upon Judah, for his affinity with the house of 
Ahab, as the prophet had foretold him. The sons of Athaliah had broken up 
the house of the Jehovah, and bestowed all the dedicated things upon Balim. 

4. The Jezebel Influences. — See what a train of evils followed out of 
Ahab's marriage with Jezebel, daughter of the king of Zidon, which was con- 
trary to the law of Moses. How pernicious to the cause of God and truth are 
impious mothers and wives ! and how much evil a false step of a good man may 
bring on the cause of God and truth. But Athaliah must have had wicked 
coadjutors in Jerusalem, or she never could have succeeded as she did. The 
seeds of corruption and dissolution are sown in youth, health, and prosperity. 
Judah was secretly apostatizing, while rejoicing in the salvation of the Lord, 
under Jehoshaphat. 

5. Impiety, and 'Not Ignorance. — This was the second apostacy of Judah, 
and lasted about fifteen years. Jehoram, being thirty-two years old when he 
came to the throne, must have witnessed all the events of Jehoshaphat's reign of 
twenty-five years, and was married at least fifteen years before the death of 
Jehoshaphat. It is probable Jehoram spent much of his time in the family 
of Ahab, and became an atheist, or Polytheist. His son Ahaziah was fourteen 
years old when Jehoshaphat died, and must have known many of the wonders 
done by Jehovah, and the impiety of Ahab. Thus, these three incarnations of 
the devil were matured by the knowledge of good and evil ; they acted to defy 
Jehovah, and teach the Jews that His religion was a humbug. While at the 
court of Ahab, disgracing his father's religion in observing idolatrous rites with 
Athaliah, Elijah observed him, and left a denunciation of the wrath of Jehovah 
upon Jehoram, to counteract his influence on the throne of Judah. But the fate 
of these three impious wretches, taken with the threatenings of Moses, David, 
and Elijah, confirmed the truth of Jehovah's law and testimony. Strange such 
a man as Jehoshaphat should form affinity with such a man as Ahab ! But Scrip- 
ture confines itself to the development of the kingdom of God, and does not 
gratify the historian, nor furnish the facts for the philosopher, nor amuse the 
biographer. Jehoshaphat may have hoped to reform Israel, or he may have 
hoped to unite the two crowns by the marriage of Jehoram with Athaliah. But 
according to the law, the touch of the unclean pollutes the clean ; but the touch 
of the pure, will not purify the unclean. (Hag., 2; 11-14.) 

6. Reign of Jehoiada, the Priest.— A. M. 3126-3164. B. C. 878-840.— 
II. Kings, 11. 12; II. Chron., 23. 24. — Joash was in his Tth year when anointed 
king of Judah, and the first part of his reign might be called the reign of Jehoiada, 
the priest. Joash did right while under Jehoiada's influence; but the high 
places of Jehoram were not destroyed, and the people burned incense and sacri- 
ficed on them instead of in the Holy City. This was contrary to the law, which 
required them to sacrifice in the place the Jehovah should choose, which was now 
in Jerusalem. Jehoiada made a covenant with all the people and the king, that 
they would serve the Jehovah. Then they broke down the house of Baal, his 
altars, his images; they slew Mattan, the priest of Baal, and restored the worship 
of the Jehovah, according to the law of Moses and ordinances of David. After 
this they collected money and repaired the house of the Lord, though the priests 
were tardy about it. The Jews off^ered burnt-ofiferings continually in the temple 
of Jehovah all the days of Jehoiada. Jehoiada became old, and died at the age 
of 130 years, and was buried in the city of David among the kings, because he 
had done royal work for Jehovah and his house and people. Thus we discover, 
while the kings were leading a party after Baal, Jehoiada withstood them and 
maintained the cause of Jehovah. 



188 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Y. Jo ASH AFTER Jehoiada's Death. — The last apostacv was so soon arrested 
by Jehoiada the Jews were not brought to repentance by the fruits of their rebel- 
lion. As soon as this good priest was dead, the princes made obeisance to the 
king; he complied with their request, and forsook the house of the Jehovah, God 
of their fathers, and served idols in the groves : so wrath came upon Judah and 
Jerusalem. Hazael captured Gath, and turned toward Jerusalem, Joash stripped 
the temple of its riches, took his own treasures, and hired him to go away. The 
spirit of Jehovah came upon Zachariah, the son of Jehoiada, and he reproved 
them, telling them they could not prosper, for as they had forsaken the Jehovah, 
so he had forsaken them. But the king commanded, and they stoned him to 
death. For this ingratitude of Joash and the people to Jehoiada, the priest, the 
martyred son said : the Jehovah look upon it and require it. 

8. Defeated and Destroyed. — Then the Syrians came against him with a 
small band, and Jehovah delivered Joash, with a great host, into their hands; 
because he and the Jews had forsaken the God of their fathers. The Syrians came 
to Jerusalem and destroyed the princes of the people, who had enticed Joash into 
apostacy, and sent all the spoils of them to Damascus, leaving Joash in great 
distress. Then his own servants killed him in his bed. The assassins were sons 
of strange women, an Ammonite and a Moabite ; and undoubtedly they were 
idolaters. Such was his fate for rebellion against Jehovah and ingratitude to 
Jehoiada. Impiety increased under the judges, till Israel was brought so low that 
all hope was lost: then Jehovah delivers them in a way they could not deny His 
power and interposition. Then they must have a king: the Lord gave them a 
king, but informed them that disobedience would cause the rejection and destruc- 
tion of them and their kings. So now they begin to find it true. Syria, once 
subjugated by David in the name of Jehovah, now defeated Israel and Judah 
when worshiping Baal. Kings conquer kings ; but so far jet victory sits upon 
the banner and name of Jehovah. 

REIGN OF AMAZIAH. A. M. 3166-3195. B. C. 838-809.— 11. Kings, U; 

II. Chron., 25. 

9. At First Good. — Joash was succeeded by his son Amaziah, who did right 
in the first part of his reign, and became strong. He slew the assassins of his 
father, but not their children, as the law of Moses directed. Judah was reduced 
to three hundred thousand chosen men in fifty-six years since Jehoshaphat, who 
could muster one million one hundred thousand of all grades : such were the 
fruits of alliance with Ahab, unlawful marriages, and the worship of Baal. This 
decrease in the army was caused by wars and migration. When the pious saw 
the protection and prosperity of true religion in Judah they emigrated there, and 
made the kings rich and strong. But when force was used by Jehoram to make 
them transgress, the worship of Jehovah was abandoned, and the temple was 
broken up; they would return to their native land, where, in no place, but in Israel 
under Jezebel, have we as yet found any persecuted for their religion. The chil- 
dren of Jehovah love to dwell together and enjoy His blessings ; but the 
advancement of His kingdom often requires them to be scattered, as salt, among 
the nations, and lights to the world. 

10. Adopted of the Gods of Seib. — Amaziah hired one hundred thousand 
men of Israel to tight Edom, without inquiring of the Lord. The prophet informed 
him that Jehovah was not with Israel, and if he took them he would be defeated. 
He had paid them, but feared Jehovah, and dismissed them. They were enraged, 
and fell upon defenceless cities of Judah, killed three thousand, and took much 
spoil. Amaziah smote the Edomites, killing twenty thousand ; but, like a fool, he 
brought home their gods and worshiped them. The prophet reproves him for his 
folly in adopting gods who could not save those he had conquered. He was wroth, 



CHAPTER L. : SECTIONS I. -II. 189 

and ordered the prophet to be silent or be smitten, for he was not the king's coun- 
selor. The prophet replied: 1 know God has determined to destroy thee, because 
thou hast done this and hast not hearkened to my counsel. 

11. Temple Robbed by Israel. — Amaziah was elevated in his own estima- 
tion, and competent to choose and protect what gods he pleased, and Jehovah 
was no more than any other god adopted by a nation. Kings and nations chose 
their gods; but Jehovah created Israel and Judah for his own purpose, and he 
will not give up his sovereignty over them to kings nor gods. Amaziah bantered 
Jehoash, king of Israel, to battle, and was defeated, and the temple was robbed 
by Israel. They had long forsaken the God of their fathers for the gods of Egypt, 
and now they show their impiety by plundering His temple. As a nation, 
Jehovah had forsaken Israel, but for His individual servants' sake and the training 
of missionaries. He will not yet send them beyond the Euphrates. After his 
apostacy a conspiracy was formed against him, and he fled to Lachish ; but they 
sent and killed him there: for what cause we are not told, but perhaps for bringing 
evil upon the nation by rebelling against their God. He was succeeded by his 
son Uzziah: also called Azariah. 



CHAPTER L. 



ISEAEL UNDER THE JEHU DYNASTY, AND TO END OF THE 

KINGDOM. JEHU AND HIS SONS. A. M. 3120-32Y9. 

B. C. 884-725.-11. Kings, 10. 13. 14. 

1. The Jehu Keligion. — The Jehu dynasty reigned now in Israel, and kept 
up a strange mixture of Polytheism with a fear and regard for Jehovah and His 
prophets. We find Jehu citing the predictions of Elijah and assuring the people 
that every word of the Jehovah by Elijah would be fulfilled; professed to be 
fulfilling His will, and to have a great zeal for Him, when destroying Baal out of 
Israel ; but he adhered to the sins of Jeroboam. His son Jehoahaz, when 
oppressed by Hazael, besought the Jehovah and obtained deliverance, but 
departed not from the sins of Jeroboam. Hazael destroyed Israel, so that 
Jehoahaz had but fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen. 
Thus Hazael has done his work, Jehu has done his, and Elisha is doing his, ' 
according to the programme given to Elijah on Mount Horeb by the Jehovah. 

2. Jehoash. — The third of this dynasty was Jehoash, or Joash, who regarded 
Elisha so much that he wept over the prophet's dying bed, and attributed to him 
the protection of Israel, as Elisha had to Elijah, saying: My Father, my Father ! 
the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof; and Elisha encouraged him with 
the promise of three victories over the Syrians. These victories he achieved, 
and recovered the cities his father had lost: yet he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, 
and followed all the sins of Jeroboam, and retained his idolatry for the national 
religion. The views and notions of Jehoash and Israel in respect to Jehovah and 
His prophets are about the views and notions and conduct of all the kings and 
nations from Egypt to Assyria. They believed Him to be a great God, and His 
people could not be conquered while He protected them; but He was holy, and 



190 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

would punish His people for apostacy, and then they could be defeated. They 
considered all the gods dependent on kings and armies, and often regarded 
Jehovah in the same light, but were as often con\dnced by sad experience in the 
end that this was a mistake. 

3. Jeroboam II. — The fourth in this dynasty was Jeroboam, who commenced 
his reign in the fifteenth year of Amaziah, king of Judah, and continued forty- 
one years, till the fourteenth of Uzziah. The Lord supported him by the prophet 
Jonah, as He had his father by Elijah. As Jonah promised and encouraged him, 
he restored the coast of Israel from Hamath on the north to the Dead sea. 
Though their captivity was determined, Jehovah's purposes required them to 
remain awhile longer, till better taught by the prophets and posted in regard to 
the future. In Jeroboam's reign Hosea makes his prophetic appeal to Israel. 
After the old boundary was restored and things looked prosperous, as if the evil 
day was past, Hosea prophecies the rejection and captivity of Israel, and their final 
and perpetual restoration ; ^ and Amos predicts the fate of other nations. ^ Jonah 
threatens the Mnevites with destruction, and such was their fear of Jehovah and 
His prophets they fasted, prayed, and repented. ^ 

4. End of the Jehu Dynasty. A. M. 3231. B. 0. 773.— II. Kings, 15: 
8-12. — The fourth son of Jehu on the throne was Zachariah, who followed his 
predecessors in the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, and was assassinated. Thus, 
as the Lord had promised Jehu, his son of the fourth generation sat on the 
throne of Israel. Surely they did not worship the calves of Jeroboam because 
they interfered in the government of Israel, for Jehovah managed that 
according to the programmes promulgated by His prophets, and Jehu and his 
sons knew and believed it, too. They adhered to the national religion out of 
policy, like Jeroboam, or because they loved animal gratification, and sin. 

5. Missionaries Prepared. — But while the government was idolatrous, 
multitudes, whose names do not appear in history, profited by these divine 
lessons, and carried their religion with them into captivity, where they shone as 
lamps in a dark night. The girl who waited on ISTaaman's wife, brought him to 
acknowledge Jehovah to be the true God, and to promise worship to none else. 
The Lord was training up missionaries to disperse among the nations, and make 
an aggressive movement upon the Polytheism of more distant and remote 
nations. He was schooling them by His law, providences, and prophets, as He 
did their fathers in the wilderness. Then, they were journeying to a home, to 
live under their own rulers ; but now, they are about to be dispersed among the 
nations, where the impious can find idols and practice heathen rites, and the 
pious can witness for Jehovah and His truth. If the Lord could count more than 
seven thousand pious in Israel, when Elijah thought himself to be alone, how 
many thousands were in the surrounding nations, at this time, who loved and 
served the God of Israel ? 

6. Some Pious Yet in Israel. — 11. Chron., 28:8-15, — In Israel, when 
Pekah carried captive two hundred thousand women and children of Judah, we 
find a prophet of Jehovah was there, named Obed, who reproved them for their 
rage, and slaughter, and taking Jews captive, with the design of enslaving them. 
He said : " For the sins of Judah, the Jehovah was wroth with them ; but Israel, 
too, had sinned against Jehovah, and unless they restored these captives, the 
fierce wrath of Jehovah was upon them. Then, chief men of Ephraim stood up 
confessing their sins, and acknowledging that great and fierce wrath was against 
Israel, as the prophets had denounced. They opposed the army, and the war- 
riors left the captives and spoils before the princes, who clothed, fed, and 
anointed them, and conveyed them like brethren to their own land and people. 
Thus, we see, if the government was corrupt, yet there were pious men of 
influence among them, and even the fighting men feared the wrath of Jehovah. 



(2) Hosea, 1-3. (3) Amos, I, 7:1-9, §§ 4, 12. (4) Jonah. 



CHAPTER L. : SECTIONS VII. -X. 191 

The captivity, which was completed within the next sixteen years, did not find 
much alteration in the character of Israel. They made a better showing, at this 
time, than when Elijah tested the divinity of Baal. The pious of the nations 
will sympathize with the pious Israelites in their captivity, and fellowship them 
in their religion. 

Y. The Knowledge of Jehovah Among the Nations. — Egypt and Assyria, 
and all intervening nations have become acquainted with the God of Israel and 
Judah, and feared Him, if they did not love Him. All other gods were 
dependent on their worshipers, and in subjection to kings ; but Jehovah made 
His unarmed prophets a terror to kings, and dread to armies. The nations have 
learned that Jehovah had given laws and institutions to Israel ; and while they 
obeyed, they were invincible and prosperous, according to promises by Moses ; 
but when disobedient, they were easily subjugated and afflicted, as threatened by 
him. Still they considered Him the local God of Israel and Judah, but not their 
God. 

8. Jonah Infected with this Notion. — Jonah, 1-4. — Infected with this 
notion, the prophet Jonah tried to escape from his own country and the presence 
of Jehovah, but became convinced that He not only created the sea and dry 
land, but also governed them. The mariners on the Mediterranean sea first 
called everyone on his own god by name, while Jonah was asleep ; but at last 
they called upon the Jehovah, obeyed the prophet, feared exceedingly, ofiered 
sacrifices, and made vows. These were on the west, while Ninevah was on the 
east. The Assyrians were the most powerful nation in the east, but they feared, 
fasted, reformed, and called mightily on the great God, when threatened by 
Jonah, in the name of Jehovah. A more extensive and severe fast and lamenta- 
tion is not on record. Jonah had acted as prophet to Israel, and against Syria, 
when Jeroboam II. recovered the coasts of Israel, and the fame of Elijah and 
Elisha and Jonah had spread through Samaria and Damascus to Ninevah. 
Jonah may have expired, and sunk to the bottom (Jonah, 2:6) before the fish 
swallowed him ; when he prayed out of the belly of sheol, or hell (Jonah, 2:2), 
where his spirit was, his body was in the belly of the fish (Jonah, 2:1). Where 
was Christ when in the grave ? 

9. Particular Nations. — After this, Babylon hears of Hezekiah, and sends 
messengers to inquire about the wonderful phenomenon of the sun going back 
ten degrees. Egypt has been familiar with the history of Israel from the begin- 
ning. Hiram, king of Tyre, acknowledged Jehovah the Creator of Heaven and 
earth, and helped build the temple. All intervening nations have been in con- 
tact with Israel, and have learned the independence, supremacy, claims, and 
attributes of Jehovah, their God. But with the exception of individuals, no 
nation loved Him, or adopted His religion, and many in Israel hated His service. 
Now, Jehovah is about to make offensive war upon Polytheism in the nations, 
while He chastises His own people for idolatry and impiety. He sends His wit- 
nesses among the nations, while He dashes to pieces their gods and power, and 
roots them out of their own lands. 

10. Prophets to Teach Israel and the Nations. — Jehovah now raises up 
prophets to publish His programmes to His own people, and then sends them 
among the nations, and commences to work, by friends and foes, according to 
these programmes. Moses predicted apostacy, judgments, and dispersions of 
Israel, and also their reformation, restoration, and great prosperity. To David 
was promised permanent and perpetual possession, and prosperity for Israel, and 
universal and everlasting empire to His throne ; now, an order of prophets are 
raised up to delineate judgments and mercies, adversities and prosperities, cap- 
tivities and restorations in all their minutia and circumstances, so that the his- 
torian cannot record the events better after they have transpired. While the 



192 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

world thinks revealed religion a failure, the child of God, versed in the teachings 
of Scripture, sees all things progressing and developing according to divine 
programmes. 

11. Joel and Hosea Prophesy. — In the prosperous days of Uzziah, king 
of Judah, about two thousand six hundred and ninety years ago, Joel predicted 
immediate calamities, and exhorted to reformation, promising as great blessings. 
He also predicts latter-day wonders, and the final triumph of God's people, 
which are not yet fulfilled. About the same time, in the reign of Jeroboam XL, 
Hosea and Amos prophesied in Israel. Hosea tells Israel they shall cease being 
a nation, and be utterly removed ; but Judah should survive, and find mercy and 
protection from Jehovah, and not from arms ; and their dependence on Jehovah, 
and support by Him, should be apparent. Israel, after their rejection, shall be 
reunited with Judah under one leader. They would be many days without a 
king, prince, sacrifice, statue, ephod, or terapheme — without idolatry, and 
without any communication from God ; after that, they should return and seek 
Jehovah, their God, and David, their king. This shall be in the latter days, 
and for evidence to future generations, and for inspiring hope in times of dis- 
heartening adversities. Though two thousand six hundred and ninety years 
have passed, this part of his prophesy has not yet been fulfilled. 

12. Amos, 1-7. — Amos predicts the captivity of Damascus-Syria, which 
had threatened the absorption of Israel ; also, the extinction of the Philistines 
of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza, and Ekron ; also, the destruction of Tyrus, and the 
captivity of Edom, Ammon, Moab, Israel, and Judah. The prophet shows their 
wickedness, and cruelty. They were idolatrous ; but not so superstitious as they 
were debauched, and impious. These predictions began to be fulfilled soon after 
they were delivered. In about fifty-three years after, Damascus was carried into 
captivity. Amos also predicted the death of Jeroboam II. by the sword. 
Israel should be sifted among the nations, and yet not the least stone fall to the 
earth. • ''All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword. After this, the 
throne of David shall be resuscitated to greater power and glory, and shall pos- 
sess the remnant of all nations called by my name."^ This implies the destruc- 
tion of other nations which have acknowledged the Jehovah, and the incorpora- 
tion of the remnants with Israel. The captivity of Israel shall return, rebuild, 
plant and eat the fruit, and no more be pulled up nor removed. '' Hosea accuses 
them of wickedness, and debaucheries. ^ No longer did they furnish a house of 
worship for all nations, nor did the nation witness for Jehovah. 

13. End of the Kingdom of Israel. — II. Kings, 15-17. — After the Jehu 
dynasty, assassinations, usurpations, civil wars, and anarchy occupied the throne 
of Israel about forty or fifty years, and terminated in the extinction of the 
kingdom of Israel. Shallum assassinated Zachariah, and in one month was mur- 
dered by Menaham, who was a ravenous brute, like Hazael ; he smote Tiphsah 
and Tirzah, because they accepted him not, and ripped open pregnant women ; 
he taxed the people, and paid tribute to Pul, king of Assyria, to have the 
kingdom confirmed in his hands. He reigned ten years, and was succeeded by 
his son Pekahiah, who reigned two years, and was killed by Pekah, son of 
Kamaliah, who reigned twenty years. Pekah, like the rest, adhered to the sins 
of Jeroboam, and was invaded by the Assyrians, under Tizeath-Pileser, ^ who 
carried away captive into Assyria the cities on the north and east, and left Israel 
very small and weak. Pekah was murdered by Iloshea, who reigned nine years, 
and was captured by Shalmaneser, or Sargon ; then Samariah was carried captive 
to Assyria, and the kingdom of Israel was extinguished. But all this time, 
there were prophets and pious people in Israel, as we have seen in section sixth. 



(6) Amos, 9:10-12. (7) Amos, 8-9. (8) Hosea, 4. (9) II. Kings, 15:29. 



CHAPTER LI. 



EEIGN OF UZZIAH. A. M. 3194-3262. B. C. 810-742.— II. Kings, 

15:1-7; II. Chron., 26. 

1. UzziAH Obedient and Pkospekous. — Uzziah was but sixteen years old 
when he ascended the throne, and did right while young, and under the direction 
of Zachariah, who had understanding in the visions of God ; and so long as he 
sought the Jehovah, he prospered. Thus the fidelity of the law was fully tested. 
While Judah had kings who served the Jehovah, they prospered ; but when they 
had an impious one, they suffered ; and when the same king served the Lord, 
they recruited ; but when he apostatized, they diminished. It was obedience, 
and not the king, that secured prosperity, as the law promised ; and disobedi- 
ence brought on the curses denounced by the law, and the king could not 
prevent it. So the Lord told them, by Samuel, before he anointed a king for 
Israel. ^ Uzziah became great, and conquered all around him with an army of 
three hundred and seven thousand five hundred men, fortified and improved his 
kingdom, invented engines for throwing stones and shooting arrows, and his 
fame was spread far abroad. 

2. Joel Peopesies. — Joel, 1-3. — While everything looked prosperous and 
triumphant, Joel predicts judgments from God, and exhorts to consider them, 
and reform without hypocrisy, and thus receive a blessing, and escape the 
enemy's taunt: "Where is their God?" He also foretells of an abundant 
bestowment of the spirit, which endowed the prophets, before some terrible day 
of Jehovah. There shall be a remnant and deliverance in Mount Zion, and 
whoever will call upon Jehovah shall be delivered. The captivity of Judah and 
Jerusalem shall be returned, and all their enemies punished. Tyre and Zidon 
and the Philistines are mentioned, in particular, as enemies guilty of plundering, 
murder, and dispersing, and shall experience the recompense of wrath. Egypt 
and Edom shall be desolate ; but Judah shall be safe, Jerusalem holy, and in the 
possession of God's people. But the time for these events is not set. Hence- 
forth, the pious in J udah, as well as in Israel, may prepare for captivity and 
dispersions, with an assurance of being regathered, and becoming triumphant 
and blessed ; and the impious may look for disgrace, and destruction. 

3. Uzziah's Impiety. — Elevated by success and prosperity, Uzziah under- 
took to transgress the law, and offer incense on the altar. The priests opposed 
him, and he was smitten with the leprosy, which cut him off from the temple of 
Jehovah during life, and his son Jotham administered the government. In the 
year Uzziah died, Isaiah began to prophesy in Judah, ^ and while history con- 
tinues to present the external condition of the nations, the prophesies present the 
internal moral character and destiny. When Israel was rebelling in the wilder- 
ness, and the impious were proscribed the promised land, Moses recorded the 
declaration, that "the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of Jehovah." 
Then, He was training Israel for His work ; but now. He is about to take Egypt 
and Assyria, with all the intervening nations, into His school of discipline, and 
intersperse Israel among and beyond them for teachers. These nations have 



(1) I. Sam., 12:14, 15, 25. (2) Isaiah, 6. 



194: THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

witnessed the history of Israel from Egypt till now, and have seen full proof that 
Jehovah is the only living and true God ; but whatever individual piety may be 
among them, as nations they all have rejected Jehovah and His laws. They 
have seen Israel chastised, and reformed ; but now they must be shook to pieces, 
and made to fear and honor the God of Israel. The prophets will tell their fate 
beforehand, and Jehovah will make the heathen perform His work. 

4. Isaiah Ordained, and an Outline Given. — In the year king Uzziah 
died, Isaiah was designated to the duties of a prophet. In the temple was seen 
a visible manifestation of the Jehovah in glory, and enthroned in power. This 
was the Son of God, who afterward became incarnated, and dwelt among men.^ 
This sight struck Isaiah with a consciousness of the imparity of himself and 
people ; but being emblematically cleansed, tie volunteered to act as ambassador 
to Israel. He was commissioned to make the Jews impenitent till utterly dis- 
persed, and the land utterly desolated of them ; but a remnant, like the tenth 
devoted to the Lord, should return and prosper. The nation wouLl be like a 
hardy tree that has been browsed on by stock all winter, but still retains its trunk 
and vitality, and in the spring sprouts forth in luxuriant growth, overspreads 
former boundaries, and bears abundant fruit. So the holy seed, pious citizens, 
and promised Messiah are the stability and vitality of the nation. A more appo- 
site representation of the Jews, down to the present time, cannot be drawn by 
the most skillful historian. 

5. Predictions. — Isa., 2-5. — In the latter times the Mount and house of 
Jehovah shall be most conspicuous before all nations and above every other object, 
and be the center of their religious concourse. Civil laws and religious teachings 
shall proceed from Zion and Jerusalem. Jehovah will judge among the nations 
and rebuke many people; universal peace and asjricultural pursuits shall bless the 
nations, as was promised to Abraham's seed. Idolatry shall be utterly abolished 
and despised, and Jehovah alone shall be exalted as the true God. Thus, when 
Polytheism appeared to be triumphing in Judah and Israel, the prophets, full of 
confidence in Jehovah's word, boldly predict its extirpation and the triumph of 
the sole divinity of Jehovah. But severest judgments, utter desolation, and 
absolute subjugation for all kinds of wickedness must purify the nations. Then 
a remnant shall be holy, prosperous, and protected at all times and seasons. But 
no dates are given when these things will transpire, though the same general 
positions are often repeated in various details. Now the captivity of both Judah 
and Israel is a settled fact; wickedness the cause, and reformation the only stay 
of execution. In the time of David and Solomon, Israel experienced the greatest 
blessings promised in the law of Moses, and now the prophets predict the greatest 
curses threatened: thus the covenant of Sinai will be fully verified, and the truth 
of Jehovah established. After all these judgments, the great reformation, resto- 
ration, and consummation of the kingdom of God according to the covenants, 
oaths, and promises shall be witnessed by all intelligent beings. 

6. JoTHAM Reigns, and Micah Prophecieth. A. M. 3246-3262. B. C. 
758-742. — II. Kings, 15. II. Chron., 27. — Jotham governed Judah while his 
father, Uzziah, was disqualified by the leprosy, and at his death took the crown, 
in the second year of Pekah, king of Israel. Jotham did right, became more 
powerful, fortified his country, conquered his enemies, and received tribute from 
the Ammonites. The people did not follow his example, but did corruptly, 
sacrificing and burning incense in the high places. The effects of Jehoshaphat's 
alliance with Ahab were still experienced, and perhaps of the apostacy of Solo- 
mon. Micah reproves, admonishes, and threatens vengeance, but predicts pros- 
perity in some future time. As an event near at hand, he predicts the overthrow 
of Israel and their royal city Samaria. ^ After sixteen years' reign, Jotham 
died, and was succeeded by his son, Ahaz, who reigned sixteen years more. 



(8) John, 12:39-41; 1:14. (4) Micah, 1-2. 



Period Eighth. A. M. 3262-3394. B, C. 742-610. 

Third Head of the Red Dragon Developed and Broken. Impious Rebel- 
lions and Great Reformations in Jiidah. 

CHAPTER LII. 



KEIGN OF AHAZ AND CONTEMPORARY EVENTS. A. M. 3262-3278. 

B. C. 742-726. II. Kings, 16. II. Chkon., 28. 

1. Rebellion of Ahaz, and Impiety of Syria and Israel. — Ahaz was 
wicked, and followed the abominations of the nations, sacrificing and burning 
incense in the high places, on the hills, under every green tree, and made his 
son pass through the fire in offering, or in dedication to some false god. Rezin, 
king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel, conspired to dethrone him and set a 
king of their own upon the throne of David, in defiance of Jehovah's covenant 
with him. The Syrians never recovered those coasts of Israel from which Jero- 
boam II. expelled them ; but now they unite with Israel to usurp the throne of 
David. Thus, the throne was invaded at the most opportune time : when occupied 
by an apostate son of David, who disregarded covenants and laws and insulted 
Jehovah. 

2. Isaiah Shows the Interposition of Jehoyah. — Isa., 7. 10:1-4. — The 
Lord favored Ahaz for his covenant's sake, and sent Isaiah to encourage him and 
announce the destruction of both Syria and Israel in a very short time, and for 
present assurance offered to give him any sign he could ask of Jehovah, his 
rightful God. But he would not try the Jehovah, nor have anything to do with 
Him. The Lord gave a sign that would be evidence to future generations who 
would regard its fulfillment. He also showed Ahaz the adversities his throne 
would experience from Assyria and Egypt, the sources to which he was now look- 
ing for help, and the desolation of his country; but the individual enjoyment of 
those remaining in the land without a king or government. 

3. Foretells Near and Future Events. — While Syria and Israel were 
demonstrating their power and impiety against Judah, Isaiah foretells the destruc- 
tion of both by the Assyrians ; and while the throne was thus threatened with 
subversion, the prophet foretells of a Wonderful Prince on the throne of David : 
•For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given : and the government shall 
be upon His shoulders: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, 
The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the 
increase of His government and peace there shall be no end ; He shall abide upon 
the throne of David and upon His kingdom, to order it and to establish it with 
judgment and with justice from henceforth, even forever. The zeal of Jehovah 
of Hosts will perform this. ^ This must be the Divine Royal Messiah of whom 
David sang. The threatening aspects of his day did not frighten the prophet to 
conceal his hope. 

4. Invasion by Syria and Israel. — The prophet shows the impiety, boast- 
ing, and rebellion of Israel, and describes their destruction; shows a remnant 
shall survive these ruins, and describes the reward of their enemies. ^ But these 

(5) Isaiah, 9:6-7. (6) Isaiah, 17:28. 



196 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

prophecies produced no repentance in Ahaz or his coadjutors ; and though 
Jehovah would not suffer Syria and Israel to usurp the throne of David, yet He 
delivered Judah into their hands, and they defeated Ahaz and took many cap- 
tives. The Syrians carried a great multitude to Damascus; and when Damascus 
was captured by Assyria tliese Jews were carried farther east and north. Pekali 
slew one hundred and twenty thousand in one day, and carried away two hun- 
dred thousand women and children and much spoil to Samaria. These were 
restored. (See Chap. L., § 6.) 

5. Ahaz Defeated, but Impious. — The Edomites and Philistines also invaded 
Ahaz, took captives, and captured villages and dwelt in them. But instead of 
confessing his sins and reforming and accepting of deliverance from Jehovah, he 
implored help of the Assyrians. He sacriliced to the gods of Damascus, 
impiously saying: They helped the Syrians, and he would serve them that they 
might help him. This was not superstition, but impiety. He would worship 
anything but Jehovah ; and he hired the Assyrians to capture Damascus, with all 
its gods. I think Ahaz was an atheist, and had more faith in Tiglath-Pileser 
than in any gods. 

6. Obed's Predictions. — Obed,1. Isa., 1. — "While Edom showed power 
invading Judah, Obediah predicts their complete and permanent overthrow and 
total extinction for crimes the prophet describes : more malignity than supersti- 
tion. Isaiah shows and reproves the iniquity of Judah, describes their consump- 
tion, and only a remnant should be left ; but reformation and prosperity were sure 
to those. 

7. Third Head of the Red Dragon Interferes. — Tilgath-Pilneser, or 
Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria, whose royal city was Nineveh, on the Tigris 
river, hearkened to Ahaz and captured Damascus, the capital of Syria, slew the 
king, carried the people captive to Kir in Armenia, about seven hundred and 
fifty miles from Jerusalem. Thus ended the Damascus-Syrian kingdom, as 
Amos predicted."^ He also invaded Israel and captured all east of Jordan and 
north of Samaria, and carried them to Assyria, east of the Euphrates, about 
four hundred and fifty miles from Jerusalem, as Ahijah told the wife of Jero- 
boam about one hundred and ninety-seven years before this event. 

8. Ahaz More Impious. — Ahaz had robbed the temple of its treasures and 
exhausted his own to hire the Assyrians ; but though they captured his enemies 
at last, they did not help him in time to save his dominions nor restore what had 
been taken from him, but kept to themselves all they found. But, freed from his 
rivals, he rioted in hostility to Jehovah. He removed the brazen altar and put 
in its place a new one made after the pattern of one he saw in Damascus when 
he met Tiglath-Pileser ; ordered the offerings to be made on it, and had the 
impudence to talk about inquiring at the one he moved. Though severely scourged 
by Israel and Syria, he no doubt counted his policy in hiring the Assyrians a 
success : better than trusting in Jehovah and listening to Isaiah. He cut to 
pieces the holy vessels of the temple, shut up the doors to prevent any one wor- 
shiping Jehovah. He made altars for himself in every corner of Jerusalem, 
and high places in every separate city of Judah, to burn incense to other gods 
and to provoke to anger and insult the Jehovah, God of his fathers. If he was 
not an atheist, he must have been a fool madman ; yet he died in peace, but was 
not permitted to lie in the royal sepulchers. While he lived the people submitted 
to him ; but some power, perhaps the supreme court, judged him unworthy a 
place among the kings when dead. 

9. Hosea and Isaiah Prophecy. — Hosea, 5. 6. — Hosea still expostulates 
with the remnant of the Ten Tribes; with what success we are not told; his 



(7) Chap. 50, § 12. 



OaAtTfiR Llll. i SECTIONS I. -il. 19? 

labors may have produced fruit in their captivity. Isaiah ^ now predicts the sub- 
jugation of the Philistines by Hezekiah, and he keeps before the people a few- 
important facts or objects to be impressed on the minds of Judah and Israel before 
their final captivity and dispersion : Reformation, restoration, and glorious pros- 
perity without end ; and a Great Prince on the throne of David, served by all 
nations. This is the sum of all prophecies after this, except local events and 
the fate of nations. 



CHAPTER LIII. 



REFORMATION UNDER HEZEKIAH. A. M. 3278-3307. B. C. 726- 

697.— 11. Kings, 18; II. Chron., 29-32. 

1. Third Head of the Red Dragon Removes Israel. — In the sixth year of 
Hezekiah came the final captivity of the Ten Tribes. Hosea continues showing 
their sins, reproving, admonishing, and denouncing judgments, ^ till within two 
years of the final captivity. Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, captured Samaria 
and carried the people to Halah, five hundred miles, and to Heber, seven hun- 
dred and twenty-five miles, from Jerusalem. These were cities of the Medes on 
the river Gozan. ^ In transplanting the Syrians of Damascus and the Jews and 
Israelites among them, the knowledge of Jehova was carried north into Armenia, 
for the Syrians had this knowledge, and undoubtedly many of them were pious 
and served the Jehovah. In the first captivity of Israel the history of Jehovah's 
dealings with them was carried into Assyria, and in the last captivity of Samaria 
this knowledge was carried into Media, and perhaps Persia. Now the monarchy 
that scattered these truth-bearers is engaged in a contest with the Jehovah, the 
God of Israel and Judah, and the result will be known among these captives and 
the nations forming the great Assyrian empire. This monarchy has captured 
cities, nations, and gods. Jerusalem withstands him ; the prophets foretell, in 
the name Jehovah, his defeat and overthrow. Most eagerly will the pious among 
these captives inquire the result, while the impious will dispute the truth and 
argue the impossibility ; others will become interested and some will embrace 
the true religion of the true God. Nations may not change their national 
religion, but individuals will. 

2. Review of the Antagonists. — The kingdom of God comes now in direct 
contact with one of these mighty empires that have changed the face of the 
earth and ruled the world. It left Egypt on the southwest and located among 
the small tribes or nations between it and the Euphrates river on the northeast. 
These tribes and nations were all brought under one sceptre by David, who kept 
garrisons in Syria. When the kingdom of Solomon was divided and became 
weakened by internal wars, these tribes and nations recruited and became more 
or less independent, but no one became able to conquer the rest. Damascus- 
Syria once appeared likely to assume the supremacy, but was brought down and 
driven back by Jeroboam II. 



(8) Isaiah, 14:28-32. (9) Hos., 7-14. (1) II. Kings, 18:9-12. 17:5-23. 



198 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

3. Attitude of Egypt and Assyria. — These minor nations were liable to 
be absorbed by Egypt or Assyria, which were both disposed to enlarge their 
domains. Assyria was adopting the system of transplanting conquered coun- 
tries, cities, and prominent men, so as to destroy their nationality and power 
and mould the rising generations into one consolidated empire. Both Egypt 
and Assyria coveted the intervening territory and watched each other with 
mutual jealousy. When Israel was a child, Egypt had fought Jehovah and dis- 
puted His divinity. The intervening nations had disputed His supremacy over 
their gods and His ability to give Israel the land and position among the nations 
which He had promised them. Now, Assyria comes in direct contact with the 
kingdom of God, and having vanquished gods and nations, disputes Jehovah's 
supremacy over kings, and armies, and governments of the nations. Israel and 
Judali have been debating this question ever since the reign of Solomon ; and 
now Assyria, with all its wealth and power, heads the controversy. 

4. Assyrian Empire. — Nineveh, on the Tigris river, is the royal city of 
Assyria, or Syria beyond the Euphrates. Once it humbled itself before 
Jehovah, at the preaching of Jonah, but prosperity and conquest made her kings 
as impious and defiant as any of the kings of Israel or Judah. They extended 
their empire into Armenia on the north, the Persian gulf on the south, the 
Medes and Persians on the east, and the Mediterranean sea on the west. They 
were the founders of the first of the five vast empires that have ruled the known 
world. The ruin of their cities show them to be honorable rivals to Egypt in 
the arts and sciences. This empire forms the third head of the Polytheistic 
antagonism to the kingdom of God, or of the great red dragon, and was the 
most competent antagonist of the day that the Old Serpent could raise to con- 
summate his fourth policy. 

5. Deplorable Condition of Judah. — Hezekiah was one of the best kings 
of Judah, but labored under every disadvantage. Being twenty-five years old 
when he ascended the throne, he had lived nine years under the good reign of 
his grandfather, Jotham, and had witnessed all the disastrous events of his 
father's wicked reign, and inherited all the evils brought on the country. Cities 
were captured, the kingdom invaded, the men of war slain, and the country 
under tribute to Assyria for protection. The temple was despoiled and shut up, 
and the people were corrupted with idolatry and impiety by his wicked father, 
and the vengeance of Heaven hung over their heads, according to the law of 
Moses and denunciations of the prophets. 

6. Reformation. — In the first year of his reign, and first month, he 
reopened the house of the Jehovah and cleansed and repaired it. He gathered 
the Levites and ordered them to purify themselves and cleanse the temple. 
His speech was short and to the point, showing their sins and condition and 
what must be done. It must be read to be appreciated. ^ He removed the high 
places, broke the images to pieces, cut down the groves, broke the brazen ser- 
pent to pieces because they worshiped it, and called it "a piece of brass." We 
find two classes of idolaters: the one is impious, and the other superstitious. 
The first do not like to retain the knowledge of the true God in their thoughts 
and speculated about Him till their foolish minds were benighted and atheism 
fiitted over their cogitations. The other, at first, venerated some attribute of 
God as they found it imperfectly exhibited in some animal, or other object ; but 
after a while, losing sight of the attribute, they worshiped the whole object, sup- 
posing the Deity to dwell in it. It was a pity to destroy the brass serpent, for 
it was the memorial of a great and important event ; rebellion, punishment, and 
free favor to those who believed and accepted mercy as, a gift, were associated 
with its existence. But having lost sight of these important facts, they wor- 
shiped the form, and perhaps confounded it with the serpent worshiped by the 
nations. 



(2) II. Chron., 29:5-11. 



CHAPTfiE LIII. : SECTIONS VII. -Xl. 109 

7. Success.— They cleansed the temple, put its furniture in order, and made 
it holy, according to the law of Moses ; they restored the singing and service, 
according to David, the king, and Gad, the Seer. The offerings were so 
abundant the priests could not attend to them ; but the Levites were more 
upright and had purified themselves, and helped the few upright priests. The 
abundance of the offerings show the people had not apostajtized as much as the 
ministers of the sanctuary. Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced in the sudden 
and successful turn in affairs. 

8. Invitation and Reply. — Hezekiah wrote letters, and sent posts 
throughout all Judah and Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, the old outposts, 
exhorting them to return to the Jehovah, Grod of their fathers, with the assur- 
ance of His favor ; and also invited them to Jerusalem to keep the approaching 
feast of the Jehovah, according to the law. But the Israelites generally ridiculed 
the idea and derided the messengers. In this narrative we discover the cap- 
tivity by Tiglath-Pileser^ did not take every family and person in these regions, 
but only those in the fortified cities and influential citizens who constitute the 
strength and government of nations. 

9. Taunting Reply to the Invitation. — Perhaps they thought it only a 
scheme of Hezekiah to collect the broken fragments of David's empire and 
strengthen himself against Shalmaneser, who was absorbing all neighboring 
nations ; but that it was a ridiculous idea to suppose Hezekiah could stand 
against the Assyrians. As to Jehovah, the God of Israel, methinks I hear them 
say : '^ The king of Assyria is greater than all gods ; He kicks and knocks them 
about like old sandals, captures their countries, robs their temples, carries the 
people to the lands of other gods : He mixes up and changes round the nations 
till the poor gods can't find their own people, and the bewildered people don't 
know what god they are under, nor how to serve him. David worshiped the 
Jehovah, conquered nations, and burned gods ; and now Shalmaneser is cap- 
turing nations and burning gods on a larger scale ! We had better worship 
Shalmaneser, or his god, if he has any." Thus they would show their atheism, 
and deride the messengers. 

10. State Facts. — What use in trying to keep up the worship of Jehovah 
and be laced up in His iron-jacket laws and institutions ? One king of Judah 
tramples them under his feet, abolishes His worship, defiles His house, and, like 
Ahaz, dies in peace. Another regards and obeys the laws of Moses, purifies the 
temple, restores the worship, but, like Asa, hires an idolatrous king to protect 
him from apostate Israel. Ahaz wisely secured the favor of the all-conquering 
Assyrians by robbing the treasury of Jehovah's temple, and obtained the cap- 
tivity of his enemies, and Hezekiah had better follow his example! To restore 
the worship of Jehovah is impossible ! Eleven-twelfths of His people are now 
in captivity, and the rest will go as soon as Shalmaneser sees proper to take 
them ! Restore the worship of Jehovah ! Why, more than half the priests are 
Polytheists or atheists ! None but a crazy man would think of it. Thus they 
derided the invitation, and laughed at the messengers. 

11. Jehovah's Witnesses Few and Unobserved. — Jehovah's people are 
hidden ones. Elijah thought all Israel but himself worshiped Baal, when his 
rejecters were over seven thousand, and never were fewer witnesses for Jehovah 
to be found in Israel, nor a less proportion in any captivity ; they were the life 
of the nation, though not often appearing in the changes of government. So 
now, some of the remotest north tribes, that had been overrun by the Syrians 
and Assyrians, humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem, the city of their 
fathers' God. They could say: "ISTothing has happened but what Moses pre- 
dicted and threatened." And when the temple was dedicated, Jehovah told 



(3) II. Kings, 15:27-29. 



200 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

SolomoD, if they sinned He would forsake that house — it should be destroyed, 
the people should go into captivity and be a curse and reproach among the 
nations. ^ 

12. Events According to Pkogramme. — But Moses said, also, when they 
repented they should find favor among strangers, and be restored to their own 
land, and be blessed more than their fathers. Permanent, peaceful, and pros- 
perous abode for Israel was promised to David, and his son should rule the 
whole world. If his seed sinned, Jehovah would chastise them, but not cast 
them off forever. ^ The prophets have now predicted captivity as inevitable ; 
but reformation, restoration, and prosperity were also sure. Everything is 
moving along according to programme, and shows the intelligence and power 
that made the programme is carrying it out, and the throne of David will yet 
rule the world. The Ark was captured once, but its captors were conquered by 
it ; and Samuel's prayer destroyed the armies that had vanquished Israel. The 
covenants, laws, promises, and predictions harmonize and are moving on to 
completion. These present triumphs of the enemy are permitted, to draw the 
attention of the nations to behold His efforts and hear His boasts, and then will 
Jehovah show His power and glory, and nations will be compelled to acknowl- 
edge His existence and government. 

13. Many Scattered Witnesses. — So they came from Asher, Zebuluu, 
and Manasseh; and in Judah the Lord gave them one heart to do the command- 
ment of the king and the princes by the word of the Jehovah. So a vast multi- 
tude assembled in Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread, and they 
took away all the altars in Jerusalem and cast them into the brook Kidron. 
Then they kept the passover. The priests and Levites were ashamed of them- 
selves, seeing the people so far ahead of them in the reformation, and they 
sanctified themselves and filled their places. Those officiating on the first occa- 
sion were not enough for the present multitude; additional force was needed, and 
then others took shame and came into the work. Everything was done accord- 
ing to the law, and they kept the passover. 

14. Kejoicings. — But many of Israel from Ephriam, Manasseh, Issachar, 
and Zebulun, could not be purified in time, yet they did partake ; and Hezekiah 
prayed for the sincere, and the Jehovah answered him by healing all the diseases 
among the people. This manifestation of Jehovah's favor filled them with joy; 
it showed the sins and rejection of a nation did not debar the individuals in it 
who served Him from His favor. So the Israelites present were very glad and 
kept the feast the whole seven days, and then all of the assembly took counsel 
and kept seven days more with greatest rejoicings. The king and princes fur- 
nished offerings abundantly, and many priests were cleansed and added to the 
number that officiated. Since the time of Solomon and the secession of Israel, 
there had not been such rejoicing in Jerusalem. The priests and Levites arose 
and blessed the people, and their prayers were heard in Heaven. 

15. Idolatry Abolished. — Then they went to the cities of Judah and broke 
the images in pieces, cut down the groves, throwed down the high places and 
altars; they utterly destroyed all of them out of Judah and Benjamin, also in 
Ephraim and Manasseh. The power of Israel being broken, none could resist 
them. Then all Israel returned to their own cities and possessions, and Heze- 
kiah made provision for the present and future support of the ministers of the 
Temple. 

16. Supported by the Prophets. — Isaiah predicts the destruction of Moab 
to take place in three years, and describes it particularly and poetically. ^ Micah 
prophesies against the chief men of Judah and Israel, supported the reforma- 
tion under Hezekiah, and denounces the false prophets who lied to the people in 



(4) I. Kings, 9:4-9. (5) Chap. 70. (6) Isa., 15. 16. 



CHAPTER LIII. : SECTIONS XVII. -XIX. 201 

the name of Jehovah, causing them to apostatize. '^ Falsehood has always had 
advocates speaking in the name of the true God. Then, they said : the Lord 
said what He did not say; and now they say the Scriptures teach what they do 
not say nor teach. His expostulations are warm, sincere, and to the point, and, 
like the other prophets, he encourages the pious to hold on to their religion in 
their dispersion, for most prosperous and happy times will reward their labor 
and sufferings; but the wicked shall as surely be punished, and, finally, be 
totally defeated. 

17. Isaiah and Nahum. — Isa., 18. 19. Nahum 1-3. — Isaiah prophesies the 
restoration of the Ten Tribes, describes the punishment of Egypt and her gods, 
then disputing empire with Assyria, predicts the conversion of both Egypt and 
Assyria and their union with Israel in the service of Jehovah and in their 
unbounded prosperity. Nahum predicts and describes the destruction of Nine- 
veh, the royal city of Assyria, which was now in the height of power, and bid 
fair for universal empire. Isaiah prophesies the destruction of Tyre, the com- 
mercial mistress of the world, and its restoration after seventy years. ^ Also, he 
describes the invasion of Palestine by the Assyrians and their defeat before 
Jerusalem, and he predicts the advent of the Messiah and His glorious reign. ^ 
He describes the overthrow and utter desolation of Babylon before it had come 
into power. ^ Here we have a poetic representation of the meeting of souls in 
sheol, which corresponds with the meeting of such spirits on earth, under simi- 
lar circumstances, and gives the desolation of Judea. ^ Again, we have the 
invasion of Judah, and destruction of Babylon, Duma, and Arabia. ^ All these 
desolations have been accomplished as the prophet described, though centuries 
rolled away before Babylon became an utter desolation. (See Bush's Scripture 
Illustrations on these texts. Comprehensive Commentary, and others.) 

18. Samaritans Taught to Fear Jehovah. — A. M. 3284-3326. B. C. 
720-678. II. Kings, 18:9-12, 17:7-41. — Now, Samaria has been captured in 
the sixth year of Hezekiah, after three years' siege, and the people transplanted 
to the country of the Medes,^ and their place filled afterward with Polytheists, 
brought by Esar-haddon^ from Babylon, Cutha, Ava, Hamath, and Sephervaim. 
This is the origin of the Samaritans. These foreigners, speaking different lan- 
guages and worshiping different gods, made gods for themselves and put them in 
the high places left by Israel. The Jehovah sent lions and slew some of them, and 
they, according to the teachings of Polytheism — that every land had a particular 
god — understood this evil to come from the God of Israel. The knocking and 
kicking about of images by the Assyrians may have taught them the folly of 
idolatry, but did not correct their notion of many and local gods. They requested 
one of the old inhabitants, and the king of Assyria sent them one of the priests 
of Israel, who taught them the knowledge and fear of Jehovah; so they feared 
Jehovah but served their own gods. This retained the knowledge of the true 
God in the land till it rooted out Polytheism. Many of the Israelites remained 
in the country, and the pious of them, being reanimated by the reformations 
under Hezekiah and Josiah, witnessed for Jehovah till the returned captivity 
from Babylon restored the true worship in Jerusalem. 

19. Truth Carried by Captives. — The pious captives could maintain the 
knowledge and worship of Jehovah among the nations as well as in Israel, and 
have as good influence on those around them as they had in Israel. They had 
retained that knowledge for two hundred and forty-nine years under their own 
idolatrous kings and the persecutions of Jezebel. The Jews in Egypt retained 
theirs till Christ came, and since that event the unbelieving part of the Jews, 
while dispersed among all nations, have retained their worship of Jehovah for 
over eighteen hundred years. So these captives from Israel may have retained 



, (7) Mica, 3-7. (8) Isa., 23. (9) Isa., 10-12. (1) Isa., 13. 14. (2) Isa., 24-27. (3) Isa., 21. 22. 
(4) Chap. 50, § 13. (5) Ezra, 4:2. 



202 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the true religion in Armenia, Media, Persia, Chaldea, and Assyria, till the gos- 
pel gladdened their hearts. Some citizens of the nations became proselytes to 
their religion, and shared their hopes ; and Magi remained in the East looking 
for the promised Messiah till His advent. Facts sustain the opinion that these 
dispersions were agressive movements of the kingdom of God upon the domin- 
ions of the Old Serpent, and that the pious captives carried the true knowledge 
of the true God among the nations, and it was maintained there till Christ came. 

20. Israel a Warning to Judah. — In the captivity of Israel the Lord gave 
a warning to Judah that he could and would vindicate the covenant of Sinai and 
execute the prophetic threatenings of the law of Moses. He sent them faithful 
pro])hets, reminding them of the object of their national existence, their relation 
to Him, obligation to keep His laws, and certain calamities if they rebelled against 
their God. These prophets gave positive predictions of the time and manner of 
their punishment ; and thus additional proof of the existence and government of 
Jehovah, the God of Israel, was given to them and to all nations, when they were 
cut off and cast out of their own land, as Moses had predicted above seven hundred 
years before. The pious remaining in their own land, and those scattered among 
the nations, being instructed afresh by these late prophets announcing the cap- 
tivity, would maintain and disseminate this true religion. 

21. Synagogues. — Whether the synagogue worship, as it existed in the days 
of Christ and the apostles, had yet been established, we cannot say ; but they 
had sanctuaries in Israel in the time of Jeroboam 11.;^ and unless they spent the 
Sabbath days lounging about, they must have had some place for priests and 
Levites to instruct; for all could not attend at the sanctuary, or temple, every 
Sabbath. Its necessity for the mutual edification and comfort of the pious must 
have devised them at an early day in Israel ;* in the captivity they were indis- 
pensable, and we shall iind the elders of the Jews sitting around Ezekiel in their 
captivity. '^ In these meetings or synagogues the heathen come out of curiosity : 
would see, hear, learn, and become proselyted to Jehovah. Thus, as the king- 
dom of God ceased to be national, it became congregational ; and when the 
temple was destroyed the synagogues became the centers of religious worship, 
and after the second temple was built they had both till the Royal Messiah came. 



(6) Amos. 7:9. Ps., 74:8. {*) Numb., 23:3. (7) Ezk., 8:1. 14:1. 20:1. a3:31, 32. 



CHAPTER Liy. 



THIRD HEAD OF THE EED DRAGON BROKEN. A. M. 3289-3306. 

B. C. 715-698. 

1. Prosperity and Error. — II. Kings, 18:7, 8, 13-16. II. Chron., 32:1-8. 
IsA., 20. — After the great reformation the Lord was with Hezekiah and pros- 
pered him in every undertaking. He subdued the Philistines, and rebelled 
against the Assyrians who had been acknowledged by Ahaz as his master and 
protector. I am not sure Hezekiah did right in rebelling against the Assyrians, 
who had been invited by Ahaz to protect the Jews from the Syrians and Israel, 
and had done so. Tiglath-Pileser had not forced submission, but accepted it 
when offered to him. Ahaz volunteered submission to him rather than seek 
Jehovah ; and Hezekiah rebelled without asking counsel of the Lord, and was not 
sustained in this rebellion. Howev^er, this rebellion furnished the occasion to 
decide the contest between the third head of the dragon and the kingdom of God. 
After Tiglath-Pileser and Shalmaneser had captured Syria and Israel, Sennacherib 
invaded Judah and captured all the fenced cities and threatened Jerusalem.^ 
Though Hezekiah prepared to give him battle and encouraged the people to trust 
in Jehovah, yet he confessed his fault and submitted to pay the tribute imposed on 
him. This necessitated him to strip the gold off the temple and give it' to the 
king of Assyria. 

2. Confiding in Egypt a Folly. — Perhaps Hezekiah had bargained with 
Egypt for help when he rebelled against Assyria. Thus Asa, after a miraculous 
victory over the Ethiopians and Lubims, obtained in the name of Jehovah, hired 
the Syrians against Israel, and was reproved by the prophet. And while the 
Assyrians were taking Ashdod, we tind Isaiah predicting the shameful captivity 
of the Egyptians and Ethiopians, and that the Jews should be ashamed of 
their reliance on these two nations ;^ he also predicts heavy judgments upon Jeru- 
salem for their folly and hypocracy, confiding in Egypt, and contempt of God's 
word ; he exhorts to reformation, and promises mercy and holiness ; he also pre- 
dicts the destruction of the Assyrians. ^ 

3. Hezekiah's Sickness. — II. Kings, 20:1-11. — Hezekiah put Jerusalem in 
a state of defense and exhorted the people to trust in Jehovah, who would fight 
their battles, and was more than all the Assyrians ; and the people leaned them- 
selves upon the words of Hezekiah. ^ But the faith of Hezekiah himself was 
sorely tried. He was taken sick^ and the Lord informed him by Isaiah to arrange 
his business, for he was about to die. This was sad news, for Sennacherib had 
not left the country, and though he had received the tribute, he still menaced 
Jerusalem. Thus the cause of Jehovah was brought to the last extremity. The 
people rested on the words of Hezekiah ; and now the king himself is struck 
down and must die. The last hope is gone ! And the king-supremacy party are 
sure of a triumph ! Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and wept sore and 
prayed ! He had done all he knew and all he could to reestablish Jerusalem, 
Judah, and Israel in the true religion, and now he must die, while all his labors 
are about to be obliterated and the hope of the pious crushed. 



(8) Isa., 36:1. (9) Isa., 20:1-6. (1) Isa., 29-31. (2) II. Chron., 82:1-8. 



204 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

4. Pious Must Trust in Jehovah Alone. — The people relied on the word 
of Hezekiah ; but what will thej do in captivity without a king? They must 
learn to trust in Jehovah alone. The people having learned how little they could 
depend on their king's power or faith, the Lord prepares them for the great con- 
flict. Isaiah is sent back with the message to the king : His prayer was heard ; 
in three days he should go up to the temple ; fifteen years should be added to his 
life ; he and Jerusalem should be delivered out of the hand of the king of 
Assyria. Hezekiah asked a sign, and the sun was turned back ten degrees ; the 
people witnessed the miracle and believed in Jehovah, in Hezekiah, and in Isaiah, 
and are prepared for the contest. (Isa., 32-35.) 

5. Impious Speech. — II. Kings, 18:17-37. 19:1-7. — Sennacherib sent three 
generals from Lachish, with a vast army, against Jerusalem, notwithstanding 
Hezekiah had paid his demanded redemption. The city was well fortified, and 
rather than enter into a siege, Rab-Shakeh tried to persuade the people to make 
a treaty and surrender and be transplanted to anotlier country like their own. 
The Assyrian policy was to break down and mix up the nations of difierent 
languages and religions, and thus form a large empire easily kept in subjection. 
Rab-Shakeh showed them their weakness ; they could not raise two thousand 
horsemen, and so could not face the least division of the Assyrian army, much 
less resist the whole army. Did they trust in the Jehovah? He said : Hezekiah 
had taken away His high places and altars, and the Jehovah had commissioned 
him to destroy Jerusalem, where Hezekiah ordered the people to worship. But 
still that was a matter of indifference, for the king of Assyria was greater than 
all the gods, and had ravaged their countries, robbed their temples, and kicked 
their images into the fire. Can Jehovah deliver Jerusalem out of my hands ? 
Where are the gods of Hamath, Arpad, Sephervaim, Henah, and Ivah? Have 
the gods of Israel delivered Samaria ? 

6. Hezekiah Applies to Isaiah. — No one answered, as the king had com- 
manded. Hezekiah sent to Isaiah to pray for the remnant of Judah ; for Rab- 
Shakeh had reproached the Living God ; and as the facts stood before the people 
no one could contradict him. Hezekiah trembles for the cause of Jehovah, and 
calls Him Isaiah's God, as if he doubted his own acceptance with Him. This 
was a day of trouble ; the cause of Jehovah was about to triumph when this 
impious boast, sustained by such array of facts, silenced the most pious and 
believing. (Psalm 4A.) 

7. State OF THE Controversy. — The prophet returned answer : The Jehovah 
says: Be not afraid of his blasphemy ; I will send a blast upon him, and he shall 
hear a rumor and return to his own land, and fall by the sword in his own land. 
Thus the programme is given, and the great controversy going on since the days 
of Solomon is fairly stated. A king of kings and disposer of gods against 
Jehovah, the God of gods and disposer of kings. Which are most to be feared, 
the gods or the kings ? And is Jehovah an exception to all other gods ? And 
now we have the greatest of the kings threatening Jerusalem and defying her 
God ; and Jehovah says. He will defend Jerusalem and cause that king to return 
and fall by the sword in his own land. 

8. Assyrians Retire from Jerusalem. — II. Kings, 19:8-35; II. Chron., 
32:9-37. — Rabshakeh heard his master had left Lachish, and leaving Jerusalem 
found him waring against Libnah. It is reckoned Hezekiah composed the 
Forty-fourth Psalm on this occasion, and nothing could be more suitable. It 
describes the feelings and cogitations of God's people in times when all appears 
to be lost, and is much like his production when sick and had recovered. (Isaiah, 
38:9-20. 37.) 

9. Sennacherib's Letter. — II. Kings, 19. — Sennacherib heard ^' the rumor," 
that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, was marching against him ; he returned not to 
Jerusalem, but sent Hezekiah a letter full of impiety and defiance to Jehovah ; 



CHAPTER LIV. : SECTIONS X.-XIII. 205 

and in this he but expressed the belief of the rulers of that age. He said : Let 
not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee, saying Jerusalem shall not be 
delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria — he had heard of Isaiah's predic- 
tion when Hezekiah was sick — behold ! thou hast heard what the kings of Assyria 
have done to all lands by destroying them utterly ; and shalt thou be deliv- 
ered ? Have the gods of these nations which my fathers destroyed delivered them, 
as Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the children of Eden, which were in Thelasar? 
Where is the king of Hamath, of Arpad, of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Iva? 
In this letter Sennacherib exalts himself above all the gods, and regards Jehovah 
as not superior, if at all equal to those. In this letter he spoke the sentiments of 
all the intelligent, or scienced, of the world in that age. The gods had been 
losing respect ever since David burned those of the Philistines. 

10. The Letter Presented to the Lord and Answered. — Hezekiah brings 
the letter into the house of Jehovah, and confesses the facts that the Assyrians 
had destroyed the nations and burnt their gods, but prays the Jehovah for salva- 
tion from these conquerers, that all kingdoms of the earth might know that 
Jehovah was God, and He alone. The Lord informed Hezekiah, by Isaiah, 
that his prayer was heard, and so was Sennacherib's blasphemy ; and after 
describing his arrogance and giving the true reason of his success, the prophet 
assures Hezekiah that he shall not come into Jerusalem, nor shoot an arrow 
into it, nor besiege it ; but he shall return and fall, as already promised. 

11. The Third Head of Polytheism Broken. — That night the messenger 
of Jehovah slew one hundred and eighty thousand of the Assyrian army, and 
Sennacherib returned to Nineveh, and was murdered by his two sons while wor- 
shiping in the house of Nisroch, his god. In the presence of his god, two of 
his own sons slew him ! Thus Jehovah proved His superiority over the boasting 
conquerer of gods and kings, and made jthe weak and defenceless city of Jeru- 
salem triumphant in the name of the Jehovah. This result was flashed around 
among the nations that had felt or dreaded Assyrian power and among the trans- 
planted colonies who were trembling for the result and dreading the derision of 
Polytheists and atheists. On this occasion were composed Psalms Seventy-three, 
Seventy-five, and Seventy-six, which are well adapted to the situation and express 
the sentiments and feelings of the pious under such circumstances. 

12. Jehovah Yanquishes. — Then many brought gifts to Jerusalem unto 
Jehovah, and presents to Hezekiah, so he was magnified in the sight of all 
nations from thenceforth. The retrograde of the sun which was worshiped by 
all nations, and the defeat of the conquerer of gods and kings in answer to the 
prayer of Hezekiah, and according to the word of Isaiah, brought the eyes of all 
people upon him, and taught them that his God was supreme. The phenomenon 
of the sun, their supreme god, whether in fact or appearance, was noticed in 
Chaldea, and brought letters and presents from the king of Babylon to inquire 
about the wonderful event. Hezekiah was elated with the honor conferred on 
him, and showed the messenger all his riches ; and Isaiah informed him that, 
though delivered from Sennacherib, all he had should be carried to Babylon 
instead of Nineveh, and his ofi'spring should be eunuchs in the palace of that 
king. Hezekiah accepted the message with humility.^ Babylon, under Mero- 
dach-Baladan, had been reconquered by Sennacherib into an Assyrian province, 
and the overthrow of that monarch gave joy to that prince, though it did not 
restore him to his throne. When Isaiah predicted the captivity to Babylon, it 
was still under the scepter of Nineveh. The fall of Nineveh, and rise and fall 
of Babylon were now predicted in the divine programme. 

13. The Nations Taught.— II. Kings, 20:20-1; 11. Chron., 32:27-33.— 
Samaria had been captured and the remnant of Israel gone into captivity about 
eight years before this, but the nations had learned that the gods of Israel were 

(4) II. Kings, 20:12-19; II. Chron.; 32:25-6. 



206 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the calves of Jeroboam, and they also knew Jehovah had great prophets and 
many worshipers there. Jehovah is yet the God of Judah ; and Jerusalem, 
alone, triumphs over Assyria. During the fifteen years added to his life, Heze- 
kiah became exceedingly prosperous and very rich ; and though his kingdom 
was small, he left it in good condition, and the worship of Jehovah was reestab- 
lished among the scattered remnants in the tribes of Israel. When he died, he 
was laid in the highest sepulchres of the kings. 

14. What Israel Would Have Gained by Obedience. — Had Israel obeyed 
the Jehovah from the time of David, their natural increase and the proselytes 
would have occupied all the country from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates, 
while Egypt and Assyria had been converted or made tributary. ^ But now they 
are dispersed into Babylon, Persia, Media, Armenia, Assyria, Egypt, and all 
intervening tribes and nations ; and by their calamities, the world must be 
brought to a knowledge of the true God. As captives among the nations must 
they dwell, to draw attention to the history of Jehovah's works and government, 
and show the nations beforehand, by the prophesies and their fulfillment, what 
was about to be their own fate, and that Jehovah was the God of all nations. 
The temple and city of Jerusalem must attract much attention ; their destruction 
and restoration must excite inquiry and reflection ; the overturning and changing 
of nations must create consideration ; and the fact that all this was done 
according to prophetic programmes given by the God of Israel, must produce 
incalculable effect upon all reflecting minds. Thus the knowledge of Jehovah 
will be extended to the utmost boundary of these overturned nations, and will 
permeate more remote countries, and triumph over the thrones of the con- 
querers. Thus the fate of Israel and Judah, as nations, will become the riches 
of all people on the earth. ^ 

LAST PEOPHESIES OF ISAIAH.— Isaiah, 40-66. 

15. Predictions. — Isaiah, 40-45. — Isaiah comforts the pious with predic- 
tions of final restoration, purity, and prosperity under the compassionate care of 
the most meek and yet most competent king. (Isaiah, 40-1.) He prophesies 
again the restoration of the Jews, the advent and character of the Messiah, and 
expostulates with them. (Isaiah, 42-3. ) He shows the folly of idolatry ; the 
conversion and submission of the strong, neighboring nations ; gives a very par- 
ticular prophesy about some one in power in a nation named Cyrus, who should 
order the restoration of Jerusalem and rebuilding of the temple ; his victories 
and captures are described particularly. This prediction was given, that when 
this Cyrus should fulfill it, he might know that this Jehovah was the only God. 
This was fulfilled in about one hundred and seventy-four years after this. Thus 
we see the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and their, restoration are 
programmed. (Isaiah, 44-5.) 

16. Predictions. — Isaiah, 46-56. — Isaiah prophesies the overthrow of 
Babylon and the impotency of their gods ; and argues, from the predictions 
and their fulfillment, the sole divinity of Jehovah. (Isaiah, 46-7.) He reproves 
the obstinacy of the Jews, which would not yield to evidence ; but it must be 
whipped out of them by judgments. All this trouble and expense was for the 
sake of His name and tlie coi^version of the world trom Polytheism, and not 
on account of the importance of the Jews. (Isaiah, 48.) In the person of 
Isaiah, the Messiah talks with the Jews about their rejection of Him, and the 
nations accepting Him, but still comforts them with gracious promises. (Isaiah, 
49.) The prophet shows the rejection of Christ, His character, and the final 
triumph of His kingdom. (Isaiah, 50. 51. 52:1-12.) Then he describes the 



(5) Po., 81:18-16. (6) Rom., IMl, 12, 26, 27. 



CHAPTER LV.: SECTION I. 207 

humiliation, suffering, death, and exultation of the royal Messiah, emphatically 
called God's servant. (Isaiah, 52:13-15. 53.) The restoration, enlargement, 
and triumph of Jerusalem and Israel, their permanent and perpetual prosperity 
and felicity are confirmed with an oath. (Isaiah, 54.) This is what was prom- 
ised to David, but has not yet been fulfilled, though over two thousand nine hun- 
dred and twenty-four years have rolled away ; but the history of the past makes 
us confident of the fulfillment of what is yet future. He continues the same sub- 
ject, giving the interest and participation of the pious in the nations in these 
blessings, when the kingdom of God shall be consummated. (Isaiah, 55. 
56:1-8.) 

17. Predictions. — Isaiah, 56:9-12. 66. — Isaiah again discourses over the 
calamities of the Jews, inflicted for idolatry and hypocrisy, which he shows up 
in their true character and consequences. (Isaiah, 56:9-12. 57. 58. 59:1-15.) 
From Isaiah 59:16 to 66, or end of the book, Isaiah is reveling in the rich, 
happy, and glorious views of the consummated age of the kingdom of God, of 
which Jerusalem will be the glorious capital and center, and Israel shall be the 
priests of the living God. But it is impossible to condense his prophesies 
without spoiling their glorious splendor. Remember, these glorious scenes were 
programmed when the hope of Israel was about to be dissipated and the adver- 
sary about to deride that hope exultantly. Isaiah has not given a new hope to 
Israel, but has reasserted, expanded, developed, and minutely described the full- 
ness of the covenants, oaths, and promises made to Abraham, Moses, and David. 
For the fulfillment of the prophesies of the fate of other nations, see Bush's 
Scripture Illustrations, Comprehensive, and other commentaries on those predic- 
tions. All due up to the present time have been fulfilled, and passed into the 
page of history. 



CHAPTER LY. 



EEIGJSr OF MAISTASSEH. A. M. 3306-3363. B. C. 698-641.-11. Kings, 21 ; 
' II. Chron., 33 ; Isaiah, 22:15-25. 

1. Hereditary Prerogatives Become Corrupt. — After the captivity of 
Israel, Judah remained about one hundred and thirty-three years, and fifty-five 
years of this time was alloted to the reign of Menasseh, who at first was wicked, 
but reformed and did good. What proportion of time was devoted to evil, and 
what to good, we are not told. The wicked Ahaz was the son of the good 
Jotham ; the good Hezekiah was son of the impious Ahaz ; the wicked 
Manasseh was son of the good Hezekiah ; and the good Josiah was son of 
impious Amon, and all after Josiah were wicked. All organizations and posi- 
tions, inherited and regulated by flesh and blood relation, have and will always 
become corrupt ; hence, we can see that before the kingdom of God can be con- 
summated, the citizenship must be limited to those born of the spirit, or born of 
God. Resisting holy instruction and good example, cause impious children of 
pious parents to become very wicked ; and resisting bad instruction and example 
in parents, cause pious children to become very good. Resistance makes strong 
for good or bad. The sons of Samuel, the best of prophets, were bad. 



208 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

2. Manasseh's Youth. — Manasseh was twelve years old when he ascended 
the throne, and had not witnessed his father's distresses and distinguished deliv- 
erances. We are not told how soon he commenced overturning the reformation 
eifected by his father, but if he commenced soon it must have been the work of 
princes who acted the hypocrite while Hezekiah reigned. However, it appears 
very nauch like the conduct of a fool-hardened youth. He appears determined 
to invalidate all the evidence of Jehovah's divinity and to establish wholesale 
idolatry and wickedness in defiance to his authority. Bad as Ahaz was he was 
no match for the grandson. 

3. His Impiety Permitted. — He appears to have regarded the retrograde 
of the sun and the destruction of Sennacherib as mere chance work; but he will 
give the Jehovah an opportunity to prove His existence, government, and 
veracity. He restored all his father had destroyed, built altars to the sun, moon, 
and stars, in the court of the temple, and set a graven image of the groves in 
it, to pollute it. The disposition in men to venerate sacred things and forget the 
invisible and incomprehensible God, makes it necessary to desecrate or destroy 
these things. The Ark was taken captive, the brazen serpent was broken, and 
the temple was often polluted and at last destroyed. Thus the pious were edu- 
cated to distinguish between sacred things and Jehovah himself, and to worship 
Him in exile without any association with material objects. They will learn to 
witness for Him and serve Him without a temple, Ark, or altar. They must 
learn that God is a spirit, and they must worship Him in spirit and in truth, or 
in reality and not in form. '^ 

4. Manasseh was Defiant. — He either burnt a son in the fiery embraces 
of the iron Molock or he passed one through the flame in dedication to him. 
He dealt with familiar spirits and wizards, observed times and used enchant- 
ments, and shed very much innocent blood — I suppose of those opposing his 
apostacy"^ — and wrought wickedness till he filled Jerusalem ; and he seduced the 
people to more wickedness and abominations than of the nations destroyed by 
Joshua. Whatever the law of Jehovah forbid, that he would do, as if to defy 
His authority. The Lord sent prophets to reprove him, to expostulate with and 
admonish the people, and to announce his wrath and the utter desolations of 
Judah, but he was defiant and murdered the pious, and, it is said, he had Isaiah 
ripped in two with a saw. 

5. Was Reformed in Prison. — Isaiah had prophesied the captivity of 
Shebna and the captivity and death of Manasseh, ^ and the Lord brought the 
Assyrians upon Manasseh and they bound him and brought him to Babylon, 
where he found time in prison to reflect. Being defeated and afllicted, he 
repented, humbled himself greatly, and entreated the Jehovah; and the Lord 
heard, and released him and brought him back to Jerusalem. So he was con- 
vinced that Jehovah was the true God and superior to kings. Then he took 
away the strange gods, and idols, and altars out of the temple, and cast them 
out of the city; he commanded Judah to serve the Jehovah, and he repaired 
the altar and sacrificed thereon. The people complied so far as to sacrifice to 
Jehovah, but did it in the high places and not in Jerusalem, as commanded in 
the law. He died, and his son Ammon took the throne for two years. (Joseph 
Ant., 10. 3:2.) 

6. Amon's Reign.— II. Kings, 21:19-26. II. Chron., 33:21-25.— Amon 
was impious, and his servants assassinated him. The kings of Judah that were 
assassinated were impious, and sometimes they may have been murdered by 
mistaken men, desiring to prevent more wrath upon the nation. The people, or 
supreme court, executed the murderers and defended the throne of David. 



(7) John, 4:23. (*) Joseph Ant., 10. 8:1, 2. (8) Isa., 22:15-21 ; IT. Chron., 33:11-19. 



CHAPTER LYI. 



THE LAST REFOEMATION. REIGN OF JOSIAH. A. M. 3363-3394. 
B. C. 637-606.— 11. Kings, 22; 11. Cheon., 34; II. Kings, 23:1-20. 

1. Josiah's Youth. ^ — The government must have had some other source of 
power than the throne, for the assassins of Ammon were executed and Josiah was 
king when but eight years old. Perhaps the supreme court, established by Jehosh- 
aphat, with the high priest, Hilkiah, managed the government while Josiah was 
a child upon the throne. When Josiah was sixteen years old and eight years on 
the throne, he began to seek after the God of his illustrious progenitor, David ; 
and when twenty, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the groves, the 
high places, the carved images, and the molten images. He was present at their 
destruction, and reducing them to dust strewed them on the graves of their 
worshipers. He burnt the bones of the idolatrous priests upon their altars to 
pollute the altars and insult their gods. Thus he purged Judah and Jerusalem. 
He did the same in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim, Simeon and Naphtali, 
reducing them to dust and casting them into the brooks. Syria and Israel being 
led into captivity, there was no government in Palestine to oppose him. The 
valley of Tophet, or son of Hinnum, or Gehenne, was devoted to the worship 
of Moloch, another idol of the sun. This iron image was heated as a stove 
and his arms worked by a spring. When the victim was laid on his arms it 
was instantly clasped to his heated bosom and roasted to death, while the drums 
(called toph) drowned the cries of the child. Josiah polluted it with all the filth 
of the city and dead carcasses. There the worm-devouring carcasses never 
died, and the fire-consuming rubbish and filth never was quenched during the 
days of Josiah ; and as Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, became a distinguishing 
name for Satan ; so Tophet, or Gehenne, became suitable names for the perdition 
of the wicked. 

2. Polluted the Altar of Jeroboam. — -He took away the horses dedicated 
to the sun and burned the chariots of the sun with fire. The high places which 
Solomon had builded for Ashtaroth, Chemosh, and Milcom had never been 
destroyed, so he defiled them with the bones of men after he had demolished the 
images and groves. He polluted Jeroboam's altar at Bethel by burning men's 
bones upon it, as the ancient prophet had foretold three hundred and fifty years 
before, and then destroyed it and the grove. (Chap. 45, § 4.) All the houses of 
the high places in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made, but 
were now occupied by the new gods of the Samaritans, Josiah destroyed them 
like the rest. 

3. Purged all the Land of Israel. — When robbing the sepulchres of 
bones to pollute the altars, he inquired about an epitaph over one, and was told 
that was the sepulchre of the prophet who had denounced these events transpir- 
ing ; and it was left to witness to future generations as it had to the past. Here 
we discover the captivity had not taken away every one in the country, but many 
of Israel remained, and they were acquainted with transpiring events, and with 
the predictions of the past. Thus Josiah took away all these abominations out 

—14 



210 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

of the countries that pertained to Israel, and made all the present inhabitants 
serve the Jehovah. The government of Israel bein^ destroyed by the captivity 
of the ruling class, there was no power in the country to resist Josiah ; so he 
replanted the religion of Jehovah among the remaining Israelites and the new 
mixed-up Samaritans. 

4. Jeremiah Called to Witness for Jehovah. — Jer., 1. 2. 3:1-5. — A 
faithful prophet was raised up in the person of Jeremiah to keep their character 
and captivity before their eyes. He pointed to their iniquity and to the penalty; 
gave much support to Josiah's reformation, and continued his labors from the 
thirteenth year of Josiah till the captivity was completed. He was a prophet to 
the nations, including Egypt and Chaldea, as well as to Judah. Jehovah was 
about to revolutionize all these nations and teach them to know Him. His 
rebukes and admonitions, exhortations and denunciations, were most sincere and 
pathetic. The prophets give us a better internal view of the nation than the his- 
tory : impiety, and not ignorance, induced them to rebel against the laws of 
Jehovah. They had false prophets and false expounders of the law, besides the 
whole corps of Polytheistic advocates. They were obstinate, and would not 
reflect on their history and the incontrovertible proofs of Divine power and favor. 
They had miraculous sustenance, protection, and prosperity when obedient ; pun- 
ishment when they apostatized ; pardon and return of favor when they reformed. 
The Polytheists had plundered and abused them ; yet they will forsake their only 
friend and protector and go with their cruel enemies, to their own injury and dis- 
grace. 

5. Wrath on Judah by the Law. — We find the remaining fragments of the 
tribes united with Judah in repairing the temple. In the eighteenth year of 
Josiah's reign, and the twenty-sixth of his age, he undertook to repair the temple, 
and the high priest found in it a book of the law given by Moses. It appears 
Manasseh destroyed all copies of the law he could find which condemned him 
and his impiety. When Josiah learned the contents of this roll he rent his 
clothes, for he discovered that the recent denunciations of the prophets were 
nothing more than the covenanted penalties of the law which had been so 
impiously violated, and great wrath was hanging ever them. 

6. Covenant to Obey the Law. — Josiah sent to Hulda, the prophetess, to 
inquire of the Lord for him and the remnant of Judah. Was it worth while 
trying to save the nation by reformation ? The Lord informed him that the wrath 
denounced in the law should be executed, but he should be gathered to his grave 
in peace, and not see that evil day. Then he assembled all the elders of Judah 
and inhabitants of Jerusalem and read the book to them, and covenanted to walk 
after Jehovah and to obey all written in that book. He made them stand to it, 
and they did so. 

7. Zephaniah Prophecies. — Zeph., 1, 3. — About this time the prophet 
Zephaniah exhorts the people to repentance ; denounces vengeance on Judah, 
and declares the day of trouble, distress, and desolation to be at hand. He pre- 
dicts woe to the Cherithites, the Moabites, Ammonites, and Ethiopians, and 
describes the desolation of Nineveh as utter and total. He inveighs against the 
pollutions and oppressions of the Jews ; predicts a remnant trusting in Jehovah, 
and promises their restoration, blessing, and prosperity. 

8. Passover Kept, and Prophets Prophecy. — Josiah kept the passover as 
written in the law, and arranged the temple service according to David's regula- 
tions. The passover had not been observed in such strict accordance with the 
law of Moses since the days of Samuel. While Josiah established reformation, 
Jeremiah, Zephaniah, and Habakkuk reproved, admonished, expostulated, 
denounced, and predicted in the name of Jehovah. Jeremiah reproaches the Jews 
for backsliding after the reformation by Josiah, and describes, in prophetic antici- 
pation, the sorrows of the approaching captivity. (Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6.) 



CHAPTER LVI. : SECTIONS IX, -X. 211 

Habakkuk also reproves their backsliding, and depicts the Chaldean army in their 
ravages; shows the majesty of Jehovah and the conditions of the conquered 
countries. (Chapters 1, 2, and 3.) Jeremiah exhorts the Jews to reform, and 
they should be protected and prospered in their own land ; but if they do not the 
temple of the Jehovah will not save them, although it was the only one to Him in 
the whole world. He describes their wickedness, and laments the miseries of 
the people on the near approaching captivity. (Chapters 7-10.) He reminds 
them of the covenant made under Josiah, and treats on many important subjects. 
(Chapters 11 and 12.) 

9. Captivity and Restoration Determined. -r-This was the last reformation 
attempted before the captivity, and was the most extensive and thorough ever 
accomplished. Throughout the whole territory of all the tribes the inhabitants 
were reminded that Jehovah claimed to be the only Living and True God, and 
would not allow that land to be devoted to Polytheism, but had, and would send 
His own people into captivity and bring them back and be their only God. The 
mass of the people were hardened to their own destruction. They had the best of 
kings and most faithful of prophets ; and while many were thus prepared against 
the evil day, most firmly united to Jehovah, had His secret in their breasts and 
the understanding of His holy covenant (Psalms 25:14), the majority were fitted 
for destruction. 

10. Josiah's Death.— II. Chron., 35:20-27. 11. Kings, 23:25-30.— The 
great Assyrian monarchy being now subverted, Pharaoh ^echo extended the 
kingdom of Egypt to the Euphrates. As he marched upon Charchemish on the 
Euphrates, Josiah, without asking counsel of the Jehovah, went out to stop his 
march at Megiddo. Kecho tried to dissuade him, but Josiah attacked the Egyptian 
army and was killed. History does not give enough information to enable us to 
justify or condemn this act, and we shall not conjecture. JSTecho did not insult 
Jehovah, declined to fight the Jews, and professed to be commissioned by God. 
After the exodus of Israel, the Egyptians never disputed the divinity of Jehovah 
nor offered Him an insult. But Judah was too corrupt to appreciate such a king 
as Josiah, and he was taken away that the judgments might come on them. The 
prophets and pious lamented him, and always mentioned his name with approba- 
tion and sorrow. This was the last good king of Judah, and he was the most 
pious. 



Period Ninth. A. M. 3394-34:17. B, C. 606-583. 
Mebellions^ Warnings^ Predictions, and Captivity. 



CHAPTER LYII. 



KEIGN OF JEHOIAKIM. FOURTH HEAD OF THE DRAGON 

APPEARS. A. M. 3394-3405. B. C. 606-595.— II. Kings, 

23:30-37; 11. Chron., 36:15; §§ 1-8. 

1. Jehoiakim Made King by Pharaoh. — The Jews made Jehoahaz king on 
the throne of his father, Josiah ; but he commenced to follow the wicked kings, 
and after three months Pharaoh Necho detlironed him and filled the place with 
his brother, Eliakim, and changed his name to Jehoiakim and reduced the country 
to tribute. Thus, for a time, the destiny of Jerusalem appears to be in the hands 
of Egypt, which governs to the Euphrates ; but still the prophets assert it shall 
be destroyed by the Chaldeans. 

2. Jeremiah Keeps the Government of Jehovah Before Them. — Now 
Jeremiah draws our whole attention. By various means he impresses upon them 
the certainty of their captivity and the destruction of Jerusalem, and expostulates 
and exhorts ; but he is contradicted by false prophets, who promise the people 
peace. Jeremiah proves his mission by predictions to be fulfilled soon. (Jer., 
13-20; 22:1-23.) He threatens the destruction of temple and city. The princes 
and priests tried to have him killed, but were prevented by the elders of the 
land, who could quote other prophecies to the same import. One especially 
defended him, named Ahikam. (Jer., 26.) Jeremiah predicts the destruction 
of Pharaoh's army on the Euphrates (Jer., 46:1-12), and reproves and condemns 
the Jews by the example of the Rechabites, who had sheltered in Jerusalem for 
fear of the Chaldean army. (Jer., 35.) 

3. Assyrian Monarchy Destroyed and Chaldea in Power. A. M. 3398. 
B. C. 606. — The great city Nineveh, whose kings had conquered from the Persian 
gulf to the Black sea, and from the Caspian sea to the Mediterranean sea, Egypt, 
and the Arabian peninsula, as predicted, was now destroyed, according to the 
predictions of Nahum and others. The Sythian hordes from the north had weak- 
ened its power ; the Medes and Babylonians revolted, and, uniting, destroyed 
Nineveh and divided the empire, and the west part fell to Nebopolasser, king of 
Babylon. While these events were transpiring east of the Euphrates, Pharaoh 
Necho, whose father had revolted also, extended the power of Egypt to that 
river. As the prophets predicted the captivity of the Jews to be by the Chaldeans, 
the Jews regarded the Egyptians as friends, and Necho's army at Charchemish 
as their safeguard ; but Jeremiah predicted its destruction. Thus the third, or 
Assyrian, head of the red dragon was destroyed. 

4. More of the Divine Programme. — Now Jeremiah predicts the length of 
the captivity by Nebuchadnezzar to be of seventy years' duration, and predicts 



driAP'TER LVII. : SECTIONS V-.-VlII. ^13 

tlie fate of the surrounding nations by the same king of Babylon. The prophe- 
cies of the desolations by the Assyrians had been fuliilled on Syria, Israel, and 
Egypt. Now the predicted doom of the other nations is at hand, and Jeremiah 
informs them that the destroyer is on the warpath. He impresses this doom by 
a very apposite symbol : he presents them a cup of wine, representing the fury 
of Jehovah upon them. If any king refused to drink, they were assured they 
should certainly drink ; they should be destroyed by the sword of the king of 
Babylon, and should not be buried, but be as manure upon the ground. (Jer., 
25.) At another time^ he sends them yokes, and with them the predictions of 
their fate. (Jer., 27-8.) These symbols of subjugation and wrath were presented 
to Moab (Jer., 48), to the Ammonites (49:1-6), Edom (49:7-22), Damascus 
(49:23-7), Kedar (49:28-33), and Elam (49:35-9). The inhabitants of Damascus 
were those placed there when Tiglath-Fileser carried the former Syrians captives. 

5. Kechabites Preserved. — While the programme presents the destruction 
of all these nations, not one of the children of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, 
should be cut off forever. (Jer., 35.) These were of the Kennites, of the offspring 
of Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, that sojourned in Judah. This day they remain 
in Arabia, observing the laws of Moses and the injunctions of Jonadab.^ Like 
the history of those nations predicted to destruction, their history is interwoven 
incidently with the history of Israel ; and these histories show the impossibility 
of giving the outline of such a complex history as that of the kingdom of God, 
filled with so many incidental mentions of tribes, remarks about nations, and pre- 
dictions of destinies, unless that outline history was true. Their present existence 
substantiates the inspiration of the prophet. This promise was recorded for our 
benefit, who are two thousand four hundred years after the time it was given. 

6. Guilt of the Adjacent Nations. — These nations around Israel have had 
all the evidence that Jehovah was the only true and living God that Israel had; 
and they feared Him, but did not love nor obey Him, and continued to worship 
their false gods. But now He tells them: "I begin to bring evil on the city 
called by My name, and should ye be altogether unpunished ? Ye shall not be 
unpunished." Besides those closely around Israel, the prophet presents the cup 
of doom and destruction to all those more remote nations, where many of Jeho- 
vah's people were already dispersed — north, south, east, and west; and then 
Babylon, herself, must become a prey to many of these nations. 

7. Jeremiah's Roll. — Jer., 36. — Jeremiah being imprisoned for his faithful 
warnings and teachings, pronounced all his predictions about Israel, Judah, and 
other nations, and Baruch wrote them down in a roll, and then went into the 
temple and read them in the ears of all the people, who were congregated out of 
all the cities round about, and exhorted them to repentance. In doing this, 
Baruch endangered himself to the treatment of Jeremiah, and he was also liable 
to the evils threatened upon his people, and he was much dejected at the pros- 
pect before him. But the Lord informed him that evil was coming on all lands, 
and though he could not expect great things, yet his life should be secure in all 
places. {Jer., 45:1-5.) 

8. The King and the Roll. — The contents of this roll were reported to all 
the princes of Judah, who had it read to them, and then to the king, Jehoiakim. 
The king cut it up and burnt it, and ordered Baruch and Jeremiah to be taken. 
But the Jehovah hid them. The king and his princes were hardened and did 
not fear. Baruch wrote another copy, as Jeremiah indited, with many additions. 
Then Jeremiah told the king and princes their doom from Jehovah for burning 
the roll and not reforming. Their fate soon overtook them, for they rebelled 
against Nebuchadnezzar, and he sent against them raids of the Chaldeans and 
Syrians, Moabites and Ammonites, who ravaged the land, killed the king, and 
left him unburied. (IL Kings, 24:1-5 ; IL Chron., 36:8, 5 ; Jer., 22:18-19.) 



(3) Chap. 68:4-5 ; (4) See Encp., R. K., and Comp. Comment' 



214 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

COMMENCEMENT OF THE CAPTIVITIES.— 11. Kings, 24:3-4; 11. 
Chron., 36:5-8; Daniel, 1:1-7; §§9-14. 

9. Pious and Impious Must be Taught. — Mankind may be divided into two 
classes — the pious and the impious. Tiie pious have a consciousness of insuffi- 
ciency in themselves and depend on some superior power. They fear a Divine 
Being, and when correctly instructed, will try to obey Him ; but they are liable 
to fall into superstitious regard for those persons and things associated with His 
service and worship, and, forming conceptions of divine things, they lose sight, 
or the correct knowledge, of the Deity himself. Hence, the necessity of the 
capture of the Ark by the Philistines, the destruction of the brass serpent, the 
pollutions and the destruction of the temple and the holy city. God is a spirit, 
and they who worship Him must learn to worship Him in spirit and in truth ; 
without associations with times, places, and things, they must venerate, love, 
and seek to be transformed into the attributes of God, or be renewed into His 
image in holiness, knowledge, and righteousness. The impious are self-sufficient, 
banish all divine fear from their breasts, reject all kinds and degrees of evidence, 
follow animal propensities, pervert all the institutions of divine religion into 
licentiousness and gain, and make their destruction necessary to the advance- 
ment of the kingdom of God and the welfare of mankind. No use to furnish 
evidence to the impious, unless to leave them without excuse. They must be 
destroyed ! 

10. Superstition Guarded Against. — When the pious of the nations saw 
the gods mutilated, kicked around, knocked about, and burnt, and the power of 
the invisible, unrepresented Jehovah demonstrated, according to the words and 
predictions of the prophets, they were in danger of regarding the temple and 
city of Jerusalem as they were accustomed to regard their own idols. But when 
they saw these destroyed, and yet the power of God still manifested without them, 
they were better able to form more correct ideas of His being and character and 
attributes. The impious must be overawed, or destroyed. All the developments 
of the kingdom of God are programmed beforehand, showing that intelligence, 
as well as power, is consummating an object. 

11. The Fourth Head of the Red Dragon. — The kingdom of God comes 
now in direct contact with the Babylonian or Chaldean empire, which constitutes 
the fourth head of the red dragon, or the fourth headship of the Polytheistic 
antagonism to the kingdom of God. Like most other powers, it passed through 
various vicissitudes of fortune, but latterly formed a province of the great Assy- 
rian empire. That monarchy being engaged with the Sythean hordes in the 
north, Egypt, Babylonia, and Medea revolted ; the last two combined, and 
destroyed Ninevah and divided the empire. Nebuchadnezzar became master of 
all on the west, and made Babylon the empire city. 

12. Captivity Begins. — Everything being prepared, the captivity of the 
city of Jehovah begins. The other fortified cities of the holy land had been 
captured by the Assyrian monarchy, and people of Babylonia and other parts 
had been planted in the cities of Samaria. Jerusalem had withstood the Assy- 
rian power, and, on account of Divine favor, had attracted the eyes of that whole 
empire, and from the days that Nineveh had humbled herself at the preaching 
of Jonah, and the king of Babylon sent messengers to Hezekiah concerning won- 
derful events, the prophets and prophesies of the God of Israel and Judah were 
known and regarded among the nations. The capture of Jerusalem by Babylon 
had been foretold by Isaiah to Hezekiah, one hundred years before this, and 
that prediction was carried by captives into all parts of the Assyrian dominions. 
The wickedness and abominations of Judah had surpassed the filthiness of the 
devoted Canaanites and Amorites, and all these nations knew the prophets had 
devoted them to destruction and captivity. 



CHAPTER LVII. : SECTIONS XIII. -XV. 215 

• 13. TRityMT^H m Polytheism. A. M. 3398. B. C. 606. —In the Gilding of 
the third and beginning of the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign, under the king 
of Babylon, s the first captivity to Babylon took place; then part of the vessels 
of the house of Jehovah were taken to Shinar by Nebuchadnezzar, and put in 
the treasure house of his god. What a triumph this was for Polytheism, and 
for the atheist who regarded kings and armies superior to all gods. Here idol- 
atry and rebellion against Jehovah first showed themselves, and though checked 
for a time by the confusion of tongues, from this center they had overspread the 
whole world, and now the vessels of Jehovah's temple — and the only one He 
has upon earth — are presented in the house of Baal as trophies from a supreme 
king. Sennacherib was defeated, but Nebuchadnezzar captured the city of 
Jehovah and pillaged His temple. Had not the pious been prepared for this 
beforehand by the threatenings of Moses and the predictions of the prophets, 
they might have given up the hope of Israel in despair, and regarded the predic- 
tion of Moses — that the glory of the Jehovah should fill the whole earth — as an 
idle boast. But Jeremiah continued forewarning of every event, though opposed 
by the false prophets, the king, and the princes, till the whole captivity was com- 
pleted ; then he left them, authorized to look for a return after the seventy years 
transpired. 

14. Daniel and Companions Selected.-— According to the king's orders 
selections were made of some of the choice children of the royal family, and of 
the princess of Judah, to stand before him and minister to his wishes. Among 
these were four who come to notice in after history : Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, 
and Azariah — named in Chaldeac language, Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, 
and Abed-nego. These four youths determined to adhere to the laws of Jehovah, 
and not submit to any laws or customs of Babylon that required them to disobey 
the God of their fathers. Their course of conduct was modest but firm, and 
they cautiously avoided bringing their instructors into danger. They refused 
the luxuries of the king and dieted temperately, according to the laws of Moses. 
By this means they avoided eating or drinking anything consecrated to idols. 
Their God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom, and the 
king found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers in his 
dominions. Daniel lived till Cyrus issued the decree for the return of the Jews, 
and to the third year of Cyrus. 

15. Jehoiachin Made King.— II. Kings, 24:6-16; II. Cheon., 36:9, 10; 
Jer., 22:24-30. 23:1-8. — Jehoiakim rebelled against Kebuchadnezzar three years 
after that monarch had released him from his fetters and restored him to his 
kingdom. This brought upon him, at the command of Nebuchadnezzar, all the 
neighboring nations subject to the Babylonian power, who ravaged the country 
and beseiged Jerusalem. Jehoiakim was slain, perhaps in a sally, and his dead 
body cast into the highway,^ as Jeremiah foretold. (Jer., 22:18, 19.) Jehoi- 
akim being dead, his son, Jehoiachin, reigned in Jerusalem three months.^ The 
Egyptians were driven back into Egypt and left Nebuchadnezzar in possession of 
all the countries east of their borders. Now, when everything appears lost, 
Jeremiah predicts the return of Israel and Judah and their safety and abundance 
under the reign of a righteous Son of David, called Jehovah-our-Righteousness, 
'or Our Eighteous Jehovah. They shall be gathered out of all countries, and in 
His days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely in their own land. 
This is the same as the promise to David, and will be realized yet. Jeremiah 
'exposes and denounces the false prophets who caused the people to transgress. 
The prophets of Samaria made the people transgress by prophesying in the 
mame of Baal ; but the prophets of Jerusalem prophesied lies in the name of 
Jehovah and caused the people to transgress till they were cast oflP and the city 
forsaken. (Jer., 23:9-40.) 

(5) II. Kings, 23:36-7. 24:1; II. Chron., 36:5»7; see § 8. (6) Town., note 3, period 7, pt. 1, §2. 
(*) II. Kings, 24:8. 



S16 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

16. The Second Captivity. A. M. 3405. B. C. 599. — Nebuchadnezzar 
again captured Jerusalem, and Jehoiachin, or Coniah, was taken, and with his 
wives, mother, servants, princes, and officers, was carried to Babylon ; the 
treasures of the king and of the temple were taken; the gold vessels made by 
Solomon were cut in pieces, and the craftsmen, smiths, and men of valor, to the 
number of ten thousand — and all were taken to Babylon. Among these cap- 
tives were Ezekiel, who became a prophet to the captives, and Mordecai, who 
appears in the reign of Ahasuerus, the Persian Monarch. The time when the 
seventy years' captivity began was in the first captivity. (See g^ 13, 14.) 



CHAPTER LYIII. 



REIGN OF ZEDEKIAH, THE LAST KING. A. M. 3405-3416. B. C. 
599-588.— 11. Kings, 24:17-20. 25:1-21; II. Chkon., 36:10-21. 

1. Zedekiah King. — False prophets and Jeremiah : Nebuchadnezzar made 
Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king over the remnant, who were of the poorest and 
least fitted for war, and Jerusalem and the temple remained eleven years longer 
to attract the eyes of Jews and Gentiles. The predictions of desolations and 
captivity have been so promptly fulfilled, we might suppose false prophets would 
no more oppose Jeremiah ; but now they promised a speedy return of the cap- 
tivity and spoils. Jeremiah continues his ministry, as the Lord directs, and 
exhorts Zedekiah to submit to the king of Babylon and serve the Jehovah, and 
promises that it would be well with the remnant. But Zedekiah rebelled against 
the king of Babylon, and did not serve the Lord. 

2. Ezekiel Instkucts the Captives. — About three hundred miles northeast 
of Jerusalem there was a numerous body of captives, on the river Cheber, and 
among them was a priest named Ezekiel, commissioned to be a prophet to them. 
(Ezek,, 1. 3:1-21.) He keeps them posted in the programme of events trans- 
piring at Jerusalem, and with its abominations and miserable doom. He shows 
the miseries and destruction of Jerusalem by scenic representations, that cer- 
tainly drew their attention. (Ezek., 3:22-27. 4-7.) He exhibits the idolatry 
that procured the captivity, and shows a pious remnant preserved. (Ezek., 8-11: 
1-21.) He prophesies against Zedekiah, the false prophets, Jerusalem, and the 
Jewish nation (Ezek., 11:22-25. 12-19), and against the elders in the captivity 
who still adhered to idolatry, and reviews their idolatrous tendency from Egypt 
till the captivity. (Ezek., 20-23.) At the beginning of the siege, be prophe- 
sied the destruction of Jerusalem. (Ezek., 24.) Thus the Jews were well 
instructed in the knowledge of their relation to Jehovah, of His superiority to 
all the gods of the nations, of His government of them and the nations, of His 
revelations to Moses and the prophets, and nothing but impiety could induce 
them to follow idolatry, and believe the existence of many gods. 

3. Jeremiah Still Instructs at Jerusalem. — At Jerusalem Jeremiah pre- 
dicts good for those in captivity, but evil for those remaining in Jerusalem. 
(Jer., 24.) He sent a letter to the captive Jews in Babylon, telling them to make 
themselves at home, to increase, and seek the peace and welfare of the place 
wherever they sojourned ; he warns them against the false prophets, diviners, 



CSAPTER LVm.: SECTIONS IV. -Vlll. 217 

and dreamers, and after the seventy years they should return a reformed people 
and beloved of God. But those in Jerusalem should be consumed by the sword, 
famine, pestilence, and captivity; and those in Egypt should meet the same 
doom. But the false prophets, lying to them in captivity, should die and not see 
the happy day. (Jer., 29.) Once Jehovah trained up a young generation of 
Israel in the wilderness, under the teachings of Moses, for forty years ; and now 
He is training up another young generation, by the teachings of His prophets, 
during seventy years in captivity. 

4. Jekemiah Uses Symbols to Dbaw Attention. — Jeremiah prophesies of 
a more remote reformation, restoration, and prosperity for Israel and Judah, 
after grievous dispersions. They shall again frequent the temple, and be gov- 
erned by the throne of David ; shall be taken into a new covenant, from which 
apostacy is impossible. (Jer., 30-31.) Again, he wears a yoke in token of the 
Jews' subjection to the king of Babylon, having sent yokes to the other nations 
with the assurance of their subjugation to the same monarch. A false prophet 
breaks the wooden yoke off Jeremiah's neck, and asserts the return of the holy 
vessels within two years ; but he is informed that the yokes shall be iron, and all 
those nations shall serve the king of Babylon, and that he should die that present 
year for a warning to the people. (Jer., 27-8.) 

5. Othek Nations. — Jeremiah describes judgments and captivity for other 
nations. Moab shall be destroyed, because he magnified himself against the 
Jehovah, but in the latter days he shall be regathered. Amnion and Elam shall 
experience the same ; but Edom, Damascus, and Kedar shall be destroyed and 
not regathered. (Jer., 48-9.) He describes the utter destruction of the present 
all-conquering Babylon, which, though captured by Cyrus only seventy years 
after, was centuries in experiencing the consummation. (Jer., 50-51.) 

6. Reformation and Relapse. — Zedekiah violated his oath of lidelity and 
rebelled against the king of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar came and the city was 
besieged. Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah to pray the Jehovah God for them. The 
prophet shows him his own fate particularly. They pretended to reform and lib- 
erated their Hebrew slaves, but imprisoned Jeremiah for prophesying against 
them. (Jer., 37:1-4. 34:1-10.) While in prison and the city besieged, Jere- 
miah was commanded to buy property and take a deed, and thus give assurance 
of the return of the captivity and of the restoration of the city. He again proph- 
esies the restoration of both Israel and Judah. David's righteous branch shall 
reign ; in his day, Judah shall be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. He 
shall be called Jehovah, our Righteousness. David shall never want a man on 
his throne over Israel, as sure as day and night. (Jer., 32-3.) 

7. Feared, but Did Not Reform. — Pharaoh-Hophra marched out of Egypt, 
and Jeremiah predicts the destruction of the Philistines and' the defeat of the 
Egyptians (Jer., 47. 37:6-10); and though Nebuchadnezzar raised the siege to 
march against Pharaoh, the prophet insures their return and the destruction of 
the city. When the siege was raised the people reclaimed their slaves, and Jer- 
emiah devotes them to the sword and to captivity. (Jer., 34:11-23.) Jeremiah 
attempted to leave the city and was imprisoned as a deserter ; however, the king 
was afraid and took him out to learn what word was from the Lord. Jeremiah 
retold him his fate and asserted the unmerited cruelty of his imprisonment, and 
requested to be removed from the filthy dungeon ; so he was kept in the court of 
the prison and allowed a piece of bread every day. (Jer., 37:11-21.) 

8. Impiety of Priests and People; City Destroyed. — Having driven 
back the Egyptians, the Chaldeans returned to the siege, and Zedekiah sends to 
inquire of the Jehovah. Jeremiah utters his former predictions, and tells them 
the only hope for life was in deserting to the Chaldeans (Jer., 21); therefore, 
the princes importuned the king and had Jeremiah cast into the dungeon, where 
he was nearly smothered in the mire and filth. But an Ethiopian Eunuch 



218 THE EINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

interceded with the faithless king, drew him out, and restored him to the 6ouH 
of the prison. The king, who was afraid of the Jehovah and also of the princes, 
again interviewed the prophet, who exhorted him to surrender. Ebed-Melech, 
the Etliiopian, was promised security of life, because he trusted in Jehovah and 
delivered Jeremiah. The city was now taken, the temple dismantled and burnt 
with fire, as predicted, and Jeremiah was released from prison by the Chaldean 
captain of the guard. (Jer., 38. 39. 52.) A. M. 3416. B. C. 588. 

9. Cause and Consequences. — The chief of the priests and of the people 
transgressed, polluted the temple, and wrought abominations like the heathen. 
They derided the messengers of Jehovah, scoffed at His word, and maltreated 
His prophets ; so their destruction was necessary, or the covenant with Abraham 
would become a failure. Therefore, the Jehovah brought upon them the Chal- 
deans, who slew their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, without com- 
passion for men or women, old or young. All the vessels of the house of 
Jehovah, great and small, the treasures of the temple, of the king, and of the 
princes were carried to Babylon. The house of Jehovah was burnt with fire, 
the wall of the city was broken down, all the palaces were burnt, and all choice 
vessels were destroyed. All who escaped the slaughter were carried to Babylon 
and were subjected to Nebuchadnezzar and his sons, till the conquest of that 
empire by the Persians. Every event and many attendant circumstances had 
been foretold by the prophets, but most particularly and circumstantially by Jere- 
miah. All was foretold, so that the pious might be prepared to stand the trial 
and witness for Jehovah, and the impious might know it was the work of 
Jehovah, the God of Israel, and not of Baal, or any other false god, nor was it 
the supremacy of kings and armies over the gods. 



CHAPTER LIX. 



THE LAND FORSAKEN OF ALL RULERS AND GOVERNMENT. 
A. M. 3416-3417. B. C. 588-587.— 11. Kings, 25:22-26; Jer., 40-43. 

1. The Remnant Left. — But the poorest of the people, having the least 
ambition to revolt, were .left to cultivate the ground, and over these was Gedaliah 
made governor. When this was known abroad, many of those scattered through 
the land and into other territories, collected to Gedaliah at Mizpah. He assured 
them of safety under the Chaldeans, and advised them to cultivate the ground 
and settle down in their cities or villages. The governor's residence in this place 
should have associated in their minds some important events in their history. 
Here, after apostacy and affliction, Samuel achieved a memorable victory over the 
Philistines and the deliverance of Israel by a prayer ! Here the first king of 
Israel was anointed, and the last governor of the kingdom will be assassinated. 
Some of those who returned were officers, with their men of war, who, being in 
the country, had escaped the Chaldeans. But one Ishmael, of royal blood, and 
claimed the right to govern, was sent by the king of the Ammonites, where he 
had fled, to assassinate Gedaliah and capture the people. These surrounding 
nations, disregarding their own predicted fate, rejoiced in the desolations of Israel 
and Judah, and hoped to possess their lands. The Ammonites were in the raids 



CHAPTER LIX.: SECTIONS II. -IV. 219 

sent by Nebuchadnezzar when Jehoiakim was slain; but this act was an assault 
upon the Chaldeans, and the destruction and captivity of the Ammonites and 
others soon followed. 

2. The People Apply to Jebemiah for Advice. — Johanan and other officers 
overtook Ishmael, recovered the captives, brought them to Chimham, and designed 
to go into Egypt for safety. Now, when Jerusalem was captured, Jeremiah was 
given his choice to go to Babylon or remain with Gedaliah, and he chose to stay 
with the last remnant. On the present occasion the remnant, small and great, 
every one, applied to him. Their language is peculiar: Pray for us unto Jehovah, 
thy God ! As if conscious that they themselves had lost that relation. They 
promised to do what He said, whether good or evil. Jeremiah complied ; and 
the Jehovah commanded them to remain, promising them blessing and protection ; 
but if they persisted in going into Egypt they should never return to their own 
land, but should die by the sword, famine, and pestilence in Egypt; for upon 
Egypt also would Jehovah pour out His wrath, as He had done upon Jerusalem. 

3. Kebel and go into Egypt. — But they rebelled and impeached Jeremiah 
with being instigated by Baruch to have them destroyed. So they went into 
Egypt. Sere Jeremiah, as commanded, took great stones and placed them for 
Nebuchadnezzar's throne, assuring the people the king of Babylon would spread 
his royal tent over them, and dispose of Egypt as he pleased : burn her gods in 
their temples, break in pieces their images, plunder their country, and carry away 
captives. Then he describes the capture and judgments on Egypt and her gods; 
but after this subjugation it shall again be inhabited. He also promises the return 
and safety of Israel. (Jer., 46:13-28.) 

4. Shown the Cause of Their Ruin, but Refuse to Return. — As the Lord 
directed, Jeremiah reasons and expostulates with the Jews in Egypt practicing 
idolatry there, reminds them of their past experience and history, reproves them 
for present conduct, and threatens them with certain destruction. They tell him 
they will not reform, but continue to worship the queen of heaven ; the women 
claimed to be decent about it, too, for they always had their husbands with them 
when practicing the rites. Jeremiah tells them their certain destruction; but 
still a small remnant shall escape these calamities and return to the land of Judah. 
This remnant would be witnesses to these predictions and their fearful fulfillments. 
(Jer., 44.) This is the last we hear of this prophet, who witnessed for Jehovah 
against the Jews forty-one years. The individual is dropped, and the develop- 
ment of the kingdom of God goes on and is historically followed out. Tradition 
says Jeremiah was stoned to death by these Jews in Egypt. 



Period Tenth. A. M. 3398-3468. B. G. 606-536. 
During the Seventy Years of Captivity, 

* 

CHAPTER LX. 



FEELINGS OF THE PIOUS, THEIR WITNESS-BEARING, AND FATE 
OF THE NATIONS. A. M. 3398-3435. B. C. 606-569. 

1. Polytheism Triumphant. — Psalms, 74. 79. 83. 94. — Thus Jerusalem was 
destroyed and the land desolated, as the prophets foretold ; the temple worship 
was abolished, and not another palace of Jehovah was on the earth, and the 
synagogues in Judea were burned up. For a time Polytheism triumphed, the 
surrounding nations rejoiced, and the pious mourned. Asaph says : We are 
become a reproach to our neighbors ! A scorn and derision to those around us ! 
They said: Where is their God? They reproached and blasphemed the name 
of Jehovah. Their neighboring nations thought to possess their land and oblit- 
erate the name of Israel."^ 

2. Taunts and Retorts. — Psalms, 89, 137; Lam., 4:21, 22. — The pious sat in 
silence by the water channels of Babylon and hung up their harps on the willow 
bushes. Not satisfied with murdering, enslaving, and abusing the Jews, the 
Polytheists taunted them about their God and religion. The Scriptures give a 
few specimens of these taunts and reproaches ; but we may with safety to truth 
contemplate every variety of insult. They said : Sing us one of the songs of 
Zion ! Be merry, ye bigoted people of the over-jealous Jehovah ! Sing us some 
of David's triumphant songs : sing about Jehovah, that Great God and Great 
King, whose palace and city Nebuchadnezzar has plundered and destroyed; sing 
about the dumb idols, the gods feared by the nations, and the folly of worshiping 
them, while Baal, the supreme god of Babylon, looks down with complacency 
upon the sacred spoils of Jehovah's temple! Sing about David's universal and 
everlasting throne, now empty and captured ! Sing about the subdued nations 
and enemies licking the dust while bowing and prostrating themselves at his 
triumphant son's feet ; then offer up a prayer for poor blind Zedekiah, whose eyes 
Nebuchadnezzar gouged out for violating his oath of vassalege to him ! Sing of 
the covenants, oaths, and promises. At first these taunts were overwhelming; 
but after awhile they called out the different prophecies about the nations and 
predictions of good to Israel and Judah. Thus the predicted development of the 
kingdom of God was reprophecied to the nations, the cause of the present distress 
was made known, and the fate of the nations and their idols set before the Polythe- 
ists. Daughter of Babylon, thou art near to destruction, and shall meet the same 
judgments measured out to us ! Edom's malignity shall be remembered by 
Jehovah, and his desolation sure and perpetual. (Lam., 1-5.) 

3. Faith Confirmed While Grief is Felt. — Had not the pious been pre- 
pared for this state of things by the threatenings of the law and the minute and 
circumstantial predictions of the prophets, they would have sunk into despair 
and atheism ; but having realized the threatened and predicted punishments for the 



(*) Ezek., 25:2, 3, 6, 13, 15; 35:10-15: 36:2, 3, 13, 20. 



CHAPTER XL.: SECTIONS IV. -VI. 221 

rebellion and wickedness of the nation, they could now calculate with certainty 
on their promised good and predicted prosperity. But the nearest objects and 
events make the most sensible impressions on us. Asaph laments the desolations 
of the nation, city, temple, the condition and sufferings of the people, and the 
reproach of the true religion, but confesses the sins of the Jews and the justice of 
their calamities, and prays for compassion, remembrance of old relations and 
covenant peculiarity, asks for restorations of favor and the subjugation of their 
enemies. Jeremiah saw his predictions verified and his opposers confounded, but 
feels the condition of his people and their religion, which he represents most 
pathetically. Their sins were great, Jehovah is righteous, and their condition 
deplorable ; they sigh, they weep, and are disconsolate ; they are murdered, 
abused, and divided, and, worst of all, they are cast off by their God! The enemy 
can ridicule their hope, reproach their God, scoff at their religion, deride their 
strict morals, point to the sacred vessels of Jehovah given as trophies to the 
temple and treasury of Baal, and the pious Jew could give no answer, but simply 
point to their history of the past and promises for the future. 

4. Enemies Made to Fear for Themselves. — Still they could make the 
nations fear for themselves, for those prophets, whose threatenings had been so 
fearfully verified in Israel and Judah, had also predicted the destruction and cap- 
tivity of the gods and nations. Ezekiel instructed the captives on the river 
Cheber in regard to the fate of Jerusalem till verified, and then tells them the 
fate of other nations. He prophesies the judgments on Pharaoh for his treach- 
ery to Israel, and foretells the desolation of Egypt (Ezek., 29:1-16); relates the 
greatness of the Assyrians and their fate; and says such shall be the doom of 
Pharaoh and Egpyt. (Ezek., 30:20-26. 31.) He describes the sins and perdi- 
tion of the Jews, of the Ammonites, Moabites, Seer, Edomites, and Philistines. 
(Ezek., 33:21-33. 25.) 

5. Account of Tyrus. — Then he gives a minute account of Tyrus, her 
greatness, and utter destruction by Nebuchadnezzar. The earth of this Tyre 
was scraped off by Alexander to make a pier to the New Tyre on the island. 
(Ezek., 26, 27.) Again, he gives an account of the destruction of Egypt (Ezek., 
32:1-32) and takes up a lamentation for the funeral of Egypt, Ashur, Elam, 
Meshech, Tubal, Edom, the princes of the north, and the Zidonians. He afiirms 
the return and future prosperity of Israel (Ezek., 28:24-26); he appeals to the 
captives and admonishes them, and shows God's justice in punishing the impen- 
itent and pardoning the penitent. (Ezek., 33:1-20.) 

6. Jerusalem's Reproach and Restoration. — Ezekiel describes and con- 
demns the rulers and teachers, but Jehovah promises to be a good shepherd to 
the people and regather and keep them in safety. (Ezek., 34.) Edom shall be 
desolate for their impiety, covetousness, and cruelty to Israel and Judah in 
the time of their distress and captivity. (Ezek., 35.) The captivity of Judah 
and Israel, and the destruction of the temple and city, were a common topic for 
talkers, and noticed by everyone; therefore, their return, prosperity, and rejoic- 
ing cannot be concealed; and these are promised to them. The Jews shall be 
holy, rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, and have their worship restored (Ezek., 
36). When Israel has given up all hope, then shall they be restored, regathered, 
and saved, and David shall be their king. (Ezek., 37.) This must refer to some 
later regathering than that from Babylon, which took place at the time appointed, 
before the captivity took place, and the hope was realized at the time set. Then 
he describes a great slaughter of Gog and company, and after that a holy and 
happy state of things, which is still in the future. (Ezek., 38, 39.) After this he 
describes a temple larger than Jerusalem and a city larger than Palestine, which 
are most glorious. (Ezek., 40-48.) When Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Tyre, the 
riches had been shipped to an island, where,, after seventy years, she recovered 
from her destruction; and he got no reward after thirteen years' siege. Here, 



222 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Ezekiel promises to^ give him Egypt for pay. The idols of Egypt shall be 
destroyed, and the Egyptians shall know the Jehovah. (Ezek., 29:17-21. 30:1-19.) 

7. Missionary Position. — The captivity was now completed, and the judg- 
ments of God were wasting the impious, as was predicted. The Israelites were 
scattered over what had been the Assyrian empire, besides voluntary migrations. 
They were in Asia Minor, Armenia, Media, Persia, Babylonia, Assyria, Syria, 
Palestine, Arabia, and Egypt. Their ruined city and temple was one center of 
thought, and the sacred vessels and furniture in Babylon formed another. When 
will vengeance overtake Babylon ? and when will favor return to Mount Zion ? 
Hostility to the Jews and friendship for them would cause all knowledge of them, 
their God, and their destiny, to permeate all circles of society, and enable all 
tribes to compare the religions of Polytheism with the religion of Jehovah.. 

8. All Nations in the Captivity Interested in the Seventy Years. — 
Seventy years was the predicted duration of the captivity of Judah and power 
of Babylon. These facts concerned all the tribes in that empire, and had been 
made too conspicuous to be overlooked. The conquest of Babylon would cause 
all captive tribes to think on their condition under the new conqueror, and the 
release and promotion of the Jews and their religion would cause them to think 
of their own fatherland. Where could they learn their own destiny? Not from 
their gods, priests, and soothsayers. Their gods had never threatened them 
with captivity for apostacy or disobedience, nor promised them restoration. But 
the Jews could show their own destiny, and teach the nations what Jehovah had 
foretold about them. Princes, priests, diviners, philosophers, gods, and people 
had to learn their own destiny from Jehovah's prophets. 

9. Influence. — The Jews could look forward with confidence to the restora- 
tion of their city and temple; and then, who could doubt the existence of 
Jehovah, and that he was the God of Israel, and could and would keep his cov- 
enants and perform both his threatenings and promises ! Israel and Judah were 
cured of their Polytheism, and ever since have despised idolatry. Since then, 
the nations have improved their moral philosophy and their ideas of the Deity, 
and have furnished many proselytes to the Jewish religion. From the period of 
the dispersion of the Jews among the Egyptians and Babylonians, we find the 
Greeks began to have more exalted and refined ideas of the Deity, and that they 
applied themselves more particularly to that philosophy and literature which 
contributed so eminently to raise them to the highest intellectual rank among 
ancient and modern nations. ^ Pythagoras traveled among the dispersed Jews. ^ 

10. Nations Knew the Controversy. — Long before this the nations had 
learned that Jehovah had been carrying on a controversy with His people for 
their Polytheism and wickedness, and that His power and government were not 
restricted to Israel and Judah, but as His prophets showed, extended to their 
enemies. They had heard what these prophets foretold concerning Israel and 
Judah, and had seen these judgments executed to the letter. When the captain 
of the Chaldean guard liberated Jeremiah from prison, he acknowledged his 
predictions, and that Jehovah had fulfilled them in delivering Jerusalem into 
the hands of the Chaldeans. 

11. Nations Experienced Predictions on Themselves. — All the nations 
contiguous to Israel found the judgments of God only begun at the house of 
Jehovah. They found these same prophets had foretold the destruction and 
captivity of the nations themselves. Jeremiah had presented them a cup of 
wine of the wrath of Jehovah and sent them yokes as emblems of bondage to 
the king of Babylon, and in due time they experienced the bitter fulfillment of 



(1) Town., note 46, period 7, pt. 4, §§ 9, 10, p. 1041-3. (2) Town. New Testament, pt. 9, p. 
201. 



CHAPTER LX. : SECTIONS XII. -XIII. 223 

these predictions. Thus Jehovah lets his enemies succeed till they become arro- 
gant and conspicuous in the controversy, and then defeats them in such a man- 
ner that they cannot deny his interposition and power. They witnessed the 
success of the Chaldeans where the Assyrians had failed, and now they were 
ready to adore Nebuchadnezzar, or Baal, his god, as superior to Jehovah and 
Israel. But now they must feel the conqueror's power on themselves, and wit- 
ness His superiority over their gods; and then let that God, who can vindicate 
his divinity against Nebuchadnezzar and Baal, be acknowledged as the only true 
and living God. Once the prophet Elijah decided the divinity of Jehovah 
against Baal in Israel by miracle in answer to public prayer; now the superiority 
of Jehovah alone is about to be decided, against monarchs and gods, in the 
presence of all nations having heard of Jehovah and Israel, by prophecy and 
miracle combined. 

12. The Peculiarity and Supremacy of Jehovah. — So all these nations — - 
Assyria and Egypt, with the intervening tribes, those along the Mediterranean 
coast, and the Medes in the east, and all those engaged in the controversy with the 
Jews and Israel about the only one God — were conquered and captured by Nebu- 
chadnezzar, as the Jewish prophets foretold in the name of Jehovah. The wicked, 
brutalized idolater might see nothing but the equality of gods and their depend- 
ence on their devotees and protectors ; but the wiser, thinking class of men could 
not shut their eyes, but notice the peculiarity and supremacy of Jehovah, the God 
of Israel. So, after Nebuchadnezzar had executed the predicted judgments on 
all these nations and their gods, then Jehovah vindicates his supremacy over 
Baal and Nebuchadnezzar — the king of kings, the conqueror of nations, and the 
smasher-up of gods. 

13. Psalms Composed During the Captivity. — To appreciate the situation, 
feelings, and hopes of the pious during the captivity, we must contemplate those 
Psalms written in this period of apparent adversity, but real advancement, of the 
kindom of God. Whether all the Psalms arranged here by Townsend were 
written during this period or under some other adversity, they are all adapted to 
this time. (Psalms 10, 13, 14, 15, 25, 26, 27, 36, 37, 49, 50, 53, 67, 77, 80, 89, 
92, 93, 123, 130, and 137.) Reflect upon the situation and the subject and the 
controversy, and the pious Jew like the writer of the poem. 



CHAPTER LXI. 



CONTEST WITH THE BABYLOKIAN EMPIKE, OR FOUETH HEAD 
OF THE DRAGON. A. M. 3434-3465. B. C. 570-539.— 

Daniel, 2, 3, 4, 5. 

1. Superiority of Jehovah Acknowledged. — In the captivity of Jehoia- 
chin, the king of Babylon selected some of the best and noblest blooded youth 
to be educated for his own service and court. Among these we find Daniel, 
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, who were honored by Jehovah in vindicating 
His divinity against the king of Babylon. The Lord gave Nebuchadnezzar a vision 
of empires in the form of an image. The king forgot the dream, but was so 
impressed he could not rest till he could know the dream and its import. He 
called the Polytheistic chief diviners who professed to know the secrets of the 
gods — magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans — and demanded of them 
both the dream and the interpretation upon the pain of death if they failed. 
They acknowledged it above their power, asserted the demand unreasonable, and 
none but the gods whose dwellings were not with men could make known the 
secret. They could not tell even the dream, and he commanded them to be put 
to death. Daniel made known both the dream and the interpretation. Then the 
king fell on his face and worshiped Daniel, and commanded the Polytheists to 
offer an oblation and sweet odors to him, and said : Of a truth, your God is a God 
of gods, a Lord of kings, and a Revealer of secrets ; and he acknowledged the 
superiority claimed for Jehovah by the Jews. 

2. Nebuchadnezzar's Image. — With all Nebuchadnezzar and his predeces- 
sors had learned about the God of Jerusalem, he could not resist the idea of his 
own superiority over all kings and gods. He had vanquished the nations and 
gods, robbed their treasuries, and ruined their temples, and though he found no 
image of Jehovah in Jerusalem, yet he had captured everything sacred to Him, 
and presented them to the god dependent on himself This god he worshiped as 
matter of choice or national custom, but did not fear ; no god could deliver out 
of his hand! He concluded to make a big idol of gold, or enameled with gold, 
about one hundred feet high and eleven in diameter, and to compel all nations to 
worship it. He did not forbid them to worship their own gods, but they must 
worship his idol as the supreme god. He was supreme king, and they must 
acknowledge his idol as supreme deity or be cast into the fiery furnace. 

3. His Sentiments.— Daniel sat in the king's gate, and had been acknowl- 
edged superior to all grades of Polytheism, and so none could accuse him. 
But the other three were accused to the king, who inquired into the truth of the 
charge from themselves and offered them another trial ; but if they refused they 
should be cast into the furnace of fire, and he exclaimed, with boastful confidence : 
Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? He knew Jehovah was 
the God of the Jews, and though he acknowledged His superior knowledge of 
secrets, yet he challenges His power. This was a special challenge to Jehovah, 
whose divinity alone was acknowledged by the three youths. This was more 
impious than Sennacherib, but was not refuted in the same way. Nebuchad- 
nezzar here spoke the sentiments of the rulers and philosophers of that time. 



CHAPTER LXI.: SECTIONS IV. -VIII. 225 

4. His Defeat. — On the other hand, the supremacy of Jehovah is boldly 
asserted : If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the 
burning furnace, and He will deliver us out of thy hand, O king! But if He does 
not, be it known unto thee, we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden 
image thou hast set up. Full of fury, he commanded, and they were cast, bound, 
into the furnace heated to its utmost capacity, and the heat killed the stout men 
that cast them in. Though bound and cast into the furnace, they were not hurt. 
The king looked and saw them walking in the furnace, and another walking with 
them the king supposed to be a god. He was in consternation, and inquired if 
his orders had been obeyed ; and they answered : Truly we did. He told what 
he saw, and approaching the furnace he called the three by name to come forth, 
and acknowledged them to be the servants of the most high God. 

5. His Decree. — The princes, kings, governors, captains, and counselors 
being gathered together, saw these men on whom the lire had no power. This 
was a conspicuous miracle, wholly in the hands of the enemy, and witnessed by the 
greatest power and intelligence of the empire. Then the king acknowledged the 
supremacy of Jehovah over gods and monarchs, and made a decree that every 
people, nation, and language who spoke anything amiss against the God of Shad- 
rach, Meshach, and Abed-nego should be cut in pieces and their houses made a 
dunghill ; because there is no other god that could deliver after this sort. Then 
he promoted them in the province of Babylon on account of this event. He did 
not forbid the worshiping of other gods nor enjoin the worshiping of Jehovah, 
but forbid speaking disrespectfully of Him. Here in Babylon, without armies, 
images, altars, or temples, Jehovah demonstrated His supremacy over kings and 
gods in the presence of the greatest king and officers in the world, and compelled 
them to acknowledge it in an official document to all the subjugated nations, 
people, and languages. 

6. Triumph for the Witnesses. — This decree in all languages would furnish 
the pious with an answer to all deriders of their religion, and point all thinking 
men to the invisible God, who is independent of all material representations, 
locations, and rites. Why, then, did not this great God protect His nation in their 
own land, city, and temple ? Because of their abominations which He had cove- 
nanted to punish. He is holy and true, as well as just and almighty. No other 
nation, not even conquering Babylon, could show such a god as this Jehovah. 
This acknowledgment followed in quick succession the universal decree to wor- 
ship Nebuchadnezzar's golden image. All reflecting minds must have paused 
and considered these events a complete victory of the God of Israel over 
supreme authority and absolute command. 

7. Another Decree. A. M. 3435. B. 0. 569. — The victories of the pious 
Jews are not yet ended. Another decree from this conquerer of nations, lord 
of kings, and disposer of gods to all people, nations, and languages that dwell 
in the earth, narrates another dream, its interpretation by Daniel, and its accom- 
plishment, which convinced him that the Most High lives forever. His kingdom 
is eternal, and all the inhabitants of the earth are nothing before Him. He 
doeth according to His will in the army of Heaven and among the inhabitants of 
the earth, and none can stay His hand or say unto Him : " What doest Thou ? " 
In the former decree, the divinity and supremacy of Jehovah was established ; 
in the second decree, the interposition, disposition, and absolute government of 
the world by Jehovah are proven. 

8. The King's Full Conviction. — This dream was remembered by the king 
and ^ related to the highest source of intelligence Polytheism possessed — 
magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, soothsayers — but they could not interpret the 
meaning. Then Daniel was called, because the king, still holding to Polytheism, 
believed the spirit of the holy gods dwelt in him. He believed in many gods 
and different ranks of them, and that Daniel's God belonged to the superior 



226 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

order and was supreme among them. The whole transaction was public and of 
seven years' duration, and of such a kind as no denial or concealment was pos~ 
sible. The king was taught that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men 
and gives it to whom He will. And now he exalted and honored the King of 
Heaven, the Most High ; all His works are truth and His ways judgment, and 
those who walk in pride He is able to abase. From the highest exaltation of 
human attainment, Nebuchadnezzar was degraded, as foretold, to the lowest 
level with beasts. The victory of the Ark and of Samuel's prayer over the 
Philistines, was not greater than the victory of the temple's vessels and furniture, 
with Daniel's interpretations, and the fidelity of his three companions. 

9. Influence of These Events. — Among reflecting men and men searching 
for wisdom, these decrees must have done much to turn their attention to the 
Jews and Israelites dispersed among them, and to bring Polytheism into con- 
tempt. The Kosmokrats of darkness would have much to do in vindicating the 
divinity of their gods and devotion to their idols. The God of the Jews became 
acknowledged, by royal and public decrees, to be above all gods and kings. But 
the stronghold of Polytheism is in the gratification of animal propensities and 
lusts of the flesh. 

10. Keign of Evil-Merodaoh. — II. Klngs, 25:27-30; Jer., 52:31-34. — 
During Nebuchadnezzar's derangement, the government was managed by his 
son, Evil-Merodach, who, by bad policy, became involved in a war with the 
Medes. When Nebuchadnezzar recovered, he was offended at this and threw 
his son into prison, where he formed the acquaintance of Jehoiachin, king of 
Judah. 2 After his father's death, Evil-Merodach ascended the throne, released 
Jehoiachin from prison and made him a favorite guest. 

11. Belshazzar's Insult to Jehovah. — Nebuchadnezzar did not renounce 
Polytheism, but he acknowledged the supremacy of Jehovah. His daughter's 
son, Belshazzar, in a drunken frolic with a thousand of his lords, undertook to 
ridicule this supremacy of the God of Israel and presumptuously offered Him an 
insult. He put himself and company on equality with Deity, and ordered the 
gold and silver vessels of His temple to be brought, that he, his wives, concu- 
bines, and princes might profane them, and drink wine out of those sacred ves- 
sels of the Supreme God, and at the same time they praised the gods of gold 
and silver, of brass and iron, wood and stone. This was not superstition, but 
the impiety of atheism. The shade of a hand writing something on the wall, in 
the full light of the lamp and visible to all, stopped the impious mirth, and a 
consciousness of guilt and impiety struck them with a panic. 

12. Reproved and Destroyed. — The astrologers, soothsayers, and Chal- 
deans — the prophets of Polytheism — were called in, but could not explain the 
mystery. Thus, the Kosmokrats of darkness were defeated the third time ; and 
now Daniel was called in, whose superiority was acknowledged and well known. 
Though too stubborn to yield to the God of Israel, they acknowledged His 
Daniel equal to the gods in wisdom, light, and understanding. Daniel rehearsed 
the training given to Nebuchadnezzar, which he affirmed Belshazzar well knew, 
but instead of improving and profiting by these lessons he had impiously 
elevated himself against the Jehovah of Heaven and desecrated His holy vessels 
while praising dumb and helpless idols ; yet his life and all was in the hand of 
Jehovah, whom he had not glorified. Then the hand moved away and Daniel 
read and interpreted the writing, and he was publicly honored for his wisdom. 
That night was Belshazzar slain, and the Chaldean empire was subverted by the 
Medes and Persians, as Daniel had interpreted the hand-writing on the wall. 
Thus, this relapse into impiety, atheism. Polytheism was nipped in the bud ; and 
all were taught to fear the God of Daniel, the Jehovah of Israel ; and the new 
government had no mercy on idols. 



(2) Town , note 31, per. 7, pfc. 4, § 13, p. 1052. 



CHAPTER LXII. 



ADDITIONAL PEOGEAMMES OF THE FUTUKE DEYELOPMENT 

OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

1. Nebuchadnezzar's Deeam. — Daniel II. — Glorious promises, to be ver- 
ified after the captivity, were given to the Jews by the prophets. The captivity 
to Babylon was limited to seventy years ; and now, the religion of Jehovah, 
having begun to triumph in Babylon, how pleasing to suppose the glorious time 
was about to be realized on the expiration of this captivity. But Daniel's inter- 
pretation of Nebuchadnezzar's first dream shows four empires which must rule 
the world before the kingdom of God will be consummated (Chap. 62, §§ 2, 3). 
The first was the Babylonian, then in power; the second would be stronger, but 
less wealth in the same bulk ; the third would be stronger still; and the fourth 
the strongest. The fourth is all iron in the first division, and its last part is iron 
and clay, or strength and weakness mixed. This mixture is effected by adopting 
captives for citizens, or incorporating foreign countries, or being overrun by 
invaders who force themselves into the government and may form the strength 
or the weakness of the empire. The divisions and material of this image are 
unnatural to the human body, and therefore significant. What is natural is not 
significant unless so explained. The material and -Q.ve divisions are interpreted, 
but no exposition is given of natural divisions, and no history of them is intended 
and may not be apposite to what is intended. Legs, arms, feet, and toes are 
necessary to the formation of the image, but the material and its disposition are 
unnatural, and must be significant. If the image, as a whole, prefigured some 
uniting power or influence against or for the kingdom of God, Daniel did not 
discover nor explain it. In the days of these four kings, or kingdoms, Jehovah, 
known as the God of Heaven, set up an everlasting kingdom, which will never 
be superceded nor fall into the hands of foreigners, aliens, nor rebels. The stone 
was cut out of the mountain when Abraham was selected — not broken off by 
accident. There was design and intelligence about it, covenants, oaths, promises, 
and predictions, but no hands nor noise. It gives the image a fatal blow in its 
last division, or extremity, when in its iron and clay condition or when depend- 
ing on its mixed material for existence, and knocks it down and grinds it to 
powder. This stone was not large at first (one family only) and had room to 
grow, but it became a mountain and filled the whole earth. This kingdom of 
God was set up during the time of these four kings, and struck the image in its 
last division of the fourth king. This kingdom began to be separated from civil 
oro^anization in the time of the Assyrian captivities ; its existence, power, and 
influence, was first noticed, felt, and reported by the Chaldean empire ; the 
Medes and Persians felt its power and advanced its growth ; the Greek empire 
tried its texture and let it alone ; iron Rome tried to break it, but broke Polythe- 
ism upon it; but iron and clay Rome will be broken by it. Then the whole 
image of monarchy, despotism, and selfish government will disappear, and the 
kingdom of God will fill the whole earth and continue forever. These empires 
were not antagonistic to the kingdom of God, but all of them, down to Nero, 
did more for, and less against it, than some of the sons of David sitting on his 



228 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

throne; but their national religion was always antagonistic to it. They no more 
prefigure that antagonism than the human body prefigures the immortality of 
the soul. I have here anticipated the historical outline of this programme, but 
the different parts will be given, in their proper places, with other programmes. 
(Chap. 69, § 8. 151:6. See 62:2, 3, 4. 72:5.) 

2. Daniel's First Vision.— Daniel, T. A. M. 3463. B. C. 541.— In the 
first year of Belshazzar, grandson, by his mother, of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 
had a programme of the future, presenting different features of the same powers 
under the symbols of wild beasts, or monsters. The great agitations of society 
produced four monster animals, or powers. The first combined the lion and 
the eagle, but its power was about gone and its courage failed. This appositely 
represented the Babylonian monarchy, then about to expire. The second was 
voracious as a bear, and absorbed all its conquests into one consolidated empire, 
destroyed much flesh, or many lives. This power destroyed the Chaldean 
empire, Lydia, and Egypt, and though it might not extend its conquests with the 
courage and strength of the lion and the swiftness and penetration of the eagle, 
yet it craunched the bones and destroyed the nationalities of the countries and 
molded them into its own notion. According to the writing on the wall, this 
was the Medo-Fersian empire, which divided its vast domain into one hundred 
and twenty provinces." 

3. Third Empire. — The third could pounce on the prey like a leopard, and 
was aided in its stealthy springs by four wings of a fowl. This power had four 
headships and extensive dominions and succeeds the Medes and Fersians, but is 
to be superceded by the next. (See Chap. 72, §§ 5, 6, 7.) 

4. Fourth Empire. — The fourth empire was not like any animal, but was 
strength, terror, and dread, all combined, and every person felt disposed to get 
out of its road and hide from its eyes. It annihilated the former empires and 
reduced them down to primitive provinces, and kept them so for centuries. It 
chewed them up, broke them down, and stamped them to pieces. It became 
divided into ten powers united in one directing head. Then another little power 
pushed itself up among the ten and uprooted three of them. This little power 
could see far and near and all around, could talk boldly and made big 
speeches. It was antagonistic to the kingdom of God and made war with the 
saints or holies, or true people of Jehovah, and prevailed against them. It 
spoke great words against the Most High, and wore out the saints of Jehovah. 
It undertook to change times and laws and model everything to its own notion, 
and all the people, laws, and institutions of Jehovah were delivered into its 
control one thousand two hundred and sixty years. (Chap. 81, § 5. 140, § 2. 
143:6, 7. 147. 117:5.) 

5. Covenants, Oaths, and Fromises Sure, but the Time Long. — But the 
covenants, oaths, and promises to Abraham, David, Israel, the Jews, and Jeru- 
salem remain sure, though far off. The judgment shall sit; the beast and horn 
shall be stripped of power, and the beast be slain and his body given to the 
flame. The glorious Ancient-of-Days will judge this monster and this horn. 
Thrones shall be cast down, and the Son of Man, the royal Messiah, shall receive 
the universal, everlasting, and almighty kingdom, and His saints will exercise 
the universal dominion. This will be the end of the great controversy going on 
then and now. This view of the hope of Israel troubled Daniel's cogitations 
and changed his countenance, but he remembered the vision and meditated on it. 
The good time was yet far off, though the seventy years of captivity were about 
ended. This is the first intimation of the length of time till the happy period to 
Israel, so often predicted. Three empires after the present one must pass away; 
the last must be divided into ten powers; then in them a new power must arise^ 



{*) See Cha]^ ^3, § 8, 71, §§ 5, a, 123, § 9. Ps. 25. 



CHAPTER LXil.i SECTIONS VI.-ll. ^^9 

hostile to the children of God : and then one thousand two hundred and sixty 
years must transpire. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. This is an exten- 
sive programme, extending through ages of centuries. (See Chaps. 81, 142, 
140, § 2.) 

YISION OF THE EAM AND HE GOAT. A. M. 3465. B. C. 539. 

Daniel, 8. 

6. Daniel's Second Yision. — In his first vision Daniel learned something 
of the distinguishing characteristics of the powers outlined in Nebuchadnezzar's 
image of empires ; but his attention was especially attracted to the last power 
developed out of the fourth wild beast. In the third year of Belshazzar his atten- 
tion was called to the last power developed out of the third wild beast, and is 
told what powers are represented in the vision. That the Chaldean power would 
be subverted by the Medes and Persians, might have been discernable by a good 
statesman in the first year of Belshazzar; but that the Macedonian state would 
grow into a conquering power and destroy the Medo-Fersian government, was the 
least probable event that could have been conjectured at this time (A. M. 3465, 
B. C. 539), yet this is foretold. No statesman would have conjectured such a 
singular history. About one hundred and seventy-eight years passed after this 
revelation before Macedon attracted any notice from any nation, and was at a 
safe distance from the western boundary of Belshazzar' s kingdom in his third 
year ; but here is a singular history mapped out for the people of Jehovah. 

7. Macedonian Empire.— The Medo-Fersian empire is pushing north, south, 
and west, invincible at home and conquering abroad ; but the Macedonians will 
subvert the Fersian government at one campaign, without a single retreat, and 
become the greatest power in the world. f But the first power being broken, four 
powers will arise out of it, and out of one of these horns, or powers, springs up 
another little power, which forms the burden of the vision, and is antagonistic to 
the kingdom. 

8. Duration of the Yision. — This vision measures out two thousand three 
hundred years, and terminates with the cleansing of the sanctuary, and then the 
daily worship will be renewed or resumed. This must refer to events long after 
the dedication of the second temple, and must refer to the abrogation of divine 
public worship and persecution of truth, long after the captivity of Babylon. 
This period is divided into the ram, he goat, four horns, and a little horn sprung 
out of one of the four. The time of this little horn is the last or extreme end 
of the indignation, which shall end at the 'time appointed ; also, it is the latter 
time of their kingdom, or the last change in these kingdoms till the kingdom of 
God be consummated. Though their dominions were destroyed by the fourth 
wild beast, yet their territory, people, and distinctive characteristics must remain. ^ 
Also, it is the time when transgressors are accomplished, or have filled up their 
time of sufi*erance. Hypocrites and rebels will no longer be endured in the king- 
dom of God, or the nations will no longer be allowed to persecute and reject the 
truth. This little horn must be developed after the fourth beast has done stamping 
on the third beast, for it continues to the end of the indignation and the cleansing 
of the sanctuary. 

9. Territory of this Little Horn. — The territory occupied by this little 
horn is the east, south, and pleasant land, or land of desire.* If Jerusalem be 
the standpoint, all the countries east and northeast, south, southeast, and south- 
west, and Asia Minor, and perhaps in Europe to the Adriatic. This was the 
territory of the old Macedonian empire before the subjugation of its four horns 
by the Komans. (Chap. 138:5. 139.) 



(t) Chap. 71, § 6. 72. (3) Dan., 7:12. (*) Zech., 7:14; Ezek., 20:15; Ps,, 106:24; Jer., 3:19. 



^30 TllE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

10. Little Horns Contemporary. — Both these little horns out of the third 
and fourth wild monsters are contemporary, and both belong to the end of the 
last times. The west little horn expires with its progenitor, the fourth and last 
beast, and is superseded by the reign of the saints. The east little horn belongs 
to the last end of the indignation on the Jews, and is broken without hand, or by 
violence and slaughter not directly intended for its destruction, and is superseded 
by the cleansing of the sanctuary. Both are impious and antagonisms to the king- 
dom of God. The west horn speaks great words against the Most High, changes 
His laws, institutions, and times, makes direct war on the saints, prevails against 
them, and wears them out till the judgment; then its dominion is taken away and 
wasted till the end, or till it expires and the saints take the dominion. The east 
horn aspires into the host of Heaven, patriarchs, prophets, kings, and pious 
men, and degrades some of them under his feet, or as inferior to himself; he 
magnifies himself above the Prince of the hosts, or Prince of princes — the royal 
Messiah — and claims superiority over Him, but did not speak or boast against 
the Most High, as the west horn did. 

11. Character of East Horn. — He had a fierce countenance, and did not 
use much eloquence, as the west horn did : cannot see his mouth nor eyes, and 
yet he had policy and made craft and strategy successful ; he had understanding 
of dark sentences and ambiguous paragraphs, and could turn them to his own 
account. By rewards or crafty policy he manages the power or abilities of others 
and makes himself powerful, and by peace and prosperity he destroys opposition, 
or by deception destroys many. His devastations and carnage are wonderful ; he 
practices continually and prospers ; he destroys the mighty and the people of the 
holy ones, abolishes the daily public worship of Jehovah, and casts the place of the 
sanctuary down from its high and holy position to a profane or unholy purpose, 
or to be the site for the abomination that makes desolate, ^ and he casts the truth 
or word of God, to the ground and makes it of no account. This great power 
was given to him on account of the transgressors among God's people, as such a 
commission was given to Nebuchadnezzar. (See Chap. 72, 138, § 5, and 139.) 

12. In the Distant Future. — Thus Daniel was taught that the great victories 
for truth achieved in Babylon would not bring universal and perpetual peace and 
prosperity to Jerusalem, but the conflict must go on for ages and be terminated 
by the direct interposition of Jehovah and the utter destruction of His enemies, 
and the suffering of the saints would not terminate with the overthrow of Babylon. 
Daniel fainted and was sick for some 'time, was astonished at the vision, but none 
understood it; he was ordered to not explain it, but shut it up, for it was designed 
for generations many centuries in the future. The hope of Israel is yet in the 
dim future, and hope deferred makes the heart sick. 



(4) Dan., 12:11. 



CHAPTER LXIir. 



REIGN OF DARIUS, THE MEDE. A. M. 3466. B. C. 538.— Daniel, 9; 

Psalms, 102. 

1. Daniel's Seventy Weeks. — Daniel, understanding from Jeremiah's 
prophecies that the seventy years of captivity were about expired, turned his 
attention from distant prospects to events near at hand ; while the most glorious 
events were far off in the dim distance, a desirable one was near at hand. The 
seventy years' captivity were about to expire, the Babylonian empire was now 
subverted, and hope inspires ardent anticipations and fervent prayers. Not- 
withstanding the supremacy of Jehovah had triumphed over the kings of 
Babylon and been proclaimed by royal decrees over the whole empire, and wise 
thinking men had espoused the truth, yet the impious could point in derision to 
indisputable facts around them, and the impatient would ask in doubt ; When 
will the promised restoration be realized ? When did the seventy years begin and 
when will they end ? The pious had met reproaches by telling the fate of their 
enemies and asserting their own restoration. Now all their enemies have been 
overtaken by the predicted judgments, and the king of Babylon has lost the 
sceptre ; but where are the restorations ? Daniel presents his people's case in its 
true light, confesses their sins, and prays ardently for their restoration. 

2. Messiah's First Advent. — While praying and his mind filled with glow- 
ing desires and animating anticipations, he was shown the first advent of their 
royal Messiah, His work and death, and then another dispersion of the Jews, 
that would last till all the abominations, calamities, and desolations imposed by 
the little horns, previously shown to him, be consummated. This was the dis- 
persion spoken of by former prophets which they represented to be followed by 
permanent and perpetual peace and prosperity. 

3. Duration of the First Restoration. — The restoration about to take place 
was but a short recruiting period, to be followed by a longer and more extensive 
dispersion. This preparatory restoration will last about five hundred years from 
first to last. Four hundred and ninety years were alotted to the Jews and the 
holy city to finish transgression, make an end of sin, to make reconciliation for 
iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up the vision and prophecy, and 
to anoint, or messiah, the Most holy ; or, to do up the work for reconciling God 
to man and for preparing the kingdom of God to go forth in its power to subju- 
gate all the nations to its laws and institutions. 

4. Divided into Times and Events. — From the going forth of the decree, 
or commandment, to restore and build Jerusalem unto the Messiah Prince, or 
the Anointed Most Holy, was seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks. The Messiah 
shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, or bring many into the new 
covenant spoken of by Jeremiah ;^ and in the midst of the week He shall cause 
the sacrifice and oblation to cease. On account of overspreading abominations 
He shall make the city desolate of its own people until the consummation of 
vengeance, and what has been determined and predicted shall be poured out on 
the countries devoted to desolation. This period of seventy weeks or four hun- 
dred and ninety years is made up of 49+434+7 years, reckoning every day to 



(5) Jer., 31:31-34; Heb., 8:8-i3. 



232 TfiE KINGDOM OF (JOD DEVELOPEt). 

deDote a year, or every week to include seven years. Here let us anticipate what 
had not transpired at that time. Commencing these four hundred and ninety 
years with Ezra's commission, A. M. 3546, ^ then forty-nine years till the end of 
Nehemiah's last commission,^ when the temple and city were completely 
restored, makes A. M. 3595. Then four hundred and thirty-four years, till the 
Messiah Prince, makes A. M. 4029. This year ended, Christ being about thirty 
years'^ (or in His thirtieth year), commenced His public ministry. Then one 
week, or seven years, while the new covenant was establishing with many, 
makes A. M. 4036. Cut off in the middle of the week, or beginning of the 
middle, makes A. M. 4032 or 4033, aijd then four or three makes A. M. 4036, 
which ended, brings us to A. M. 4037. Julian period, 4746-7, A. D. 33-4, the 
martyrdom of Stephen and first persecution, which drove the Christians out of 
the synagogues and compelled them to separate from the hostile Jews. According 
to Townsend's dates, which differ one year from chronology in Supplement to 
Comprehensive Commentary, this one year would extend the week to Paul's con- 
version, which ended the persecution. (See Chapters 67, 68, and 102.) 

5. Result.— Not only the temple and houses, but the streets shall be con- 
structed and the walls of the city shall be built, though in troublous times. In 
sixty-two weeks, or four hundred and thirty-four years, after this complete restora- 
tion, this Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself, but, as Isaiah foretold, ^ for 
the sins of His people. And the people of the Prince chosen instead of their 
Messiah shall come and destroy the city and sanctuary, like a flood, and to the 
end of the war with the little horns desolations are determined and predicted by 
all the prophets. (See Chapters 139, 140. 107.) 

6. DuEATioN OF THESE DESOLATIONS. — From the decree, or decrees, to restore 
and rebuild the temple, city, etc., till the Messiah of the Jews was cut off was 
about four hundred and ninety years, but the vision of the ram and goat was two 
thousand three hundred years till the cleansing of the sanctuary and the restoration 
of the public daily divine worship. ]N"ow, 2300-490 leaves 1810 years of deso- 
lations from the first advent of the Messiah till the final and happy restoration 
of the Jews. But the four hundred and ninety commenced before the two 
thousand three hundred about one hundred and seven or one hundred and twenty- 
seven years, which, added to the one thousand eight hundred and ten, makes one 
thousand nine hundred and seventeen, or one thousand nine hundred and thirty- 
seven ^ years of desolations, or till the sanctuary is cleansed. I do not suppose 
Daniel made these calculations, but he could see that the universal and everlasting 
kingdom of Father David was not consummated at Christ's first advent, and 
taking this vision in connection with the little horns and Nebuchadnezzar's dream 
of an image, he could discover a second advent — the first to sufier and make 
expiation for sins, the second to give complete deliverance to His people. And 
now, if we will sing the one hundred and second Psalm and pray Daniel's prayer, 
we can better appreciate the hopes, fears, and feelings of the pious Jews in their 
situation at that time. 

DANIEL, DARIUS, AND THE LIONS.— Daniel, 6. 

7. Darius Deified — Another imperial decree setting forth the supremacy 
of Jehovah was promulgated by Darius, who superseded the Nebuchadnezzer 
dynasty over the realm of the Chaldeans. Cyrus gave the throne to him and he 
occupied it two years ; so this triumph of the true God followed soon after the 
desecration of the holy vessels by Belshazzar. Darius set one hundred and twenty 
princes over his one hundred and twenty provinces, and over these three presi- 
dents, of whom Daniel was the principal one. These presidents envied Daniel 

(6) Chap. 68. (7) Luke 3:23. (8) Town., note 25, per. 8, pt. 2, § 4, p. 1120. (9) Isa., 53:5, 
8. 12. (1) Chap. 71, § 6. 



CHAPTER LXIII. : SECTIONS VIII.-X. 233 

and sought his destruction, but aware they could find no cause of accusation 
against him, determined to entrap him by his reh'gion. So all of them conspired 
to avail themselves of the king's vanity, and inspired him with the idea of his royal 
supremacy. The king was caught in the snare, and made a decree that whoever 
asked a petition of any god or king, except of himself, within thirty days should 
be cast into the lions' den. This decree he signed and sealed, so it could not be 
altered. 

8. Kingdom of God in Contact with Fifth Head of the Red Dragon. 
— This head has two horns — the Medes and Persians. The Old Serpent was 
very vigilant just now. The time for the restoration of the Jews and the temple 
worship was just at hand, and Daniel was ardently praying Jehovah for that 
consummation, and, becoming a prime minister of the new empire, he would 
work for what he prayed. The Satan, first made known to man by means of the 
Old Serpent, must have Daniel destroyed, and, if possible, prevent the predicted 
and promised restoration ; and Jehovah saw proper to give this new and vast 
empire another royal decree sustaining His divine supremacy and providential 
government. This empire extended farther east than the former, and there were 
the homes of the first captives of Israel transferred by the Assyrians; and this 
first royal decree would arouse the attention of all the nations. The pious 
Israelites and Proselytes could not obey it, and the Polythesists must neglect 
their own gods and acknowledge their inferiority to Darius. Then the next 
decree would call their attention to the Jehovah and His people, temple, and 
city, and then their restoration would cap the climax and establish the prophecies 
of Israel and Judah for programmes of the future. Impiety might resist the 
evidence, but wise men would see and notice the facts. 

9. Daniel's Fidelity; Darius Fears Jehovah. — Daniel knew what was 
done, but continued his practice of praying three times every day with his win- 
dows opened toward Jerusalem — the desolated city of his God. The officers 
collected and witnessed what they expected, and then informed the king and 
reminded him of his decree. Darius saw his own error and was displeased with 
his own folly and impiety, and till sundown he tried every device to deliver 
Daniel, but in vain. They reminded him that the laws of the Medes and 
Persians prohibited the change, or annulling, of any decree or statute established 
by the king. Then he delivered Daniel to them, and encouraged him, saying, 
"Thy God, whom thou servest continually, will deliver thee." This shows how 
the dispersion of God's people, and his victories over Nebuchadnezzar, had 
impressed the truth upon statesmen and philosophers. 

10. Daniel in the Den of Lions. — Daniel was cast into the den of lions 
a stone closed the mouth of the den and was sealed with the king's signet, so he 
could not be rescued without them knowing it. Had the lions fell upon Daniel 
when cast into them, the shutting and sealing the mouth of the den had been 
unnecessary. When they did not touch him, the king was the more encouraged 
to test the matter, and the princes and officers determined to force the lions by 
hunger; and that none should rescue Daniel, or feed the lions, the entrance was 
secured. Darius was agitated, and went home and passed the night fasting, with- 
out sleep or entertainment. Daniel in the lions' den. Darius in his palace. 
Daniel sleeps. Darius is agitated; fears the lions might devour Daniel, or some 
persons might open the den and kill him for the lions. Early in the morning 
the king came to the den and exclaimed, " O Daniel ! servant of the Living God ! 
Is the God whom thou servest continually able to deliver thee from the lions?" 
Daniel answered out of the den: "My God has sent His angel and shut the 
lions' mouths that they have not hurt me; for I am innocent before Him and in 
thy judgment also." The king was exceeding glad, and as his foolish decree no 
longer bound his authority, he commanded Daniel to be raised out of the den; 
and no hurt could be found on him, because he believed in his God. 



234 THE KINGDOM OF QOt) DEVELOPED. 

11. Decree op Darius. — The law being fulfilled, the king ordered Daniel^s 
accusers to take his place in the den, but neither their rank, strength, gods, nor 
compassion for wives and children could save them. The lions soon mangled 
their flesh and broke their bones. Then Darius wrote to all people, nations, 
and languages that dwelt in all his dominions: " Peace be multiplied unto you. 
I make a decree that in every province of my kingdom men tremble and fear 
before the God of Daniel; for He is the living God and steadfast forever, and 
His kingdom shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall be to the very end. 
He delivereth and rescueth, and He works signs and wonders in Heaven and in 
the earth — who delivered Daniel from the power of the lions." 

12. YiCTORY Over Gods and Kings. — Thus the supremacy of Jehovah, 
God of Israel, over all kings and gods, was vindicated before the nations, and 
was proclaimed and established by the decrees of the supreme kings and deified 
conquerors of the earth, who had pillaged and destroyed the temples of the 
gods and insulted and captured their images. The effect of this triumph over 
Polytheism was extensive and lasting — Asia Minor, Egypt, the countries south 
of the parallel of the Black sea and east of the Indus. ^ Though the Medes 
and Persians did not abandon their national religion and veneration of their 
kings, yet they acknowledged the supremacy of Jehovah, God of the Jews, and 
gave Him reverence and fear. 

13. Keligion of the Medes and Persians. A. M. 3468. B. C. 536. — 
I do not find anything satisfactory about the religion of these nations before the 
captivity of Israel. It was about two hundred years till this date, since Tiglath- 
Pileser's captivity of a part of Israel to Assyria; about one hundred and eighty- 
six years since Shalmaneser captured Samaria and transplanted them into the 
land of the Medes ; and about one hundred and seventy-seven years since Sen- 
nacherib captured the fortified cities of Judah; and sixty-seven years since the 
captivity of Jehoiachin. Thus, the true knowledge of the true God was trans- 
planted from Israel to Media at least one hundred and eighty-six years before 
this date, and Persia had been intimately connected with the Medes from that time. 
But it is very probable some of these three captivities were dispersed through 
Persia, and most of the correct ideas of the Magi an system and Zoroasterian 
theology were learned from these captives. But certainly they were not idolaters 
at that time, or it would not have been so completely eradicated at the time of 
Cyrus. 3 Perhaps Jehovah sent the forces of the kingdom of God eastward till 
they reinforced the defenders of the Patriarchal faith, who relighted their lamps 
from the temple at Jerusalem one hundred years before it was destroyed. And 
after reestablishing the true knowledge of the true God and of his anointed King 
of the Jews, and establishing missionary colonies which remained till Christ 
came, he turned west and attacked Polytheism among the Greeks and Romans. 

14. In the Time of Cyrus. — In the time of Cyrus, or later, it is certain the 
religion of the Medo-Persian empire taught the supremacy of a living Creator, 
called Or-Mazd, who was believed to bestow not merely good, but the most 
precious spiritual gifts, as truth, devotion, the good mind, and everlasting joy. 
No image of any kind was seen in the Persian temples, but sacred fires were kept 
burning in them. * As Or-Mazd was the Prince of Light, fire, sun, moon, and 
stars were symbols of this attribute. While the first worshipers and the more 
intellectual in later periods may have worshiped with their faces toward these 
luminaries, as Daniel did toward Jerusalem and David did toward the holy 
oracles, ^ the mass of the people and all later worshipers worshiped the symbols 
themselves as their gods. But as mankind have always degenerated from the 
divine truth, so the purer worship may have degenerated into Polytheism. They 
were not idolaters in the time of Cyrus ; yet Darius decreed divine prerogatives 
to himself. Ahasuerus gave Ham an power to destroy the Jews, whose laws 

(2) Estr., 3:8. (8) Rol., Vol. II., p. 217-220. (4) Anct. Hist., Vol. Ill, pp. 104-120; Thai. 
Anct. Hist., pp. 81-3. (5) Ps. 28; II. Dan., 6:10. 



CHAPTEK LXIV.: SECTIONS I. -11. 235 

and customs were dissimilar to all other nations. ^ But the Persians did adore 
the sun and fire, and honored water, earth, and winds as so many deities. "^ Cyrus 
first appointed Magi to chant sacred hymns at the rising of the sun, and to ofi*er 
a daily sacrifice to deities, to whom it was enjoined by their law. ^ After Cyrus, 
the kings showed but little regard to any god. But we must not judge the sub- 
jects by their kings and princes; all the kings and princes of the ten tribes 
were impious, but most excellent prophets and people were found among them. 
But, judging from all the knowledge I can obtain about their religion, the Medes 
and Persians must be classed with Polytheists, and their empire was the fifth 
head of the Polytheistic antagonism to the kingdom of God. 



Period Eleventh. A. M. 3468-3604. B. C. 536-400. 
Captivity Returned. Temple and City Rebuilt and Restored. 

CHAPTER LXIY. 



FIRST COMPANY RETURNED. REBUILDING COMMENCED. §§ 1-4. 

DECREE OF CYRUS. A. M. 3468-3470. B. C. 536-534. 

Ezra, 1-3:1-7. II. Chkon., 36:22, 23. 

1. The Seventy Years Expire. — The seventy years of captivity predicted 
by Jeremiah have now expired, if it dated from the fourth year of Jehoiakim; 
but as the captivity was effected at different times, so the restoration may be 
accomplished by different returns, and the fulfillment of this prophecy may learn 
us how to calculate those to come. Cyrus ascends the throne, and I suppose 
Daniel remains a president and prime minister of state. Daniel had understood 
from the prophecies of Jeremiah that the time of the captivity was about ended; 
and now Cyrus was on the throne, whose name and promotion was given by 
Isaiah more than one hundred and seventy years before, as the deliverer of the 
Jews. 

2. Prediction Concerning Cyrus. — Isa., 44:23-28; 45:1-8. — Thus saith 
the Jehovah, thy Redeemer : * * I am the Jehovah that maketh all things, 
* * That saith to Cyrus he is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure, 
even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation 
shall be laid. Thus saith the Jehovah to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden 
to subdue nations before him ; and I will relax the loins of kings, * * open 
the double gates, * "^ remove difficulties, * * break gates of brass, cut 
bars of iron, give him hidden treasures, that he may know I, the Jehovah 
who call him by name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob, my servant's sake, and 
Israel, mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name, though thou hast not 
known me. I am the Jehovah, and there is none else. There is no God beside 
me. I have girded thee, though thou hast not known me, that they may know 



(6) Estr., 8:8. (7) Rol., Yol. II., p. 215; Gbn., Vol. I., p. 79, and notes. (8) Comp. Comnt., 
note, end of Isa., 41. 



236 THE KINGDOM OF GOt) DErELOPEfi. 

from the rising of the sun and the west that there is none beside me. 1 am the 
Jehovah, and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness. I make 
peace and create evil. I, the Jehovah, do all these things. 

3. His Knowledge of Jehovah. — The Magi taught that there were two 
original principles, or gods — light and darkness — the first good, the second evil. 
Zoroaster improved this for the Persians, and taught that there was but one god, 
who created these two principles. If he lived after this time, he may have bor- 
rowed this doctrine from Isaiah's prophecy ; but if he lived before the time of 
Isaiah or the first captivity of Israel, he must have obtained it from some other 
source, perhaps by tradition from the Patriarchs. ^ But we are here informed 
that Cyrus did not know the Jehovah, God of Israel, to be the supreme and only 
God. And this prophecy was given and recorded that he and all the east and 
west might know Jehovah to be the only true and living God. There has been 
mucli dispute as to the time Zoroaster lived, some making him contemporary with 
Abraham, and others make him a pupil to Ezekiel, and others reckon two of 
them. But it is certain he established among the Persians a religion far superior 
to the mythology of the western nations ; it is also certain that Cyrus acknowledged 
these great truths. 

4. Decree of Cyrus. — Cyrus acknowledges his dominion to be the gift of 
the Jehovah, God of Heaven, and says he had a charge from Him to build 
His house at Jerusalem, in Judea, and calls Him the Jehovah, God of Israel. 
He is the God who is in Jerusalem. For the building of this house Cyrus made 
a decree, authorizing the Jews and Israelites desiring to return home to this work; 
and he restored all the vessels and furniture that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from 
it, and ordered all their neighbors in their captivity to help them with silver and 
gold, goods and beasts, and free-will offerings. When this decree went forth in 
accordance with former predictions, the Jews felt as if it were only a dream ; but 
they were filled with joy, which showed itself in singing and rejoicing. The 
nations said : The Jehovah has done great things for them ! And they answered : 
The Jehovah has done great things for us, and we are glad of it. ^ 

5. Response to the Decree. — Then rose up chief of the fathers of Judah 
and Benjamin and the priests and Levites, with all others divinely excited, to 
return and build again the temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem. All their neighbors 
helped them with vessels of silver and gold, and with goods and beasts and 
precious things, besides free-will offerings. This shows the triumphs of the truth 
among the nations during the captivity. Cyrus brought forth out of the treas- 
uries of Babylon all the vessels of the house of Jehovah and delivered them to 
Sheshbazzar, or Zerubbable, ^ prince or governor of Judah and grandson of 
Jehoiachin, and they were carried back to Jerusalem with the first return of the 
Jews and Israelites. 

6. Number Returned. — The company returned with Sheshbazzar num- 
bered only forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty, besides their servants 
and maids, who numbered seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven. 
Among them were two hundred singers to praise Jehovah. They brought all 
their substance, and returned to their respective cities throughout all Israel. 
This was a small number in comparison with those who came out of Egypt under 
Moses ; but now they were in good circumstances and high repute in the land of 
their captivity, and had no Pharaoh to drive them out. Then the kingdom of 
God was forming an army, but now it is invading the dominions of the Old 
Serpent, and having placed its missionary garrisons among the nations, it is 
about to restore its royal city and citadel for training recruits and furnishing 
supplies. More will return, and many had still remained scattered over all the 



(9) Chap. 63, § 13. (1) Ps. 136, 85, 126. (2) Ezra, 5:16; Zech., 4:9. 



CHAPTER LXIV.: SECTIONS VII.-XI. 237 

territory of Israel who had not lost the effects of the last reformation by Josiah;^ 
and individuals, families, and smaller companies would return out of different 
provinces, — unreported in history. 

7. Daily Worship Restored. —When they returned to Jerusalem, some of 
the chief of the fathers offered freely for the temple, according to their abilities, 
and in the seventh month the children of Israel, being then in their respective 
cities, the people simultaneously congregated at Jerusalem. Jeshua and the 
priests, and Zerubbabel with his brethren, builded the altar of the God of Israel, 
restored the daily sacrifice, observed the divine ordinances, and kept the feast of 
tabernacles; but the foundation of the temple was not laid, though extensive 
preparations were made. To this period belong Psalms 87, 107, 111-14:, 116, 
117, 125, 127, 128, and 134. 

8. Foundation of Temple Laid.— Ezra, 3:8-13. A. M. 3469. B. C. 535.— 
In the second year of their return they laid the foundation of the second temple, 
Zerubbabel being governor and Jeshua high priest. Jeshua was the legitimate 
high priest, according to the law of Moses. When the foundation was laid, the new 
generation shouted for joy, and those who had seen the iirst temple wept aloud. 
When they laid the foundation, they set the priests in their apparel with trum- 
pets, and the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Jehovah according to 
the ordinance of David; and they sung together by course in praising and giving 
thanks unto the Jehovah, because He is good and His mercy endureth forever 
toward Israel. Psalms Eighty-four and Sixty-six belong to this occasion. 

9. The Supremacy of Jehovah Established. — The decree of Cyrus, to 
rebuild the temple at Jerusalem, had gone forth to all Israel, scattered among 
all the nations, and many of them had returned to their own land, and all the 
nations knew it was according to the same programme that dispersed them. But 
many remained, and to this day they have not all returned. Hence, their uni- 
versal return, so often mentioned by the prophets, is yet in the future, and will 
be overwhelming evidence to after generations. Although the supremacy of 
Jehovah over gods and kings was now established beyond dispute, and His gov- 
ernment of the world has been acknowledged by supreme monarchs and universal 
decrees, yet His kingdom was not permitted to develop itself in peace. Hereto- 
fore the Jews were prone to idolatry, but henceforth they despised idols, rejected 
Polytheism, and suffered martyrdom for the true religion of their fathers. Being 
more or less mingled with the nations, those of them averse to their own religion 
could easily abandon the temple, synagogue, and nation, and thus leave the 
worship, laws, and regulations in the hands of the pious, who, in all places and 
ages, were zealous for truth, holiness, and righteousness. 

10. The Fifth Policy of Satan Inaugurated. — The supremacy of Jeho- 
vah being established among the nations, and His sole divinity in Israel, the 
fourth policy of Satan was defeated ; and now he commences his fi.fth policy, 
which is to persecute, by open force, the cause and kingdom of God. True to 
his old serpentine subtility, he did not openly declare war at the first, nor dispute 
any truth publicly established; but under the garb of friendship and pretense of 
zeal for Jehovah, he tries to obscure the truth and tarnish holy religion by mix- 
ing it up with the religion of the Samaritans, who feared Jehovah and worshiped 
their own gods. These Samaritans claimed relationship to the Jews and joint 
interest in the cause of truth, and desired to unite in building the second temple. 
True, they had sacrificed to Jehovah out of fear, and Josiah had destroyed their 
idols and altars, but many, or most of them, preferred and worshiped their own 
gods. 

11. Building of the Temple Stopped. — A. M. 3470. B. C. 534. Ezra 
4:1-5. — Being defeated in this attempt, these Samaritans bribed the different 
government officers to evade, baffle, and defeat the decrees of Cyrus, which they 



(3) Chap, 56, §§ 1-10. 



238 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

could not repeal, and they hired counselors to prevent the orders and to preju- 
dice the Satraps against the Jews. They succeeded in preventing the building 
for fourteen years from the commencement till the resumption, or twenty-one 
years from the decree of Cyrus till the completion. Cyrus was so occupied in 
his wars that he did not attend to the execution of his decree, so the work dis- 
continued from the third year of Cyrus till the second of Darius Hystaspis. 
Psalm One hundred and twenty-nine belongs to this time, and is supposed to 
have been penned for this occasion. 



CHAPTER LXY. 



DANIEL'S LAST VISION. A. M. 3470. B. C. 534:.— Daniel, 10-12. 

1. Daniel's Self- Affliction and Heavenly Yisitok. — Perhaps the cessa- 
tion of the building of the temple was the cause of Daniel's mourning and self- 
affliction for three weeks, or twenty-one days. While thus engaged in fasting 
and mourning, a most glorious person appeared to him, who represents Jehovah's 
providential government of the nations, and informed him that his contrition 
was recognized and prayers were heard from the very first; and this messenger 
had interposed to secure the thing for which he had prayed. Messenger had 
obtained the decree from Cyrus to restore and rebuild, but Cyrus, being other- 
wise engaged, the prince, or court, of Persia withstood and resisted the execution 
of that decree for twenty-one years. The twenty-one days Daniel was left to 
afflict himself before receiving any intelligence, represented so many years' 
delay in the accomplishment of his object. But Michael, prince of the Jews, 
by the influence of one of the chief princes in the Persian court — Zerubbabel — 
helped the messenger by obtaining another decree that will be executed in 
twenty-one years from the decree of Cyrus. The Persian power, having thus 
again espoused the cause of Jehovah, this messenger, or embassador from 
Heaven, will continue his favor and protection to the Persian empire. 

2. Subject: The Future History of Israel. — But after some time Per- 
sian influence will become pernicious to the religion of Jehovah, and then will 
this glorious ambassador turn and tight against Persia. Then in a very short 
time the prince, or power, of Grecia will come and have all the power here and 
about Jerusalem. Now, ambassador, or messenger, will exhibit to Daniel what 
is very much noted in the true writings — the consummation of the kingdom of 
God, after the great battle of Gog, spoken of by Ezekial, and long before pre- 
dicted by Moses. No confidence can be placed in any of the controlling nations 
beyond what they think to be their own interest, for no prince, or power, or 
court of any people cooperates with ambassador for this noted consummation 
but Michael, prince, or court of the Jews; but their only hope is in their own 
prince. 

3. Persia and Greece. — Now, this glorious ambassador of Heaven shows 
Daniel events, in consecutive order, connected with the destiny of the Jews. 
Darius, the Mede, was upheld by ambassador when he made his famous decree 
for the divinity of Jehovah. After him will be three kings in Persia favoring, 



CHAPTER LXV.: SECTIONS IV. -VII. 239 

or standing up, for the Jews, confirmed by ambassador, Cyrus being the first. * 
After these, a fourth shall command more riches than any, and will stir up every 
power and agency against Grecia; but as shown in the vision of the ram and 
he goat, he shall be defeated. ^ Then shall the power of Grecia be extensive, 
self-willed, and invincible; then it shall be divided into four parts, and after- 
wards it shall be torn up by the roots and distributed to other people, or rulers, 
and even lose its distinctive nationality.^ (Chap. 71:6. 72). 

4. North and South Powers. — Two of these divisions call for our particular 
attention, for Jerusalem is situated between and will be involved in all their 
broils ; Jerusalem and the Jews are the grand objects of this prophecy. '' One 
of these lies north, and the other south, of Jerusalem, and without a miracle it 
must be claimed by one or the other. The marching and countermarching of 
these two powers are given till the programme changes by the ships of Chittim, 
or a western power interferes ; not much is said about Jerusalem and the Jews 
till the last of the north. ^ Before the western power deprived him of power, 
this north king appears to have had possession of Jerusalem and the country of 
Israel. 

5. Persecution by the North. — This north king will exalt himself against 
the holy covenant and have indignation against it. He will form alliance with 
apostate Jews, who, with his forces, will pollute the sanctuary, which is the center 
and citadel of the true religion, and will abolish the daily sacrifice and substitute 
that abomination that did once cause the desolation of the temple and city, and 
will do it again. The impious Jews will be enlisted in his interest and act the 
hypocrite, while the pious Jews, who know their God and understand His cove- 
nants and ways of working, will become mighty by faith in Him and do exploits 
like the judges of old. After this will come a time.of diff'usion of true knowledge, 
which will be the remarkable and prominent event of the time ; also persecutions 
of various kinds for days, or a period ; but at some time they shall obtain a little 
help or exemption from persecution for a short time, and many hypocrites will 
attach themselves and bring reproach by apostatizing. Some of the most promi- 
nent and intelligent shall fall by persecution ; but this severe ordeal will purge 
out the hypocrites and make the society pure to the end, which will come at the 
specified time. In every age till the end, persecution will purify the kingdom 
of God. (See Chaps. 75-78.) 

6. A Western Power. — But the end does not come with the expiration of 
that north power ; for the west power will be more unmanageable and irresistible 
than any former power, and will do as he pleases. He will exalt himself above 
all the gods, like Sennacherib or Nebuchadnezzar, and even worse ; he will boast 
against the God of gods, and not be defeated, as they were, but he shall prosper 
till the indignation on the Jews be accomplished. For what is determined and 
predicted shall be done. This power cannot be controlled by the god of its 
founder, or by any god. Nor can the love of woman control it, as they do eastern 
monarchs, as Esther did Ahasuearus. But it will change and honor Almighty God, 
whom its founders and builders knew nothing about ; will honor Him with gold, 
silver, and precious stones and things of desire, and he will do this in strong 
military fortifications ; he shall become a devotee to that God of power that his 
ancestors knew nothing about. It will divide the land for a price, and cause the 
objects of its devotion, or favorites of its new religion, to have extensive rule. 
(See Chap. 81, etc.) 

7. A South Power. — But neither shall this reformed mighty power endure, 
but in the ending of the indignation upon the Jews and their city, or the indigna- 
tion having ended on them and turned on some other object, the power in the 



(4) Chap 66, § 5, 6. 67, § 9. 68. (5) Chap. 71. (6) Chap. 62, §§ 2, 3, 7. (7) Dan., 10:14. 
(8) Chaps. 72-74. 



240 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

south shall push at him, as the Persian ram did the nations around him, but did 
not destroy this mighty king. After this pushing back to his strong positions,^ a 
north power came down on him like a whirlwind and swept all before him, or 
like a flood, overwhelmed all Palestine and Egypt by sea and land. Edom, Moab, 
and most of Ammon escaped this inundation of chariots, horsemen, and ships, 
and the Ethiopians and Libians were at his steps. (See Chaps. 139. 144:4, 5. 
149.) 

8. The Korth Power. — This north power planted his last stand, or his per- 
manent palace tents, or his last military royal tent, in Mount Zion, between the 
two seas ; but he shall come to his predicted end and receive no help from his 
allies. This implies it becomes feeble and depends on help which will disappoint 
him in the time of need. Rumors out of the east and north will make him des- 
perate and cruel ; but he, too, must expire ! This is the last hostile power that 
will possess Jerusalem. 

9. Michael Delivers Israel. — Now Michael stands up for the Jews, and 
an unprecedented time of trouble ensues ; but the registered Jews shall every one 
be delivered ; even the dead will be resurrectionized, and Daniel, having rested, 
will stand in his lot at the end of these days of tribulations. All the covenants, 
oaths, and promises will then be fulfilled. But what bright prospect has appeared 
in this whole programme for Jerusalem and the Jews while their promised land was 
so surrounded and overrun by overwhelming and contending powers ? Their 
temple polluted, daily worship abolished, falling by the sword, flames, captivities, 
and spoliations for many days, and at last their holy mountain occupied with the 
palace tents of that overwhelming north power ! O my Jehovah! what will be 
the end of these things ? How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? 

CALCULATION OF DATES.— (See Chaps. 63:4-6; 175, §§ 1, 2, 3.) 

10. Daniel's Death. — Daniel, like his predecessors in the work of the 
kingdom, goes to rest without obtaining the promises, but, seeing them afar off, 
is assured that he will stand in his lot when these days of adversity are completed 
and the happy age begins. No doubt he obtained from Cyrus the first decree to 
build the temple, and saw that decree baffled, but did not see that work resumed. 
The work ceased till the second dynasty of Persia ascended the throne. This 
was in Darius Hystaspis. (See Chap. 66, §§ 5, 6.) 



(9) Chaps. 139. 141, § 5-8. 



CHAPTER LXYI. 



TEMPLE EE BUILT AND DEDICATED. §§ 1-4. A. M. 3485-3489. 
B. C. 519-515.— Ezra, 5:1, 2; Hag., 1 and 2; Zech., 1-6. 

1. Importance of the Temple. — Being discouraged by the frustration of the 
decree of Cyrus and combined opposition of the satraps of Persia and the leading 
Samaritans, the Jews had abandoned the temple and built their own dwellings ; 
but the Lord raised up two prophets to stir them up to make the kingdom of God 
their primary object. The temple was the visible object attracting the attention 
of the nations and the index pointing out the success of the cause of Jehovah. 
Therefore its completion and the restoration of its worship as the center, source, 
and citadel of the true religion was of more importance than their own comfort- 
able homes. 

2. Encouragements and Predictions. — The Lord had not blessed their 
labors, but disappointed their expectations when harvest came, because of their 
neglect and indifference. Then Zerubbabel, the governor, and Jeshua, the high 
priest, and all the people feared and obeyed the Jehovah, their God, and went 
to work on the house of Jehovah of hosts, their God. Then the Lord encouraged 
them with promises of success and future glory. In His providence He guarded 
and protected them. His spirit was still with them, and from the time they com- 
menced rebuilding the temple they should experience prosperity on their labor 
and in their tillage. Though this temple was as nothing in comparison with the 
former one, yet it shall be more glorified, and they shall yet have peace in Jeru- 
salem. He had once shaken the earth, and once more Jehovah would convulse 
both Heaven and earth. The desire of the pious of all nations who have 
learned to look to the seed of David for a saviour, shall come. And again, the 
third time, the nations shall be convulsed, and by mutual slaughter shall their 
power be destroyed; and then shall Zerubbabel, or his seed, be a chosen signet 
with Jehovah. (Hag., 1, 2.) 

3. Prosperity of Jerusalem. — Zechariah also encourages them, promising 
the successful rebuilding of the temple and city. Jerusalem will not be able to 
contain all its citizens within its walls, and they shall scatter around in villages; 
and through prosperity cities shall multiply. Jerusalem shall be chosen, and 
Zion comforted; Jehovah will dwell in her midst with His glory, and many 
nations shall be united with her in His cause and kingdom. The priesthood, or 
ministry, will be purified, the branch of David will appear, and the whole land 
shall be cleansed and enjoy peace and prosperity. This success will not be 
secured by armies, but by the spirit of Jehovah. Present difficulties will be 
overcome, and Zerubbabel, who laid the foundation of the temple, shall finish 
the work with triumphant shouting. (Zech. 1-4). 

4. The Sons of Oil Keep the Lamps Aglow. — By a very apposite sym 
bol, Zechariah is shown the hidden agency that keeps the light of truth before 
the world. The king and high priest were anointed with oil, and the Jew nat- 
urally looked to these two anointed ones to keep the lamps of Jehovah aglow in 
the nation and in the temple ; but they were only anointed, and were not sons of 
oil. Kings and priests may become corrupted, cities and temples may be 

-16 



242 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

destroyed, rites and ceremonies may be abolished, but sons of oil stand in the 
presence of the Jehovah of the whole earth and keep the lamps burning in the 
temple of God. These are witnesses in all times and places, instead of kings 
and priests, though they may prophecy in sackcloth, be afflicted, unpopular, and 
hated. (Rev. 11:3-11). The spirit of God dwells in them, and His word is 
registered in their minds. Like Elijah, Elisha, and others, they stir up the pious, 
and confront hypocrits, apostates, and adversaries of every condition and grade, 
when temples are deserted and altars broken down. Iniquity, and all its works 
and strongholds, shall be destroyed, but the branch of David will consummate 
the kingdom and be both king and priest. Strangers from afar shall come and 
help build the temple, and all shall know that the teachings of the prophets are 
the words of the Jehovah. (Zech. 4-6.) 

5. Decree OF Darius Htstaspis. A. M. 3485. B. C. 519. Ezra, 5:3-13. 
6:1-13; Psalm 138; Zech., 7, 8. — The Samaritans and bribed rulers tried to stop 
the work but could not, for the Jews appealed to the decree of Cyrus. Then these 
adversaries wrote to Darius Hystaspis, who was on the throne of Persia, and 
the first of the second dynasty, and desired him to examine the records and see 
whether Cyrus had made such a decree. Perhaps they thought their bribed 
attornej^s had destroyed it, and so felt sure of success. But they were disap- 
pointed, for though not at Babylon, where they requested the search to be made, 
but at Achmetha of the Medes, the record was found, and according to the laws 
of the Medes and Persians, the decree could not be altered. Darius commanded 
the Samaritans to keep away from that place and not hinder the work, but to 
furnish the Jews with materials, offerings, and money out of the king's revenue, 
that the Jews might pray for the king and his sons. He orders them to do these 
things speedily or suffer vengeance. He calls Jehovah the God of Heaven — 
the God who has caused His name to dwell at Jerusalem — and prays Him to 
destroy all kings and people who attempt to alter or destroy that temple. Thus, 
we have found the second Persian king that was to stand up for the Jews, as 
made known to Daniel. 

6. Obtained by Zerubbabel. — Josephus says Zernbbabel was with Darius 
and obtained this second decree, which is very probable ; and, in fact, all the 
decrees in favor of the Jews appear to have been obtained by some Jew in favor 
with the kings of Persia. Though these kings were not idolaters, bnt feared 
Jehovah and desired his favor, and acknowledged Him to be the God of Heaven, 
yet they were not pious, and were governed by passion, prejudice, vanity, favors, 
and flattery. The Greek version of the Scriptures says Psalm One hundred and 
thirty-eight was composed by Haggai or Zechariah, at the rebuilding of the 
temple, and it is well adapted to the occasion. 

7. Piety Enjoined and Blessings Promised. — Zechariah prophesies again 
and reproves their formal fasting during the captivity, but does not accuse them 
of Polytheism or of worshiping idols; and he warns them to hearken to the 
former prophets, who instructed, admonished, and exhorted before the judg- 
ments were visited upon Jerusalem. The Jehovah had fulfilled His threatenings 
on their disobedience and rebellion, and now He will be as faithful to do them 
good. But freedom from idolatry is not sutiicient ; they must speak truth to 
neighbors, judge truth and the judgements of peace, imagine not evil against 
neighbors, love not false oaths, etc. Then their fasts should become joyful 
feasts, and the inhabitants of the nations should visit Jerusalem because they 
knew the true God was there. Of these visitors there will he ten of them to 
one of the Jews. Thus the triumph of Jehovah over the Polytheism of the 
nations is still boldly assorted by the prophets. 

8. Temple Einished and Dedicated. A. M. 3489. Ezra, 6:14-22. — The 
Jews persevered under the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah ; the temple was 
finished and dedicated with great joy ; the passover was kept by the returned 



CHAPTER LX VII. : SECTIONS I. -III. 243 

captives, and all Jews who had remained in the land but had separated them- 
selves from the heathen, and the . Assyrian rulers under the Persians, favored 
them and strengthened their hands. Thus, the pious were filled with rejoicing, 
and the impious were confounded. The law of Moses and the predictions of 
the prophets were verified in both the threatenings and promises, and Jehovah 
was proved to be the supreme God, controlling the nations and accomplishing 
His purposes according to programmes given centuries beforehand. Psalms 
composed on this occasion express the sentiments and feelings of the pious. 
(Psalms 48, 81, 146-150). 



CHAPTER LXYII. 



REBUILDmG OF THE CITY. A. M. 3518-3559. B. C. 486-445. 

1. Rebuilding .Stopped. — Ezra, 4:6-23; Esther, 1, 2. — Having finished 
the temple under the government of Zerubbabel and the priesthood of Jeshua, 
who also commenced it, the Jews proceeded to rebuild the walls of the city. 
Having proceeded to some extent, the malignant Samaritans wrote to Artaxerxes, 
or Ahasuerus, ^ the king then on the throne of Persia, and influenced him against 
them. They tell him to search the national records and he would find it had been 
a rebellious and bad city, hurtful to kings and provinces, and had formerly been 
powerful and ruled the nations, and, if rebuilt, would rebel, reconquer, and 
dispossess him of all the provinces west of the Euphrates. Instigated by these 
fears, the king commissioned the enemies to stop the work, which they did by 
force. 

2. Policy of Satan to Obliterate the Knowledge of Jehovah.— Thus, for 
a time the prophecies for rebuilding Jerusalem appeared to be a failure, though 
those concerning the temple were verified. Also, a scheme on a large scale was 
set on foot at the court of Persia for the extermination of all the Jews. The Old 
Serpent expected to cut out the heart of the true religion, for the Jews had the 
covenants of the true God, and His oaths, promises, oracles, laws, temple, priest- 
hood, ministry, adoption, etc. Destroy the Jews — and all Israelites were now 
included in that term — and the knowledge of Jehovah, now triumphant, would soon 
fade away from the nations ; for the priesthoods of Polytheism would do every- 
thing in their power to obliterate the good impressions made on the public mind 
by wonderful interpositions and fulfilled predictions. But a very simple, yet very 
remarkable, interposition of Providence turned the scheme to the destruction 
of the enemies and the conversion of many individuals in the nations to embrace 
the Jewish religion. 

3. Mordecai and Esther Appear. — -The persons used on this occasion to 
control the Persian court were Mordecai and his niece, Esther. This event equaled 
in importance any decree of Nebuchadnezzar or Darius. This Artaxerxes, or 
Ahasuerus,^ ruled from India to Ethiopia, over one hundred and twenty-seven 



(3) Town., note 23; Der. 8, pt 2, § 2, p. 1116; Joseph's Ant., Bk., 11, chap. 6, § 1; Greek 
Bible, Esther; Apochra. Ezdrus. (4) Anct. Hist., Vol. III., p. 200; Encp. R. K., Abas. 



244 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

provinces, having a variety of languages under hira. In one of his drunken 
frolics he ordered Yashti, his queen, to expose her beauty to his drunken guests, 
but she refused to make the indecorous show, and was degraded for disobedience. 
Multitudes of maidens were collected to the king, from whom he might select a 
queen. Mordecai, an old captive Jew, presented his niece, Hadasah, or Esther, 
who was preferred by the king to be queen. 

PLOT OF HAMAN AND RESULT.— Esther 3-10, §§ 4-8. 

4. The Plot. — Artaxerxes took a whim to honor an Agagite named Haman, 
and ordered all about the court to give him divine reverence, which Mordecai, 
who sat in the Persian court, refused. Haman, being informed of this and of 
Mordecai's nationality, thought it rather small business for a god to notice one 
man, and determined to do a god-like act and at one blow to sweep all anti-Polythe- 
ists to detruction. Everything was as propitious to that end as the Old Serpent 
could wish. Judea was in the Persian empire, and all the people of Jehovah 
were scattered through it, without any accessible region beyond where they could 
flee for safety. A fool king was a mere tool for a malignant and wealthy states- 
man, and a decree, once ratified, could not be repealed. The decree was obtained 
and sealed with the king's ring that every Jew should be killed and the murderers 
should take their property. The destruction was inevitable, and bitter wailing 
was throughout the whole one hundred and twenty -seven provinces. It looked 
as if Jehovah had forgotton His people. Polytheism was jubilant at the prospect 
of regaining in one day all it had lost since the smashing up of gods and nations 
by Nebuchadnezzar. The decree was written in every language and sent to every 
tribe. 

5. Mordecai in Sackcloth. — But Michael, the great prince of Israel, is 
prepared for the emergency, and old Mordecai, who had experienced every vicissi- 
tude since the captivity of Jehoiachin, and full of faith in Jehovah, is stirred up 
to the rescue. The contest is public, and all eyes are turned to the scene. The 
old man leaves his honorable seat, clothes himself in mourning, and lifts up his 
voice outside of the palace, but in the midst of the city. Many Jews and friends 
to the Jews were in the palace, and Mordecai's condition was soon known to 
Esther, and a charge given her to the king. Mordecai knew the promises to 
Israel were sure and the execution of the decree to be impossible ; but viewing 
the advancement of Esther to the throne, he thought this was the provision made 
by Jehovah for the occasion. 

6. Esther and the Jews Fasting. — Esther's husband was a fool and a tyrant. 
Her life was endangered by approaching him, and all she could hope from him 
was what his animal attachment to her secured. She approaches with the air of 
festivity, concealing a heart wrung with anguish. While fasting and praying she 
spreads the banquet for the king and her murderer. Mordecai and the Jews fast 
without while she and her maidens fast within. She presents her prayer to her 
God and her petition to a banqueting fool. The whole matter having become 
conspicuous, Michael helps the ambassador seen by Daniel to manage the king. 
Mordecai and Esther are doing their part as Michael incites, and now the glorious 
messenger, though invisible, takes the king in hand. A whole nation dispersed 
throughout the empire, fasting in sackcloth and imploring aid from their invisible 
God, must have attracted the attention of all Polytheists, and their impending 
destruction and sudden deliverance showed a present and Almighty God. 

7. The Scale Turned. — The king cannot sleep ; the records are read for his 
amusement ; the records show that the king owes his life to Mordecai and Esther ; 
Mordecai must be honored ; Haman, having prepared a gallows, enters to request 
the hanging of the Jew, but out of vanity to himself decrees honors to his intended 
victim ; the old man that walked the streets in sackcloth and bitter wailing now 
rides in royalty as the honored of the king, with Haman for servant and herald. 



oM After lxvii.: sections viii.-xii. 245 

The scale is turned ; Haman is mortified ; his wife and wise men understand the 
history of the Jews and the protection of their God, and tell him : If Mordecai 
be a Jew, and you have begun to fall before him, thou shalt not prevail against 
him but surely fall before him. Even the enemies to Jehovah had learned that 
much about His protection and government. 

8. The Jews Triumphant. — Haman is hurried to the banquet. The king 
makes another fool offer to the queen ; she petitions for her own life and the life 
of her people and states their situation ; the king is wroth, and though a fool, 
his word is power. Haman is hanged on the gallows prepared for Mordecai ; 
the fool king delegates his power to Esther and Mordecai ; a counter decree is 
given in every language and carried with lightning speed throughout the empire. 
Everywhere the scene is changed ; many out of fear of the Jews embraced their 
rehgion. A feast of the Jews till their final disperion commemorated this event. 
The cause of Jehovah was triumphant, and we discover the Jews were a power 
in the empire, and were not all returned to Jerusalem. Though these kings 
often favored the Jews, it was on account of Jewish influence at court. 

9. Commission of Ezra. A. M. 3546. B. C. 458. — Ezra, 7. — Ezra, the 
scribe and priest, received a very large and liberal commission from Artaxerxes, 
or Ahasuerus, ^ to govern, at discretion, all west of the Euphrates, or of the 
Jordan, and to set judges and magistrates who knew the laws of Jehovah to 
teach those ignorant of them, and to punish those who. would not obey them, by 
confiscation, imprisonment, or banishment; and to require of the governors and 
oflicers whatever he judged necessary for the house and service of Jehovah. 
The king calls Ezra the priest and scribe of the law of the God of Heaven ; and 
the temple, the house of the God of Heaven ; and he fears the wrath of this 
God upon the king and his sons. Artaxerxes was the third king of Persia who 
stood up for the Jews — children of Daniel's people. 

10. The Second Ketdrn of Captives. — Ezra, 8. — With Ezra returned a 
second company of captives, who were mostly ministers of the sanctuary, and 
with this company were brought many gifts of the gentiles. Depending on the 
protection of Jehovah, Ezra refused the guard offered by the king, and assured 
the king that their God would protect those who served Him. Having assumed 
this high position, they fasted at the river Ahava and prayed the Jehovah for 
that protection, and then proceeded safely to Jerusalem, carrying with them the 
treasures of silver and gold, and conveying animals, also, to the temple. Much 
of these had been given by the king and his seven counselors, beside what was 
collected in the province of Babylon. 

11. Mixed Marriages. — Ezra found the Jews had violated the law and 
had made affinity with the surrounding nations by mixed marriages. He prayed, 
confessing the sins of the nation, and set forth this sin before the people. Then 
they made a covenant to put away these strange wives, and the people agreed to 
do as Ezra said. This was a great trial — to separate from wives and children — 
but unless these wives abandoned entirely their own people and Polytheism, as 
Kuth did, it must be done. (Psalm 45:10, 11). Most of the people did so, and 
those who would not were banished from Jerusalem. Mixed marriages have 
always been pernicious to the true religion, both before the deluge and since. 
This law was contingent, and not absolute; and where no danger from the 
encroachments of Polytheism existed, the law did not interfere. 

12. Zeohariah's Last Prophesies. —9-14. A. M. 3547. B. C. 457.— 
Zechariah prophesies in detached portions. He predicts the desolation of some 
neighboring cities and powers that had recovered from ^Nebuchadnezzar's devas- 
tations. Jerusalem and temple shall be protected from the invading army; the 
king of Zion will make a meek and lowly entry into Jerusalem, take away the 

(5) Town., note 25; per. 8, § 4, p. 1120. 



246 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVEL0T*ED. 

war character of Ephraim and Judah, proclaim peace to the nations, and have a 
universal empire and boundless dominion. If Israel and Judah were captives, 
they were prisoners of hope, and shall be victorious, prosperous, and have 
abundance. They shall be sown among all nations and not apostatise, but be 
faithful missionaries and be returned home. Sometimes they will have good 
shepherds and sometimes bad ones ; and sometimes they will not appreciate the 
good ones. They shall become strong in Jehovah and conquer all around them. 
The tribes shall be saved and relocated in the first place, lest Jerusalem and the 
throne of David, aggrandized from the nations, should exalt over them. In that 
day Jehovah will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem ; the feeble shall be as the 
house of David ; the house of David shall be as God ; and all their enemies 
shall be destroyed. Though they had pierced their Messiah, they should mourn, 
repent, abandon all their tilthiness, and not need prophets. The Shepherd shall 
be smitten with the sword and the flock scattered ; two parts shall be cut off; 
a third part shall be tried and refined as by fire and become Jehovah's beloved 
people. Jerusalem shall suffer the fate of captured cities; half shall go into 
captivity and the remnant shall not be cut off. Then all these nations shall be 
destroyed by Jehovah, as in former battles, and the Jehovah God will come with 
all His saints. Then shall be constant light, living waters, pleasant seasons, and 
beautiful landscapes. Jehovah shall be king over all the earth; there shall be 
but one Jehovah, and have but one name among all nations. AH nations shall 
come up to Jerusalem to worship the king, Jehovah of hosts, and keep the feast 
of tabernacles. Those who fought against Jerusalem, and those who refuse to 
come up to worship there, shall be consumed with disease and famine. Then 
shall every common article in Jerusalem be holiness to the Jehovah, like the 
bowls before the altar, and no unholy person shall enter the house of Jehovah 
of hosts. The tares gathered out and burnt, the righteous shall shine as the sun 
in the sky. (Matt. 13:37-43). 

MISSION OF NEHEMIAH.— TsTehemiah 1-6; §§ 13-17. 

13. I^ehemiah's First Commission. — The remnants of Israel and Judah 
were sparsely settled over the country, and were enduring much affliction and 
reproach. The walls of Jerusalem were in a very dilapidated condition and the 
gates were burnt with fire. When Nehemiah learned this it grieved him. He 
confessed the sins of his people and prayed for favor from the king, and his 
prayer was answered. It was unlawful to be sad in the king's presence. 
J^ehemiah was the king's cup bearer, but could not conceal his sorrow of 
heart. When the king inquired the cause he reported the desolation of Jeru- 
salem, and requested authority and means to rebuild the city of his fathers' sep- 
ulchres. The king, in presence of the queen — who, I suppose, was Esther"^ — 
granted him absence for a time, with a commission adequate to his undertaking. 
Mordecai was next to the king in honor and power and was accepted of the 
Jews, seeking their welfare and securing their peace. ^ 

14. Nehemiah in the Ruins. — Having received his commission and force, 
Nehemiah proceeded to Jerusalem and took a survey of the ruins by night, before 
he made known the Divine favor granted to him and the ample commission of 
the king to rebuild the city. To the priests, nobles, rulers, and Jews he pre- 
sented the fact that their God and religion were reproached on account of the 
dilapidated condition, as if Jehovah had not power or regard enough to restore 
His city and religion; and then he showed the favor and commission given to 
him. And they all went to work. 

15. Opposition of the Enemy. — This chagrined their malevolent neighbors, 
who were now defeated in every prospect. Haman, and with him all the enemies 



(7) Town., note 34, p. 1141. 8) Esther, 10:3. 



CHAPfER LXVil. : SECTIONS XVI. -xtit. 24? 

of the Jews about the king's palace, and multitudes of them throughout the 
empire, were dead. Mordecai stood next to the king, and Esther was queen; 
and Nehemiah, who bore the commission and superintended the work, was a 
chief officer in the court of Persia. So these enemies vented their spite in 
taunts, impeachments of rebellion, and ridicule. Nehemiali answered them in 
the name of Jehovah, and said: ''The God of Heaven will prosper us. We are 
His servants, and will arise and build the city, but ye have no portion, nor right, 
nor memorial in Jerusalem." Then the Samaritans, Arabians, Ashdodites, and 
Ammonites conspired to surprise and murder them, but they were anticipated by 
Nehemiah, who prepared to give them battle. Then by false pretense they 
endeavored to get Nehemiah alone into their power, but he replied that his work 
was of two much importance to be stopped for holding counsels with them. 

16. City Rebuilt. — The work was finished, and the city fortified. Then 
the enemy were mortified and had to acknowledge the hand of God in it. When 
the first temple was built, the throne of David was the most powerful of the 
nations, and Jerusalem the most flourishing.of cities, and not an enemy dared to 
oppose. But when the second was built, Jerusalem was in ruins. Zerubbabel, 
the son of David, was only a deputized governor under whimsical, capricious, 
despotic kings, who were ruled by fears, flatteries, vanities, and interest; and the 
Jews were dispersed abroad, and only a remnant, sparsely settled in their 
respective districts of Judea, undertook the work. But though no prince or 
power of any nation cooperated with the glorious ambassador, except Michael, 
prince of Israel, yet the temple was finished, and now the city is rebuilt, though 
the streets and improvements may not be completed yet. 

17. The Reformation. — Nehemiah had many difficulties to encounter. 
Many of the Jews were intermarried with the enemies of Jehovah, and acted 
as spies for, and cooperated with them to hinder the work. Difficulties also 
arose between the rich and the poor, and between laborers and employers, which 
shows they were very far from being perfectly united, according to the law, in 
working for the cause of Jehovah. But Nehemiah, trusting in Jehovah and 
constantly presenting his supplications to Him, and acting promptly in every 
emergency, overcame all obstacles. Then he gathered the Levites out of all 
their cities and had them brought up to Jerusalem. The priests and Levites 
purified themselves, the people, and the wall. The wall was dedicated with 
great rejoicing — singing, with cymbals, psalteries, harps, and blowing of trum- 
pets; and they offered great sacrifices. And, having regulated the government 
of the citv, Nehemiah returned to Persia. ^ 



(9) Neh. 12:27-43; Ps. 1. 



CHAPTER LXYIII. 



NEHEMIAH'S SECOND COMMISSION AND REFORMATION. A. M. 

3560-3571. B. C. 444-433.— N eh., 7-11; 12:1-9, 

44-47; 13:1-3. §§ 1-5. 

1 The Nation's Knowledge of Jehovah. — On his return Xehemiah regu- 
lated the people by the genealogies whicli he found of those who had returned 
with Zerubbabel. All the people congregated in the street, and Ezra brought 
out the Book of Law and it was read and expounded to the people, who were 
very attentive and wept when they learned its contents. The knowledge in the 
possession of the people had been obtained by oral instructions preserved by 
tradition. Much of this knowledge had been lost or confused and corrupted during 
the captivity ; and as very few synagogues had copies of the law and other sacred 
writings to correct the traditionary knowledge, the people were very imperfectly 
informed about their relation to the nations and their duties to God and man. 

2. The Jews Convicted BY the Law. — When the lawwas read and expounded, 
they found themselves in the violation of many of its precepts ; but when instructed, 
they readily complied, and they kept the feast of the tabernacles in booths made 
of brush, which had not been done since the days of Joshua. They confessed 
their sins and worshiped Jehovah, their God, and made a covenant and took an 
oath to keep the law and sustain the worship of the temple. They learned that 
their intermarriages with the surrounding nations were unlawful. They might 
marry a captive or proselyte so completely separated from their people that no 
danger existed of the children imbibing the religion of the nations and becoming 
Polytheists and idolaters, but intermarriage with neighboring nations would con- 
found all distinctions, mix up religions, and the truth would be abandoned. 
Reformation on this point was a severe trial and tested their piety, for some of 
them had children by these marriages. Most of them acquiesced and separated 
from those who would not abandon the abominations of the nations nor separate 
from their heathen relations. A mixed multitude of Ammonites, Moabites, and 
others attended these meetings ; but these were separated according to the law 
and the original distinctions established.* 

3. Jerusalem Repeopled. — To people Jerusalem, the rulers dwelt in it, and 
the tenth of the people were chosen by lot to abide there for its defense and the 
service of the temple and the accommodation of those coming up to worship 
there. About this time Ezra composed the First and One hundred and nine- 
teenth Psalms, which set forth the excellence of the law and the great reward in 
keeping it. 

4. Abuses Corrected. — A. M. 3576-3595. — Some grevious abuses had been 
introduced and practiced in absence of Nehemiah. Eleashib, the high priest, 
had devoted a chamber in the temple to the accommodation of Tobia, an Ammonite. 
INehemiah cast Tobias' stuff out of the chamber, and restored the sacred vessels 
and offerings. The ministers of the temple had been neglected, and had gone to 
their tields to sustain themselves. These he restored and made provision for 

(*) Ps. 119. 



ddAMfiR LxViii.! sfecTtoifS V.-tl. S4§ 

them in the future. He stopped Sabbath-breaking and compelled the men of 
Tyre to stop their traffic on the Sabbath. He found men who had married wives 
of Ashdod, Moab, and Ammon, and their children spoke a mixed language of 
both parents, and he punished them and made them swear to abandon the practice. 
One of the sons of the high priest was son-in-law to Sanballat, the Horonite. 
Nehemiah banished him and cleansed the priesthood from these mixed marriages 
with strangers. (A. M. 3595. B. C. 409, or forty-nine years from the decree 
to Ezra.) 

5. Refokmation Completed. — Acting as governor, aided by Ezra, the scribe 
and priest, Nehemiah effected great reformations in despite of opposition. The 
law was restored to the people and expounded in their vernacular tongue, so that 
all could know and understand it ; correct copies of it were secured ; manuscripts 
of the sacred writings were multiplied ; the Jews were separated from the people 
of other nations around Jerusalem for a consecrated guard of the oracles of 
Jehovah ; synagogues were multiplied, and in them the sacred Scriptures were 
read, the Psalms were chanted, the people instructed, and prayers offered. 

PROPHECY OF MALACHI. A. M. 3561-3604. B. C. 403-400. §§ 6-9. 

6. Malachi Expostulates. — Mal., 1-3:7-13. — Malachi shows the desola- 
tions of Edom, kindness to ungrateful Israel, and the impiety of the Jews, so 
Jehovah had no pleasure in them ; nevertheless Jehovah's name should be great 
among all nations, and He would be worshiped in every place. He reproves the 
priests for neglecting their covenant of the priesthood and the instruction of the 
people, and the people for infidelity to their God and to their lawful wives, and 
for marrying women of a strange god, and for their petulence in the service of 
Jehovah and impeaching Him with favoring the wicked. He complains of Israel's 
inconstancy from the beginning, and exhorts them to reformation and fidelity, and 
by this means prove Jehovah and see if He would not enrich them with blessings 
and make them the delight of all nations. 

7. Pious Meetings. — Mal., 3:14-18 ; 4:1-3. — Some complained of weari- 
ness and no reward in the service of Jehovah, while it subjected them to humil- 
iation and persecution; but the pious often met and encouraged one another, and 
the Jehovah heard them and kept a record of those who feared Him and thought 
upon His name. And they shall be Mine, saith the Jehovah of hosts, when I 
make up My jewels ; and then shall appear the difference between the righteous 
and the wicked — between those who serve God and those who do not. For the 
wicked shall be utterly destroyed and the righteous triumph forever. To those 
fearing His name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings, 
and they shall grow as fatlings. 

8. First Advent of Messiah and Consequences. — -Mal , 3:1-6. — Behold! 
I will send My messenger, who will prepare My way before Me; and the Jehovah 
ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple. The Angel of the covenant ye 
delight in : Behold He shall come, saith the Jehovah of Hosts ! But who shall 
abide the day of His coming, and who shall stand when He appears ? For He 
is like a refiner's fire and fuller's soap, and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier 
of silver. He shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, 
that they may offer unto the Jehovah an offering in righteousness. Then shall 
the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Jehovah, as in the days 
of old and former years, and the impious shall be destroyed. 

9. The Farewell. — -Mal., 4:4-6. — ^Remember the law of My servant, 
Moses, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and 
judgments. Behold ! I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of 
the great and dreadful day of the Jehovah, and he shall reconcile the hearts of the 
fathers and children, or unite the father and the children in the Hope of Israel, 
lest I smite the land with a curse instead of a blessing. The law of Moses was 
still the law for Israel and Judah. 



CHAPTER LXIX. 



rOSITIOK OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. A. M. 3600-3720. 

B. C. 404-284:. 

1. The Knowledge of the True God. — About four hundred years before 
Christ divine revelation ceased to record passing events or foreshadow develop- 
ments of the future, and the Jews were left to regulate their lives and strengthen 
their hopes by what was already written. They went no more after idols, and 
the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel, was known to all the nations embraced 
in the Persian empire as the God of Heaven, and the Jews claimed to be His 
peculiar people. They protested against Polytheism, despised idols, abhorred 
idolatry, and made their relation to Jehovah their boast. They zealously taught 
their religion to the nations and translated their sacred writings into the Greek 
language, which became the universal language of the learned world. But their 
exclusiveness made them the object of hatred and persecution by the priesthood 
of the different heathen demons and idols. The nations might worship Jehovah 
at the temple in the court of the gentiles, but the Jew would not return the com- 
pliment and worship their demons, but treated their idols with contempt. 

2. Israel Taught bt Experience. — Israel had now experimented enough 
on the covenant of Sinai, and found there was an invisible intelligent power some- 
where that watched over its fulfillment. They obeyed the law and were blessed 
to the full extent of the promises. They disobeyed and were cursed to the full 
extent of the threatenings. They reformed and were restored, as Moses had 
assured them. When Israel started out to become the people of Jehovah, they 
were taught by stupendous miracles that all could witness for themselves and 
understand ; also, predictions were given for after generations. As time rolls on, 
after generations looked upon these miracles as fabulous accounts, and it would 
have required a miracle to convince them that such events ever took place. But 
when people are brought to their senses by overwhelming adversities, and on 
looking around find everything transpiring according to programme given hun- 
dreds of years before, they begin to conclude that some intelligent overruling 
power directs the whole movement. The covenant made at Sinai shows by its 
own developments that it is the covenant of the Almighty God of Heaven and 
earth. 

3. Periods Reviewed. — The last commissioned prophet has spoken and 
referred Israel back to the law of Moses and the conditions of the covenant at 
Sinai. Jehovah has not changed nor altered His covenant with Israel. The 
second temple is now finished, Jerusalem is restored, and all the rites of the law 
and its precepts can be observed again A. M. 3604, and one thousand five hundred 
and twenty-one years from the call of Abraham and the first covenant with him ; 
and the covenant of circumcision is one thousand four hundred and ninety-seven 
years old ; it is one thousand and ninety-one years since Israel left Egypt and 
crossed the Red sea ; and one thousand and ninety years since the tabernacle, or 
first house of Jehovah upon record, was erected in the wilderness; it is one thousand 
and fifty-one years since Israel crossed the Jordan into the promised land; eight 



CHAPTER LXIX. : SECTIONS IV.-Vt. 251 

hundred and sixteen years since the Ark was captured by the Philistines, and six 
hundred and forty-four years since the Ark was removed by David into Jerusa- 
lem, which then became the holy city of Jehovah forever, instead of Shiloh, 
where it had been set up by Joshua one thousand and forty-four years before the 
present date; it is six hundred and sixty-three years since David was anointed by 
Samuel and the everlasting dynasty of David brought to light; six hundred and 
four years since the first temple, or second house of God, was dedicated, and one 
hundred and eighty-eight years since it and Jerusalem were destroyed by Nebu- 
chadnezzar; it is one hundred and fifteen years since the second temple, or third 
house of Jehovah, was dedicated, and forty-five years since Nehemiah dedicated 
the restored walls of Jerusalem. When the streets and internal improvements 
of the city were completed we are not certain, but most likely within ten years 
after the walls were finished ; then was the city provided with a population and 
fully restored. 

4. Center, Synagogues, and Boundary of the Kingdom of God. — After 
all these dates and vicissitudes we find Jerusalem and its temple once more the 
center and source of the true worship of the true God ; but the boundary is widely 
extended. In David's and Solomon's time the boundary of the kingdom of God 
was from Egypt to Assyria ; but now it is from some place in India to the 
Bosphorus and Helispont and western boundary of Egypt, and from the Black 
and Caspian seas in the north to the Persian gulf and Indian ocean in the south. 
Over this vast territory were the children of Jacob scattered,^ and in many parts 
were Jewish synagogues^ erected, prayers were oflPered to Jehovah, and words 
of exhortation given in them. ^ From these distant synagogues Jews went up to 
Jerusalem once, twice, and thrice in the year to keep the feasts of the Jehovah, 
and having refreshed their souls at the fountain, returned to reanimate their 
brethren. Thus, the light of the kingdom of God was kept shining among the 
nations till the Royal Messiah appeared, and many in the nations embraced the 
truth and the true God. 

5. The Scriptures. — From the time of Ezra great care was taken of the 
sacred Scriptures by the great synagogue, and copies of them were multiplied 
and furnished to the dispersed synagogues,^ where they were read in the original 
and interpreted in the native language of the place. Some writings were in the 
Greek only, but the Jews never received these as inspired records, nor were they 
recognized by Christ as of divine authority. In these sacred writings were 
recorded the history of the past and the prospect of the future development of 
the kingdom. Thus, the people of Jehovah were prepared, as no other people 
were, for maintaining and propagating their religion. 

6. The Throne of David. — Jehovah was their king, ^ who had led them out 
of Egypt by the hand of Moses and organized them into a nation and led them 
in the wilderness forty years. Then by the hand of Joshua He led them into the 
promised land, where they were under extraordinary judges, when occasion 
required, for three hundred and fifty-six years. Then they demanded a king and 
the Jehovah granted them a king for five hundred and seven years, and then sent 
them and their king into captivity. After the captivity Zerubbabel governed 
them, under the kings of Persia, for over twenty-one years ; he laid the founda- 
tion of the second temple, and he finished it in twenty-one years from the decree 
of Cyrus. This was the last governor of David's seed. The throne of Israel 
belonged to the Jehovah messenger, or angel of the covenant, and when the 
kings of Israel and Judah lost their scepters by rebellion and captivity. He 
resumed the government Himself and ruled without a deputy. But as the incar- 
nation of this Jehovah — angel or messenger — was to be in the seed of David, 



(1) Est., 3:8, 12. 13. (2) Ps. 74:4, 8; Mai., 3:16; Acts, 43:15; Horn, YoLII.,p. 104, § 3; Roll., 
Vol. VII, p. 74, § 3, IT 2. (3) Chap. 48, § 2; II. Chron., 17:7-9. (4) Town., note 37, per. 8, pt. 3, 
§ 6, p. 1151. (5) Judg., 8:23; I. Sam., 10:19; 12:12. 



S52 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the throne of David belonged to Him by royal and legal descent as well as by 
divine right. Hence the throne of David is everlasting, whether visible on earth 
or invisible, whether occupied by a son already born in the flesh or one not yet 
incarnated. Rabbi ! Thou art the Son of God ! Thou art the king of Israel !^ 
He is David's son and David's Lord. "^ He possessed the throne by divine right, 
but placed it visibly on earth, at the request of Israel, and set David upon it, 
and, as promised, left it to his sons as long as they obeyed Him. Then He 
made His throne invisible again, retook it to Heaven, and administered the 
government Himself,^ making the monarchs of the nations do the political work 
of His kingdom. And when His throne is again transferred to earth it will be 
again established visibly in Jerusalem, f and this Son of God, incarnated in the 
family of David, will sit upon it and illuminate Jerusalem, which will be regen- 
erated into the New Jerusalem. 

7. High Priest Under Foreign Rulers.— Kehemiah was the last civil 
governor of the Jews, and exercised that power for perhaps twenty-one or more 
years under a commission from a king of Persia. Under these Persian mon- 
archs the Jews were restored, the temple rebuilt, the worship of Jehovah rees- 
tablished, Jerusalem refortitied, and internal improvements completed; and all 
in exact fulfillment to the prophetic programme. After Nehemiah had com- 
pleted the resusitation of Jerusalem, and, with Ezra, had perfected the restora- 
tion of religion, the government devolved on the high priests, who were under 
the satraps of Persia till the time of Alexander. Some of these high priests 
were most pious, wise, and excellent men, and the religion of Jehovah was kept 
pure under their government, and extended among the nations. But after some 
time, this otiice being conferred, or confirmed, by the governors or kings of the 
ruling empire, and not altogether regulated by the law of Moses, was often tilled 
with unprincipled mercenaries, who perverted the laws and disgraced the religion 
of Jehovah. 

8. Our Guide. — In tracing out the destiny of the Jews and Jerusalem, we 
must be guided by the prophecies of Daniel. Now, they are under the Persian 
prince, or power, which is the silver breast and arms of Nebuchadnezzar's image, 
the great bear, the ram, kings of Persia, of Daniel's visions. The Mede, and 
three kings of Persia that stood up for the Jews, have passed, and the remain- 
ing, fourth king, noted in the development of the kingdom of God, only for his 
final contest with the power of Grecia, is about come ; and with him comes the 
end of the Persian empire. 

9. High Priests after the Captivity till the Herods. — Jozadak, Joshua, 
Joachim, Eliasib, Joiada, Jonathan, Jaddua, Onias L, Eleazar, Manasseh, Onias 
11. , Simon II., Onias III., Jason, Menelaus, A^lcimus, Judas Maccabeus, Jona- 
than Mc, Simon Mc, John Hyrcanus, Aristobulus (king and priest), Alexander 
Janneus (king and priest), Hyrcanus, Aristobulus II., Ananeel, Aristobulus, the 
last of the Asmonians or Maccabean dynasty. After Aristobulus II., the Jews 
were governed by the Herods, or by Roman governors. 



22:1-5. 



(6) John, 1:19. (7) Matt., 22:43-5. (*) Gal., 4:28; Heb., 12:22. (f) Rev., 21:2. 10-27; 



CHAPTER LXX. 



THE HOPE OF ISRAEL. 

1. Promises to Abraham. — Let us now stop and see what was the hope of 
Israel that they saw afar off, and which animated them under all discouragements 
and sustained them in adversities. To Abraham was promised a numerous pos- 
terity, which Jehovah covenanted to keep for himself while he let all other nations 
wander after other gods. ^ Also, he promised to bless Abraham and his friends, 
and to curse his enemies. This is not restricted to him individually, but extends 
to that system which he represented. To neglect the least of Christ's brethren 
is to neglect Christ, and to oppose the Abrahamic system is to oppose Abraham. 
Also, God promised to make him a blessing, and to bless all families of the 
earth in him by means of his seed; and thus Abraham was constituted the father 
of many nations. ^ 

2. Circumcision. — Here is an implied promise to all nations that they shall 
be blessed, and an express promise to Abraham that this blessing shall flow to 
them through him and his seed. Also, God promised to Abraham a tract of 
country for himself and posterity. Now, if all nations are to be blessed in 
Abraham and his seed, and if he and his seed will possess a country, then that 
country must be the spot from which this blessing flows and around which these 
blessed nations must congregate. That spot of earth is from the river of Egypt 
to the Euphrates, and to this day circumcision is a seal before God and man that 
the Jews are God's people and that country their home. God will not deny it, 
man cannot nullify it, and no divinely authorized council or legislative body has 
abrogated or changed it. 

3. Promises Sure. — These promises are infallibly sure, for Abraham fulfilled 
all the conditions imposed on him. He left his native land in the first; provided 
the covenant victims in the second; and circumcised himself and household in 
the third. The law, given four hundred and thirty years afterward to part of 
his seed, or posterity, could not make these promises void^ and prevent Abraham 
from becoming heir of the world. ^ It might disinherit those of his posterity 
who incurred its penalty, but if all should be cut off but one, in that one must 
all the families of the earth be blessed,^ and Abraham be constituted the father 
of many nations, and that one must inherit the promised land. There is no 
dodging these covenants and oaths. ^ 

4. Promises to Moses. — Additional promises were given to Moses. A good 
soil, producing all the bounties of life, ^ diversified by hills and valleys, with 
wells, springs, fountains, and rivulets of water. It is adorned with fruit trees, 
vines, shrubs, and plants, and is underlaid with stone, iron, and brass, for build- 
ing handsome, commodious houses, and making improvements.'^ There God 
promised to love, multiply, and bless them and their children, their produce, and 
their stock. ^ They should have the rain in the right season, have trees bending 
with fruit, vines loaded with clusters of grapes, and olives, figs, and pomegranets 
without number. Their fields should be waving with grain, graneries packed 
with old grain, which must be crowded to market to make room for the new; 



(8) Acts 14:16. 17:30. (9) Gen. 12:1-3. 17:1-17. 22:16-18. (2) Gal. 3:17. (3) Rom. 4:13:17. 
(4) Gal. 3:16. (5) Heb. 6:13-18. (6) Ex. 3:8. (7) Deut. 8:7-13. (8) 7:12, 13. 



254 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

and SO with all their produce. Flocks and herds should adorn their hills and 
valleys. ^ Thej should be rich in silver and gold, and be lenders to nations and 
not borrowers ;i freed from all diseases and sicknesses, and blessed above all 
people; 2 should dwell safely, and lie down without fear, evil beasts being exter- 
minated, their land freed from the sword, and their enemies panic stricken before 
them. 3 God would set His tabernacle among them and be their God, and they 
should be His people;^ He would bless them in every place, condition, and rela- 
tion, and the nations should see it and perceive they were the Jehovah's people. ^ 

5. Happy Condition when Obedient. — God's promise to love them im- 
plies and comprehends every spiritual blessing. The spiritual character was not 
promised to them, but was enjoined upon them. So when they possessed this 
character and enjoyed these blessings, their land must have been Paradise 
restored and the Garden of Eden reopened. The sun might look down with 
delight, the moon smile with pleasure, and the stars drop tears of joy. The his- 
tory of the Judges and of David's worthies,^ and the history of the peace and 
prosperity under Solomon, show these promises were not delusive pictures of 
oriental imaginations nor wild exagerations of poetic genius, but plain historical 
truths. '' 

6. Privileges of Sojourners. — In this happy land the stranger could 
sojourn. He might become incorporated with the nation by circumcision, and 
eat the passover, enter the temple or tent of the congregation, and enjoy all the 
privileges of the nation ; or he might remain a pilgrim and sojourner under the 
special laws given for their protection.^ As lands went by families, and must 
return every fiftieth year to the original owner, the foreigner could not become a 
permanent possessor of lands, or a fellow heir and joint partaker with an 
Israelite, nor supercede him in the inheritance of the Jehovah. But in walled 
cities he might obtain a permanent dwelling. 

7. Promises Were ]^ational. — These promises were made to the nation 
and not to individuals of the nation, and were inherited by flesh and blood rela- 
tion to Israel by being a bond servant to an Israelite, or by voluntary submission 
to circumcision. ]^ow, that born of the flesh and blood of Abraham, or of some 
pious proselyte, might not possess any moral trait of the pious ancestor's char- 
acter, ^ and so these unbounded blessings of prosperity might prove a curse to 
the nation, as great favors did to Sodom and other choice parts of the earth. 
These promises, made through Moses to Israel, were made upon condition of 
obedience, and so was their covenant of adoption and peculiarity ; ^ they were 
forfeited by disobedience, ^ and the curses were inflicted according to covenanted 
agreement. 

8. The Future Prospect. — After enduring all these curses, distresses, 
destructions, and captivities threatened by Moses, they shall remember their 
covenants among the nations where driven, and shall return and obey the Jehovah 
with heart and soul; and then will He return their captivity, regather them into 
their own land, regenerate their souls, and bless and multiply them more than 
their fathers. 3 But will they repent? or, will their disobedience and obstinacy 
frustrate the purposes of God and nullify the covenants, oaths, and promises 
made to Abraham ? Or, shall we look for a more favorable dispensation than 
this of Moses ? Will Abraham be heir of the world?* Will his circumcised 
seed inherit the land from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates ? Will all fami- 
lies of the earth be blessed in him P Let us see. 



(9) 7:14, 15; Lev 26:4, 5. (1) Deut. 8:7-13; 28:1-14. (2) 7:14, 15. (3) Lev. 26:6-8. (4) Lev. 
26:6-8. (5) Deut. 28:1-14. (6) Jud?. 7:7; 8:4, 10-12; 3:31: 15:8, 16; 16:30. (7) Josh. 23:14; 
24:13; I. Kin^s4:20, 25; 9; 10; II. Chron. 8; 9. (*) Num. 15:14-16; Ex 12:43, 48. 49; 22:21; 
Lev. 19:33,34; 25:35; Deut. 10:19; Isa 43:6. (9) John 3 (1) Ex. 19:1-8; 24:3-8: II. Judg. 
2:1-5; 3-8. (2) Judg., 2:1-5. 3.-8. (3) Deut., 30:1-10. (4) Rom., 4: 13. (5) Gal., 3:8. 



CHAPTER LXX.: SECTIONS IX. -XIII. 255 

FEOMISES TO DAYID. §§ 9-16. 

9. The Promise. — We find no more covenants, oaths, or promises about 
their inheritance till we come to David. To Davigl we find something better 
promised for Israel in the future : ^ Moreover, I will appoint a place for my 
people Israel, and will plant them that they may dwell in a place of their own, 
and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any 
more, as before time and as since the time I commanded judges over my people 
Israel ; and I have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies • ^ * * 
and thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee ; thy 
throne shall be established forever. I will raise up thy seed after thee, which 
shall be of thy sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build Me a 
house, and I will establish his throne forever. This seed is to be of his sons, 
and refers to ofi'spring more remote than Solomon. This son is called the branch, 
and shall be a priest upon his throne. "^ 

10. These Promises are Sure. — These promises are absolute and uncon- 
ditional, and are as sure as the covenants with Abraham. Unconditional prom- 
ises may have prerequisites, but whenever made they are a guarantee that these 
prerequisites will be possessed. If Israel must repent before enjoying this per- 
manent possession, this promise guarantees that reformation. When this perma- 
nent possession is enjoyed by Israel, the throne of David will be permanently 
established among them forever. The promises to David's sons were uncondi- 
tional, ^ but to David they were absolute ; though all his seed should be cut off", 
yet one must be left to fill the throne. ' 

11. Psalm 89. — In the Eighty-ninth Psalm we have a comment on this trans- 
action, where it is called a covenant and an oath ; the same guarantee we have 
for the promises to Abraham. The duration of his seed and throne is forever ; 
and if the import of this term is not certain, the comparison puts it beyond dis- 
pute : as perpetual as the Heaven, sun, and moon. The Emperor Julian said : 
Children play with words, and men with oaths ; but shall we impeach the God 
of truth with disregard to His covenants and oaths ? If not, we must certainly 
calculate on their fulfillment. 

12. Psalms 72, 132. — The theme of the Seventy-second Psalm is: The 
king and his son, or the throne of David occupied by one of his sons. Here we 
have its extent, duration, and benign influence : it is universal, eternal, powerful, 
mild, just, prosperous, and glorious. In the One hundred and thirty-second 
Psalm we learn that the Jehovah has chosen Zion for His habitation and everlasting 
rest, and that He will bless her abundantly in provisions and joy ; and there He 
will make David's power flourish while his enemies shall be confounded. Thus, 
we have David's throne located on Mount Zion forever. But the promise to his 
children, that their children should occupy the throne forever, is on the condition 
that they keep the covenant and testimony. David must have a son on the throne 
of the kingdom of God, but he may be descended through some one of his seed 
that never sat on the throne. 

13. Psalm 2. — This son of David is also the Son of God, deriving His heir- 
ship directly from Jehovah. In the Second Psalm we have Jehovah's Anointed — 
Messiah, or Christ — set upon Zion as king, on His holy hill, by Jehovah Himself. 
This king anointed over Mount Zion is declared or proclaimed by the divine 
decree to be the very Son of God, inheriting the nations to the utmost parts of 
the earth, ruling with an iron scepter, and dashing His enemies to shivers, as a 
potter's vessel. But this is the power and dominion promised to David, and 
hence this Son of Jehovah must be David's son also, ^ whose throne is forever, 
and whose sceptre is a righteous one. 



(6) II. Sam., 7:10, 16; I. Chron., 17:8-14. (7) Zech., 6:12, 13, (8) 11. Chron., 7:17, 18; I. 
Kings, 9; Ps. 89:29-38. 13:12. (9) Ps. 45:1-8; Heb., 1:8. 



256 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

14. Psalm 110. — In the One hundred and tenth Psalm we have Jehovah 
speaking to David's Lord — adone — saying : Sit Thou on My right hand until I 
make Thy enemies Thy footstool. His strong scepter shall be wielded out of 
Mount Zion, and He will govern in the very midst of His enemies, and in His 
day of power He will be surrounded by willing subjects. Also, He is a Priest 
forever after the order of Melchizedek. Sitting on the right hand of Jehovah in 
power and glory, He will transpierce kings in the day of His wrath, judge the 
nations, wound the chiefs over many lands, and fill the countries with the slain, 
while He presents the healthful youth of herbs bedecked with the morning dew. 
He will be expeditious and triumphant, quench His thirst out of the stream 
crossing His path, and will wave His banner in triumph. 

15. These Promises Summed TJp. — Now, what is the hope of Israel, and 
the glorious expectation of David's family? Israel is promised permanent and 
peaceful possession, which implies the possession of that moral and holy character 
required by the law. David is promised unlimited and perpetual empire, which 
he sings of as belonging to a divine personage. The hope of Israel must have 
been that Israel would be a prosperous, holy, and happy people in the land 
promised to Abraham, governed by Jehovah through a son of David perfectly 
qualified to rule all classes and conditions of citizens, to vanquish all their foes, 
and to hold all nations in subjection, and that Jerusalem would be the seat of 
empire, the mistress of the world, and the model of moral, mental, and physical 
excellence, and that their country would be the Garden of Eden and earthly 
Paradise of God. 

16. Not Fulfilled in Solomon. — The first part of Solomon's reign might 
induce some to think that all the promises to Abraham and David were fulfilled 
and no more to be realized. But Solomon was not a divine personage ; his 
apostacy and oppression show him not the one of whom David sings ; the revolt 
of the ten tribes show the time of universal and perpetual empire to the throne 
of David had not yet come ; and the pillaging of the temple by the king of Egypt 
shows their foes were not all subdued. The pious Israelite must again turn his 
eyes to the future in search of the liappy day. 

17. What the Prophets Say. — Having examined the covenants and oaths, 
let us now hear the inspired prophets, and see whether the good days for Israel 
were passed or still in the future. If they were in the future then, they are so 
yet, for no age of bliss to Israel has since the prophets equaled the days of Solo- 
mon. While Israel was a people and Judali enjoyed prosperity, God sent a 
succession of prophets foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and the calamities 
and dispersions of Israel and judah. They also predicted glorious times for 
Israel, the Jews, Jerusalem, and the throne of David. 

18. Outline Given by Isaiah. — When Isaiah was consecrated to prophetic 
duties, a future outline of God's people was given to him. The blindness and 
obstinacy of the Jews should continue till the land was utterly desolated and 
their dispersion completed. Yet a remnant should return, and though wasted 
and consumed, like a tree browsed on by stock through the winter, yet, like that 
oak or terebinthus, they will retain their vitality, and in the springtime of favor 
will sprout, fiourish, and bear abundance of fruit. The holy seed will survive 
the destruction of the impious and flourish into a glorious kingdom. ^ This blind- 
ness and obstinacy remained with them in the time of Christ and the apostles, 
who refer to this prophecy ;^ so these predicted desolations and dispersions could 
not have been fulfilled till after Christ's time. The greatest and longest destruc- 
tions, desolations, and dispersions have befallen the Jews since that time ; yet the 
return and prosperity of a remnant has not taken place since, and so these glorious 



(2) Isa., 6:ll-13j (3) Matt., 13:14, 15; John, 12:37-41; Acts, 28:25, 27. 



CHAPTER LXX.: SECTIONS XIX. -XXIII. 267 

times for the Jews are still in the future. But what say the prophets ? Did they 
despair and give up the covenants, oaths, and promises ? Or did they reassert their 
fulfillment? 

19. Special Promises. — Isaiah tells us :* In the last days Jerusalem and her 
temple will be most conspicuous to the nations, who shall also congregate ther^ 
and learn God's ways and walk in His paths. Out of Zion — and not out of Rome, 
Mecca, nor Constantinople — shall go forth the law to the nations, and the word 
of the Jehovah from Jerusalem. He will judge and rule the nations, and they shall 
cease their wars and devastations. In that day the branch of Jehovah will be 
beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be excellent and comely 
for the escaped of Israel and the left in Zion, and the remnant in Jerusalem shall 
be called Holy. The throne of David shall be filled by a Son born — a human 
being — born and raised as other children of David, having divine titles, ruling 
with judgment and justice forever, and no end to the increase and peace of His 
government.^ 

20. Glorious Prospect. — A scepter of the stem of Jesse, a branch out of 
his roots, filled with the spirit of Jehovah, making Him a competent ruler, shall 
destroy the wicked by His word with the ease of a breathing ; He will rule most 
righteously and benignly for the meek and lowly, and righteousness and faithful- 
ness constitute His girdle. The fruits of His government shall be the most 
perfect peace, enjoyment, and safety imaginable in Zion, and the earth shall be 
illuminated with genuine knowledge. This root of Jesse will be an ensign to 
the people ; to it shall the nations seek, and His rest shall be glorious. The time 
of this happiness is the time for the second regathering of the Jews and their 
reestablishment in Zion. Then they shall rejoice and praise the Jehovah and 
boast in the God of their deliverance, while they draw water out of the wells of 
salvation. Then shall the luminaries of the sky be eclipsed and confounded ; for 
Jehovah shall reign gloriously ^ in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem before His saints. 
The contexts show that these promises are unconditional and future. 

PEOPHECIES TOPICALLY ARRANGED. §§ 21-46- 

21. Desolation of the Nation. — All the prophets foretold of some great 
desolations, long calamities, and universal dispersion, followed by a complete 
regathering, permanent restoration, and unbounded prosperity, which the contexts 
show was not the captivity to Babylon. The fortifications shall be destroyed, 
cities shall be left in lone desolations, and houses without inhabitants. The fields 
shall be covered with briers and thorns and become the homes of wild beasts and 
pasture for moving flocks. "^ Israel shall be sifted as grain among all nations, and 
two parts shall be cut ofi". ^ 

22. Preservation and Return. — Though sifted among all nations, not a 
grain shall be lost ; but a remnant shall be refined as gold and silver in fires of 
persecution^ and return with vitality enough to flourish again.''' The Jehovah 
Himself will regather both Israel and Judah individually out of all corners of the 
earth : men, women, and children of every age and condition. He will make the 
nations bring them in all kinds of conveyances, with all their riches, and will 
give them a permanent and perpetual settlement in their own lands, as He prom- 
ised David. 9' (Chap. 39, § 11. 70, § 9.) 

23. Reformation and Blessing. — If they reformed while in their dispersion, 
Moses promised that they should return and be more blessed than their fathers. 
(§ 8.) The prophets say they shall come with weeping and supplication; they 
shall look upon Him whom they have pierced and mourn bitterly every one by 

(4) Isa. 2:2-4. (5) 9:4-7. (6) Isa. 11. 12. 24:23. 25:6-9. (7) Isa. 6:11-18. 32:18-20; John 
12:39-41; Acts 28:26, 27. (8) Am. 9:9-15; Zech. 12:8, 9. (9) Isa. 27:12, 13. 49:6. 66:10-20; 
Jer. 3:14. 23:3-8. 30:7-24. 31:1-26. 14:25; Ezek. 34:22-31. 37:12-14, 21-28. 39:28, 29; Mic. 3-5. 
—17 



258 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

themselves.^ This must be after the crucifixion of Christ. Having returned, 
they shall be at rest and quiet, and eat, drink, and lie down without fear. They 
shall be built and not pulled down, and planted and not plucked up. ^ They shall 
be governed by their own officers, who shall be of themselves and not foreigners. 
These rulers will depend upon their own citizens and upon the Jehovah of hosts, 
their God, and not on any foreign alliances. ^ Independent and self-governed. 

24. Prosperity as Promised by Moses. — § 8. — They shall rebuild the old 
wastes, cities, and country ; restore and reanimate the former desolations of many 
generations.* They shall adorn the country with vineyards and gardens, and 
enjoy the fruits. ^ They shall be enriched by the merchandise of the sea, the 
products of the nations, the spices of the south, and the gold and silver of the 
mines. ^ Where they used brass in former times they shall have gold, and instead 
of iron they shall have silver, and brass instead of wood, and iron instead of stone, 
surpassing the riches of Solomon. They shall possess the riches and glory of the 
nations, whose sons shall feed their flocks, cultivate their ground, and dress their 
vines. "" They shall also be enriched by the spoils of their enemies. ^ 

25. Supremacy Over the Nations. — They shall become warriors and irre- 
sistible conquerors : a strong nation possessing the kingdom — "No, One!" Their 
horn shall be iron and their hoof brass. The returned remnant of Jacob shall 
take the lead among the nations ; act independently in scattering favors, as the 
dew from Jehovah and the showers on the grass, and in the execution of their 
plans they shall be among the nations as a lion among beasts and a young lion 
among sheep. ^ As an hearth of coals to the wood, and as a torch in a sheaf, so 
shall they be among their adversaries. ^ 

26. Jews Regathered First — The Jews shall be established in their lots 
before Jerusalem and the throne of David attain their consummate glory. The 
tribes of Israel must be first raised up and established in their possessions before 
the gentile subjects fill Jerusalem and crowd around the throne of David. He 
shall raise up the tribes of Israel and be a light to the nations and salvation to 
the ends of the earth. ^ The nations, being equally interested in the throne of 
David, would crowd the royal city, expand its boundary, and settle the adjacent 
lands to the exclusion of the Jews, and the throne itself, viewed from the old 
Jewish standpoint, might neglect its former kindred when aggrandized by the 
wealth, honor, and power of the whole world. But the Jews will be established 
in full and sure possession, and their prerogatives shall not be disregarded by the 
throne nor usurped by the converted nations. 

27. Jerusalem Destroyed. — Jerusalem was chosen for the royal city of 
the kingdom of God, and will be as endeared to the nations as it was to the 
Jews. 3 What say the prophets about it? Will Jerusalem remain the empire 
city, or will the seat of government be removed to Mecca, Constantinople, or 
Rome? They say Jerusalem shall be besieged, captured, sacked, razed, demol- 
ished, desolated, forsaken, overlooked, forgotten, despised, and abhorred.* That 
these destructions were not accomplished before Christ's time is certain; not 
only from the contexts, but also from His prediction of the destruction of the 
temple, where He adds, "And Jerusalem shall be trodden under foot of the 
nations till the time of the nations be fulfilled. "^ Christ's language implies its 
restoration on the expiration of these calamities foretold by the prophets. 

28. Jerusalem Restored. — Jehovah will not forget nor overlook Jerusa- 
lem, which is engraved on His hands and continually before Him;^ and He will 
place deliverance in Zion for Jerusalem. "^ Her destroyers shall be banished ; 
her children shall return, or be brought by the nations, and expand her borders 



(1) Jer. 31:1-26: Zech. 12. (2) Jer. 30:7-11; Zeph. 3:12, 13; Jer. 24:5-7. (3) 30:7; Zech. 12. 
(4) Isa. 61. [(5) Amos 9:9-15. (6) Isa. 60:6-9. (7) Isa. 61. (8) Zech. 14:1. 2. (9) Mich. 3-5. 
(1) Zech. 9:8-17. 12. 14. (2) Isa. 49:6. (3) Pa. 132:13-17. (4) Isa. 40. 49; Jer. 30:11; Mic. 3-5; 
Z.-ch. 14. (5) Luke 21:24. (6) Isa. 24:23. (7)46:13. 



CHAPTER LXX.: SECTIONS XXIX. -XXXII. 259 

beyond their former limits ; while the crowned of the nations will enrich her 
with substance, do homage to her name, and submit to her authority. ^ She 
shall occupy all the desolate cities around, and extend her boundaries away into 
the nations, and forget her former desolations and adversities. Her permanency 
is guaranteed by an oath from God, made more sure than the mountains and 
hills ; and as sure as the covenant with Noah. ^ Dominion, honor, abundance, 

flory, holiness, happiness, and every blessing shall be concentrated upon 
erusalem : the queen of the world, the daughter of Heaven, and the throne of 
God.i The redeemed of Jehovah shall return and come to Zion with singing, 
and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness, and 
sorrow and mourning shall flee away. ^ Her safety and happiness are set forth 
in such varied and glowing allusions, comparisons, and figures that every one 
must read the prophecies for themselves before they can appreciate them and 
the subjects. ^ 

29. Thkone of David. — We have seen the throne of David — located in 
Mount Zion — promised universal and perpetual empire. "* What say the prophets 
on this theme? For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the 
government shall be upon His shoulders ; and the name of the child shall be 
called the Almighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace ! Of the 
increase of His government and peace there is no end, upon the throne of 
David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, with judgment and justice from hence- 
forth and forever. ^ A rod of Jesse shall reign in the time of universal peace, ^ 
and execute judgment, justice, and righteousness in the earth, a branch of 
David. ' David shall never want a man to sit on the throne of the house of 
Israel, as sure as night and day, sun, moon, and stars exist. ^ 

30. Disappeared and Restored. — There shall be a period when Israel and 
Judah will have no king nor throne; but afterward they shall again seek Jehovah, 
their God, and David, their king. ^ David's tabernacle shall be thrown down 
and broken ; but it shall be restored, and rule the nations as promised. ^ The 
branch of David shall be a priest upon the throne, bear the glory and build the 
temple. 2 He shall come out of Bethlehem-Euphrata;^ and yet His goings had 
been from of eternity ; and He shall feed and rule in the strength and majesty 
of Jehovah. ^ 

31. Character of the King. — The spirit of the Jehovah shall rest upon 
him, and not leave him as Saul, and will make him every way competent to rule 
a vast empire and perfect its prosperity and happiness. He will be possessed 
of knowledge, wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, and the fear of the 
Jehovah. He will be quick in discerning the nature of the case and the condi- 
tion of the parties ; he will judge and reprove with righteousness and equity in 
behalf of the poor and meek. He shall subdue the earth, and slay the wicked 
with the ease of a breathing. He will be a protection against violence, and 
resuscitation for the exhausted. ^ An absolute mcmarch, quietly pushing forward 
his purposes, enterprises, and conquests, without failure or discouragement. He 
shall compassionate, recruit, nourish, and perfect the weak, dull, wounded, and 
discouraged. He shall make the law honorable and respected by every citizen ; 
he will obey its precepts, and, if need be, suffer its penalties himself in behalf 
of his subjects; and they must learn to love and obey it. ^ 

32. His Humility and Submission to Law. — His power and beneficence 
will not be restricted to the Jews, but extended to all nations of the earth. He 
will eradicate all evils, annihilate oppression, disseminate intelligence and happi- 
to all. 6 He comes to the throne through every species of contempt and suffering 



(8) Isa. 49. (9) 54. (1) Mic. 3-5; Zeph. 3:12-20; Jer. 3:14-18; Zech. 2:4-13. 9:8-17; 12. 
14:1-12. (2) Isa. 51. (3) Isa. 11. 12. 33:20-2; 52. 60. 65; Jer. 31; Joel 3:13-21; Zech. 14:1-21. 
(4) §§ 9-15. (5) Isa. 9:4-7. (6) 11. 12. (7) Jer. 23:3-8; 33:4-25. (8) Ezek. 24:22-31; 37:21-8; 
Hos. 3:4, 5. (9) Am. 9:9-15. (2) Zech. 6:12, 13. (3) Matt. 2 ;6. (4) Mic. 5;2-4. (5) Isa. 32:1-5. 
(6) 42, 49. 



260 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 



S 



which he patiently endures for the freedom and welfare of his subjects. His 
visage will be marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of 
men; and he grows up as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. He will 
be despised, rejected, and shunned by men, and be regarded as smitten of God. 
He will be a man of sorrows and griefs — chastised, bruised, wounded, oppressed, 
taunted, and mocked — friendless, executed with criminals, and buried by charity 
with the rich. It pleased the Jehovah to bruise him and put him to grief '^ 

33. His YicTORY AND Tkiumph. — Under all these afflictions he opened not 
his mouth, for he had engaged to bear the sins of his subjects, maintain the 
dignity of the law, and satisfy the demands of justice, so that his subjects could 
be justified and God still be just. But he will complete his sufferings and 
subdue all things to himself "^ He will proclaim the glad tidings of his kingdom, 
go about, an angel of mercy, distributing his favors and relieving sufferings.^ 
He will be a delivering captain, or a captain of salvation, made perfect through 
suffering. ^ 

34. Temple Destroyed and Restored. — The Lord told Solomon that if 
Israel sinned He would destroy the temple; and He destroyed that one, ^ and 
built another. What say the prophets ? They report the same threatening and 
predict its restoration. It shall be rebuilt as in former times, ^ but more exten- 
sive, more glorious, and remains forever. ^ The branch shall build it ; strangers 
shall build on it; it shall be the house of prayer for all nations; and Jehovah 
will protect it from the invading army. ^ 

35. The New Covenant. — All the promises made to Israel through Moses 
were in subordination to the covenant from Sinai, which pledged heavy penalties 
in case of disobedience; and as this covenant was national and not restricted 
to the pious, the impious were always involving the righteous in its curses. 
Hence, to inherit the promises and escape the cursses was hopeless while the 
whole mass of the people were incorporated in the inheritance. The uncondi- 
tional promises, with the predictions of their realization, induce us to look for 
a new covenant. What say the prophets? The day is coming when a new 
covenant shall be made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, which 
promises the character necessary to inherit the blessings. The law will be written 
in their hearts, instead of on stone slabs, and be put within them instead of into 
the Ark. Jehovah will be their God, and they shall be His people. They 
shall all know Him, from the least to the greatest; and He will forgive their 
iniquity, and remember their sin no more. ^ Under this new covenant, Israel 
may hope to enjoy the blessings and escape the curses of the covenant made at 
Sinai. ^ 

36. Character of Citizens. — They must have a certain character to enjoy 
the covenanted blessings. What say the prophets to this? Thej^ predict intelli- 
gence, purity, and uprightness. The left in Zion and the remnant in Jerusalem 
— after the desolations predicted by Zechariah, "^ — shall be called holy, "^ * * 
every one registered among the living in Jerusalem. ^ All the sinners of my 
people shall be cut off. ^ The holy seed is the substance thereof ^ Put on thy 
beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city ! From henceforth there shall 
no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. ^ Also, the strangers 
that love and serve the Jehovah, those trusting in Him, the humble and contrite, 
shall come in; and His spirit and word shall abide in them forever. ^ Thy people 
shall be all righteous and inherit the land forever, ^ and be called trees of 
righteousness — the Jehovah's planting. ^ 



(7) Isa. 52:13-15; 53. 56. (8) Isa. 61; Jer. 33:14-25; Zeeh. 9:8-17. (9) Heb 2:10. (1) I. King 
9:7. (2) Jer. 30:11. (3) Ezek. 37:21-28. (4) Isa. 60, 56:4-8: Zech. 6:12, 13; 9:8. (5) Jer. 31:27-40; 
Heb. 8:8-13; 10:15-18. (6) Ezek. 24:25; 37:21-28. (7) Zech. 14:1-21; 13:8.9. (8) Isa. 4:1-6. 
(9) Am. 9:9-15. (1) Isa. 6:11-13. (2)52. (3) Isa. 56:4-8; 57:13, U; 58:6-14; 59:20,21. (4) Isa. 60. 
(5) 61. 



dflAPTfiR LX3t.t SSOttOi^S XXXVII. -XLl. 261 

37. Chaeacter of. — I will not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth 
as brightness and the salvation as a lamp that burneth^. All thy children shall 
be taught of the Jehovah; * * * in righteousness shalt thou be established. '' 
They shall have a single heart to know and serve the Jehovah, and not depart 
from Him. ^ They shall walk in My judgments and observe My statutes, and do 
them. ^ He will give the spirit abundantly upon all of them ; and Jerusalem 
shall be holy, and no stranger shall pass through it. ^ No wicked person shall 
be permitted to pass there, * * * such are uttterly cut off. ^ The remnant 
of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, nor shall a deceitful tongue be 
found in their mouths. They shall feed and lie down, and none make them 
afraid. ^ He shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, 
that they may offer unto Jehovah an offering in righteousness. * 

38. Intelligence of Citizens. — They shall see and understand what was 
formerly sealed knowledge. ^ Teachers shall be common and familiar, and their 
instructions plain and true. ^ Stammerers shall be eloquent, and speak fluently 
the great mysteries of God''' and wisdom, and knowledge shall be the stability of 
the times and strength of salvation. ^ 

39. Condition. — Moses promised unbounded blessings upon condition of 
obedience; but by disobedience they incurred the curse. What say the prophets 
about their condition in the future? We have seen the power of their king in 
crushing his enemies, ^ and the valor and victory of Judah among the nations, ^ 
so their victories over enemies will be complete and their security undisturbed. 
The utmost peace and safety will be enjoyed by man and beast; even a child 
shall govern the most ferocious beasts and play with the most venomous rep- 
tiles in safety; and divine knowledge shall fill the world. ^ They shall weep no 
more, nor say I am sick. ^ The blind shall see, the deaf hear, the dumb speak 
and sing, and cripples shall skip and dance. ^ An incorruptible state. "^ 

40. Pleasant and Prosperous. — They shall have rain in the right season, 
produce in superabundance, and stores overflowing; herds and flocks by pur- 
ling streams in rich pastures ; and work animals fed on cleaned grain. ^ Their 
wilderness shall become as Eden, and her desert as the garden of the Lord;^ 
springs in the hills and streams and pools in the valleys, bordered with orna- 
mental trees and shrubs, '^ interspersed with buildings and adornments, furnishing 
a retreat for the redeemed, who shall return with songs in their lips and ever- 
lasting joy in their hearts. ^ They shall find their feed by the roadside, and shall 
lodge in the fields and sleep in the woods. ^ They shall make gardens, plant 
vines, cultivate flowers, and enjoy their labors. ^ They shall visit each other under 
vines and fig trees. ^ Joy and gladness shall be found therein ; thanksgiving and 
the voice of melody. ^ Behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people 
a joy.^ 

41. Neighboring Nations. — The law of Moses made provision for strangers 
sojourning among the Israelites; the covenant with David promised them for 
subjects to his throne, and they are guaranteed the blessing in Abraham. What 
say the prophets ? Shall they be fellow-heirs and joint partakers in the cove- 
nanted blessings of Israel ? Let us see. In that day shall Israel be the third 
with Egypt and Assyria, even a blessing in midst of the land whom the Jehovah 
of hosts shall bless, saying, "Blessed Egypt My people, Assyria the work of 
My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance."^ Remember, all the land from the 
river of Egypt to the Euphrates was deeded to Abraham in the covenant of cir- 
cumcision ; and Egypt is on the west of that river, and Assyria is on the north- 
east of the Euphrates. 

(6) 62. (7) 54. (8) Jer. 3:14; 24:5-7; 32:37-44. (9) Ezek. 37:21-28. (1) Joel 2:28-32; 
3:13-21. (2) Nahum 1:-15. (3) Zeph. 3:12-20; Zech. 8:3-23; 12. 14. (4) Mai. 3:1-7; 4:1-6. 
(5) Isa. 29:18, 19. (6) 30:19-33. (7) 32:1-4. (8) 33:6. (9) §§ 13, 14. (1) § 25. (2) Isa. 11, 12. 
(3) 30:19-33; 33:20-2. (4)35. (*) I. Cor. 15:50. (5)30:19-33. (6)51:3.11. (7)41. (8)51:3. 
11.35. (9) 49. Ezk. 34:22-31. (1) Jer. 31:1-26. Am. a:9-15. (2) Zech. 9:17. (3) Isa. 51:3. U. 
A) 65:17. (5) Isa. 19:24, 25. 



262 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

42. Blessings Extended. — On Mount Zion the Jehovah will feast all 
nations on the richest bounties;^ and they shall frequent Jerusalem and thence 
receive their laws and be at peace among themselves; and every man shall sit 
under his vine and fig tree. ^ The proportion of visitors will be ten gentiles to 
one Jew, ^ and these come to worship Jehovah. He shall speak peace to the 
nations, and his dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the river to the end 
of the earth. ^ Nations unknown to the Jews shall run unto them on account 
of the name of Jehovah and His glory, ^ and shall help build the temple,^ a priv- 
ilege denied to the Samaritans by Nehemiah. ^ 

43. Gentiles Blessed and Cursed as Israel was. — Jerusalem shall be 
all holy, and all her vessels consecrated to the Jehovah. ^ One vast temple, or 
rather a multitude of contiguous temples. So shall they fear the name of Jeho- 
vah from the west, and His glory from the rising sun.''' The gentiles shall come 
to Thy light, and kings to the brightness of Thy rising. The nation and kingdom 
that will not serve Thee shall be cut off or perish. ^ Take notice ! All the sin- 
ners of My people shall be cut off, and all nations that will not serve the Jehovah 
at Jerusalem, and advance His kingdom there, shall perish. What devastations 
must desolate the earth. The nations shall become intelligent in divine science, ^ 
shall see the glory of the Jehovah, ^ and magnify and worship Him. ^ 

44. New Creation and New Jerusalem. — Something new is promised, 
which is not in any of the covenants made with Abraham, David, nor Israel. 
The dead saints are restored to life, and come into the participation of their long- 
sought inheritance, and so Daniel shall stand in his lot. ^ This whole scheme 
will wind up in the recreation and renovation of what is commonly called 
'' Heaven and earth." But we are admonished to rejoice in the New Jerusalem, 
making it the great concern and primary object of pursuit. ^ 

45. The Hope Summed Up. — Now, what is the hope of Israel, of which we 
are fellow-heirs and joint partakers?^ There is not one word in all these cove- 
nants, oaths, promises, and predictions about going to Heaven at death. There 
is an inheritance promised, and a resurrection to its enjoyment in the land of 
Israel. What is it? 

46. The Summary. — A country possessing every excellence that the Garden 
of Eden could possess before sin cursed this earth. A king who is both human 
and divine, having every possible qualification to govern few or many ; who had 
made complete reconciliation between God and his subjects, and had subdued 
all their foes. A community united by mutual regard and oneness of character; 
possessed of great intelligence of mind and soundness of body, and serving God 
without fear in perfect holiness and righteousness. This community is sur- 
rounded and visited by friendly nations admiring and participating in the same 
blessings and graces, and helping to advance the extensive and benign influence 
of that great kingdom. One particular city, Jerusalem, possessing every bless- 
ing that earth and Heaven can afford, and exhibiting all the excellencies of arts 
and sciences under the control of pure morality. Heaven upon earth. Eden 
presented nature in its purity. New Jerusalem exhibits nature in primitive beauty 
and glory, and the arts and sciences in perfection. Such is the hope of Israel, 
guaranteed to them in the Old Covenant Scriptures. May Jehovah enable us to 
trace it out till we find it realized. 



(6)425:6-9. (7)2:2-5. (8) Mich. 3-5. (9) Zech. 8:21-23; 14:1-21. (1)9:8-17. (2) Isa. 54. 
60. 66. (3) 55:3-5; Jer. 43:14; Isa. 60. (4) Zech. 6:12, 13. (5) Chap. 67, § 15. (6) Zech. 14. 
(7)l8a.56-9. (8)60; Zech. 14:1-21. (9) Isa. 11. 12. (1)40:12. (2)Mal.l:ll. (3) Ezek. 37:12-14; 
Isa. 26:1-21; Dan. 12, 13; Hos. 13:14. (4) Isa. 65:17. (5) Eph. 3:6. 



Period Twelfth, A. M. 3600-^828. 

Prosperity and Enlargement of the Kingdom of God, 

CHAPTER LXXI. 



POSITION OF THE KINGDOM UNDER THE PERSIAN EMPIRE. 
A. M. 3600-3673. B. C. 404-331. (Continued from Chap. 69.) 

1. Position of the Kingdom. — We now start out to trace the development 
of the kingdom of God till the glorious hope of Israel is realized. Here is the 
center and royal city of the kingdom — this is Jerusalem, with the temple, or 
royal palace of God. The high priest, chief priests, scribes, and great syna- 
gogue are here to watch over the religion of Jehovah and the purity and 
preservation of the copies of the Scriptures. Scattered around through the Per- 
sian empire are clusters of colonies of Jehovah's people with their synagogues, 
where they meet every Sabbath for divine worship, edification, and mutual 
encouragement, and they are waiting for the hope of Israel. These are outposts, 
or missionary stations of the kingdom, holding intimate and continual communi- 
cation with the center, from which they receive all their laws and institutions; 
and many proselytes from the nations embrace their religion. 

2. The Samaritans. — A rival to Jerusalem is found in Samaria. These 
Samaritans, when first planted in the cities of Samaria, were compelled, by the 
judgments of God, teacnings of the Israelites, and reformation by Josiah, to give 
Jehovah a nominal reverence, but they continued to worship their own gods. 
These formed a connecting link between the people of Jehovah and the heathen, 
and they could change from one to tbe other to suit the times. These were dan- 
gerous neighbors, who, under the garb of friendship, might lead to Polytheism 
or atheism. With these foreigners were mingled many of the Israelites of the 
country who had escaped the Assyrian captivity, and no doubt some of these 
were truly pious. Many of the Jews had formed alliances with them and other 
nations contrary to the law, and many refractory Jews joined them afterward. 
Now, some of these Samaritans were truly pious, and regulated their lives by 
the precepts of Jehovah, while many of the Jews were impious and immoral as 
any of the heathen. Hence, the uninstructed might consider one as good as the 
other, and the heathen as good as any. 

3. Their Temple on Mount Gerizim. — Ezra and Nehemiah separated the 
Jews from their strange wives, but Manasseh, son of the high priest Jehoiada, 
was son-in-law to Sanballate, and rather than submit to a separation from his 
wife, removed to Samaria, or was banished by Nehemiah, and Sanballate obtained 
leave from Alexander to build a temple for him on Mount Gerizim ^ (A. M. 36T2), 
where father Jacob had worshiped. This rival worship of Jehovah had both a 
good and a bad effect. The antagonism made them mutual and bitter enemies, 



(1) Joseph. Ant. Bk. 11. chap. 8j §§ 2-7. Sup. Comht. Guide, p. 77; Encp. R. K., Lamrtns.j 
Horn, Vol. I., pp. 203-4. 



264 tHE KINGDOM Of (Jot) DErELOl»ED* 

but also vigilant protectors of the scriptures. The Samaritans had a copy of 
the five books of Moses, which they have sacredly preserved to our present time. 
It was written in Hebrew words but in Samaritan characters, and by its influ- 
ence they abandoned Polytheism and idols. Their religion was much better 
than that established by Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin, or the worship of 
Baal established by Ahab. 

4. Palestine Under the Satraps of Stria. — A. M. 3595-3672. B. C. 
409-332.— At this time the Jews were not independent and under a government 
separate from all other people, but after the government of Nehemiah Palestine 
was made a part of the prefecture of Syria. Thus, the high priest was subject to 
the satraps of Syria, and the satrap, or governor, of Syria was subject to the 
king, or monarch, of Persia. One of these governors conferred the high priest's 
office upon his favorite, Joshua, brother to Johanan, then in office. Johauan 
slew Joshua in the inner court of the temple A. M. 3631. This caused Bagoses 
to reproach their religion and to impose a tribute on every lamb to be sacrificed, 
but this ceased when Bagoses was removed. ^ Such crimes in the high priests 
tended to destroy the respect and veneration for Jehovah and His religion. 
Bagoses entered the temple and asserted he was better than priests guilty of such 
crimes in such places. 

5. Involved in the E-evolutions of Syria. — As Judea was now only a 
part of Syria, it was involved in the troubles of that prefecture. E"ow (A. M. 
3654-66. B. C. 350-338) Ochus ascended the throne of Persia. Phenicia, 
Lesser Asia, and Syria revolted. This involved Judea, and in reconquest of 
those countries Jericho was captured and many Jews were dispersed into Egypt 
and along the south Hercania shores of the Caspian sea. ^ This, however, did 
not prevent the conquering influences of their religion. Having filled the high 
priest's office about thirty-two years, Johanan, son of Jehoiada, or Joiada, died, 
and his son Jaddua filled his place twenty-one years, till Jerusalem came under 
the Macedonian empire. 

6. Persian Empire Ended. A. M. 3670-3. B. C. 334-331.— The Persian 
throne was no longer competent to govern that vast empire, defend the 
people in their rights, and leave truth free to sustain itself by evidence. It was 
polluted with fraternal blood and stained with atrocious crimes, while wealth and 
luxury had corrupted the whole government. Jerusalem and their religion was 
left to the caprice of unprincipled satraps, or governors, of Syria, while practical 
atheism and animal gratification characterized the ruling powers. The glorious 
Ambassador that strengthened Darius the Mede and three Persian kings to sus- 
tain the cause of Jehovah, now turned to fight against the empire by revolts and 
civil wars till the G-recian power overthrew it. The last king is known in the 
development of the kingdom of God only by exertions and overthrow. Darius 
Codomanus fought with all his power, strategy, and hired help, but was con- 
quered by Alexander, and his empire subverted. The last successful pushing ot 
this Persian ram was done by Ochus, or Artaxerxes III., who conquered all the 
revolted countries (A. M. 3653-3666, or B. C. 351-338), but it was destroyed 
A. M. 3671-3673, or B. C. 333-331, and Alexander finished his conquests 
A. M. 3677, or B. C. 327. From some of these dates we must commence — the 
vision of the ram and the goat, which extends two thousand three hundred years 
without any hope of the consummation of the kingdom of God. But the first 
advent of the Royal Messiah is only from three hundred and fifty-one years to three 
hundred and twenty-seven years* in the future, or four hundred and ninety years 
from the decree to Ezra. When He comes, the kingdom of God will be organ- 
ized to conquer all the nations. 



(2) Joseph. Ant. 11:7. Sup. Comp. Comnt. Guide, p. 78. (3) Polglt. Bible; Outl. Hist., p. 1. 
(4) Sup. Chron. Table, p. 15. 



CHAPTER LXXII. 



THE KIlSrGDOM OF GOD COMES IN CONTACT WITH THE SIXTH 
HEAD OF THE EED DRAGON. MACEDONIAN EMPIRE. 

A. M. 3672. B. C. 332. 

1. Privileges Granted the Jews by Alexander. — The kingdom of God 
now comes in direct contact with an overshadowing empire from the west and 
with a new power and influence that must be taught the supremacy of Jehovah, 
the God of Israel. Hence, we learn, Alexander approached Jerusalem, breathing 
vengeance against the Jews for their fidelity to their oath of allegiance to Darius. 
But Jaddua, the high priest, proclaimed a fast, and was directed by Jehovah to 
open the city and head a procession, in his pontificial costume, and meet Alexander. 
Alexander approached him in peace, and, bowing down, worshiped him, or the 
name, ' * Jehovah, " on the breastplate. Alexander' s friends were astonished at his 
change of conduct, inquired the reason, and were told that on setting out to invade 
Asia this same personage appeared in a dream and told him that he should 
conquer Darius. He came to Jerusalem ; was shown the prophecy of Daniel 
respecting himself and the Persians ; ofifered sacrifice to Jehovah ; conferred 
favors on the Jews, and allowed them to be governed by their own laws, not only 
in Judea, but also in Babylonia and Media, and many Jews enlisted in his army. ^ 

2. Greek Polytheism and Philosophy. — The Greeks were Polytheists, and 
their mythology was much indebted to the poets, while their religion was mod- 
eled by philosophers and statesmen. Their philosophers and statemen traveled 
in the acquisition of knowledge, and hence it was difficult to determine how much 
of their religion descended from their ancestors, was borrowed from other nations, 
or was their own inventions. An old tradition said that the people of the ante- 
Hellenic age — or the most ancient inhabitants of the country — worshiped all the 
gods, but gave name to none. This is a mystical expression of the truth that 
the Greeks, like most other ancient people, had descended from the worship of 
one God to the belief of many. ^ Their philosophers and statesmen, doubtless, 
came in contact with the Jews and Israelites in Egypt and Chaldea, but the sim- 
plicity of revealed religion is so unacceptable to philosophic minds — who will 
receive nothing they cannot comprehend— it is not probable they believed the 
Jewish Scriptures ; but they may have borrowed so much truth from them as 
suited their theories, and thus improved their systems of morals and sciences. 

3. Their Gods and Futitre State. — They had twelve superior gods and 

foddesses, who constituted the Olympian council ; of these Zeus was supreme. 
>ut their inferior gods were in thousands. Though their gods were guilty of many 
crimes, their religion was not devoid of moral principles, and they believed in the 
reward of virtue and punishment of vice by the gods, and had Elysian fields for 
the souls of the pious and Tartarus for the impious. ' Their hades corresponded 
to the Hebrew sheol. Their standard of virtue and vice, however, was not up 



(5) Joseph, 11:8, §§ 3-5; Sup. Guide, p. 78. (6) Thai. Anct. Hist., p. 110-114, §§ 21-32, 
(7) Jortin note in Comp. Comnt., Vol. Ill,, p, 239-40. 



fiSB THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

to the Jewish standard. They also had an idea of reconciliation with offended 
gods by offerings and purifications, and had oracles and believed in revelations 
from them. Their worship was in animal gratifications, games subservient to 
the state, arts, and sciences. Alexander and others after him may have worshiped 
Jehovah at Jerusalem, supposing Him to have been the same as ^^Zeus" of the 
Greeks, or some other one, without acknowledging His sole divinity. 

4. Their Toleration. — The Persians rejected and despised idols, and abused 
the gods of Egypt and tended to atheism ; but the Greeks conciliated the con- 
quered nations about their gods and depended upon their own power and wisdom. 
The Jew might enjoy his own religion, provided he did not condemn other gods 
and require exclusive divinity, worship, and obedience to Jehovah. But this was 
the very mission of the Jews, and for this very purpose they were now subjected 
to these mighty empires and dispersed among the nations. Alexander gave the 
right to live according to their own laws, and these forbade the recognition of 
the divinity of any god but Jehovah. ^ 

PEOPHETIC PKOGKAMME OF THE GREEK POWER. §§ 5, 6. 

5. This Greek empire is the brass, or third division, of Nebuchadnezzar's 
image. 2 It is the third monster of Daniel's visions, ^ and is strong, active, swift, 
and variegated, and had four heads or supremacies — Athenian, Spartan, Theban, 
and Macedonian. All these had their turn of supremacy. If these heads 
represent the future condition of this power, this empire must have four distinct, 
independent supreme heads, having no other unity but what their original 
language and predominating customs and religious rites gave them. If these 
heads exist at the same time, the empire of Alexander must be divided into four 
divisions, having no unity of policy or purpose in the future, but retaining the 
predominant characteristics of the Greeks. Four independent powers of Greek 
characteristics, or religions. If these supremacies are in succession, this empire 
must retain its peculiar characteristics under revolutions, disorganizations, and 
reorganizations for four supreme policies and governments. The vision does 
not give any account of the future acts of these heads, so we conclude the 
kingdom of God had not much, or anything, to do with them ; and they refer to 
the past history of the empire — Athenian, Spartan, Theban, and Macedonian,* 
supremacies or headships. 

6. This is the he goat of Daniel, ^ that has already destroyed the Persian 
ram and become the great power in contact with the kingdom of God. Without 
any decline or weakness, it will be divided into four great powers, and some of 
these shall be subdivided. In the last times given for the nations to govern the 
world a power shall arise out of some one of these divisions that will be most 
hostile to the people and cause of the Messiah. This empire is also the great 
king that succeeds the Persian empire, and does what he will;^ but after the 
division into four parts, the destinies of Jerusalem will be connected with but 
two divisions — the kings of the north and south. In the wars of these powers 
Jerusalem and the temple will be often involved and shall suffer great calamities. 
This Greek empire is the sixth head of the red dragon ; and though, historically 
considered, was divided into four horns or powers, yet as but two of them came 
directly in contact with the city and temple of Jehovah, considered from the 
kingdom of God standpoint, it has but two horns in the dragon antagonistic 
development. 

7. Historical Yiew. — From the Indus to the Adriatic and from the Crimea 
to the southern boundary of Egypt, the Greek language prevailed, at least 
among the educated and ruling classes. In Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, the 



(1) Joseph Ant., 11:8. 5. (2) Chap. 62, § 1. (3) Chap. 62, §§ 2-5. (4) Thai., p. 153, § 143. 
181, § 210. 188, § 227. 201, § 5. (5) Chap. 62, §§ 6-12. (6) Chap. 65. 



CHAPTER LXXIl.: SECTlOI^S VIII. -X. ^67 

influence of Hellenic thought continued a thousand years in full force, until 
Mohammed and his successors set up their new Semitic empire. "^ Alexander 
ended his life in the height of his power, and after twenty years' war among the 
generals of his army, the empire was divided into four divisions, as Daniel fore- 
told; but the development of the kingdom of God brings us in contact with but 
two of these, namely, Egypt, on the south, the capital of which was the new city, 
Alexandria ; and Syria, whose capital was Antioch, on the north of Jerusalem. 

8. Jews Under the Egyptian Horn. A. M. 3703. B. C. 291.— The Jews 
were not assigned to Egypt, whose kings were called Ptolemais. But Ptolemy 
Lagus, or Soter, conquered Coele, Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, from Leomeda. 

A. M. 3684. He entered Jerusalem on the Sabbath, when the Jews would not 
take up arms, and captured one hundred thousand Jews; but promoted them to 
offices of trust because of their fidelity to oaths, and granted them all the priv- 
ileges the Macedonians themselves enjoyed. Other Jews followed of their own 
accord, on account of the fertility of the soil and the privileges granted to the 
Jews. He confirmed to them the privileges granted by Alexander, ^ one of which 
was to be governed by their own laws; and hence, by their synagogue's worship, 
Alexandria became a second Jerusalem. Onius, son of Jaddua, was high priest 
when they came under the government of the Ptolemais. ^ He was pious, and 
was succeeded by his son, Simon (A. M. 3702), who, by the uprightness of his 
actions and the righteousness of his conversation, both toward God and man, 
had obtained the name of the Just. (Continued, Chap. 73. ) 

SELEUCUS NICATOK. A. M. 3703. B. C. 301-281. §§ 9, 10. 

9. Jews Under the Syrian Horn. — The Jews in the countries north and 
east of Palestine came under the kingdom of Syria, whose first king was Seleucus 
Nicator, one of Alexander's generals. He proved himself a skillful warrior and 
an able statesman. After the division of the Macedonian empire he possessed 
all the countries from the Indus to Phrygia, and afterward all Asia Minor. ^ In 
his seventy-two provinces new cities sprung up as monuments of his power and 
centers of Greek civilization ; and he removed the capital from the Euphrates to 
the Orontes. Thus, Antioch on the north of Palestine, and Alexandria on the 
south, were the capitals of two rival powers that often involved Jerusalem in 
their wars. Seleucus Nicator was not behind Ptolemy Soter in his favors to the 
Jews, and made them citizens in those new cities he built and in Antioch, the 
capital; and he gave them privileges equal to those of the Macedonians and 
Greeks. These privileges, says Josephus, continued until his day under the 
Komans.2 (Continued, Chap. 74.) 

10. Thus, we find the Son of God conducting and advancing His kingdom 
within these kingdoms as favorably and more extensively than under kings of 
Israel or Judah. Jehovah was yet the king. 

Eleazer was succeeded in the high priest's office by Manasses (A. M. 3724, 

B. C. 276), and he by Onius II. (B. C. 250), son of Simon the Just (A. M. 
3754). 3 But of the internal state of the kingdom of God we have no account 
and must reason by analogy, and so reckon every part proceeding as in common. 



(7) Thai., p. 209, § 27. (8) Anct. Hist., Vol. I., p. 177; see chap. 138, § 5. 139. Roll., Vol. V., 
p. 73; Joseph. Ant. 12:1. Against Apion, p. 596, § 4. (9) Joseph. Ant. 11 :8, 7; Sup. Guide, p. 78. 
(1) Anct. Hist., Vol. IV., pp. 278-82. (2) Jos. 12:3. (3) Horn., Vol. II., p. 398. 



CHAPTER LXXIII. 



JERUSALEM UNDER THE PTOLEMAIS. A. M. 3713. B. C. 291. 

1. Simon the Just, and the Scriptures. — Simon the Just did many good 
things, — works for the benefit of the kingdom of God and the state of the Jews; 
but his chief work was the finishing of the canon of the Scriptures of the Old 
Testament. What the Jews called the great synagogue was a number of elders, 
amounting to one hundred and twenty, who succeed, some after others, in a 
continued series, from the return of the Jews to the time of Simon the Just. 
These labored to restore the Jewish state and religion ; and their chief study was 
to make a true collection of the Scriptures and publish them accurately to the 
people. Ezra and these men, of his day, completed the work as far as they 
could, and those after them added the II. Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, 
and Malachi.* Simon was high priest about nine years, and died, and was 
succeeded bv his brother, Eleazer, in whose day the Scriptures were translated 
into the Greek language. (A. M. 3713-3728. B. C. 291-276, ^ or 254 as some.)^ 

PTOLEMY PHILADELPHUS— POLYTHEIST. 

2. A. M. 3720-3757. B. C. 284-247.— Ptolemy Sotef reigned forty years, 
and was succeeded by his son, Ptolemy Philadelphus, who reigned thirty-nine 
years. Philadelphus was a Polytheist, and at his coronation honored the different 
gods with a distinct cavalcade to each, the decorations of which corresponded to 
their history. This display was a public school of intemperance and licentiousness 
calculated to excite degenerate passions in the spectators, and to induce depravity 
of manner by presenting to their view all the instruments of excess and debauch, 
with the most powerful allurements to indulge in them. All this under pretext 
of adoration to the gods. ^ He secured the image of the god Serapis from the 
inhabitants of Sinope in Pontus and had it brought to Alexandria. "^ Also, being 
presented with a statue of Diana in Syria, he carried it to Egypt, but afterward, 
out of superstition, returned it to her temple with costly gifts and sacrifices.^ 

3. The Scriptures Translated into Greek. — But he was a great patron 
of learning, and desiring to collect a vast library containing all the books in the 
world, he was induced by his librarian, Demetrius, to have a copy of the Jewish 
Scriptures translated into the Greek language, which was then the language of the 
learned and of the rulers of the world. To accomplish this work, he obtained a 
copy of the Hebrew Scriptures from Eleazer, the high priest, and seventy-two 
translators, or interpreters. (A. M. 3727.) These translated "The Law," or five 
books of Moses, at that time. ^ The uniform agreement of these translators, 
though in separate apartments, have caused some to regard this translation as 
inspired and of equal or superior authority to the Hebrew, and others, in oppo- 
sition, to regard the whole account as a fiction. Both opinions should be repudi- 
ated as gratuitous and unauthorized. The Hebrew had become a dead language 



(4) Horn, Vol. II., p. 398; Joseph. Ant. 12:2, § 5. (5) Sup. Guide, p. 18. (*) Town., note, 
37, p. 115-123; Neh. 8, and others. (6) Anct. Hist., Vol. I., p. 183-5. (7) Anct. Hist., Vol. I., 
p. 194. (8) Anct. Hist., Vol. I., p. 194. (9) Joseph. Ant., Bk. 12:2; Horn Intro., Vol. I., p. 264^-6. 



CHAPTER LXXIII. : SECTIONS IV. -VII. 269 

for over two hundred years, and it was necessary, after the example of Ezra, to 
interpret the Scriptures in the common language of the people.* The Greek 
was the learned and empire language, and these scribes must have been accus- 
tomed to teach and translate in it. The high priest would necessarily see that their 
interpretations were uniform ; for the Jews were governed by them throughout 
the empire. This was a privilege given them by the Persians, Alexander, the 
Ptolemais, Seleucidae, and Homans. There is nothing miraculous or incredible 
in it, and no fact of ancient history is better sustained. The king was astonished 
at the deep meaning of the laws and the wisdom of the Legislator. When the 
rest of these writings were translated, or by whom, we are not certain ; but before 
long the whole Hebrew Scriptures were given to the world in the Greek language, 
and I have a copy of it in my library, standing beside the original Hebrew. By 
this translation the Greek language was consecrated and prepared for recording 
the histories and teachings of the new covenant. 

4. The Epistle of Demetrius. ^ — In the epistle of Demetrius, the librarian 
to the king, we have the following language : ''I let you know we want the book 
of the Jewish legislation, with some others, written in the Hebrew characters, 
and so unknown to us. It is necessary thou shouldst have accurate copies of 
them. And, indeed, this legislation is full of hidden wisdom, and entirely blame- 
less, as being the legislation of God. If it please thee, thou mayest write to the 
high priest of the Jews to send six of the elders out of every tribe, such as are. 
skillful in the laws, that we may learn the true and agreeing sense of these books, 
and may obtain an accurate interpretation of their contents, and so may have 
such a collection of these as may be suitable to thy desire." 

5. Speech of Aeistetjs.^ — Before applying for a copy of the laws and the 
translators, Philadelphus purchased the freedom of all Jews held in bondage by 
any of his subjects, and conferred on the Jews great favors, and sent rich gifts 
for the temple and its worship. This freedom of Jewish captives held in slavery 
by his subjects was secured by Aristeus, in whose speech we find the following 
language : ' ' Free them ; because that God who supporteth thy kingdom was the 
author of their laws, as I have learned by particular inquiry. For both these 
people and we, also, worship the same God, the framer of all things. We call 
Him — and that rightly — Zena, because He breathes life into all men. Wherefore 
do thou restore these men to their own country and do this to the honor of God, 
because they pay a peculiarly excellent worship to Him ; and know this further: 
though I be not of kin to them by birth, nor one qf the same country with them, 
yet do I desire this favor to be done them, since all men are the workmanship 
of God ; and I am sensible He is well pleased with those that do good. I do 
therefore put up this petition to thee to do good to them. ' ' 

6. PoLYTHEisTs' YiEWS OF Jehovah. — Alexander had been shown the 
prophecies respecting his conquest of Darius, which would lead wise men to 
inquire more into these Scriptures; and perhaps Aristeus had made particular 
inquiry into these and learned the predictions about the Ptolemais and their 
governments. It is probable the philosophers and statesmen regarded Jehovah, 
the God of the Jews, the same as Zeus, or Jupiter, of the Greeks, and gave Him 
the same reverence, but adhered to Polytheism because agreeable to their animal 
propensities. But the pious, loving wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, 
and truth would become proselytes to the Jewish rehgion and abandon idolatry. 

7. The Ten Tribes. — Here we discover the fact that all the twelve tribes 
of Israel were comprehended under the name of Jews. So, on their return from 
captivity; we find the number registered do not make the whole number said to 
have returned, those of the other tribes having lost their genealogical registers. 
What are often called the lost tribes are only absorbed in the term Jews. 

8. Ptolemy Euergetes. — A. M. 3758. — Euergetes Ptolemy made war on 
Seluceus Callinicus, king of Syria, and being successful, returned through 

(*) Neh. 8:1-8. (1) Joseph. Ant. 12:2, 4. (2) Joseph. Ant. 12:2. 2, 3, 



270 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Jerusalem and offered a great number of sacrifices to the God of Israel for these 
victories. ^ But he did not renounce Polytheism, and having recaptured statues 
of Egyptian gods, taken by the Assyrians or Persians, he restored them to their 
ancient temples, and thus obtained from the Egyptians the name Euergetes — 
Benefactor. ^ Nor did his reverence for Jehovah prevent him from threatening 
the Jews with dispersion for their neglect to pay up their tribute. Onius, son of 
Simon the Just, was high priest, and neglecting the tribute due the kings of 
Egypt, provoked the wrath of Ptolemy Euergetes. But the evil was averted by 
his nephew, Joseph, whose prudence and policy regained the favor of the king to 
the Jews and secured a rich and honorable position for himself. ^ 

9. Ptolemy Philopater Persecutes the Jews. — Ptolemy Euergetes was 
succeeded by his son, Ptolemy Philopater, B. C. 221, A. M. 3783. Having 
defeated Antiochus the Great, king of Syria, Philopater visited Jerusalem and 
offered sacrifices to the God of Israel, making oblations and bestowing gifts. Not 
satisfied with viewing the external, he desired to enter the holy of holies. 
Though opposed, and shown the law forbidding any but the high priest to enter 
it, he desisted not till, panic-stricken, he was carried back half dead. After this 
he left the city, threatening vengeance on the Jews. The next year (B. C. 216) 
he raised a cruel persecution against the Jews to force them to worship idols, and 
destroyed forty thousand or sixty thousand in Egypt. ^ At Alexandria he branded 
them with the ivy leaf, emblem of Bacchus, his favorite god, and shut thousands 
of them in the race ground to be trampled and destroyed by elephants. But the 
wild beasts turned on their enemies and spectators, and with other tokens of 
divine displeasure and power, so terrified the king and his subjects that Philopater 
immediately released the Jews from the hippodrome, restored the whole nation 
to their former privileges, reversed every decree against them, and put those 
Jews to death who apostatized through fear.''' Thus, Jehovah delivered his 
people and compelled Israel to oppose Polytheism; defeated the great red 
dragon, and . encouraged pious proselytes to vindicate the true religion of the 
true God. Simon II., son of Onias II., was high priest. 

10. Ptolemais Favored the Jews. — This is all the unfriendly legislation 
of the Ptolemais against the Jews of which we read. They enjoyed the religion 
of Jehovah without molestation, and found the kings and queens of Egypt to 
become nursing fathers and mothers to Jerusalem and the true religion of the 
true God. 8 (A. M. 3844. B. C. 160). Onias, son of Onias III., disappointed 
of the high priesthood, retired into Egypt and obtained permission of Ptolemy 
Philometer to build a temple for the Jews in Egypt like that in Jerusalem, and 
obtained the high-priesthood to him and his descendants forever. The king and 
queen's language shows their fear and regard of Jehovah: ''We give thee leave 
to do it if it may be done according to your laws, and so we may not appear to 
have at all offended God herein. ^ " This temple continued over two hundred years. 

11. Temple in Egypt. — The number of the Jews in Egypt must have been 
great — Philo estimated them over one million — and their condition prosperous, 
when they could build such a temple. The Jews were persuaded to this by 
Onias applying the prediction of Isaiah 19:18-21, and thus the prophecy was 
indeed verified, though it refers to a more glorious time yet in the future. Hith- 
erto the Jews in Egypt had sent their sacrifices and offerings to Jerusalem, which 
caused, sometimes, trouble with the Samaritans there, who contended they 
should be sent to their temple on Mount Gerizim."^ Thus, three temples to 
Jehovah pointed the nations to a knowledge of the true God. This temple on 
Gerizim, once destroyed and rebuilt, continued over two hundred years, — there- 
fore till after Christ's ascension. It was destroyed by Yespasian. 

(3) Anct. Hist., Vol. I., p. 200; Joseph Apion, p. 596, § 5. (4) Anct. Hist,, Vol. I., pp. 198-9. 
(5) Joseph. Ant. 12:4, 1-6. Anct. Hist , Vol. I., pp. 201, 202. (6) Comp. Cmnt.; Dan. 11:10-12, 
note. (7) Sup. Guide, pp. 78, 79; Anct. Hist., Vol. I., pp. 210-11. (8) Isa. 49:23. (9) Joseph. 
Ant., 13:3; see chap. 77, § 6. (*) Joseph. Ant. 13:3, 4. 



CHAPTER LXXIY. 



JERUSALEM UNDER THE SYRIANS. A. M. 3806-3841. B. C. 198-163. 

1. Jerusalem Comes Under the Seducedea. — Having defeated Antiochus 
the Great, sacrificed to Jehovah, persecuted the Jews in Egypt, and again 
restored them to all their former rights and privileges, Ptolemy Philopater gave 
himself up to licentiousness and died of the effects, leaving his kingdom to his 
son, who was a child. Taking advantage of the minority of this young king, 
Antiochus defeated his armies and added to his dominions — Phenicia, Judea, 
and Celo-Syria — the land of the north tribes of Israel. ^ While engaged in wars 
in Asia Minor, the Egyptian general, Kopias, regained these to Egypt and put 
a garrison in Jerusalem. ^ Having settled his difficulties in the north, Antiochus 
soon defeated the Egyptian army and regained all the countries on the east shore 
of the Mediterranean sea. ^ The Jews volunteered for him and helped drive the 
garrison of Ptolemy Epiphenes out of Jerusalem, and thus they passed from the 
government of Egypt to that of Syria. ^ Though Egypt and Syria continued 
where they were in days of the prophets, the kingdoms were more extensive 
and ruled by the Greeks of the Macedonian empire. 

2. Jews Compensated tor Losses. — During these wars, Judea and Jerusa- 
lem had suffered much from both armies, and to compensate for these losses and 
services, Antiochus the Great conferred on the Jews advantages and privileges, 
which we find specified in his own epistles, as preserved by Josephus. Poly bus 
says of Antiochus: "They came into those Jews near that temple, called Jeru- 
salem, concerning which I have more to say, and particularly concerning the 
presence of God about that temple : yet do I put off that history till another 
opportunity. 

3. Epistles of Antiochus the Great. — Decree First. — We have thought 
fit to reward them and to retrieve the condition of their city, which hath been 
greatly depopulated, and bring those scattered abroad baick to it. We have 
determined, on account of their pietj toward God, to bestow a pension for their 
sacrifices of animals th^ are fit for sacrifice, for wine, oil, and frankincense, to 
the value of twenty thousand pieces of silver, and sacred artabrae of fine flour, 
with one thousand four hundred and sixty medimni of wheat and three hundred 
and seventy-five medimni of salt ; and these payments I would have fully paid 
them, as I have sent orders to you. I would also have the work about their 
temple finished, that ought to be rebuilt. All material, to make the temple 
glorious, let be brought out of any country tax free; and let all of the nation live 
according to the laws of their own country. Let the sen at, and scribes, and 
priests of the temple, and sacred singers, be discharged from poll tax, and the 
crown tax, and other tax also, etc. And all citizens carried away and become 
slaves, we grant them and their children freedom and order their substance to 
be restored to them. ^ 

4. Decree Second. — It shall be lawful for no foreigner to come within the 
limits of the temple roundabout, which thing is forbidden also to the Jews, unless 
to those who, according to their own custom, have purified themselves. J^or let 



(1) Anct. Hist., Yol. I., p. 215; (2) p. 216; (3) 216-17. (4) Joseph. Ant., 12:3. 3. (5) Joseph. 
Ant. 12:3; 3; 3, 4. 



272 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 



any flesh of horses, mules, or asses be brought into the city, whether wild or tame ; 
nor that of leopards, foxes, or hares, and in general that of any animal which is 
forbidden for the Jews to eat. Nor let their skins be brought into it ; nor let 
any such animal be bred up in the city. Let them only be permitted to use the 
sacrifices derived from their forefathers, with which they have been obHged to 
make acceptable atonements to God. And be that transgresses any of these 
orders, let him pay to the priests three thousand drahmae of silver. 

6. Decree Third. — In regard to the Jews of Mesopotamia and Babylon, 
having been informed of a sedition in Phrygia and Lydia, Antiochus writes to 
Zeuxis : "I thought that matter required great care, and upon advising with my 
friends have thought proper to remove two thousand families of the Jews, with 
their effects, out of Mesopotamia and Babylon unto the castles and palaces that 
lie most convenient ; for I am persuaded they will be well-disposed guardians of 
our possessions, because of their piety toward God, and because I know my 
predecessors have borne witness to them that they are faithful and with alacrity 
do what they are desired to do. I will, therefore, that thou remove these Jews, 
under a promise that they shall be permitted to use their own laws ; and give 
them building lots and land for husbandry and vineyards, freedom from taxes for 
ten years, and maintenance for the present. Take care likewise of that nation, 
as far as thou art able, that they may not have any disturbance given them by 
any one." 

6. Antiochus the Great Defeated by the Romans. — Though a great states- 
man and general, Antiochus the Great was defeated by the Romans, who were 
extending their dominions eastward, and was subjected to tribute and hostage. 
To raise this tribute he undertook to rob the temple of Jupiter-Belus, at Elymais, 
and was slain by the enraged populace;® but some say he abandoned himself to 
feasting and was slain by one of his guests, whom he had abused."^ (A. M. 
3817.) He was succeeded by his eldest son, Seleucus Philopater, who was but 
little more than a taxgatherer for the Romans.^ (A. M. 3818-28.) 

7. Happy Condition of Jerusalem. — Onias HI. was high priest at this 
time. (A. M. 3805-29.) Jerusalem was inhabited with peace and the laws 
obeyed, because of the godliness of this high priest and his hatred of wickedness. ^ 
Seleucus Philopater himself, out of his own revenues, bore all the costs of the 
service of the daily sacrifices. However, upon the information of Simon, a Ben- 
jamite, who was made governor of the temple, and who had quarreled with the 
high priest, that the treasury of Jerusalem was exceedingly rich and abundantly 
more than sufficient to supply the sacrifices, and being straightened for money to 
pay the Roman tribute, he sent Heliodorus to seize and bring the money to him. 
Heliodorus undertook to rob the temple, but was struck dumb on seeing an 
apparition of angels guarding it, and did not recover till the high priest interceded 
for him to God. ^ 

8. Seleucus Philopater Assassinated and Scene Changed. — Seleucus 
Philopater was assassinated by this Heliodorus, who usurped the throne of Syria. 
Demetreus, son of Philopater, had been sent to Rome in exchango for his uncle, 
Antiochus Epiphanes, who had been a hostage at Rome for securing the fulfill- 
ment of treaty made by Antiochus the Great. Antiochus Epiphanes, returning 
from Rome at this time, by fair address obtained the aid of Eumenes, king of 
Perganus, and Attains, his brother, to expel Heliodorus, and by flattering prom- 
ises secured the favor of the Romans and usurped the throne of his nephew, 
Demetreus, now at Rome. ® Though at first favorable to the Jews, he became 
the greatest persecutor they had found since their captivity by Nebuchadnezzar. 



(6) Thai. Anct. Hist., p. 212, § 37; Sup. Guide, p. 79. (7) Anct. Hist., Vol. IV, p. 308-10. 
(8) p. ;U2. (9) Roll Vol. VII , p. 58. 62; Anct. Hist, Vol. IV., p. 313. (1) Roll., Vol. VII., 
p. 59; Anct. Hist., Vol. IV., p. 313; Sup. Guide, p. 79. (6) Anct. Hist., Vol. IV., p. 313-15; 
Roll., Vol. VII., p. 64. 



Period Thirteenth, A. M. 3832-3899. B, C, 172-105. 

Adversities and Conflicts, 

CHAPTER LXXY, 



PEKSECUTIONS AND MARTYRDOMS. A. M. 3832-3836. 

1. Impious High Pkiests. — Being in want of money to pay the Ronaan 
tribute, Antiochus Epiphanes deposed the good and pious Onias III. from the 
priesthood and sold it to Jason, a brother, for three hundred and sixty talents 
yearly. Afterward he deposed Jason and sold it to another brother, Menelaus, 
for six hundred and sixty talents. (A. D. 3832.) Menelaus, by aid of Lysimachus, 
another brother, robbed the temple of gold vessels, which he converted into 
money, or sold to the Tyrians to raise this money. He also bribed Andronicus, 
governor of Antioch, to murder his brother, the good Onias. Lysimachus was 
killed by the mob at Jerulalera. Andronicus was executed for the murder of 
Onias ; but Menelaus, by bribes, acquitted himself and secured the execution of 
the three deputies of the Sanhedrim sent to prosecute him. On report of the 
death of Antiochus, Jason, who had first purchased the high priesthood, marched 
on Jerusalem with one thousand men, drove Menelaus into the castle, and cruelly 
put to death all he supposed to be his opponents. '^ 

2. Temple Plundered and Polluted. — Antiochus hastened to subdue Jason, 
and hearing the Jews rejoiced at the report of his death, heslew forty thousand 
or eighty thousand during three days' massacre, and sold as many more for slaves 
to the nations or tribes around them, plundered the temple of all its treasures, 
vessels, and golden ornaments, and carried one thousand eio:ht hundred talents 
to Antioch. ^ Josephus says he carried away the golden candlestick, golden altar 
of incense, table for the shew-bread, altar for burnt-offerings, and the veils of fine 
linen and scarlet. ^ Revenge may have instigated the cruel massacre of the Jews, 
and covetousness the plundering of the temple ; but it was Heaven-daring impiety, 
inspired by the apostate high priest, who taught him how to violate the law of 
Moses that led him into the holy of holies and prompted him to sacrifice a hog 
on the altar of burnt-offerings in the sanctuary, and to sprinkle the broth all over 
the temple, and thus pollute it in every part and render it unfit for the worship 
of Jehovah. After this he made one Philip, a Phrygian and a most barbarous 
wretch, governor of Judea, and Andronicus, as bad a man, governor of Samaria, 
or Syria,' and continued Menelaus, the worst of all, in the high priest's ofiice. ^ 
Menelaus, degraded wretch, accepts the high-priesthood of an insulted God and 
a plundered and polluted temple from the impious and insulting madman. 

3. Second Massacre. City Sacked and Parts Burnt. A. M. 3836. B. 
C. 168. — Having renewed the invasion of Egypt with success, and about to 
besiege Alexandria, the royal city, inhabited by multitudes of Jews, he was 
peremptorily ordered by the Roman commissioners to withdraw from Egypt. 
Thus frustrated in the conquest of Egypt, which was almost achieved, and no 



(7) Anct. Hist., Vol. IV., p. 314; Roll., Vol. YII., p. 61, 62, 65, 67; Sup. Guide, p. 79. (8) Roll., 
Vol. VII., p. 67-8; Anct. Hist., Vol. IV., p. 315; Sup. "Guide, p. 79. (9) Joseph. Ant. 12:5; 
Restored to synagogue in Antioch, Jos. Wrs. 7:3; 3. (1) Outline Polglt Bible, p. 4. 

-18 



274 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 



doubt apprehending his defeat would give satisfaction to the Jews, he sent 
Apollonius with twenty-two thousand or twenty thousand men, and orders to put 
all the men of Jerusalem to the sword and make slaves of the women and 
children. Apollonius being farmer of the taxes of that district, his approach 
gave no apprehension of danger, and he entered the city without resistance. 
This bloody coward waited till the Sabbath, when the Jews, who thought it 
it unlawful to defend themselves on this day, were engaged in worshiping God 
in their synagogues. ^ Then were the king's orders rigorously and cruelly 
executed, so that none escaped but such as could hide themselves in caves or 
reach the mountains by flight; and the streets flowed in blood — two years after it 
had been immersed in blood by Antiocus in person. Having sacked the city, 
Apollonius fired it in difierent places, demolished the houses, broke down the 
walls, and built a fortress on Mt. Acra, which commands the city and temple, 
where he collected the treasures and kept a garrison to sally out and slay such as 
yet survived and dared to worship there. ^ 

4. Decree for Uniformity. — Having prospered in his cruelty and impiety 
without encountering any divine opposition, he next issued a decree that all 
people should abandon the religion of their ancestors and adopt that of the king, 
which was the Greek idolatry. ^ Thus, he appeared determined to find out 
whether any religion had a god able to defend it against a king of absolute 
power. All the gods and religions cower before his cruel tortures and disciplined 
armies except Jehovah and the pious Jews. He sent commissioners into all the 
provinces of his empire to see his decrees duly executed ; built altars and 
chapels filled with idols in every city, and sacrifices were ofi'ered every month 
and on the king's birthday; and the people were compelled to eat swine's fiesh 
and other unclean sacrifices forbidden by the law of Moses. ^ 

5. Image of Jupiter in the Temple, and Apostate Jews. — His designs 
were mainly against the Jews ; and he appointed an old experienced and well 
versed Greek idolater, named Atheneus, to instruct the Jews in his Polytheism, 
or to torture to death such as refused to comply. He set up the image of Jupiter 
upon the altar, and dedicated the temple of Jehovah to Jupiter Olympius, the 
supreme god of the Greeks ; burned all the books of the law he could find, and 
polluted every part of the city and temple. Many of the Jews apostatized, 
fearing torture, and seeing their chief priest foremost in overthrowing the 
religion of their forefathers ; and many eagerly persecuted their brethren 
that kept the faith. * Polytheism once more appeared triumphant over Jehovah, 
with His covenants, oaths, and promises. 

6. The Trial of Faith. — What a trial of faith in Jehovah was here ! Wait- 
ing for triumphs promised to the pious by Moses, behold them slaughtered with 
impunity! Looking for the throne of David ruling the nations, the subjects of 
his kingdom are trampled under foot without a deliverer ! Expecting Jerusalem 
to become the joy and point of concentration for the whole earth, behold it laid 
in ruins! The temple of Jehovah, the house of worship for all nations, plun- 
dered and polluted, and daily sacrifice and worship prohibited. Instead of 
Jehovah being worshiped by all nations, the statue of Jupiter stands on the altar 
of Jehovah, and the temple itself is dedicated to the supreme god of the Greeks. 
The high priest, wearing the robes of Aaron, and who should be the mediator on 
the great day of atonement between God and Israel, and enter the most holy 
place, is the chief instigator of all this profanation and cruelty. Where look for 
help? and how hope for deliverance? The enemy is exultant, insulting, and 
cruel, and the inhabitants of the holy city are slaughtered or enslaved. Where 
the mercies, wonders, and miracles wrought for Israel in former days? Are 



(2) Roll., Vol. VII., p. 74, § 3, ^| 2. (3) Roll., Vol. VIL, 74, 75; Anct. Hist., Vol. IV., pp. 315, 
316; Sup. Guide, p. 79; Polglt. Bible Outline, p. 4. (4) Joseph. Ant. 12:5, § 4; and Roll, as above, 



CHAPTER LXXV. : SECTIONS VII. -XI. 275 

they but idle tales? Or where is Jehovah gone? The trial was great; many 
hearts failed, knees grew feeble, and some became persecutors of the religion of 
their fathers. The first we compassionate ; the last we condemn. 

7. The Sons of Oil Witness and Suffer. — But the sons of oil were 
yet alive, and pouring their golden oil into the lamps around them, kept them 
still aglow; though the temple was polluted and robbed, and the high priest was 
an apostate. Martyrs appeared in every place and witnessed for Jehovah and 
His religion. They believed in Jehovah and His religion. They believed in 
Jehovah and His word, and kept His laws in defiance of the impious king and 
cruel Polytheist till the adversary was first conquered by the martyrs and then 
by the sword of vengeance. Some were scourged; others had their flesh torn 
to pieces, skin and hair torn off their heads, tongues cut out ; some were cruci- 
fied ; some fried in pans, or roasted in caldrons, or tortured in every inhuman 
way. Mothers who circumcised their children were driven through the streets 
with their strangled infants hung to their necks, and then dashed over the highest 
fragments of the walls, or were crucified. ^ 

8. Eleazer a Martyr. — These were not all mute sufferers; but some 
expressed their unwavering hope in the resurrection of their bodies and glorious 
reward for their fidelity to Jehovah's laws, but assured the king and his emissaries 
of certain vengeance from the God of Israel. Eleazer, a priest and doctor of 
the law, ninety years of age, refused to transgress the law of Moses and eat 
unlawful meat; and when importuned by friends, refused to eat lawful meat, pre- 
tending it to be the unclean sacrifice. But he disdained to dissemble, and boldly 
and openly denounced the hypocrisy, showing the pernicious influence such 
conduct would have to induce younger and weaker persons to apostatize, under 
the false impression that old Eleazer had done the same. The persecutors, 
disappointed and enraged, tormented and roasted him to death. But he expired 
in hope. ^ 

9. A Mother and Seven Sons. §§ 9-12. — Eoll., Yol. YH., pp. 78-80. — 
Seven sons, with their mother, suffered in succession the most exquisite tortures. 
The first said : "We are ready to lay down our lives rather than violate the holy 
laws God gave our ancestors." While the tortures were inflicted on him, his 
mother and brothers were exhorting each other to die courageously, saying, 
''The Jehovah God will have regard to truth; He will pity and comfort us, as 
Moses declares in his song." The second, after the skin and hair was torn off 
his head, said, "Wicked prince, you bereave us of this present life; but the 
King of Heaven and earth, if we die for the defense of His laws, will one day 
raise us up to everlasting life." 

10. The third said, "I received these limbs from Heaven, but now I disre- 
gard theni, since I am to defend the laws of God, from the sure and established 
hopes that He will one day restore them to me." The fourth, when about 
expiring, said, "It is for our advantage to be killed by men, because we hope 
that God, by raising us up again, will restore us to life; but thy resurrection, O 
king, shall not be unto life." The fifth, while being tortured, said, "You 
now act according to your own will and pleasure, because now invested with 
absolute power among men, though but a mortal man. But do not imagine that 
God has forsaken our nation. Stay but a little, and you will see the wondrous 
effects of His power and in what manner he will torment both yourself and 
posterity." The sixth said, "l)o not deceive yourself with the hope of 
impunity, after having presumed to make war against God himself." 

11. The mother said, "I am sure the Creator of the world will one day 
restore you to life by His infinite mercy in return for your having disregarded it 
here out of the love you bear to His law. Being importuned by the king to 



(5) Joseph. Ant., 12: 5, 4; Roll., Vol. VII., p. 77. (6) 77, 78. 



■^>. 



276 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

persuade the youngest to apostatize, she laughed in derision, and addressing the 
youth, said, "Fear not the cruel executioner, but show yourself worthy of your 
brethren by submitting cheerfully to death, that by the mercy of God I may 
receive you together with your brethren in the glory that awaits us." While 
thus speaking, the youth cried out, "What is it you expect from me? I do not 
obey the king's command, but the law given by Moses. As for you, from whom 
flow all the calamities to the Hebrews, you shall not escape the hand of the 
Almighty. Our suflferings are indeed owing to our sins; but if the Jehovah, 
our God, to chaste and correct us, be for a little time angry with us, at last He 
will be appeased and reconciled to his servants. But as for you, the most 
wicked and impious of men, do not flatter yourself with vain hopes. You shall 
not escape the judgment of God, who is all-seeing and almighty. As for my 
brothers, after sufl'ering for a moment they have entered into the eternal 
covenant. I freely, also, give up my body and life for the laws of my forefathers; 
and I beseech God to extend His mercy to our nation, and to force you by 
plagues and torments to confess that He is the only God; and that His anger, 
justly fallen on the Hebrews, may end by my death and that of my brethren." 

12. The king, transported with fury, caused this last son to be tortured more 
grie\;^ously, if possible, than the rest. Thus, he expired in the same holy manner 
as his brethren and with full confidence in Jehovah. After witnessing the 
triumphant faith and martyrdom of her seven sons, the heroic mother also sealed 
her testimony by torture and death. No doubt thousands of such martyrs in 
the same triumphant faith and hope, witnessed for Jehovah and his religion. 
" Josephus says: "The best and noblest souls did not regard the king, but paid 
a greater respect to the customs of their country than concern to the punishment 
threatened ; on which account they every day underwent great miseries and 
bitter torments.""" 

13. Samakitans. — The Samaritans apostatized en masse^ disclaimed all rela- 
tion to the Jews, declared their temple had never been dedicated, and requested 
it should be now dedicated to the Grecian Jupiter. This was done; and so they 
escaped persecution. ^ But this national act does not prove that many Samar- 
itans did not remain true to Jehovah, though the shadow of their apostate rulers 
and priests may have hid them from the eye of persecution. Salvation to the 
world was through the Jews ; and the honor of witnessing for Jehovah belonged 
to them. 9 The king, being defeated by the strong faith and true piety of these 
martyrs, returned to Antioch to celebrate games and indulge in his low, vile, 
and animal propensities, while he left his fiendish work of persecution to be 
carried on by his inhuman agents under Atheneus. ^ 

14. Wickednp:ss a Reason why Persecution was Permitped. — Why was 
this persecution permitted? The sins of the nation and their violation of the 
laws of God and covenant made at Mount Sinai had no doubt much to do in 
bringing on these calamities, and these martyrs attributed their suff'erings to this 
cause, and when the nation sinned the pious had always to sufi^er for Jehovah's 
name. Though these calamities commenced when the piety and resolution of* 
Onias, the high priest, caused the laws to be strictly observed in Jerusalem and 
the city enjoyed profound tranquility and induced kings and idolatrous princes to 
have the holy place in the highest veneration and to honor it with the richest 
gifts, 2 yet there must have been many hypocrites and impious persons in it, or 
Jason and Menelaus could never have raised the murdering parties that sustained 
them in their usurpations and impiety. Onias was the only pious priest in the 
whole family. Jason, Menelaus, and Lysimachus were capable of any crime, 
and disregarded the laws of Moses and the teaching of the Scriptures. ^ The 
many apostates that joined in persecuting their pious brethren and in hostility to 



(7) Joseph. Ant. 12:5. 4. (8)12:5.4. (9) John 4:22. (1) Roll., Vol. YIL, pp. 62, 81. (2) Roll., 
Vol. VII., p. 58, 62. (3) Sup. Guide, p. 79. 



CJBtAPtER LXXV. : SECTIONS XV. -XVltl. 2?? 

the Machebee deliverers, show much corruption in the nation, that needed to be 
separated from the people of Jehovah. Whether the systematic robbery of pious 
worshipers, practiced in the time of Christ by the priests, had now commenced, ^ 
history does not tell ; but the enormous sums paid by Jason and Menelaus for the 
office of high priest shows there was gain some way. Antiochus did not know 
enough about the law and temple to violate the one and pollute the other, had not 
the apostate high priest instructed him. 

15. Dangerous Friendship Destroyed. §§ 15, 16. — But another reason 
exists in the development of the kingdom of God. Since the days of Ahasuerus 
(A. M. 3547, or B. C. 457) till now (A. M. 3834, or B C. 170), a period of two 
hundred and eighty-seven years, the Jews had suffered no persecution for their 
religion, except that in Egypt by Ptolemy Fhilopater. All people walked in the 
name of their gods, and Israel walked in the name of Jehovah, his God.^ 
The priests of Polytheism may have excited persecutions in small localities, but 
the laws of the empires secured their rights and avenged their wrongs. Kings 
had become nursing fathers and queens nursing mothers to the Jews and their 
worship at Jerusalem. ^ They had granted great favors and privileges to the 
nation, wherever scattered, and offered sacrifice and offerings to Jehovah, as well 
as to their own gods. This friendship was ensnaring, and tended to make Israel 
careless to teach or learn the history and laws of the nation and the teachings of 
their holy writings. Thus, uninstructed and off their guard, they were liable to 
fall into false notions, as some of the Greeks did, that Baal, Zeuse, Jupiter, and 
Jehovah were all the same god under different names, and what difference which 
one they served, provided they did not quarrel about them. The kings wor- 
shiped Jehovah, and why should not the Jew worship Jupiter? Besides, the 
worshipers of Jupiter held the supreme government, and appeared more blessed 
than the dispersed and tributary Jews. 

16. But Jehovah had declared Himself the only God, and would not share 
His glory with any god, nor give His praise to graven images. ^ Israel must be 
reminded that they are the people of Jehovah, created for Himself to show forth 
His glory, '^ and must have no fellowship with Polytheism ; and the nations must 
learn that nothing but an unconditional surrender will be accepted by Him. So 
He permits the Jupiter of the west, as He did the great Baal of the east, ^ to 
commence the war and hold the victory till the eyes of all nations were attracted 
to the contest, and then by martyrs and very inadequate forces He defeats the 
king that conquered Egypt and his own rebellious provinces, and casts his god to 
the bats and mice. This He does in a way that shows that He is God and there 
is none other God. 

17. A Desperate Effort of the Ked Dragon.— But another reason exists. 
The great red dragon, whose tail always drew a large proportion of the luminaries 
of Israel, having tried in vain to merge the Jews into other nations and swallow 
them up with favors, making them forget their holy writings and high calling, 
knew the time for the Son of God to appear was now at hand, and resolved to 
make another desperate effort to destroy Israel and cut off the hope of the world. 
He thought to have conquered Egypt, and then, having most of the Jews under 
the scepter of Antiochus, he hoped to destroy them all. Defeated in Egypt, he 
turns his whole rage on Jerusalem and the Jews in the Syrian empire. 

18. A New Life Given to the Religion of Jehovah. — But the sons of oil 
were yet alive, and continued to pour the golden oil into the golden lamps in the 
synagogues and families and communities all around them, and kept them all 
aglow. Now was a suitable time to instruct others. When all was peace, people 
might worship Jehovah as a matter of national custom and hereditary religion, or 
in preference to the filthy rites of idolatry, without knowing or caring much about 



(4) Matt. 21:13; Mark 11:27. (*) Mich. 4:5. (5)- Isa. 49:23. (6) Isa. 12:8. (7)43:7,21. 
(8) II. Kings, 21:3,7. II. Chron., 33:3-5. 



278 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

it ; but now it was apostacy or torture and death, and tliej now must know from 
what they apostatize, or for what they suffer and die. These sons of oil know 
all their covenants, oaths, and promises, and what have been fultilled in the past 
at the time appointed and what are to be realized in the future. They know the * 
history of their nation, and can tell when and where hope nearly expired and 
success appeared impossible, and yet most glorious triumphs vindicated the truth 
and fidelity of Jehovah. They knew the law had fulfilled its promises to obedience, 
and vindicated its dignity by punishments of disobedience, according to the threat- 
enings. They had songs and praises to Jehovah recording His glorious excellency 
and wonderful works, and also expressing the views and feelings of His faithful 
ones in darkest hours, when all appeared lost and hopes disappointed, as at the 
present time. The whole history of their nation had been programmed, and 
they could lay their finger on Daniel and show the prediction of the present 
events, even to their teaching of many and sufi'ering as witnesses for Jehovah. 
(Daniel, 11:21-35.) And having understanding, they taught many when people 
were compelled to be interested in their teachings. Thus, a new life and a new 
era was given to Israel and the nations, and many of the captives were a recruit 
of new missionaries to tell the history of their nation and the attributes and 
works of Jehovah. 

19. All Religions Yielded to the Decree but that of Israel. — What God 
like Jehovah ? And what people like Israel ? The worshipers of all other gods 
cower before the tortures of the king. They might meet him in battle, but once 
conquered, they could not stand the trial. Ah, they knew not their own gods, 
and could not trust them. No covenants with them, nor promises from them ; no 
laws vindicated by fulfilled rewards or penalties. No Holy Spirit imparting 
inward life and joy in the hour of sufi'ering and death ; nor songs of praise uniting 
them to their gods in sweet communion, and soul-animating raptures, and soul- 
inspiring confidence. Thus, the Old Serpent was disappointed and his red dragon 
development was defeated by his own policy, and Jehovah was proven by the 
martyrs and teachers to be the only God and Rock, while other gods were only 
the toys of kings. The religion of Jehovah received a new and triumphant 
impulse, and the sacred Scriptures were more venerated and appreciated ; and 
now Jehovah will turn on His enemies and prove Himself the God over kings 
and armies, and vanquish them with very inferior forces. 



CHAPTER LXXVI. 



FIDELITY, YALOR, AND YICTOEY. A. M. 3836-3840. 

1. The Asmoneans Come to Yiew. — A. M. 3836-7. — Persecution pushing 
forward to conquest for six months, while the old Anthenian was trying to teach 
the Jews the Greek idolatry, met a fatal repulse from Matthias and his 'Rve sons, 
who expelled Jupiter, purified the temple, restored the worship of Jehovah, and 
compelled the decree for uniformity to the Greek idolatry to be repealed. 
Apelles — one of the king's generals engaged in enforcing the decree for uni- 
formity — came to Modin, a village of Dan, where sojourned an old priest and 
his family. This was Matthias, great grandson of Asmoneus, from whom his 
family were called the Asmonean dynasty, that delivered Israel from the Syrian 
yoke and governed till they came under the E-oman power. ^ 

2. Polytheism Repulsed. — Apelles tried with great rewards to persuade 
Matthias to give his example and influence to apostacy. Matthias openly spurned 
the ofier, slew the Jew first attempting to comply and thus violate the law of 
Moses, and with his sons dispatched Apelles and his forces, or attendants. He 
broke down the altar and idols, and, leaving his goods, retired to the mountains, 
inviting all zealous for the law and maintenance of the covenants to follow him. 
Here he devised plans for defence, and was joined by a hardy, valiant people, 
resolved to die or recover their temple and religion. By the accession of volun- 
teers, he found himself able to leave the mountains; and marching around, 
destroyed the idols and altars, cut ofi" the apostates and persecutors in his way, 
circumcised the children, and recovered many copies of the law, restored the 
worship of Jehovah in the synagogues and families, till death closed his warfare, 
being one hundred and forty-seven years old. He also decided to resist by force, 
on the Sabbath, the attacks of the enemy, for one thousand refugees in the 
wilderness were murdered in their caves on the Sabbaths. This decision was 
afterward approved by the priests and elders. On his death he exhorted his 
sons to persist in the cause of Jehovah, and appointed Judas commander and 
Simon counselor. 

3. Judas Prosecutes the Work with Success. — (Joseph. Ant., Bk. 12, 
chap. 7; Anct. Hist., Yol. lY., pp. 317-19; Roll., Yol. YII., pp. 81-6; Polglt. 
Bible Outline of Jew. Hist., p. 5, and Sup. Guide, pp. 79, 80.) Judas pros- 
ecuted the work ; and having raised an army, fortified cities, and built fortresses, 
throwing eflicient garrisons into them. He thus overawed the entire country, 
while Antiochus was celebrating games and rioting in low vices that made his 
courtiers despise him. Apollonius, governor of Samaria, or general of that 
place, with an army of apostate Samaritans, undertook to stop his work of refor- 
mation, but was defeated and slain, and his army cut to pieces with great 
slaughter. Judas took his sword and used it ever after; and thus the sword that 
murdered the worshipers in Jerusalem on the Sabbath, when they thought 
unlawful to resist, was henceforth used to slay these cowardly murderers. 



(1) Polglt. Bible Outline, p. 5; Sup. Guide, p. 79; Roll., Vol. VII., pp. 76-80; Anct. Hist., Yol. 
IV., pp. 316-17; Joseph. Ant. 12:6. 



280 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

4. Next, Seron, deputy-governor of Celo-Syria, with as large an army as he 
could collect, inclqding many apostate Jews and Samaritans, undertook to conquer 
Judas. The army of Judas was small, in want of food, and hesitated to fight. 
But Judas encouraged them in a speech, saying : Victory and conquest of 
enemies are not derived from the multitude in armies, but in the exercise of 
piet}^ toward God ; and that they had the plainest instances in their forefathers, 
who, by their righteousness and exerting themselves on behalf of their own laws 
and children, had frequently conquered many ten thousands; for innocence is a 
strong army. With the God of Heaven, it is all one to deliver with a great 
multitude or with a small company. We fight for our lives and laws. Then 
they joined battle; and Seron being killed, his army fled, and about eight 
hundred more were killed. 

5. The Extermination of the Jews Determined on. — Antiochus was exas- 
perated to fury at this double defeat. He assembled all his troops, which formed 
a mighty army, and determined to destroy the whole Jewish nation and settle 
other people in their country. But, as Jehovah ordered it for His own people, 
the king having exhausted his treasures in his foolish games, could not pay his 
soldiers. So he had to divide his forces, and with part go into Armenia and 
Persia to collect his tribute which had not been paid, and left part with Lysias, 
governor of all the country west of the Euphrates, and of royal blood, with 
orders to execute his purpose on the Jews. Lysias sent Ptolemy Macron, Nicanor, 
and Gorgias, three experienced and competent commanders, with forty thousand 
foot and seven thousand horsemen, besides auxiliaries, neighbors who volunteered 
and apostate Jews, to crush Judas with his six thousand undisciplined infantry, 
and to extirpate the Jews. And unless Jehovah interposed, their success was 
sure. The resolution was to kill all the men and sell the rest for slaves at the 
price of ninety for a talent. This proclamation was made by ]N^icanor, and one 
thousand merchants were present with money, bonds, and attendants, to take 
the purchase. It was proper such a multitude from all the countries around 
should be collected to witness the power and salvation of Jehovah, for no other 
power could save the Jews. 

6. Syrians Defeated. §§ 6, 7. — To oppose this vast army, Judas had but 
six thousand at first, and after granting the privilege of the law but three 
thousand remained; which reminds us of Judge Gideon of old. (Judg. 7:1-8.) 
The enemy encamped at Emmaus, in the plain country. When Judas saw their 
camp and number he encouraged his soldiers to hope for victory in Jehovah, and 
make supplication to Him, clothed in sackcloth, and thereby prevail with Him to 
grant them the victory. He set them in their ancient orders of battle under 
captains of thousands and other officers. He then addressed them to despise 
dangers, and fight for liberty to worship Jehovah and live according to their own 
laws and customs; for it was victory, or death and extirpation. But believe that 
besides such glorious rewards as those of liberty of your countrj^ laws, and 
religion, you shall then obtain everlasting glory. Prepare to tight with the 
enemy as soon as it is day to-morrow morning. But Jehovah had decreed them 
an easy and glorious victory. 

7. That night Gorgias, with five thousand best men and one thousand horse, 
was detached from the camp under the guiding of apostate Jews who knew the 
country, to surprise Judas and cut them to pieces. Judas, being informed of this, 
supped in good time, left many camp fires, removed his baggage, and marched 
on the Syrian camp at Emmaus. So, when Gorgias came and found none in 
camp, supposing they were lurking in the mountains, spent his time hunting 
them. But about break of day Judas approached the camp at Emmaus with his 
three thousand ill-armed men, and saw the enemy well and skillfully fortified. 
He encouraged his men, telling them they ought to fight, though with naked 
bodies, for Jehovah had sometimes of old given such men strength against 



CHAPTER LXXVI.: SECtiOI^S Vlll.-Xt. S81 

superior numbers, who were well armed also, out of regard tO their courage or 
confidence. So, sounding the trumpets and falling upon the enemy, taken 
unawares and thrown in confusion, they slew all resisting and pursued the rest as 
far as Godara and the plains of Idamea, Ashdod, and Jamnia, and slew about 
three thousand. But Judas recalled his men and kept them in order, to await 
the return of Gorgias, and set fire to the camp in many parts. Gorgias did 
return, but his men, seeing their forty-six thousand comrades gone and camp in 
flames and hearing that Judas awaited them, were panic stricken, too, and fled, 
while Judas and his men pursued and cut to pieces more than before in the camp. 
Nine thousand of the Sj^rians lay dead on the field, and most of the rest were 
wounded. Mcanor fled to Antioch in disguise of a slave, declaring God fought 
for the Jews. 

8. Judas Takes Spoils and Gives Glory to God. — Judas took a great 
quantity of gold and silver, and purple and blue, and money brought by the 
slave merchant, and then returned home singing hymns to God for their good 
success; for this success greatly contributed to the recovery of their liberty. In 
their Psalms they found songs of triumph and thanksgiving, as well as lamenta- 
tion and supplication; and Judas was as careful to give the glory to Jehovah for 
deliverance and victory as he was to implore His aid in time of trouble. "How 
can we stand before them unless Thou, Thyself, assist us?" was his language 
before the battle, and now he acknowledges in praise and thanksgiving the deliv- 
erance to be from Jehovah. This was a Sabbath of joy and rejoicing. 

9. Judas Equips his Army and Relieves the Needy.* — This success 
increased and equipped the army of Judas, and knowing that two lieutenants, 
Timotheus and JSacchides, were raising reinforcements, he marched on them and 
defeated them, killing twenty thousand men, reduced several strongholds, and 
took much spoil, which enabled him to carry on the war efficiently. He also 
relieved the wants of the maimed, orphans, widows, and aged, out of the spoils 
he captured. 

10. Defeats Lysias. — Lysias was astonished ; but, perhaps, attributing the 
defeat to bad generalship more than to the power and providence of Jehovah, 
and knowing his favor with Antiochus was at stake, raised an army of sixty 
thousand chosen troops and five thousand horse, and, taking the command in 
person, marched into Judea, firmly resolved to waste the whole country and 
destroy all the inhabitants, and encamped at Beth sura, twenty miles from Jeru- 
salem. Judas advanced, with ten thousand, to meet him with full confidence in 
Jehovah's help, and, attacking his army, killed five thousand and dispersed the 
rest. Lysias retreated to Antioch and enlisted foreigners, intending to fall upon 
Judas with a still greater army. 

11. Worship of Jehovah Restored in the Temple. — Judas, being left 
master of the country, went to Jerusalem, recovered the temple, and placing men 
to fight the citadel, he purified it after three years' pollution, and brought in new 
furniture, made out of the rich spoils he had taken — the candlestick, table for 
shew-bread, and altar for incense, all made of gold — and he hung up the vails 
at the gates and added doors to them. He also took down the altar of burnt 
offering and built one of unhewn stone, and had everything restored and ofifer- 
ings made. The self-same day, three years after their worship had been abol- 
ished, Judas celebrated the festival of the restoration of the sacrifices of the 
temple for eight days; and he honored Jehovah by hymns and psalms, and 
feasted the people on sacrifices. This feast was observed in the time of Jose- 
phus. Judas rebuilt the wall around the city and reared towers and set guards 
in them, but not having force enough to blockade and starve out the garrison in 
the citadel on Mt. Acra, he controlled it by another built on the mount of the 
temple, and thus prevented their sallying out to murder the worshipers of Jehovah. 

(*) Anct. Hist., Vol. IV., p. 319. Roll, Vol. VII., pp. 86-7. Sup. Guide, p. 80. Polglt. Bible 
Outline, p. 5. Joseph. Ant., Bk. 12, chap. 7, §§ 6, 7. 



282 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

12. Death of Antiochus. — The success of the Jews reached Antiochus in 
the east, and exasperated him to the last degree of madness. He started back, 
threatening to extirpate the whole nation and make Jerusalem their common 
graveyard. But suddenly seized with sore pain, and yet rushing forward madly, 
he fell from his chariot and was bruised so he had to be carried in a litter ; he 
became loathsome, and tortured in body, and tormented in mind, and died. He 
made great profession of repentance for his crimes and cruelties; acknowl- 
edged the power and wrath of Jehovah upon him; promised full reparation to 
the Jews and temple and their religion; and vowed to become Jew and travel the 
empire and proclaim the power and greatness of Jehovah, and tell of His mighty 
works. But too late. Thus, the prayers of the seven martyred brothers were 
answered, 2 for he was tortured in body and mind till he acknowledged Jehovah 
to be the true God, and the Jews to be His people. During this rest to the Jews — 
while Jehovah was executing vengeance on their great enemy — Judas restored the 
ancient government of rulers of tens, hundreds, and thousands, and established 
the sanhedrin, or senate, that became so influential and powerful till the time of 
Christ. 

13. Judas Defeats the Allies.— A. M. 3810-4:4:, §§ 13, 14. —Though the 
man that decreed the destruction of Jehovah's people was vanquished and dead, 
his coadjutors were far from giving up the contest. Lysias, having the govern- 
ment in the minority of the young king, Antiochus Eupator, son of Epiphanes, 
the vile, formed a league with the Idumeans and surrounding nations for the 
first scheme of exterpating the whole race of Israel. Like other wild beasts of 
prey, having tasted the blood of martyrs, they became furious. Judas antici- 
pated the plot, and marching into Idumea slew forty-two thousand of them, and 
then great numbers of the Ammonites. Then, returning home, one Timotheus, 
governor of those parts, followed him with a numerous army, but Judas fell 
upon him, and overthrew him with a very great slaughter, and pursued him to 
Gazara, which he took, and slew both Timotheus and Chereus, governor of that 
city, and Apollophanes, another great captain of the Syrian forces ; and Ptolemy 
Macron, falling into disrepute with the Syrians, poisoned himself. ^ 

14. Next, the nations about Gilead fell upon the Jews in Tob, slew a thou- 
sand, took their goods, carried their wives and children captives, and drove the 
rest to seek refuge in the strong fortress Dathena. Timotheus, son of the 
former, shut them up and besieged them with a great army; while the inhab- 
itants of Tyre, Sidon, and Ftolmais were contriving to cut off the Jews living in 
Galilee. Judas, with the advice of the sanhedrin, divided his army into three 
parts; and leaving Johathan to protect Jerusalem, Judas marched into Gilead 
and Simon into Galilee, and delivered the Jews and slew their enemies with 
great slaughter, and drove them out of the country. But Jonathan, contrary to 
orders, left Jerusalem and attacked Jamnia to gain glory ; he was defeated by 
Gorgias with the loss of two thousand men.^ 

15. Lysias Defeated ; The Decree for Uniformity Revoked. — By this 
time Lysias had raised an army of eighty thousand men, eighty elephants, and 
all the horse of the kingdom, and marched in person to besiege Bethzura. Judas 
and all the people at Jerusalem besought the Lord with tears to send His angel for 
the preservation of Israel, and then took the field with confidence. Going out 
of Jerusalem, an angel appeared on horse with a lance ; the people, thus inspired, 
encountered the enemy, slew eleven thousand foot and one thousand six hundred 
horsemen, and dispersed the whole army. This victor}^ was happily attended 
with a treaty of peace in the young king's name. Lysias, now convinced that- 
the Jews were aided by an almighty power that he could not withstand, offered 
them peace on condition they would be loyal to the government. To this they 



(2) Chap. 75, § 9. (3) Sup. Guide, p. 8. Roll., Vol. VII., p. 215. (4) Joseph. Ant., 12:8. 



CHAPTER LXXVII. : SECTIONS I. -II. 283 

agreed on condition that the decree of Antiochus Epiphanes, which required the 
Jews to comform to the religion of the Greeks, to be revoked and canceled. Then 
Lysias issued a decree in the name of the young king, Antiochus Eupator, which 
allowed the Jews the untramelled exercise of their own customs and worship and 
to live according to their own laws. Thus, Antiochus, I^icanor, and Lysias, three 
principal actors, were compelled to acknowledge the power and divinity of 
Jehovah and the divinity of the Jews' religion ; Menelaus, the apostate high 
priest, who had been with the Syrians, was sent back to be reinstated in his office, 
and it is said he labored to obtain this peace. ^ 



CHAPTER LXXVII. 



APOSTATE JEWS CAUSE THE FAITHFUL TO CONTIISIUE TO FALL. 

A. M. 3841-3869. B. 0. 166-135. 

1. Peace Broken by Polytheists, Who are Conquered. — This peace was 
soon broken by the people of Joppa and Jamnia, who murdered the Jews dwelling 
among them. ^ Such was the wrath of the red dragon against Jehovah and His 
religion. Though no decree of the empire authorized them, yet no power or 
decree prohibited. But Judas soon destroyed them by fire and sword. Timotheus 
also gathered an army of one hundred and twenty thousand foot and two thousand 
five hundred horse, to oppress the Jews in Gilead across the Jordan ; but Judas, 
confiding in Jehovah, marched against him, met and conquered enemies on the 
road, slew fifty-five thousand of his men, and captured him, but released him on 
his promise to liberate all the captive Jews throughout his government. On his 
return, Judas stormed Ephron and slew twenty-five thousand men Lysias had 
placed in garrison there, because they opposed his return. Then he proceeded 
back and recrossed with the Jews and their goods and wives and children, and 
so returned to Jerusalem singing psalms and hymns, of which their collection of 
one hundred and fifty furnished most suitable ones. They concluded this cam- 
paign with a day of thanksgiving in the temple, giving all the glory to Jehovah. 
This must have harrassed the guilty conscience of the apostate Menelaus, 

2. Judas Invades and Besieges. — Next Judas invaded their persecutors in 
the south of Idumea, passed into the land of the Philistines and took Ashdod, 
destroyed their idols, and plundered their countries.'' But on his return, having 
conquered Gorgias, governor of Idumea,^ he found the garrison of Syrians and 
apostate Jews had done much mischief in sallying out and murdering the wor- 
shipers going to the temple. ^ This might have been expected when Menelaus 
was reinstated in the high priest's ofiice. Judas undertook to reduce it by siege, 
but some of the apostate Jews escaped to the country, and with others went to 
the king and accused Judas of hostility to the Syrian government, and argued 
the obligation on him to protect them, since they had left the religion of their 
fathers to comply with his father's decree. This exasperated him and Lysias, 
who marched to their relief with an army of one hundred thousand or one 



(5) Roll, Yol. yiL, p. 215; Anct. Hist., Vol. IV., p. 320; Sup. Guide, p. 80. (6) Joseph. 
Ant. 12:8; 4, 5. (7) Joseph. Ant., 12:8. 6; Sup. Guide 80. (8) Anct. Hist., Yol. IV., p. 324. 
(9) Joseph. Ant., 12:9.3. 



284 l*flE ^Il^GDOM OF GOi) DEVELOP Ei). ^ 

^ 

hundred and ten thousand foot and twenty thousand horse, three hundred armed 1 
chariots, and thirty-two elephants with castles on their backs full of men to throw 
javelins and shoot arrows. ^ 

3. Ltsias Invades and Besieges. — (Sup. Guide, p. 81; Roll., Yol. YIL, pp. 
216-17; Joseph., Bk. 12, chap. 9, §§4-7; Anct. Hist., Yol. lY., pp. 324-5.) 
Judas, relying on the omnipotence of God, exhorted his troops to fight to the last 
drop of blood, and gave them the battle word, " Yictory is of God;" and with 
chosen men he attacked the king's quarters in the night and killed four thousand 
men and retired, having tilled the camp with confusion and consternation. But the 
king, relying on his numbers and elephants, resolved on a general engagement. 
Judas met him in a narrow pass and killed six hundred men; but, overpowered 
by elephants, foot, and horse, was forced to retreat, having lost his brother, 
Eleazer, crushed by an elephant he stabbed. Each elephant was surrounded by 
one thousand foot and five hundred horse ; seeing one richly caparisoned, 
Eleazer supposed the king was in this castle, and cut his way through and ripped 
open the elephant, which fell upon and crushed him. Bethzura sustained a 
siege and made vigorous defense till want of provisions compelled a surrender, 
but the besieged were not murdered. Lysias and the king were not now perse- 
cuting religion, and respected the Jews, though they regarded Judas as having 
broken the former treaty, judging from the misrepresentations of the apostate 
Jews. Next, Judas and his friends were besieged in the temple, and to all appear- 
ances must surrender. But Jehovah, having shown the power was not in Judas 
and his valient soldiers, brought deliverance in another way, and showed His 
wisdom as well as power. , 

4. Civil War Recalls Lysias to Antioch. — (Roll., Yol. YIL, pp. 216-17 ; 
Anct. Hist., Yol. lY, p. 325 ; Joseph. Ant., Bk. 12, chap. 9, § 6 ; Sup. Guide, p. 
81.) The defeats of Lysias had lowered him in the estimation of Antiochus Epi- 
phanes, who, on his death, left the government of the empire and the tuition of his 
infant son to Philip. Lysias, however, managed to keep all in his own hands till 
now. But Philip now enters Antioch and takes the reins of government. Lysias, 
therefore, and the king concluded a peace with Judas, according to the former 
treaty, and confirmed it by an oath. But when he was admitted to the temple and 
saw the strength, he ordered the wall around it to be thrown down, though in 
violation of his oath. Considering the apostate high ])riest, Menelaus, the author 
of all these troubles, Lysias had him convicted, and by order of the king he was 
suffocated in a tower of ashes. ^ 

5. Apostates Continue the Troubles. — The king and Lysias returned to 
Antioch and defeated Philip, but were soon put to death themselves. ^ Here we 
might say the persecution ended; but the apostate Jews, by false representations, 
prejudiced the mind of the new king against Judas and the faithful Jews;* and 
by them the faithful continued to fall by the sword and captivity for days to 
come. But Judas lived to end the contest with Antiochus and his coadjutors 
about the divinity of Jehovah, and the truth, reality, and perpetuity of His 
religion. As the martyrs conquered in sufi'ering for Jehovah by the word and 
spirit of God, so Judas and his followers, by the help and providence of the same 
Jehovah, conquered prodigious hosts in every battle, and the enemy was com- 
pelled to acknowledge it. But now Judas and his brethren must fall by the hands 
of apostate Jews for days to come." 

6. Demetrius Takes the Throne of Syria (A. M. 3842) and Espouses 
THE Cause of the Apostates. §§6, 7, 8. — (Joseph. 12:10; Roll. 221-2; Anct. 
Hist. 325-6.) Demetrius was son of Seleucus Philopater and the rightful heir to 
the crown, instead of Antiochus Epiphanes, the vile. But, being sent to Rome 



(1) Sup. Guide, p. 81; Anct. Hist., Vol. IV., p. 324; Roll., Vol. YII., p. 216. (2) Sup. Guide, 
p. 81. (3) Roll., Vol. Vn., p. 222; Anct. Hist., Vol. IV., p. 325. (4) Joseph. Ant., 12:10. 1. 
(*) Dan. 11:33. 



CHAPTER LXVII. : SECTIONS YII. -IV. 285 

as hostage in place of his uncle, Epiphanes, the vile, he was detained there 
till now. Having escaped from Rome, he returned and claimed the throne of 
Syria. The army declared for him and delivered up Ljsias and the young 
Antiochus Epator, who were put to death as dangerous to the peace of the 
empire. Alcimns, an apostate priest, had obtained the high priest office from 
Eupator on the death of Menelaus, but was not of the family of the former high 
priest. Young Onias, the son of the good Onias, assassinated by Menelaus, was 
the legitimate high priest; but seeing that office go out of the family, he went to 
Egypt and there built a temple and officiated, as we have seen. ^ The faith- 
ful Jews refused Alcimus, because a wicked apostate to the Greek idolatry. 
But he collected all the apostate Jews at Antioch, and, as leader, petitioned the 
new king to defend them from the oppressions of Judas and his brothers, venting 
a thousand calumnies against them. He accused them of killing all persons of 
Demetrius' party who fell into their hands and of forcing, all his company to 
abandon their country. Demetrius immediately ordered Bacchides, governor of 
Mesopotamia, to march an army into Judea; and confirming Alcimus in the high 
priest's office, joined him in the commission with Bacchides to carry on the war 
with Judas. This was very unwise in Demetrius to commit himself to a war for 
one party without examining the truth of the accusations made against the 
other. 

.7. Alcimus and Bacchides Oppose Judas. — Bacchides tried to ensnare the 
faithful by profession of peace. Judas was not to be ensnared, but others, rely- 
ing on their oaths, were; and sixty scribes and doctors of the law were thus 
treacherously slaughtered in one day. This, however, prevented others of the 
pious Jews from joining Alcimus, seeing he and Bacchides had no regard to 
their oaths. Bacchides reinstated Alcimus in the high priest's office, and leaving 
the province of Judea in his care, with forces to sustain him, returned to Antioch. 
The decree of uniformity to the Greek idolatry being revoked, left Alcimus at 
liberty to act the hypocrite and ingratiate himself with the Jews, by leading their 
worship of Jehovah and pretending zeal for their welfare. He succeeded in 
making a strong party and considerable of an army out of those who had been 
apostates and were yet impious; and under pretense of opposing Judas, who 
was revered by the pious, he roamed the country and slew many of the faithful. 
But Judas opposed him, and slew the impious apostates. Alcimus applied again 
to Demetrius, who, resolved on the utter destruction of the Maccabees, sent a 
large army under Nicanor, his friend, who fled with him from Home. 

8. Alcimus and Nicanor Defeated. — Nicanor proposed a compromise, 
but Alcimus opposed it, so he had to obey his orders and fight. With false 
oaths, and pretentions to make a league of friendship, he almost caught Judas, 
who observing the signal to seize him escaped back to his men and fled. Nicanor 
commenced hostilities and was defeated with the loss of five thousand men, and 
was forced to take refuge in the citatel, or castle, on Mt. Acra, till reinforced. 
Another army from Syria having arrived at Bethhoron, Nicanor passed from the 
citadel through the temple, and the priests showed him the sacrifices they ofl'ered 
for the king; but enraged for the late defeat of his numerous and war-like army 
by a handful of men, and knowing they placed their whole confidence for victory 
in Jehovah, and in promises made in the temple where He was honored, uttered 
a thousand blasphemies gainst Him and His temple, and threatened to pull down 
the temple on his return unless they delivered up Judas to him. But he never 
returned. Having joined his reinforcements he was ready for battle, with an 
army of thirty-five thousand men. eludas, as usual, encouraged his little army 
to disregard the numbers of the enemy, but to consider who they were, for what 
great rewards they hazarded themselves, and to fight courageously. The battle 
was desperate till Nicanor fell, when his army threw down their arms and fled. 



(5) Chap. 73, §§ 10, 11. 



286 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Judas gave the signal of victory by sounding the trumpet; the villagers put on 
armor and m.et the flying enemy in the face, and not one escaped to Antioch to 
tell the story. The Jews celebrated this victory by a festival and thanksgiving, 
then and every year afterwards. Jehovah answered the prayers of the priests, 
wliich they made when Nicanor threatened to destroy the temple. 

9. JuDAs Makes a League with the Romans. — The nation was now free 
from war for awhile, and Judas, with the faithful, had the ascendency in Jerusa- 
lem and Judea. Judas, observing the Syrians had no regard to oaths and treaties, 
and that all their neighboring nations, being defeated in their effort to extirpate 
the Jews and abolish the religion of Jehovah, were watching every opportunity 
to do them mischief, sent commissioners to Home and obtained a league of 
mutual defence, and a letter to Demetrius requiring him to desist from molesting 
the Jews. *5 Like David, and Asa, and others, who had experienced the signal 
protection of Jehovah, Judas seeks protection by reliance on man. But what- 
ever advantage this may have been to the Jews afterwards, it came too late for 
Judas. 

10. Jhdas Sueprised and Slain. — The honor and power of Demetrius was 
at stake, and to recover these he sent Bacchides and the wicked high priest, 
Alcimus, a second time, with a numerous and powerful army — twenty thousand 
foot and two thousand horse of his choicest troops — to revenge the defeats and 
death of JSTicanor, and so retrieve the honor of his army. These came upon 
Judas when he had but three thousand men, and all but eisjht hundred forsook 
him, being dismayed at the report of the formidable army of the enemy. These 
eight hundred insisted on a retreat till an army could be gathered, but Judas, 
unlike himself in all former occasions, is instigated by his own reputation and 
glory. He said, "Let not the sun see such a thing that I should show my back 
to the enemy; and although this be the time that will bring me to my end, and 
I must die in this battle, I will rather stand to it courageously and bear whatever 
comes upon me than now, by running away, bring reproach upon my former 
great actions or tarnish their glory." The battle commences; twenty thousand 
foot and two thousand horse against eight hundred foot soldiers. Judas and his 
men charged the right wing, where Bacchides commanded in person, broke it 
and drove it to the mountains of Azotus, and had achieved a complete victory; 
but the left wing, having no foe to fight, followed and surrounded them; then 
Judas and his men fought all around them, slew many, and sold their lives at a 
dear rate. Judas fell, covered with wounds, and expired ; and those that sur- 
vived him escaped by flight and concealment. '^ 

11. Character of Judas. — That Judas was a man of personal valor is evi- 
dent from his last battle ; that he was pious and confided in Jehovah was proved 
by all his former life. He belongs to that cloud of witnesses who, through faith 
worked prodigies, and died in faith, not having received the promises but seeing 
them beyond the resurrection. 8 He was a pilgrim and sojourner on earth, and 
when his work was finished he stayed not to enjoy the fruits, but departed this 
life. He lived in the field of battle, and died in heroic action ; and none greater 
in the development of the kingdom of God, though we do not claim that he was 
perfect or never erred. 

12. Apostates Regain the Power. A. M. 3850. B. C. 154. — After the 
death of Judas, all the wicked, and those that had transgressed the laws of their 
ancestors, sprang up again in Judea and increased and distressed the faithful on 
every side. They caught the friends of Judas and delivered them to Bacchides, 
who tortured and tormented them at pleasure till he killed them. The calamities 
of the faithful led them to request Jonathan to become governor and save his 



(6) Joseph. Ant. 12:10, 6; Sup. Guide, p. 81; Roll., Vol. VIT.. p. 223-4; Anct. Hist.. Vol. IV., 
p. 326. (7) Sup. Guide, p. 81; Joseph. Ant., 12:11; Anct. Hist., Vol. IV., p. 327; Roll., Vol. VII., 
p. 224. (8) Heb. 11:13. 



CHAPTER LXXVII. : SECTIONS XIII. -XIV. 287 

country. He complied, saying he was ready to die for them. (A. M. 3850-3860.) 
Bacchides hearing this, tried to ensnare him by treachery, but failing in this 
resolved on war. Jonathan with his few men retired to the wilderness of Tekoa, 
and encamped between a morass and the Jordan. Bacchides, having recruited 
his army, secured the pass and attacked them on the Sabbath. Jonathan, hav- 
ing prayed to God for victory, joined battle and overthrew many, and then swam 
the Jordan and escaped with his army. Bacchides presently returned to the 
citadel at Jerusalem, having lost about two thousand of his army. Having fort- 
ified many cities and put garrisons in them, as also the citadel at Jerusalem, he 
gathered the apostate Jews and committed the country to them ; took the sons of 
the principal Jews as hostages and returned to Antioch. Alcimus, the wicked 
high priest, while resolving to pull down the old wall of the sanctuary, died sud- 
denly, and the land had peace two years, which enabled Jonathan to get his 
aifairs into better condition. ^ 

13. Apostates Defeated. — Whether Demetrius received the senatorial let- 
ter from Rome and recalled Bacchides, is not known, but he tried war again. 
The apostate Jews, who Josephus calls "deserters and the wicked," saw Jona- 
than and his friends quietly enjoying their religion, and it grieved them. So they 
sent to Demetrius to send Bacchides back and they would fall upon Jonathan 
unawares in the night, and seizing him deliver him up. But Jonathan antici- 
pated the movement and put fifty of the principal conspirators to death. Bac- 
chides arrived with a great army, but not receiving Jonathan in bonds, as prom- 
ised, he slew fifty more of the apostates for imposing on him. Jonathan and his 
followers retired to Bethagla, and fortified and guarded it. Bacchides hearing 
this, led his own army along with him, and besides, took his Jewish auxiliaries 
and besieged it many days. Jonathan left his brother, Simon, in the city fighting 
Bacchides ; stole out into the country and gathered a great body of his own 
party, and fell on Bacchides' camp in the night and destroyed a great many of 
them. Simon sallied out of the city, burnt the engines, and made a great 
slaughter of the enemy. Thus encompassed and harrassed, Bacchides vented 
his wrath upon those apostates who invited him, and put some of them to death. 
Jonathan learning he desired some pretext to raise the siege and return home, 
sent commissioners to him about a league of peace. So peace was made, and the 
prisoners on both sides restored. Bacchides swore he would never molest 
the Jews any more, and returned to Antioch. i (B. C. 156 or 158.) 

14. Jonathan Becomes High Priest and Restores the Pious and the 
Pure Worship. — Then went Jonathan and dwelt in Michmash and there gov- 
erned the multitude and punished the wicked and impious; and by this means 
purified the nation. ^ Jonathan became high priest A. M. 3847, or B. C. 157, 
after the ofiice had been vacant seven years from the death of Alcimus. ^ He 
reformed the worship and civil government, rebuilt the walls about the city and 
temple, and restored the power to the faithful.^ The apostates rule was forever 
broken, and the high priesthood continued in the Asmonean, or Macabeen, line 
till the time of Herod. The crown of the Syrian empire became the prize of 
many claimants; and the Jews became involved in these wars as they pre- 
claimed for the one party or the other, and their help was often rewarded by 
injustice, ingratitude, treachery, and murder, till John Hyrcanus shook off the 
Syrian yoke. But the great contest about the supremacy and religion of Jehovah 
was ended after seventeen years of unparalleled war ; and once more the people 
of God could visit their temple with joy and worship in the beauty of holiness, 
though the citadel was not yet captured. ^ 



(9) Joseph. Ant., 13:1, 1-3; 12:10, 6. (1) Joseph. Ant. 13:1. 5. 6: Sup. Guide, p. 81. (2) Joseph. 
Ant. 13:1. 6. (3) Joseph. Ant. 13:2. 2, 8; Roll., Vol. YII., pp. 226-7. (4) Sup. Guide, pp. 81-2; 
Roll, Vol. VII., pp. 229, 232-3, 334; Ancfc. Hist., Vol. IV., pp. 329. 332; Jo=!eph. Ant. 13:4. 4; 
and chap. 5. 2. 3. 6. 10. (5) Joseph. Ant. 13:4. 9; Anct. Hist., Yol. IV., p. 331. 



288 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

15. Simon Becomes High Priest and Governor. A. M. 3860-3869. 
B. C. 13tl:-135. — Jonathan destroyed the temple of Dagon and Azotus and ei^ht 
thousand men of the army of Apollonius, burned a great part of Antioch, and 
slew one hundred thousand of the inhabitants, and returned laden with booty; 
took Gaza, Bethzura, Joppa, and showed himself as valorous as any of the 
Macabeen family ; but he was rewarded by the kings he assisted with treachery, 
and he and his two sons were assassinated by Tryphon, who professed great 
respect and friendship.^ 

Simon became high priest and governor. He reduced the citadel on Mount 
Acra, held by Syrians and apostate Jews till now, and leveled the Mount. In a 
general assembly of priests, elders, and the whole people of Jerusalem, Simon 
was chosen general, with the title of "Sovereign and High Priest," and declared 
that title hereditary in his family. He drove Tryphon, the murderer of Jonathan, 
out of the country; renewed the alliance with the Romans, and with his two 
sons, Judas and John, overthrew the forces of Antiochus Sidetes, and showed 
himself not inferior to his brethren. But he and two of his sons were perfid- 
iously murdered by his son-in-law, Ptolemy ; but John Hyrcanus anticipated the 
treachery, and slew his intended murderers. ® 

16. John Hyrcanus. A. M. 3869-3899. B. C. 135-105.— John Hyrcanus 
hastened to Jerusalem and secured the city and temple before Ptolemy arrived, 
where he was declared his father's successor in the high priest's office and princi- 
pality of the Jews. Antiochus Sidetes, king of Syria, made all possible haste to 
take advantage of the deatli of Simon, and advanced with a powerful army to 
reunite Judea to the Syrian empire; and Hyrcanus, with incredible valor, sus- 
tained a long siege. Those about the king's person pressed him to exterminate the 
Jewish nation. They represented to him that the Jews had been driven out of 
Egypt as impious wretches, hated by the gods and abhorred by men ; that they 
were enemies of all mankind, as they had no communication with any but those 
of their own sect, and would neither eat, drink, nor have any familiarity with 
other people; that they did not adore the same gods; that they had laws, cus- 
toms, and a religion entirely different from that of all other nations; that there- 
fore they well deserved'to be treated by other nations with equal contempt and 
to be rendered hatred for hatred, and that all people ought to unite in extirpating 
them. Diodorus Siculus, as well as Josephus, says that it was from the pure 
effect of the generosity and clemency of Antiochus that the Jewish nation was 
not entirely destroyed on this occasion.'^ 

It was because Jehovah had covenanted to keep them and bless all families 
of the earth through them, and so turned the notion and policy of the king to 
favor them. God could have delivered the Jews in any way He pleased, but 
adopted this way at this time, and a treaty was made after this. 

Hyrcanus shook off the Syrian yoke, conquered the Samaritans, and destroyed 
their apostate temple on Mt. Gerisim, which had stood for about two hundred 
years (A. M. 3672-3895 — two hundred and twenty-three years) ; conquered the 
Idumeans and compelled them to embrace the Jews' religion; renewed the alliance 
with the Romans, and obtained greater privileges for the nations than they ever 
before had under foreign powers ; and, surrounded with peace, died, leaving five 
sons. (Continued, Chap. 79.) 



(5) Joseph. Ant. 13:4. 9; Anct. Hist., Vol. lY., d. 831. (6) Roll., Vo'. VIL, pp. 234-5, 237-9; 
Joseph. Ant. 13:6 3-7. and chap. 7; Sup. Guide, p. 82. (7) Joseph. Ant. 18:7-10; Roll.,YoL VII., 
pp. 246, 258-61; Sup. Guide, p. 82. 



CHAPTER LXXYIII. 



EEYIEW OF DANIEL'S PEEDICTION. 

1. Medes and Persians Superseded by Alexander. — We are now prepared 
to review the eleventh chapter of Daniel, which is a revelation to let him know 
what should befall his people in the latter days (Dan. 10:14), so the last part of 
the programme can not refer to transactions of the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. 
This glorious ambassador confirmed and strengthened Darius, the Mede, in his 
kingdom, in decreeing for Jehovah and three Persian kings — Cyrus, Darius Hys- 
taspis, and Artaxerxes Ahasuerus — who should stand up for Israel and the 
cause of Jehovah ; but the fourth known in the development of the kingdom of 
God, though richer and using all to subdue Grecia, shall be defeated. Then a 
mighty, extensive, and independent kingdom (that of Alexander) shall stand up 
and favor the Jews. But, when established, shall be divided toward the four 
winds (Egypt, Babylon, Thrace, and Macedonia), and not to his posterity, but 
others; and finally shall be all dismembered. [Yerse 5th.] 

2. Ptolemys and Selucedea. — And the king of the south shall be strong 
(the Ptolemies of Egypt, who conquered Celo-Syria, Phenicia, and Judea), and 
another of his (Alexander's) princes (the Seleucidse of Babylon, who conquered 
all Asia Minor and moved their capital from Babylon to Antioch, north of Jeru- 
salem, and thus became) stronger than him (the Ptolemies), and have dominion: 
his dominion shall be a great dominion (extending from the Indus to the 
Adriatic). And in the end of years they shall join themselves together (by 
marriage) for (Berenice) the king's daughter of the south (Egypt) shall come to 
the king of the north (Syria, the empire of the Seleucidse) to make an agreement 
for by an agreement of the two kings); but shall not retain the power of the arm 
(or her influence with Antiochus Theos, for he afterwards, when Ptolemy was 
dead, brought back his former wife, Laodice, who had been divorced and her 
children proscribed from the throne. Laodice, fearing a repetition of the same 
and being enraged, poisoned the king, so that), neither shall he (Antiochus) 
stand, nor his arm (or power and treaties, being poisoned), but she (Berenice) 
shall be given up, and they that brought her (her Egyptian attendants, to the 
wrath of Laodice), and he that begat her, and he that strengthened her (in these 
times — Ptolemy Philadelphus, who died shortly before). [Yerse 6.] 

3. Euergetes and Callinicus. — But out of a branch of her (Berenice) roots 
shall one stand up in his estate (her brother, Euergetes, in her father's throne), 
which shall come with an army and shall enter the fortress (or fenced cities) of 
the king of the north (Seleucus Callinicus, son of Laodice), and shall deal against 
them and prevail, and shall also carry captives into Egypt their gods (some of 
those idols were Egyptian gods, carried off by Cambyses, king of Persia, or by 
the kings of Assyria. For the return of these gods the Egyptians gave Ptolemy 
the name Euergetes, or Benefactor), with their princes, and with their precious 
vessels of silver and gold (40,000 talents and 2,500 statues of gods), and he shall 
continue more years than the king of the north. So the king of the south shall 
come into his kingdom (of the north) and return into his own land (into Egypt). 
[Yerses 7-9.1 

-19 



290 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

4. Cerannus, Antiochus the Great, and Ptolemy Philopater. — But his 
sons (SeleucLis Cerannus and Antiochus the Great, the sons of Callinicus), shall 
be stirred up, and shall assemble a multitude of great forces, and one (of them, 
Antiochus the Great) shall certainly come, and overflow (Oelo-Syria), and pass 
through; then shall he return (the next jear), and be stirred up (marchino^) even 
to his fortress (the frontier towns of Egypt). And the king of the south (Ptolemy 
Philopater) shall be moved with choler and shall come forth (the third year) and 
fight with him, even with the king of the north (Antiochus), and he (Antiochus 
the Great) shall set forth a great multitude; but the multitude shall be given into 
his (Ptolemy Philopater' s) hands (at the battle of Kaphia). And when he hath 
taken away the multitude (of Syrians), his heart shall be lifted up and he 
(Ptolemy) shall cast down many ten thousands, but he shall not be strengthened 
by it (Ptolemy, on his return from this victory, attempted to enter the Most 
Holy Place in the Temple, and, being terrified from it, persecuted the Jews in 
Egypt to make them apostatize, and killed many, some say forty thousand 
and some say sixty thousand. See chap. 73, § 9. But this did not strengthen 
him, as it alienated the Jews in Judea and all Asia from him, and induced them 
to aid Antiochus in the future : but it may refer to the Syrians slaughtered in the 
battle of Paphia. 

5. Antiochtjs the Great and Ptolemy Epiphanes. — (After the death of 
Ptolemy Philopator) the king of the north (Antiochus) shall return and set forth 
a multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain years 
(twelve), with a great army and much riches. And in those times there shall 
many stand up against the king of the south (Macedonians in particular); also 
the robbers of thy people (Jews and Samaritans), shall exalt themselves (or aflfect 
independence) to establish the vision [Dan. 11:14] (or bring on the predicted 
calamities), but they shall fall (by Scopias, the Egyptian general, in the minority 
of Ptolemy Epiphanes, Philopater's son). So the king of the north (Antiochus 
the Great) shall come and cast up a mount and take the most fenced cities ; and 
the arms of the south (under Scopias) shall not withstand, neither his chosen 
people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand (also revolters of Israel 
shall arise against him, and for Antiochus). But he (Antiochus) that cometh 
against him shall do according to his own will and none shall stand before him ; 
and he shall stand in the glorious land which by his hand shall be consumed by 
him (Antiochus after this made compensation for the ravages of their country). 
[See chap. 74, §§ 2-5.] 

6. Romans Impose Tribute on Antiochus. — He (Antiochus) shall also set 
his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom (into Raphia) and upright 
ones with him (to make an agreement with Ptolemy Epiphanes, the young king 
of Egypt), and he (Antiochus) shall give him (Ptolemy Epiphanes, in marriage,) 
the daughter of women (Cleopatra), corrupting her (with bribes); but she shall 
not stand on his side, neither be for him (but for her husband, Ptolemy, contrary 
to the will of Antiochus.) After this he (Antiochus) shall turn his face into the 
isles (westward), and shall take many ; but a prince (Roman power), for his own 
behalf (and to support his allies), shall cause the reproach (or affront) oflFered by 
him to cease ; without his own reproach (or any defeat) he shall cause it to turn 
upon him (Antiochus). Then he (Antiochus the Great) shall turn his face toward 
the fort of his own land ; but he shall stumble and fall (in that city) and not be 
found (any more in battle, but shall meet with an unexpected and violent death). 
[Verses 10-19.] 

7. Seleucus Philopater, Heliodorus, and Antiochus Epiphanes. — Then 
shall (Seleucus Philopater) stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes (to pay the 
Romans) in the glory of the kingdom ; but within few days (eleven years and a 
few months) he shall be destroyed, neither in anger nor in battle (but by domestic 
treason, assassinated by his tresaurer, Heliodorus, who usurped the throne). 



I 



CHAPTER LXXVIII. : SECTIONS VIII. -X. 291 

[Verse 20.] And in his (Seleucus Piiilopater's) estate shall stand up a vile person 
(Antiochus Epiphanes, who publicly indulged in low vices and rowdyism in the 
lowest grade of vagabonds, so that many of his idolatrous subjects would not 
attend his games to witness his unkingly vices and vulgarities), to whom they 
(Syrians) shall not give the honor of the kingdom (but adhere to the usurper); 
but he shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom by flatteries (by fair 
speeches and promises he got the king of Pergamus and his brother. Attains, to 
set him on the throne, and also won the Romans and many Syrians to his interest), 
and with the arms of a flood shall they (Heliodorus and his government) be over- 
flown from before him, and shall be broken (swept ofl", nevermore to trouble him). 
Yea, also the prince of the covenant (he deposed the pious Onias III., high 
priest of the Jews and prince of the Jews' covenant with God, who held his 
oflice by covenant grant from Jehovah — and then Antiochus sold the office, first 
to Jason and then to Menelaus, for extravagant sums), and after the league made 
with him (his nephew, Ptolemy Philopater, king of Egypt) he shall come up and 
shall become strong (in Phenicia) with a small people (or retinue). (Yerses 20-3). 

8. Antiochus Becomes Great. — He shall enter peaceably even upon the 
fattest places of the province (Phenicia); and he shall do that his fathers have 
not done, nor his father's father; he shall scatter among them (without regard to 
merit or as a reward to valor and great deeds) the prey and spoil and riches (he 
had collected plunder and his revenues to bestow upon the Phenicians, in order 
to attach them to his interest). Yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the 
strongholds (of Egypt) even for a time (convenient), and he shall stir up his power 
and his courage against the king of the south (Ptolemy Philometer) with a great 
army, and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and 
mighty army ; but he shall not stand, for they (Antiochus and his counselors) 
shall forecast devices against him. [24-25.] 

9. Overruns Egypt and Judea. — Yea, they that feed of the portion of his 
meat (namely : Euleus, his tutor, and Ptolemy Macron, governor of Cyprus) 
shall destroy him (so that he, Ptolemy Philometer, shall be taken prisoner), and 
his array shall overflow, and many shall fall down slain, and both these kings' 
hearts shall be to do mischief (to each other) ; and they shall speak lies at one 
table (Antiochus pretending to restore the crown to Ptolemy, and Ptolemy pre- 
tending to oppose his brother, Physcon, set upon the throne by the Egyptians 
while he, Philometer, was in captivity to Antiochus); but it shall not prosper (the 
war shall not cease on either side), for yet the end shall be at the time appointed. 
Then shall he (Antiochus) return into his land with great riches (having overrun' 
all Egypt but Alexandria, the capital) and his heart shall be against the holy 
covenant (made with the Jews), and he shall do desperate or unheard-of things 
(he murdered and led captive about eighty thousand Jews and robbed and polluted 
the temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem) and return to his own land (loaded with the 
plunder and spoils of Egypt and Jerusalem). 

10. Persecutes the Jews. — At the time appointed he shall return and come 
toward the south (to Egypt); but it shall not be as the former coming or as the latter. 
For the ships of Chittim (or the west) shall come against him (bringing embassadors 
from Rome commanding him to desist warring against Egypt, which he did with 
much pusilamity); therefore he shall be grieved and return (toward Antioch) and 
have indignation against the holy covenant ; so shall he do, he shall return (to Jeru- 
salem, which he commanded to be depopulated by sword and captivity) and have 
intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant (with the wicked and apos- 
tate high priest, Menelaus, and his wicked party of apostate Jews, to supersede 
the worship of Jehovah with the Grecian Polytheism and idolatry), and arms 
(armed forces and a fortified citadel) shall stand on his part (to sustain him in his 
impiety), and they (the armed forces of Syrians and apostate Jews and Samari- 
tans, with an apostate high priest for leader) shall pollute the sanctuary of strength 



292 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

(or strong center and citadel of the kingdom of God. !Not neighborhood syna- 
gogues by petty mobs, but by a regular army and power of the empire he shall 
destroy the palace of Jehovah, that is too strong for a common mob. It will be 
a national movement), and shall take away the daily (worship). The phrase, 
*'the daily," no doubt associated with it primarily the morning and evening 
lambs sacrificed daily ; but that it did so to the exclusion of the other parts of wor- 
ship daily observed, and even extraordinary sacrifices and oblations of daily occur- 
rence, we do not admit, and therefore reject the word "sacrifice," thrown in by 
our translators, as limiting the phrase without authority; and the facts are, Anti- 
ochus abolished all and every part of religious worship to Jehovah in the temple 
for three years); and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate (the 
altar and statue of the Olympian Zeus of the Greeks, or Jupiter of the Romans, 
which, like that of Baal did, will desolate Jerusalem, at the present and in the 
future) [Yerses 29-31], and such as do wickedly against the covenant (the apos- 
tates) shall he (Antiochus and his successors) corrupt by flatteries ; but the 
people that know their God shall be strong and do (the Macabeens did exploits.) 
[Verse 32.] 

11. Pious Jews do Exploits. — And they that understand among the people 
(the sons of oil) shall instruct many; yet they (these witnesses and instructors) 
shall fall by the sword, by fiame and captivity, and by spoil days (about seventeen 
years the faithful fell for their religion, till Jonathan became high priest and put 
an end to the rule of the apostate Jews). Now, when they shall fall they shall be 
helped with a little help (by Matthias and his sons and grandson, John Hyrcanus, 
or rather from the Romans, with whom they formed alliance. This help was but 
little and only for a time); but many shall cleave to them with flatteries (wlien 
they gain the power and victory ; so this will not be the glorious and permanent 
triumph foretold by the prophets and hoped for by every pious Jew ; for hypo- 
crites will always bring trouble to the kingdom of God till they be utterly 
excluded.) 

12. Persecutions Not Ended. — And some of them of understanding shall 
fall (or continue to fall), to try them, and to purge and make them white even 
to the time of the end; because it is yet for the time appointed (the time 
appointed in prophecy for the end of persecutions and calamities was twenty- 
three hundred years from the commencement of the vision of the ram and he- 
goat); then shall the sanctuary be cleaned, and never more be yjolluted; and the 
sufierings of the children of the kingdom of God shall cease, and all tears be 
wiped from their eyes. Till then persecutions will be necessary to purify the 
kingdom and keep the pious on their guard against falsehood and sin. When 
people must sufler and die for their principles and practices, they are more 
careful to have them pure. Go thy way, Daniel, for thou shalt rest and stand 
to thy lot in the end of the days. I know of no other appointed end to the suf- 
ferings of the faithful. Yerses 21-35. (Continued, Chap. 81, §§ 2, 3.) 



Palestine an Independent Sovereignty. A. M. 3869-3939, or 3941. Ckaps. 

79 and 80. 

CHAPTER LXXIX. 



JERUSALEM AND HER MISSIONARY OUTPOSTS OR SCATTERED 
SYNAGOGUES. (Continued from Chap. 77.) 

1. The Jews Force Their Religion on Other Nations. — John Hyrcanus 
appears to have been a great and good man, an able general and statesman, and 
a devoted high priest ; held his office thirty years, and left Judea and the Jews 
in a prosperous condition, i But I fear he was the last pious high priest the Jews 
had, unless it was Hyrcanus II., and last. Aristobulus succeeded his father, 
John Hyrcanus, in the high priest's office and the civil government of Judea. 
He had the impiety to take the diadem and title of King of the Jews, which 
belonged to the family of David, and to be a priest upon the throne as the 
Messiah of Israel. He, or his brother, Antigonas, under him, conquered the 
Iturians, and forced them to conform to the religion of the Jews. ^ He was 
succeeded by his brother, Alexander Janeus, who burned Gaza and compelled 
the Philistines to embrace* the Jews' religion. He subdued the Moabites, 
Ammonites, and a part of the Arabians. ^ These nations changed their religion, 
and could not, like the Jews, suffer martyrdom for it. Their religion had no 
foundation to sustain it, either in the soul or by outward evidence. 

2. AsMONEAN Princes. — The crown, usurped by Aristobulus, was the sub- 
ject of mutual jealousies and murders in his family till Judea was conquered by 
Pompey, the Roman general or consul, and the throne was taken from them and 
given to Herod, of New Testament notoriety. The Asmonean, or Maccabean 
dynasty, commencing with Judas, A. M. 3837, or B. C. 163, continued to rule 
about one hundred and twenty-six or one hundred and twenty-nine years; and 
the high priest office, commencing with Jonathan, A. M. 3840, or B. C. 153, 
continued till Hyrcanus II., B. C. 47, for one hundred and six years; or, if we 
may count three years of Antigonus and the one year of the boy, Aristobulus, 
grandson of Hyrcanus II., who was murdered by Herod's order, B. C. 29, it 
lasted one hundred and twenty-four years. They were the seed of Pheneas, son 
of Eleazer, eldest son of Aaron. Antigonus took Jerusalem in war, and held it 
three years, instead of his uncle Hyrcanus, and was the last prince of the race, 
B. C. 37-34, or as some have it, B. C. 40-38. 

3. Missionary Position of Jerusalem. — The Old Serpent, as represented 
by the red dragon, failed in his fifth policy — to put down the religion of 
Jehovah by persecution. He was defeated, while the Jews forced their religion 
on surrounding nations. B^ut many Jews now adhered to the letter of the law 
in religious rites who had no delight in its moral precepts, and brought reproach 
on their God and worship by their wicked practices.^ But the gulf between 
them and Polytheists had been so widened by the late persecution, that patriotism 
and national interest made all compromise impossible for many generations; and 
now the Syrian and Egyptian empires, rent and torn into factions, and the 

(1) Anct. Hist., Vol. IV., p. 336. (2) Roll., Vol. YIL, p. 281; Joseph. Ant. 13:11; Wrs. 1:8; 
Sup. Guide 82. (3) Roll., Yol. VII., pp. 282-3; Joseph. Ant. 13:12-15; Wrs. 1:4; Sup. Guide, 
p. 82; Polglt. Bible Outline, p. 6. See chap. 77, § 16. (4) Dan. 11:34. 



^94 THE KtNGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

fragments intent on conquest or independence, had no time for conciliation and 
friendship with the Jews, while the overshadowinoj power and absorbino^ policy 
of Rome protected any nation or religion that would enable them to break down 
and absorb a more powerful kingdom. The Jews, having become strong among 
the fragments of these empires, and yet not dangerous to Rome, received her 
protection in all nations in her interest or under her subjection. This secured 
the Jews great privileges in traveling to their city and temple, and enjoying and 
supporting their religion. The old laws of Syria and Egypt, wherever respected, 
secured these rights; and the new decrees of Rome increased their privileges at 
home in Judea, or abroad among the nations,^ and their true piety where that 
existed, led others to become proselytes, or at least to respect or prefer their 
religion. 

4. Want of Historical Information. — But the high priests, being civil 
rulers and generals, taking part in the commotions and changes around them, 
would involve the nation in political calamities; while their civil wars about the 
priesthood must have brought many and great evils and hindrances to worship- 
ing in the temple. Perhaps the synagogues among the distant nations enjoyed 
more peace and piety than was in Jerusalem. But now, wherever the Jew went 
he took the outward show of his religion with him ; while the sons of Oil showed 
the true light and made it shine, to the praise of Jehovah and His religion. The 
development of the kingdom of God is never observed by historians; therefore 
we have but little account of its true condition and progress. For one hundred 
and seven years, from the successful and prosperous government of John 
Hyrcanus and the peace that surrounded him on all sides at his death till the 
time of Christ, we have no internal view of the kingdom. History confines its 
accounts to Judea and Jerusalem, and narrates little else than the invasions, 
aggressions, revolutions, and commotions of that province and the contentions 
about the government and the priesthood. The reader would think Jerusalem 
had been nothing but the scene of tumult and bloodshed. But the kingdom of 
God had then extended its territory from the Indus to the Tiber, and from the 
Caspian sea to the south sea and utmost boundary of Egypt. 

5. Internal Yiew. — That all who live piously and unflinchingly witness 
for the truth of God must expect persecution, is true, and has been proved by 
experience in all ages of the kingdom; but they have also had times of pros- 
perity and enjoy a foretaste of the happiness that awaits them in its consummated 
age. Much of these one hundred and seven years Jerusalem was a peaceful 
city and Judea a fruitful province. In that temple, repaired, adorned, and puri- 
fied, the burnt offerings and sacrifices for the sins of the people were continually 
made ; prayers of priests, Jews, and gentiles were made without interruption ; 
and the psalms, hymns, and songs collected into one book in their sacred writings 
were chanted or sung continually, and resounded throughout that palace of 
Jehovah. There were scribes, who multiplied copies of the Scriptures, and 
doctors or teachers to expound them. There, too, the pious Jews from Persia, 
Media, Armenia, and Babylon saluted kindred spirits from Rome, Greece, Asia- 
'Minor, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Arabia. The temple of Onias in Egypt did not 
prevent Jews and proselytes from worshiping at Jerusalem. Yast multitudes, 
speaking diff*erent languages, all taught from the Hebrew Scriptures, or from the 
the Greek translation, united in the whole worship of Jehovah, the God of 
Israel, were carrying back to their brethren in the land of their sojourn the 
truths they had learned, and the joy and hopes of Israel. Zion might well say, 
I was desolated by the persecutor and my temple desecrated and ruined by 
apostates, a forlorn widow! but these, where had they been?^ 

6. Rights and Privileges of the Jews. — The Jews had been guaranteed 
the right to live according to their own laws and the customs of their forefathers, 



(5) Joseph. Ant. 12:10. 6; 13:5. 8, and 9:2; 14:10. 12. (6) Isa. 49:21. 



CHAPTEE LXXIX. : SECTIONS VI. -Vlll. 295 

and thej were protected in their journeys to Jerusalem, and had the right to 
carry up their gifts and offerings to the temple. "^ These rights and privileges 
were superseded by the persecuting decree of Antiochus Epiphanes about seven 
or nine years, but when that decree was revoked and they were restored by 
proclamation they were again in force wherever the Syrian power existed. ^ How 
the revolted provinces in the east used the Jews we are not told, but I suppose 
as they had been accustomed since the days that the Persian empire advanced 
the Jews to positions of honor and trust; and we find the governors providing 
guards for those from Babylon, and perhaps beyond, to protect them with their 
gifts and offerings when going up to Jerusalem. ^ Those west, being under the 
Romans, were protected by the still greater privileges secured by Simon, and 
afterward by John Hyrcanus, and as Rome absorbed the east, these privileges 
followed. In Egypt the Jews had all rights and privileges, excepting the short 
but severe persecution by Ptolemy Philopater. 

7. Trials and Difficulties. — We must not suppose these rights and privi- 
leges were always respected or the laws regarded, especially in that state of 
transition from the Syrian and Egyptian empires to the Roman, while the former 
were dismembering by civil wars and rebelling factions, and the latter was absorb- 
ing them all, and even Judea among the rest. 'No doubt often these companies 
of pilgrims fell into the hands of robbers and murderers. Some, for the gifts and 
offerings the rich Jews were carrying to the temple, would attack and rob and 
murder them ; others, out of hatred to Jehovah and His pure and aggressive 
religion, would murder the poor pilgrim with just enough money to buy two 
pigeons for his sin-offering. The Great Red Dragon watched these outposts of the 
kingdom as well as the center camp and all communications between them, and 
unless prevented by the providence of Jehovah, ruling the plans and actions of 
kings, nations, and prowling banditti, would have destroyed every pious pilgrim 
to Jerusalem. But through all these dangers many went up to the feasts of 
Jehovah at Jerusalem ; but many could not go to obtain atonement with God by 
the law of Moses, and must live and die with a guilty conscience, or find rest, as 
David did, and left on record for their use and comfort, in the fifty-one of their 
inspired songs. A broken spirit is to God a pleasing sacrifice. A broken and 
contrite heart, Jehovah, Thou wilt not despise. When David, with all offerings 
and facilities to offer, had sinned beyond atonement by the law, and would gladly 
have made any sacrifice or offering to obtain forgiveness and reconciliation, he 
found comfort and peace in this truth : how much more should the pious sinner, 
that could not go to the temple to seek atonement according to the law, find 
comfort under such circumstances as these dispersed Jews were placed. The law 
was a yoke of bondage they could not bear or comply with, and thus they were 
being prepared to appreciate the freedom of the Gospel of the Messiah. 

8. Sects Arise. — Among the teachers, some sects arose that became hostile 
to each other. The Pharisees were the most numerous and influential. They 
maintained that oral instructions and laws were given to Israel and handed down 
from generation to generation, and were of equal authority with the written 
word. This was a dangerous position, for there being no way to determine what 
was original and what was added by modern and uninspired teachers, everything 
became uncertain, and dishonest teachers could easily impose on the people. 
The Sadusees rejected these, and acknowledged no other authority than the 
written word, and some think this was all they did hold at that time, for when 
John Hyrcanus left the Pharisees and joined them, this is all the changes men- 
tioned of him. He rejected the Phasisee's traditions, and abrogated their rites, 
or traditional constitution. ^ The Essences appear to have been a devout, con- 
templative sect, not encumbering themselves with worldly relations or cares. 



(7) Joseph. Ant. 14:7. 2; 16:2, 3; 6:2-7; 17:2. 2. (8) Chap. 76, § 15. (1) Joseph. Ant., 13:10; 
4-7, and note*. 



CHAPTER LXXX. 



PALESTINE PASSES INTO THE KOMAN EMPIRE. A. M. 3940-63-73. 

1. Civil War Subjects them to the Romans Empire. — *Aristobulus L, 
son of John Hyrcanus, succeeded to the high priesthood and sovereignty of the 
nation. He had the presumption to assume the diadem and title belonging to 
the house of David, and, centering in himself the prerogatives of the Messiah, 
claimed to be a priest on his throne. He left it, in one year, to Alexander, his 
brother^ (B. C. 105), vt^ho, dying, leaves his wife, Alexandria, the government, 
advising her to become a Pharisee and associate them in the government. (B. C. 
78).^ She made her oldest son, Hyrcanus II., high priest and king (B. C. 69 or 
67), but his brother, Aristobulus, defeated him in battle at Jericho and took the 
throne and office. ^ Hyrcanus obtained fifty thousand men of Aretes, king of 
Arabia, and defeated Aristobulus in Judea and besieged him in the temple. 
Aristobulus, by large promises of money, engaged Pompey, a Roman consul 
with the Roman army then before Damascus, to relieve him, but failing in his 
promises, Pompey took him in chains to Rome, with his two sons and two 
daughters ; took Jerusalem, sword in hand ; destroyed the fortifications; re- 
trenched the dignity and power of the principality bj'' rending cities and terri- 
tory from it; reduced it to a Roman province under tribute; and restored Hyr- 
canus to his double office, but would not allow him to wear the diadem. ^ 
(B. C. 63.) 

2. Precarious Government. — Pompey, with some of his officers, entered 
the most holy and found no gods, but he did not plunder the temple. Cicero 
said it was not out of respect for the majesty of the God adored in that temple 
that Pompey behaved in that manner, for according to him, nothing was more 
contemptible than the Jewish religion, more unworthy the wisdom and grandeur 
of the Romans, nor more opposite to the institutions of their ancestors, but to 
deprive malice and calumny of all means of attacking his reputation. ^ Jehovah 
is a God they know not. But nine years after, Crassus, another Roman general, 
plundered the temple of ten thousand talants. "^ To such rapacious generals and 
subalterns were the Jews exposed now, notwithstanding f )rmer senatorial decrees 
to secure their rights and privileo:es. Rome no longer needed their assistance, 
and some priests' or leaders' faults exposed temple and people to the wanton 
cruelty, injustice, and sacrilege of these officers. But Julius Caesar, having been 
helped by Hyrcanus, conferred great favors on him and the Jews, but appointed 
Antipater, father of Herod, procurator of Judea. ^ Like Pompey, Caesar was 
soon assasinated, and Antigonus soon furnished new pretexts for cruelty to the 
Jews. ^ 

3. Herod Becomes King and Exterminates the Asmonean Dynasty. — 
Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, by the aid of the Parthians and a faction of the 
Jews, took Jerusalem and was declared king of Judea. As the law of Moses 



(*) Sup Guidp, pp 82-4 (2) Idm , 14:2-4. (3) Joseph. Ant, 13:12-16. (4) Tdin, 14:1. 
(5) Tdm.. 14:2-4. (6) Roll., Yol. VII., p. 291. (7) Joseph. Ant., 14:7, 1; Roll , Vol. Yll., p. 292. 
(8j Joseph. Ant., 14:8-10. (9) Idm., 14:12; 1, 13; 3. 



OHAPTDR lxx:^. : Sections IV. --v. SO? 

prohibited any one with a blemish to officiate as 'priest, Antigonus cut oif the ears 
of his uncle, Hjrcanus, to prevent his regaining the high priest office, i Having 
reigned three years, Herod, by the friendship of the Triumvir, Mark Anthony, 
and a large sum of money, obtained a senatorial decree from Rome, constituting 
him king of Judea, and declaring Antigonus an enemy to Rome. By Roman aid 
he took the country, and, after hard lighting, for the Jews opposed the interfer- 
ence of Romans and the rule of an Edomite, Jerusalem was taken. Antigonus 
surrendered to Socius, the Roman general, who took him to Anthony, now in 
the room of Csesar and Pompey; and he, for a bribe, had Antigonus slain. ^ 
Then Herod had Hyrcanus murdered, for fear of his influence^, and made one 
Ananelus high-priest. Alexandria, indignant to see her son, Aristobulus, 
deprived of his ancestor's office, with her daughter, Mariamne, Herod's wife, 
importuned Herod to annul the appointment of Ananelus and reinstate Aristo- 
bulus, then about 17 years old.* He complied; but out of jealousy of the 
popularity of Aristobulus, had him drowned in one year, and restored Ananelus 
to the office.^ Mariamne and her mother being put to death^ by Herod, ter- 
minated the Asmonian family. Herod was made king A. M. 3963, or B. C. 
37 or 41, and was confirmed in the throne ten years after by Augustus, '^ A. M. 
3973, B. 0. 21. 

4. Gkeat Calamities. — The Jews came under the Roman yoke with 
reluctance, and fought against them and Herod with desperation ; priests and 
worshipers in the temple continued their ceremonies and devotions unmoved 
amidst tumult and dangers, and undauntedly suffered their blood to be mingled 
with their sacrifices.^ Pious men and women died for the sins and by the faults 
of their covetous and wicked brethren. Their desperation may have been 
encouraged by the promises of Moses, the predictions of the prophets, the 
history of their ancient judges and kings, and the unparalleled achievements of 
Judas Maccabees. But the promises of Moses were in condition of obedience ; 
and the predicted success of the prophets was coupled with holiness ; and the 
victories of Judas Maccabees was in defence of their lives and religion against 
the unprovoked assassinations and outrage of the enemy, when they were peace- 
fully obeying the laws of the empire and paying the tribute without a murmur. 
But the loss of their independence and self-government by the Romans, and their 
final destruction, was their own fault, or fault of the impious portion of them. 

5. Roman Policy. — The policy of the Romans was to absorb all nations and 
make them integral parts of one vast empire ; but when they formed a treaty of 
friendship they left the nation to furnish the pretext for reducing them to be a 
province of their own under tribute. Rome had made alliance with the Macca- 
been princes and granted them the addition^ of the cities and territories they had 
conquered, and greater privileges to the Jews than they ever before had under 
any other empire ; and for over one hundred years never encroached on these 
privileges, nor violated their treaty; but the two brothers warring about the 
priesthood, and calling in the Arabians on one side, and the Romans on the 
other, furnished a good pretext to absorb the nation, reduce the territory, and 
exact tribute. Two years before this, A. M. 3939, B. C. 65, Pompey had con- 
quered Syria itself and reduced it to a Roman province under tribute, but Egypt 
continued her nationality till B. C. 30, A. M. 3974. The Jews were wholly in 
fault for their subjugation to the Romans and the extinction of the Asmonian high 
priesthood. Hyrcanus was still confirmed in that office by Pompey, and after- 
ward by Julius Caesar; but Antigonus, his jiephew, by the Parthians and a fac- 
tion of Jews opposed to the Romans, displaced him, took his office, and, taking 
the throne of Judea, then a Roman province, furnished the occasion for Herod 
becoming king. ^ And after Christ, their Messiah, gathered the elect, or Sons of 

(1) Joseph. Ant., 14:13. 10. (2) Idm. chap. 15. 16. (3) 6:1-4. (4) 2:4-7. (5) 3:1-3. (6) 
Joseph. Aut , 15:7; 4, 8. (7) Idm. 14:15, 16, Bk. 15. (8) Idm. 14:4, 8. (9) Idm. 14:4; §§ 4, 5; and 
chap. 13. (1) Joseph. Ant., 14. 



298 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Oil, out of the nation, the impious provoked their own destruction. Polytheism 
had always fathered all the crimes of Israel, and the judgments of God were 
denounced and inflicted upon it most prominently. After the persecution by 
Antiochus, all the Jews hated idolatry as the national enemy, and strictly followed 
the ceremonial part of the law; but most of them continually violated the moral 
and civil precepts; and while they claimed all the promised favors, because they 
despised and hated idols, they secured all the curses of disobedience, and pro- 
voked them by their own actions. 

6. The Sixth Policy of the Old Serpent, and Seventh Head of the 
Great Red Dragon. — The fifth policy of the Old Serpent, called the Diabolus 
and Satan — which was the persecution of the faithful Jews, direct war on the 
citadel of truth and temple of Jehovah, and an effort to destroy the Holy 
Scriptures — has completely failed. It commenced by the Samaritans and cour- 
tiers of the Medean and Persian throne, when the building of the second temple 
commenced: in the days of Darius, the Mede, and of Cyrus, the Persian, and 
continued throughout the Persian and Macedonian supremacies. Instead of 
rooting out the knowledge and religion of Jehovah, it has dispersed it through 
those empires and even to Pome in the far west,^ where it has taken such deep 
root that its destruction is hopeless. His next, or sixth, policy is to watch the 
throne of David and destroy that Anointed Son, to whom is promised the nations 
for an inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for a possession, and who 
shall rule them with an iron rod, or an almighty scepter. ^ This work devolves 
upon the seventh, and last head of the Great Ped Dragon. (Continued in 
Chap. 99. 



Period Fourteenth. A. M, 3941-4039. B. C, 63. A. D. 63. 
Preparation for the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, 

CHAPTER LXXXI. 



PROGRAMME OF THE ROMAK EMPIRE: THE SEYENTH HEAD OF 
THE RED DRAGON ANTAGONISM. A. M. 3941. B. C. 63. 

1. Satan Determined to Fight it Out. — The kingdom of God conies now 
in contact with the seventh head of the Great Red Dragon, or the seventh com- 
bined powers, or combination of powers, whose religion was Polytheism and 
whose priests and rulers were often atheists. The dragon business of this head 
is to watch the seed of the woman, which is to crush the Old Serpent's head,* 
and devour it as soon as born. If he fails in this, and Michael undertakes to 
cast the dragon out of the ecclesiastical or conspicuous heaven, he and his emis- 
saries must fight to the last foothold : and if cast out into the political world, or 
into obscurity, he must destroy the woman with a fiood ; and if he fails here, he 
must persecute her faithful children; and if he can not do this in person, he must 
delegate his throne, power, infiuence, authority, and business, to a great wild 



(2) Joseph. Ant, 14:10; 8. (3) Ps. 2. (4) Gen. 8:15. 



CHAPTER LXXXI. : SECTIONS It. -IV. 299 

beast, that has not acquired the same odium in the churches and in the world as 
the dragon. ^ If his dragon development does not succeed, the Old Serpent does 
not intend to give up the contest with the kingdom of God, but will try it in 
other developments as pernicious to man. (Chap. 112.) 

2. Self- Willed Power. — Egypt, Inter- Assjria-Egyptico nations, Assyria, 
Chaldea, Medo-Persia, and Grecia, have all come in contact with Israel and have 
learned who Jehovah is, and His power and sole Divinity: and now this great 
western power must learn that Jehovah is God alone, and there is no other god. 
Let us now look at the programme of this power as given by Daniel.* It is an 
independent, self-willed power — the Great King — that compromises no point 
or interest with gods or men and had the destiny of Jerusalem wholly in 
His own power, without any north or south power to circumscribe Him, and mag- 
nifies itself above all gods. And according to an ancient law, no one was allowed 
to be ranked among the gods, unless by a vote and decree of the senate. Ter- 
tulian, of the second century, in his apology for the Christians, tells them : 
"That by you, divine dignity is conferred among you by the decrees of men ; 
and unless a god pleases men he is not made a god."^ Tertulian complains that 
the only oath regarded in his time was that by the head, life, safety, or genius of 
the emperor. It shall speak marvelous or daring things against the God of 
gods. The emperors claimed divine honors and the senate conferred these upon 
them, and put Christians to death because they would not comply ; and Jehovah 
and Christ were often blasphemed by this power during these persecutions. ^ 
Still, it should prosper in one form or another till the indignation against Israel 
be accomplished ; for what is determined, and has been predicted by Moses and 
the prophets, shall be done. Neither shall he regard the god of his fathers, nor 
any god, for He shall magnify himself above all.f Nor shall he regard the 
desire of women, as the Persians and Macedonians, nor be controlled by any. 
The senate was never influenced by women; nor do women appear in govern- 
ment transactions. 

3. Shall Change Its Religion; Be Pushed and Destroyed. — But he shall 
change his real atheism and professed Polytheism, and in its stead honor the God 
of forces, or Almighty God, whom his fathers knew not,"^ and shall honor Him 
with gold and silver and precious stones, and things of desire. This honoring 
shall not be by way of accommodation, as that of the Egyptian and Syrian mon- 
archs at Jerusalem, but real devotion. And shall do this in his strongest fortresses, 
where he least needs protection, with the strange God, whom he shall acknowledge 
and increase with glory ; and he shall cause them — his new religious associates,^ 
priests, or princes — to rule over many districts or associations of persons, and 
shall divide the land or territory for a price. He shall have many small princes 
or departments, or shall divide the whole empire into two or more divisions for 
a speculation or advantage. f After this, toward the end of his reign, a southern 
power shall push at him and conquer and circumscribe his dominion, but shall 
not destroy him. But a north power shall come like a hurricane, with chariots, 
horsemen, and many ships, and sweep all before it. This is the programme of 
the Roman empire so far as Daniel's people, the Jews, country, and city, and 
temple are concerned. So the glorious Ambassador said when informing him 
what would befall the Jews in the last days. ^ 

4. The Fourth Empire; Divided, and Destroyed. — Another programme 
of this power given. ^ It it the fourth empire that shall govern the world, so far 
as the people of God are scattered, and it is the last till the kingdom of God is 
established or consummated, and therefore becomes very interesting to the people 
of Jehovah. It is the strongest of the four empires, and shall break in pieces 



(5) Rev. 12. (*) Continued from chap. 78. (6) Enseb., pp. 51, 52; Gbn., Yol. I., chap. 3, 
p. 36; Joseph. Ant., 18:8, 1, 2. (0) Chap. 99, §§ 3, 4. (f) Chap. 126, § 9. (*) Chap. 128, § 2. 
(IT) Chaps. 136, § 9; 128, § 1; 129, § 2. (f) Chap. 129, § 2. (8) Dan. 10:14. 11:30-40. 



300 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

and bruise tlie former empires. This it had ah-eady done when the Jews were 
absorbed. Toward its latter days it shall be divided into ten kingdoms; incor- 
porated among its citizens will be foreigners and neighbors ; but they shall not 
become assimilated, nor united in counsel and cooperation, and therefore it will 
be in part strong and in part broken, or possess former strength and also recent 
weakness. In the days of the divisions represented by the toes in Nebuchad- 
nezzar's dream, or days of all four powers,^ Jehovah, the God of Heaven, shall 
establish a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor fall into the hands of 
strangers nor enemies, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these ten 
kingdoms and the whole of the four monarchies that preceded them. As all these 
powers had existed in the form and condition of provinces and kingdoms long 
before they constituted parts of the image of empire or monarch}^, so the king- 
dom of God may have existed long before it struck and vanquished these king- 
doms and those empires. So the children of the kingdom of God cannot hope 
for their happy time while the Roman empire remains one consolidated power. 

5. Terrible and Destroying. — Another programme is given in Daniel, i 
Here, also, it is represented as the fourth great power, exceeding all others in 
dread, terror, and strength; devouring, breaking in pieces, and stamping the rest, 
or fragments, of them with his feet. He was different from all the former powers; 
so the people of Jehovah could not infer from their treatment under the former 
empires what would be their condition under this one. But if to these he would 
be strong, dreadful, terrible, devour, break in pieces, and stamp what remained 
of their nations, the Jews might expect to be extirpated by him. This is his 
character as given by prophecy, and I would not be surprised if the history of the 
Jews prove it to be true to the letter. (See Chap. 107.) 

6. Supports a Persecuting Power and Continues Till the Judgment. — 
This empire was a wild beast before it subdued any of the former beasts, so 
these horns must be formed in the territory west of the Greek empire, 
and will be divided into ten powers, or governments, on the first division; and 
afterwards a little power, or government, shall subvert and root out three of 
those powers. Though little, it looked stouter than the remaining seven horns. ^ 
According to the former vision the remust follow some subdivision, or addition, 
or change, or a different beast;- for there were still ten toes when the stone 
struck the image of monarchy. This little power could both see and speak; 
could discover policy, and recommend, advocate, and command ; was sagacious, 
eloquent, and boasting; or claimed great worth and authority. This power made 
war with the saints, faithful, or Sons of Oil, and prevailed against them till the 
ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High. 
And the time came that the saints, or faithful, or Sons of Oil, possessed the king- 
dom that shall fill the whole earth, and last forever and govern every other 
power. The little horn power shall speak words against the Most High and 
just wear out His holy ones, and undertake to change times and laws, and they 
— the saints, or times and laws, or all of these — shall be given into his power 
one thousand two hundred and sixty years. But the judgment shall sit. And 
they — the civil governments that gave the saints under their government into his 
control — shall take away his dominion, to consume and destroy it to the end, or 
till exterminated. The judgment sat, and this power was then destroyed, being 
given to the fiames.f This was followed by that glorious, happy time so often 
promised — the consummation of the kingdom of God. The kingdom and do- 
minion, and its greatness under the whole heavens, is given to the people of the 
Most High, whose kingdom is everlasting; and all dominions shall serve Him. 

7. It Must be Divided into Two Parts. — Comparing these programmes, 
it is evident this Roman empire must be divided into two parts; for that part 



(9) Dan. 2:40-5. (*) See chap. 62:1. (1) Dan. 7:7-27. (0) Chap. 140. (*) See chap. 62, § 1, 
and continuations, (t) Chap. 143, §§ 6, 7. 147. 157. 158. 174, §§ 5-7; 117, § 5. 



CHAPTER LXXXII. : SECTIONS I. -II. 301 

having dominion over the home of the Jews is destroyed by a power from the 
north, and will not continue till the judgment ; but this part, sustaining the 
little horn, does. When the Romans came in contact with the other beasts, 
which it destroyed, it extended from the Atlantic to Greece ; and this is the beast 
of Daniel divided into ten horns. Also, the vision of the ram and goat shows 
another little horn, risen out of a division of the Macedonian empire, of a some- 
what different character, that also persecutes the truth in the east, south, and 
land of desire. 1 These visions of Daniel, when compared, show beforehand 
that this great empire will be divided into an east and west empire, having dif- 
ferent histories and different terminations. But as Rome was at first, and was 
at the time we are considering, a western power, Rome and the powers connected 
with it will continue after the division to be properly the Roman empire; and 
the eastern division will be called in future histories by another name. But we 
shall see as we advance. (Continued in Chapters 126, 129.) 



CHAPTER LXXXII. 



RED DRAGON WATCHING THE THRONE OF DAYID. 

A. M. 4000-4100. 

1. Promise of a Son to Rule the Nations. — In the Garden of Eden we 
find the Serpent that may now be called old ; and we find the woman who 
bears an important seed that will never be reconciled to the supremacy of the 
Serpent, and she has a promise that this seed, or son, will mash the Serpent's 
head. To Abraham was promised a seed in whom all families of the earth 
should be blessed. This promise was made to Abraham in view of the inaugu- 
ration of the Great Red Dragon antagonism by the Old Serpent, as his ostensible 
representative in his public antagonism to the kingdom of God. The Old Serpent 
is properly called the Diabolus and Satan, because this invisible adversary, 
traducer, and slanderer first made himself known to mankind in and by the 
form and ministry of the Serpent. Jehovah organized an institution in covenants 
and oaths with Abraham to overthrow this dragon constitution of avowed Poly- 
theism and secret atheism. This institution, in which this seed of the woman 
and seed of Abraham is produced, is appositely represented by the woman. 
When David, in the Abrahamic institution, had overthrown and mashed the 
second head of the Red Dragon, and governed all the land promised to Abraham 
in the covenant of circumcision, he, too, received a promise, secured by oath, of a 
universal and perpetual empire governed by a son, or seed. ^ This son was the 
anointed Son of Jehovah, who would rule all nations with an iron scepter, and 
dash His enemies to pieces like a potter's vessel made of glass, ^ and bless man- 
kind. When compared, all these promises refer to the seed of the woman. 

2. The Saints Animated by These Promises. — The time was near for this 
seed to come. The Jews looked for Him; the Samaritans waited for Him ; and 
the nations desired Him. Zachariah sings the hope of Israel; the woman at 
Jacob's well expresses the expectations of the Samaritans ; the Magi from the 



(1) Chap. 139. (2) II. Sam. 7:10, 16; I. Chron. 17:9, 10-14. 



302 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

east, the Eoman centurion, and the people of Antioch in Pisidia, show what 
was the present desire of the nation. ^ These and other promises made the 
pious Jews invincible, and their ranks were augmented bj converts from the 
nations. ^ The Old Serpent now adopts his sixth policy, and sets the Great Ked 
Dragon to watch the throne of David and devour this promised Sou, and destroy 
the hope that animated the saints or faithful to endure tortures and death and to 
propagate their religion. No sooner did this seventh head come in contact with 
the kingdom of God than it was preparing for the work. It was an impious 
power that regulated the destiny and grades of the gods by decrees of the senate, 
and gave divine rank and worship to their governors, ancestors, and generals, 
but teared no god.^ 

3. Herod Qualified to Watch the Throne of David. — The ambition of 
Rome was for universal empire and undisputed supremacy ; and this is what is 
promised to the throne of David. They dethroned kings or permitted them to 
reign, and bestowed crowns as suited their ambitious designs. So they took the 
crown trom the high priests of the Jews, and bestowed it on Herod, who was an 
Idumean by birth; but his ancestors being conquered by the Jews and compelled 
to adopt their religion, he remained a Jew in outward show. He knew the 
hopes of the Jews, was jealous of his usurped crown, and cruel beyond belief 
Out of jealousy he put to death the high priests and his own children. Among 
all his subjects, the Old Serpent could not have found a more suitable emissary 
to watch the throne of David than Herod. He was sagacious, vigilant, deceit- 
ful, and cruel. Octavianus, the Roman emperor, hearing of the murder of 
Herod's own sons, exclaimed: "It was better to be Herod's hog than Herod's 
son." Behind Herod stood the great Roman empire to crush any pretentions of 
the seed of David to his throne; and on the side of David's family was no pro- 
tector for the royal child but a virgin in poverty. 

4. The Enrollment. — To watch the family of David with more certainty 
and discover if any were in a condition to assume the crown, Rome decreed to 
tax the whole country. "^ Though this taxing did not take place till Cyrenius 
was governor, yet the enrollment answered the dragon's purpose, for everyone 
must be enrolled in the family, city, or village of their ancestors. Kow, Beth- 
lehem was the family city of David, and there could Herod, or anyone in Roman 
authority and interest, discover if any family of David had wealth, power, or 
influence to head the Jews in rebellion, or furnish an heir to inspire their hopes. 
Thus, had the dragon everything well arranged to secure his object — to devour 
the children as soon as born. Thus far Jehovah permitted his projects, for 
Jehovah had informed His people hundreds of years before that here the Messiah 
should be born;^ and this legislation of a dragon power will bring it to pass, 
proving the truth of the Scriptures, the foreknowledge of Jehovah, and Messiah- 
ship of this child. 

5. Herod Seeks Favor with both Jews and Romans. A. M. 3972-4007, 
or 3967-4002. — Herod becauie king of the Jews thirty-two years before the 
birth of Christ and reigned thirty-flve years, and though he was a cruel, bloody 
monster he made great improvements. The temple had stood over five hundred 
years and was often used as a fortress by the besieged, and the surrounding 
walls often thrown down and rebuilt. It had suffered much in the late wars 
between the priests, and in those with the Romans and Herod. Herod, to gain 
the favor of the Jews, repaired, or in a manner rebuilt it, ^ and the Jews con- 
tinued to build and adorn till it rivaled or surpassed the temple of Solomon; 
and in this temple the Saviour gave instructions and wrought miracles. To keep 
the favor of the Roman emperor, Herod also built a theater and an amphitheater 



(3) Fs. 2. (4) Luke 2:25, 26; John 4:25; Matt. 2:1, 2, 11; Luke 7:2-9; Acts 10 13:42, 48. 
(5) Acts 2:10; 13:43. (6) Gbn., V^ol. I., chap. 3, p. 36, note Y. (7) Luke 2:1-4. (8) Mat. 2:4-6; 
Mich. 5:2. (9) Joseph. Ant. 15:11; Wrs. 5:5. 



CHAPTER LXXXII. : SECTIONS VI. -VIII. 303 

in Jerusalem, and celebrated games and exhibited shows in honor of Augustus 
Csesar. ^ The Roman empire became tranquil after the civil wars that resulted 
in the death of Pompey, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, and many other distin- 
guished Roman generals. The general state of the world was profound peace 
under Augustus Osesar. ^ The Jews had become submissive to their condition, 
and the pious ardently wished for the advent of the Anointed Son of David, in 
whom all their hopes centered. 

6. BiKTH OF John the Baptist. — Annunciation and birth of John the Baptist 
and of Christ. (Luke 1, 2:1-7, 8-20, 21-39; Matt. 1.) About four hundred 
years have rolled away since Malachi closed the prophecies of the old covenant, 
and since that time to A. M. 3998 we have no authentic account of any divine 
messages, voices, or visions, and the pious Jew, though walking by the light of 
past revelations, longs to receive a message from Jehovah and to learn something 
about the long-expected Anointed Son ot David. At last a pious priest, named 
Zachariah, goes into the sanctuary to offer incense ; he is delayed ; the people are 
all anxiety about him, and fear a catastrophe ; at length he returned, gave the 
motion with his hand to bless them, but could not speak. The people discovered 
he had seen a vision. But what it was, I do not know, that he informed them then. 
His period of service being ended, he returned home. He was old, and his wife, 
Elisabeth, past the age to become a mother ; yet in the vision a son was promised, 
who should go before the Messiah in the spirit and power of Elijah to reform 
old and young, and prepare them for the advent of the Son of David and King 
of Israel. This promise to him and Elisabeth staggered the faith of Zachariah, 
who but little expected to be favored with, and had no thought of leaving, an heir 
behind him. This was the first vision of the new dispensation, and needed to be 
attested by evidence to him and before the people, and he was struck dumb by an 
angel as a warning to disbelief and an evidence that the vision was real. Thus, 
the pious Jew was cheered by the fact that Jehovah had revived His communica- 
tions to Israel. 

T. Birth of Christ Announced. — Six months after this, the angel Gabriel, 
that over five hundred years before revealed visions and talked with Daniel, was 
sent from Jehovah with a message to a poor virgin, daughter of David's offsprings, 
espoused but not yet married to Joseph, who was also of David's family. This 
message announced to her the wonderful tidings that she was the predicted virgin 
mother of Immanuel, Son of the Highest, and the Jehovah God should give Him 
the throne of His father, David ; He should reign over the house of Jacob for- 
ever, and of His kingdom there should be no end. She asked no sign, but he 
gave her the incredible information respecting her cousin, Elisabeth, who was 
married into the family of Aaron and tribe of Levi. She acquiesced in the mes- 
sage, and immediately set out to see Elisabeth and witness the truth of Gabriel's 
message. As soon as she saluted her cousin her faith was conlirmed by 
Elisabeth's response, and by the spirit of the Jehovah inspiring Elisabeth, who 
reaffirmed the message of Gabriel, and showed Mary that her own situation had 
been communicated to her cousin by supernatural means ; and Elisabeth learned 
the same respecting herself from Mary. Thus, the faith of both was established, 
and they gave vent to their joyful feelings in praises to Jehovah, and looked back 
to the covenant made with Abraham. 

8. Perilous Situation of Mary. — This honor placed Mary in a perilous 
situation. She was espoused to Joseph, and according to the law of Moses sus- 
tained the same relation as if married, and was liable to be stoned to death and 
burned to ashes. But Joseph, being of a humane disposition, and knowing such 
was to be the incarnation of the Messiah, without believing or disbelieving 
Mary's account, resolved on a private separation, and thus save her from the 
penalty of the law. But while thinking on this course the angel of the Lord 



(1) Joseph. Ant. 18:8, 1. (2) Gbn. Vol. L, chap. 1, p. 13. 



304: THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

confirmed Mary's account in a way that was satisfactory to a jealous husband, 
and told hiin to sustain the relation of husband, and so protect her and the child. 
Joseph consummated the legal ceremonies of marriage, and became her protector 
and aid in time of adversities. Thus, the prediction of the prophet was verified 
and the law of Moses sustained. (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23.) Jehovah regards the 
dignity of His laws and fulfills His purposes without breaking them. 

9. Birth of John. — The time arrives, the son of Elisabeth is born, and 
on the eighth day was circumcised. The relations gave him the name of his 
father, but the mother insisted he should be called John. The friends appealed 
to the father, who wrote : "His name is John," as the angel had ordered. Then 
was Zachariah freed from his dumbness, and he praised God. The friends wit- 
nessed in amazement these events and noised them throughout the hill country 
of Judea, and people said : What manner of child shall this be. But the neigh- 
bors feared,. either because, being unfaithful, they were unprepared to receive 
Messiah, or, fearing the news would reach Herod, they apprehended his murderous 
rage and war with the Romans. But the hand of the Lord was with him, and 
he grew and waxed strong in spirit ; but for some reason he made his abode in 
the deserts till the time of his showing to Israel. So Herod did not find him, 
Home did not know him, and the Jews did not become acquainted with him. 
Zachariah was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and chanted forth the hope of Israel, 
based on the covenants, oaths, and promises to Abraham and David. 

10. Birth of Christ. A. M. 3999. — The Roman decree of enrollment of all 
people in that province was now enforced, and Joseph and Mary leave Nazareth 
for Bethlehem, the city of David. Though poor and unfitted for the journey, 
Mary must go to Bethlehem on the back of an ass, to be enrolled as of the seed 
of David and be watched by the Roman ofiicials and usurper's vigilant and mur- 
derous eyes. But the prophet has said that Christ would be born there; so 
Jehovah will be there, and the holy angels will camp around her and protect her 
(Psa. 34:6, 7; Heb. 1:14), as she has often chanted in one of those songs of Zion. 
They arrive at the village of their royal ancestors, but no ancestral palace is 
prepared for their reception ; no rich relations off'er them entertainment, but like 
some banished exiles in foreign land, they take care of themselves. Too poor to 
secure acommodations among the richer lodgers in the inn, or upper stor}^ they 
take their abode where the poor rest and beasts of burden feed, and await their 
time to be enrolled. Though the daughter of kings, and about to be the mother 
of the King of kings, this was her humble abode where her royal Son was born. 
IS^either Rome nor Herod would think of looking here for the King of Israel, nor 
would wise men from the east. The royal robe for this Prince of the house of 
David was the swaddling-bands wrapping the body and limbs to prevent injury or 
deformity, and His cradle was the manger, or the trough in which the ass ate its 
food. Thus, He was made of no account and robbed of every honor, comfort, 
and convenience. Mary's condition may be better imagined than described, and 
no eye of the world was turned to that spot with compassion and benevolence. 
None there but Joseph and Mary and the babe lying in the trough. 

11. Announcement to the Shepherds. — Though princes, priests, and people 
were unconcerned, the eye of God was on that humble spot and the holy angels 
were camped around, and Satan dare not approach nor give intelligence to his 
agents. It was some time before November ; shepherds were watching their 
flocks in the field by night, and not contemplating the conquests of kingdoms 
nor wearing of crowns. A light glowed around them, and an angel appeared to 
them. They trembled; the angel said: Fear not ; I bring good tidings of great 
joy, which shall be so to all the people ; for this day, in this city of David, is 
born a Saviour, which is Christ, the Lord, or the Jehovah ; and this shall be your 
sign : Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. 
This message was suddenly attested by a multitude of the heavenly host — as 



CHAPTER LXXXII.: SECTIONS XII. -XIV. 305 

if the air was full of angels — praising God and chanting : Glory to God in the 
highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. Heaven protects the child, 
and holy angels direct the shepherds to visit their King and supply His wants ; 
but wicked angels may not approach the spot to ascertain what is transpiring, nor 
carry intelligence to the red dragon, or atheistic Polytheists, who are watching to 
destroy the helpless parent and infant. 

12. The Shepherds Yisit. — These angels returned to Heaven, and the 
shepherds, stimulating each other, hastened to the spot to see this wonderful 
event. They came and witnessed everything to be just as the angel told them. 
Unaware of the vigilant adversary, the shepherds published all around them what 
the angels said, and every person hearing it wondered at the report. This was 
so contrary to their ideas of the grand and imposing advent of the Messiah they 
could hardly believe what was told them. But Mary, understanding as little 
about the mission of her child, fixed these facts in her memory and exercised her 
judgment on them. Facts are stubborn things in the way of theories. The two 
advents of Christ were not discerned by these Jews in the study of their prophets, 
and as the second is triumphant and glorious, they set their desires on it. No 
doubt the shepherds and those pious Jews that believed their testimony supplied 
the wants of the child and family, and found employment for Joseph ; any pious 
Jews believing this to be the Messiah would share their last mite with Him. 
But I suppose the wealthy and learned, who admired pomp and power, disbelieved 
the whole account, as they afterward did Christ's miracles; and so the family 
lived in Bethlehem in comparative obscurity for at least thirty-three days, for 
purification, without exciting the suspicions of lloman ofiicials, or Herod's emis- 
saries. 

13. Presented in the Temple ; A. M. 4000. — When eight days old He 
was circumcised, and, as the angel ordered, called Jesus, and after thirty-three 
days for puritiying. He was presented in the temple to the Lord, according to 
the law of Moses, and, being the first born, must be dedicated to God's service 
or be redeemed, which last I presume the parents were too poor to do. They 
observed the law about purification, and offered a pair of turtle doves or two 
young pigeons. A devout or pious old man, who was one of those waiting and 
looking for the consolation of Israel, and inspired of the Holy Spirit, was prom- 
ised a sight of the Lord's Anointed before leaving this life. Prompted by the 
Spirit, he entered the temple as the child was presented, and, taking Him in his 
arms, exclaimed: Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according 
to Thy word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared 
before the face of all people; a light to lighten all the nations, and the glory of 
Thy people, Israel. Joseph and Mary marveled at these sayings ; some things 
they did not understand, especially the enlightening of the nations. To the 
mother he said: This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel — 
or death by persecution and resurrection to life — and for a sign to be spoken 
against, that the thoughts of many hearts — or the true character — may be revealed. 
And a sword shall pierce through thine own soul also. This is something far from 
Mary's hopes, who, like other Jews and Zachariah, expected immediate deliver- 
ance and prosperity. The old and well-known prophetess, Anna, united her tes- 
timony to that of Simeon, and spoke of Him to all looking for redemption in 
Jerusalem. Then they returned to Nazareth. 

14. The Magi Inquire. — Matt. 2. — As these prophecies were uttered to the 
pious, they would not be reported to Herod : and thus Jehovah was giving ample 
testimony to the pious that their Messiah was come ; and yet, neither Herod nor 
the Komans knew anything about it. But when about entering his second year 
of age, a company of wise men, or Magi, from the east, were Ezekial, Daniel, 
Mordachia, and JSTehemiah, had taught the hopes of Israel, and where 
many Jews yet dwelled, came to Jerusalem inquiring for the infant King of 



306 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the Jews. As these were persons of position, knowledge, and wealth, they 
attracted attention. They were astronomers and had seen a star, while in the 
East, which they concluded indicated the birth of the King of the Jews. Why 
they so understood it we are not told and do not know. But these witnesses 
from the far east, with that of the shepherds, and of Simeon and Anna, were too 
strong to be resisted. Though Jerusalem had not been concerned about a poor 
child, here were princes, with costly gifts and offerings, come from the east to 
worship him; and their inquiry aroused Herod and all Jerusalem. 

15. Trouble in Jerusalem. — Herod was troubled, for he feared Augustus 
would take away his crown on account of his cruelties ; he knew the desperate 
valor of the Jews; he knew all their hopes were centered in this Son of David : 
and if they knew it, they would suffer extermination before they would suffer him 
to be murdered. Jerusalem was troubled, for they anticipated his murder by 
Herod, who had exterminated the race of Asmonean princes and high priests; 
murdered the Sanhedrin, his own wife and sons, and every one he supposed in 
favor of the Jews' interests and hopes; and behind him stood the collossal 
empire of Rome. Though Augustus was of a mild and humane disposition, and 
his uncle, Julius Csesar, had favored Hyrcanus and confirmed him in the high 
priesthood, and himself had conquered Mark Antony, the friend to Herod and 
enemy to the Jews, and had conferred great privileges to the Jews, yet he had 
confirmed Herod in the kingdom of Judea, and was as vigilant to extirpate any 
aspirant to any throne of conquered provinces as any other emperor; and in this 
case would empower Herod to do as his jealousy and cruelty instigated. To 
suffer their Messiah to be murdered in infancy was to give up the last hope for 
their national supremacy, religion and existence; and to conquer Herod and the 
Roman empire appeared impossible. So it was trouble, or consternation, all 
around : and the red dragon was sure of his prey. 

16. Herod's Vigilance. A. M. 4001. — Herod gathered into his power all 
the chief priests and scribes acquainted with the prophecies, and demanded them 
to tell him where the Messiah, or Christ, should be born. They, knowing his 
power and cruelty, dared not refuse ; and some in his interests answered without 
coercion : In Bethlehem ; as the prophet Micha foretold. Then, fearing of 
exciting suspicion among the Jews, who might conceal the child, he privately 
called the Magi, and inquired the exact time the star appeared, that he might 
know the age of the child, and so be prepared for any emergency. Then he sent 
them to Bethlehem, with orders to search diligently and when they found Him to 
bring the word, that he might also pay homage to the Son of David. Thus all 
was sure to succeed. 

17. The Child Snatched from Destruction. — Pleased with the courtesy 
,and piety of the king, they departed; they needed no more inquiries, for they 

were rejoiced to see the star that could tell more about the King of the Jews than 
all Jerusalem; and it guided them to the very spot and stood there. They 
found the child and mother alone, and falling down, worshiped Him, offering to 
Him divine honors, in gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. But now Heaven 
takes the babe under special protection, or snatclies it up unto the throne of God 
(Rev. 12:5), and God tells the pious Magi of Herod's hypocrasy and design to 
murder the babe in its lone mother's arms. So they went home another way 
■ and preached the gospel to the people in the east, and thus had a people ready to 
receive the kingdom of God when it approached. 

18. Escape. — The wise men gone, and Joseph returned from work — for he 
was a carpenter — and retired to slumber; is aroused by the angel of Jehovah, 
and started in the night to Egypt, and thus sav^ed our Savior from the opened 
jaws of the red dragon. But Herod, unaware of this flight, showed his ser- 
pentine malignanty without accomplishing his object. Finding the wise men 
disappointed him, he used the knowledge he had obtained by deception, and sent 



CHAPTEK LXXXIII. : SECTION I. 307 

and slew all the infants from two years old and under, or had completed their 
first year, in Bethlehem and vicinity ; caused great weeping of mothers, and veri- 
fied again the bold figure of Jeremiah when Ephraim and fellow tribes were 
carried away into captivity. (Jer. 31:15-7.) Had Herod known of this escape 
to Egypt he would have informed the Roman emperor, who would have turned 
Egypt inside out and upside down to deliver the child to Herod. But Herod 
thought he had made sure work, and so thought the Jews. The pious Jews who 
had rejoiced in the birth of the Messiah, now sighed for the hope of Israel, and 
looked despondingly into the future of their nation. Where are Joseph and 
Mary ? Has he escaped ? Suppress this thought, lest we arouse Herod and 
Rome ! Hope he has escaped ! but let Atheistic-Polytheism believe him dead, 
and covenants, oaths, and promises, defeated. Cruel as this act was, it was so 
small an affair in Herod's life of deceit and murder, Josephus does not men- 
tion it. 

19. Roman Empekoks Seek the Seed of David. A. M. 4002, or 4007. — 
Herod adds his son, Antipater, to the number of his murdered children, and dies 
himself. Knowing his death would be joy to the Jews, he summoned their chief 
men to Jericho and had them shut up in the circus, with orders they should be 
slain as soon as he was dead, to make all the Jews mourn his death : but his 
sister, Salome, and her husband, set them free. ^ After this, by the direction of 
the angel, this child that shall rule the world with a rod of iron, or uncontrolled 
scepter, "^ returned with his parents into Nazareth, where he grew into maturity. 
Vespasian, on the destruction of Jerusalem, ordered all the family of David to 
be sought, that no one of the royal stock among the Jews might remain. Dorai- 
tian also issued orders that all the descendants of David should be slain. ^ But 
all in vain, as sung in the Second Psalm : For Christ finished His work on earth, 
ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God ; and shall rule till all 
His enemies are subdued. 



CHAPTER LXXXIII- 



CONDITION OF THE JEWS WHEN CHRIST ENTERED ON HIS 

MINISTRY. A. M. 4030. A. D. 26. 

1. A Boy in the Temple. —Luke 2:42-52. —In A. M. 4012 (A. D. 8) 
there was found a boy of twelve years sitting among the teachers and expounders 
of the Scriptures, both hearing them and asking th^em questions, and all hearing 
hini were astonished at his intelligence and answers. We are not told what 
subject occupied their attention, but likely, the Messiah, His advent and king- 
dom, for now was a time of expectation and anxiety. Some, with the shep- 
herds and acquaintances of Zachariah, maintained He had come, but all agreed 
he had been murdered by Herod. However, this child, or boy, threw such 
light on their subjects by his answers, and directed their thoughts into such 
channels by his questions, that the gray-headed and white-bearded scribe and 
rabbi were confounded and the hearers amazed. But no one knew this to be the 
babe of the manger reported by the shepherds, the child of Bethlehem wor- 
shiped by the Magi of the east, or the Son of David murdered by Herod. This 

(8) Joseph. Ant., 17:8. 1, 2. (7) Ps. 2. Rom. 12 ;5. (9) Euseb., pp. 99, 102. 



308 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

scene was interrupted by a plain woman entering and saying to Him: "Son, why 
hast Thou dealt thus with us? Behold! Thy father and I have sought Thee sor- 
rowing." Perhaps they feared some one had recognized Rim, and the Romans, 
or some in the interest of the sons of Herod, had murdered Him or taken Him 
to Eome as a prisoner. He answered: " How is it ye sought Me? Know ye 
not that I must be about My Father's business?" They understood not His mean- 
ing, but His mother treasured up this saying with former mysterious sayings of 
angels, of holy men and women, and the actions of the Magi, but her mind was 
still darkened by the teachings of the rabbi. This boy of twelve years went 
home with Joseph and Mary, and so relieved their anxiety about His safety; and 
though the heir of David, and Son of God, He was in subjection to them accord- 
ing to the law. Thus, as we left John in deserts south of Judea, we leave Jesus 
in Nazareth, north of Jerusalem about fifty miles — perhaps a hundred miles 
apart. 

2. Fidelity of the Jews in Their Dispersion, and Their Condition. — 
When our Lord was twenty-nine years of age — the year before He entered on 
His public ministry, corresponding to our A. D. 25 (Christ was born A. M. 4000, 
but by mistake was reckoned A. M. 4004, at which date our A. D. 1 commenced): 
While we wait till Christ and His forerunner enter on their work, let us take a 
view of the condition of the people of Jehovah. In the years A. M. 3281 to 
3283, Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, completed the captivity of the ten tribes of 
Israel, and transplanted them to the land of the Medes, and Persians, and 
Armenia; and in A. M. 3416 or 3418, and about one hundred and thirty-five 
years after Shalmaneser, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, completed the cap- 
tivity of the Jews. Thus, for about seven hundred and thirty-six years, Israel 
and Judea have been dispersed over the world, and yet have had a national 
existence and a religious center called Judea. In the land of their dispersion 
the pious forgot not their high calling, gave not up the hope of Israel, and did 
not abandon the religion of their fathers. Many of the wicked were slain in the 
wars of their captivity, and others turned to the idolatry of the nations, as they 
had done in their native land ; and this left the faithful free to form their assem- 
blies and worship Jehovah aright. Where these synagogues were complete, 
they had the law and the prophets, including all their other sacred writings, 
read every Sabbath day, and translated and expounded. Where the Greek 
translation was used among Hellenistic Jews, translation may not have been 
necessary. Christ, Himself, was one of the readers in the synagogue at Naza- 
reth. ^ After the reading of the law and the prophets, some one or more 
addressed the meeting, teaching or exhorting. ^ The Psalms were chanted, with 
regular lessons for the day. These synagogues became lights to the nations and 
centers of moral and religious influence, and were largely attended by the citi- 
zens of the nations. 3 Some of these Polytheists became proselytes to the 
truth* and were incorporated with the Jews, being circumcised and coming under 
the law of Moses. Others abandoned Polytheism and became pious worshipers 
of Jehovah alone, but did not incorporate with the nation. Among these were 
Roman centurians, ^ and one of these built a synagogue for the Jews around 
him. Others respected their religion, and where the Jews acted according to 
their religion they were trusted and honored with oflices in the government of 
the country, as we have seen in chapters 73 and 74. 

3. Their Synagogues. — These synagogues became little domestic Jewish 
governments, where their domestic, social, and civil relations were regulated, 
and they inflicted punishments upon offenders. They had their bench of elders, 
ruler, or rulers, to oversee and direct, and their ministers to perform various 

(1) Luke 4:16-22. (2) Acts 13:14-41. (3) Acts 13:41-48. (4) 13:43, 2:10. (5) Matt. 8:5-11; 
Acts 10:1, 2. 



CHAPTER LXXXIII. : SECTIONS IV. -V. 309 

duties. Where these synagogues were conducted by pious and intelligent per- 
sons, they must have had a powerful influence on all reflecting men around them. 
No sacrifices were offered here, and they must have expected justification with- 
out the rites of the law, or depended on the sacrifices oflfered in the temple 
daily, for many of them could not visit Jerusalem to comply with the law. We 
have already referred to their Psalms, where a superior way of justification was 
set forth. ^ But they were careful to send gifts and off*erings to Jerusalem by 
those who could go ; and these went in companies and caravans for enjoyment 
and mutual protection. '^ But we must not suppose all synagogues were com- 
plete or sprung up by magic. N^o; all had a day of small things, and it was the 
house of one of their number, or a tree, or a grove, or cave, and many experi- 
enced every evil that afflicted Jerusalem. But by patience, piety, and perse- 
verance, these institutions were at this time in flourishing condition, and 
possessed many Sons of Oil, saints, holies, or faithfuls. 

4. Their Privileges. — The Jews had mostly the privilege to live according 
to their own laws and of observing the customs of their fathers, and the Romans 
were not behind former governments in conferring these privileges. ^ The Parians, 
by a decree, forbade them to use the customs of their fathers and the way of sacred 
worship. But Julius Caesar ordered them to abrogate it. They were also excused 
from entering the Roman army, because they could not travel on the Sabbath 
nor eat unclean meats, and were guaranteed the right to assemble for worship 
and collect oblations for sacrifices and not be disturbed ; also, to determine their 
own controversies in their own assemblies ; to make their places for prayers 
beside waters, according to the custom of their forefathers ; to have places to 
build, and to hold congregations with wives and children ; to off*er prayers and 
sacrifices to God, and were allowed to have all things according to their own laws. 
These were decreed and sent to the cities and provinces that had infringed on 
these rights. The lonians had denied them the use of their own laws, and obliged 
them to attend lawsuits on holy days, forced them into the army, and deprived 
them of their sacred money for Jerusalem, from which burdens they used to be 
freed by the Romans and permitted to live according to their own laws. Marcus 
Agrippa ordered their rights to be restored and not infringed on. ^ 

5. Decrees Concerning- the Jews. — The Greeks in Asia infringed on their 
rights secured by ancient laws of Syria, and took their sacred money, and they 
sent to Augustus Csesar, who gave them the same privileges they had before, and 
sent his decree to the governors of these provinces, as follows : Caesar Augustus, 
high priest and tribune of the people, ordains thus : ^ ^ * It seems good to 
me and my counselors, according to the sentence and oath of the people of Rome, 
that the Jews have liberty to use their own customs according to the law of their 
forefathers, as they used them under Hyrcanus, the high priest of Almighty God, 
and that their sacred money be not touched, but be sent to Jerusalem, -^ -^ * 
to the receivers there, and that they be not obliged to go before any judge on the 
Sabbath day, nor on the day of preparation to it, after the ninth hour ; but if any 
one be caught stealing their holy books or their sacred money, whether out of the 
synagogue or public school, he shall be deemed a sacriligious person, and his 
goods shall be brought into the treasury of the Romans. ^ ^ ^ And if any 
one transgresses any part of what is above decreed, he shall be severely punished. 
Caesar to I^orbanus Flacus : * * -^^ Let those Jews, how many soever they be, 
* * * used according to their ancient custom to send their sacred money to 
Jerusalem, do the same freely. These were the decrees of Caesar, i More decrees 
to the same purport to different sovereigns of different provinces and cities are 
recorded by Josephus. This sacred money was a temptation to thieves. It is said 
Zamaris, with his colony, became a safeguard against the Trachonite robbers to 
those Jews from Babylon going to Jerusalem with their sacrifices. ^ 



(6) Ps. 51:16, 17. (7) Joseph. Ant., 18:9, 1. (8) Idm. 16:10. (9 )Joseph. Ant. 16:2. 3. 
(1) Joseph. Ant. 16:6. 2-8. (2) Idm. 17:2.2. 



310 _ THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

6. Visits to the Temple. — These dispersed Jews not only worshiped in their 
synagogues, but many of them visited the temple at Jerusalem at the festivals, 
which to them appeared next to the gates of Paradise. In their breasts were 
engraved the hopes of Israel, and if not realized now, they believed in the resur- 
rection, when all their toils and sufferings would be more than rewarded. ^ They 
now went up in hopes of hearing or seeing something of their JMessiah ; and the 
conversation of the aged saints were instruction to the young, edification to the 
adults, and enjoyment to themselves. Here and there might be seen some lone 
pilgrim, with staff and scrip, meditating on the law or prophets, or the experi- 
mental religion in the Psalms or other writings. Their sourses of divine knowl- 
edge being few, what they learned could be digested over and over again. As 
they draw near Judea, their companies multiply and blend as much as difference 
of language permitted, till in vast crowds they enter Judea, and the holy city 
salutes their longing eyes. There now stands the renovated temple in its glory ; 
one would think the Son of David had come and was restoring all things. 
Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house ; they ever give Thee praise. ^ I would 
rather be a servant in that temple than dwell in palaces of kings. Surely every 
one in this city is holy. ^ 

7. Impious Jews in Jerusalem. — Proximity to the house of God, and fami- 
liarity with its ordinances, do not transform the soul into the image of God. The 
majority in this city are impious men, full of deception and violence. ^ The 
Eessenes are few in number; and, averse to the cares and trials of life, are 
retired from tumults and controversies and have but little influence in com- 
munities. The Pharisees, though professedly rigid in virtues, strict in religion, 
and holy in character, have made void the law by their traditions and become 
hypocrites and full of violence. The Sadusees have degenerated into infidelity, 
and deny the resurrection, or any future existence after death ; and deny the 
existence of spirits, angels, future rewards and punishments.'' We say degen- 
erated, for it is not plausible that John Hyrcanus would have joined them, over 
one hundred years ago, if such had been their principle then ; for these were the 
very truths that sustained the martyrs under the persecution by Antiochus, and 
with which his father and uncles animated their men to victory and supported 
themselves in death. The Herodians, ^ like the Antiochus apostates, could 
comply with anything. Herod rebuilt the Samaritan temple on Gerizim; built 
a theater and amphitheater in Jerusalem, and celebrated games in honor ot 
Augustus Caesar; repaired or rebuilt the temple of Jehovah; and professed to 
be a Jew and worshiped the God of Israel. The high priest who went into the 
holy of holies to make atonement for the people, was an unjust and wicked man, 
and, with other priests, had made the house of God a den of thieves. ^ 

8. Some Truly Pious. — The high priesthood liad become transitory and 
corrupt, being filled by the capricious whims and interested designs of Roman 
governors. Some of them did not hold the ofiice one year. ^ But we find the 
other priests continue, as David divided them in twenty-four courses, each course 
serving one week at a time, and returning home, was succeeded by another. 
Among these were pious and holy men, like Zacharias, who was honored with the 
first vision in the new dispensation. Among the people there were holy men, 
like Simeon, and holy women, like Anna: Israelites, in reality, in whom was no 
guile. Then there were scribes and teachers, who were good, but often mis- 
taken men. 2 And there was a class designated by the opprobrious epithets, 
publicans, and sinners, and harlots, among whom were found such persons as 
Matthew, and Zachius, and Mary, that bathed the Savior's feet with tears 
and wiped them with her hair. Then here, also, were persons, not Jews by birth 

(3) Chap. 75. §§ 9-19. (4) Ps. 84:4. 10 (5) 93:5 (6) Matt. 3:7. 28. (7) Joseph. Ant , 13:5. 
9. 18. 1:2-6; Wrs. 2:S. 2-14; Acts 2:^:8. (8) Matt. 22:16. (9) Matt. 21:18; Mark 11:17. (I) Sup 
Guide, table 3, p. 5; Horn, Vol. II , p. 115. (2) Mark 10:17-22; John 3:1-10. 19:38 39. 



CHAPTER LXXXni. : SECTIONS IX. -XL 311 

and never circumcised, who were pious, and loved to enter the house of Jehovah 
and oifer sacrifices, offerings, and prayers to Him. The law of Moses made pro- 
vision for such, and the outer court, or enclosure, was allotted to them.^ The 
prophet had pronounced it the House of Prayer for all nations. The Samaritan 
temple has been rebuilt by Herod, but still Samaritans could worship in this 
court. They were circumcised, professed to have sprung from Father Jacob, and 
kept copies of the law written in Hebrew words, but in ancient letters that some 
think to be old Hebrew, others think to be ancient Samaritans or Phoenician. 
The Jews of Egypt had the temple of Onias, where were observed all the days 
and offerings and rights of Jerusalem ; but Jews from Egypt also kept the 
ordinances at Jerusalem. 

9. Pious Gentiles. — Then here were proselytes in full Jewish standing, out 
of all nations wherever the Jews were dispersed.^ Thus, the nations became 
infused with the people of Jehovah, and this term no longer literally designates 
Polytheists, for many of their citizens worshiped Jehovah alone; but as a tech- 
nichality it does ; hence, in the development of the kingdom of God, we must 
use the original words, heathen, or gentiles, in this sense, and use the term 
nations to designate governments and countries, without regard to their religion ; 
though as yet the national religion of all but the Jews and Samaritans is 
Polytheism. 

10. Temple Worship. — We now have quite a lieterogeneous crowd at Jeru- 
salem, but all about to worship Jehovah in His temple. Here the pious enter to 
worship, having gone through all required purifications of the flesh and clothes. 
Here, in the outer court, must the pious Samaritan and gentile stop and worship. 
But oh ! this is turned into a market house and brokers' offices ! How can the 
pious worship here ? He may have made his offerings at the altar, but he must 
worship and get his instruction amidst this business confusion. The circumcised 
pious from Pome, Asia Minor, Persia, Babylon, Egypt, and the islands, have 
heathen coin that cannot go into the treasury of the Lord, but must be exchanged 
for Jewish coin. Here he finds an extortioner, demanding double or more for 
Jewish coin ; but piety to God induces the worshiper to submit. Too far to 
bring sacrifices, and the law allowed the Jew, or any other, to sell at home his 
animal for sacrifice, and with that money purchase another from Levites ; but 
here, again, he must pay double what it is worth. Still his piety submits ; he 
must have sin-offerings and burnt-offerings ; but he is robbed, and must return 
home poor. The priests get their portion of these costly sacrifices, and the 
money cast into the treasury falls into their hands, and is returned to the brokers 
to sell again for Roman or some other coin of greater value in the street, and at 
a high per cent. What will the Messiah say to this? The sons of Levi need 
purging in fire. (Mai. 3:1-3.) 

11. Inquiries and Answers. — After these impositions, the pious circum- 
cised worshiper may go into the court of the children of Israel, having made his 
offerings and obtained the forgiveness of his sins and a consciousness of recon- 
ciliation with God, and purified according to law; he can enjoy with kindred 
spirits all the communion and fellowship of saints. He may see the glories of 
the sanctuary, and hear their most eminent teachers ; may join in the prayers 
and listen to the songs of the sanctuary. He may ask the rabbi : What is the 
hope of Israel when the Messiah is cut off? They will answer: The Messiah 
cannot be cut off, for the prophets say he abides forever ; therefore, the shep- 
herds and people of Bethlehem were deceived ; it cannot be. But they affirm it 
is true, and no mistake ; here are the bereaved mothers to establish the fact. 
The people know what they saw and heard, and the rabbi are confident in their 
understanding of the prophets. According to the prediction of Jacob, the Shiloh 
ought to come soon, for the scepter has departed from Judah ; and the power to 



(3) Chap. 70. (4) Chap. 83, §§ 2, 3. 



312 THE KINGDOM .OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

make his own laws are almost gone; and all the rabbi have interpreted this of 
the Messiah. All Jerusalem was troubled about the announcement of the Ma^i, 
but can not tell what come' of him. The son of Zachariah disappeared in the 
wilderness; and he was another child of expectation. His father saw a vision in 
the temple and was dumb till the son was born and named, as the vision ordered. 
Then his mouth was opened, and, inspired by the Spirit, he chanted forth, as 
just at hand, what has always been the hope of Israel But no one knows where 
he is ; the people are troubled, and the rabbi bewildered. Thus, the pious 
sojourners return home vexed and discouraged, and report to their brethren what 
they learned about Christ; but as they had firm faith in Jehovah, they remained 
faithful in His service. 

(References to text of Scripture are omitted in paraphrases, because they are 
in all Bibles. Turn to the passages paraphrased and you will tind all necessary 
references.) 



Period Fifteenth. A. M. 4029-4033. 

The Preparatory Age merging into the Intermediate. 

The Mission of Jesus Christ on Karth. 

CHAPTER LXXXiy, 



JOHN THE BAPTIST'S MISSIONARY LABORS. A. M. 4029-4030. 

1. John's Introduction. — John the Baptist at Beth-Bara, or Bethany (Matt. 
3; Mark 1 ; Luke 3): In the year A. M. 4029, a voice was heard on the banks of the 
Jordan, at the house ot* passaoje or ford of Jordan, crying: Repent ye, for the 
kingdom of Heaven is at hand. This voice commenced down in the wilderness 
of Judea, where it received the word of God and commission from Him (John 
1:31-3), and traveled up the Jordan. The people were aroused from their musiniJ:s 
and speculations about the Messiah and their own destiny and gathered in flocks 
after the voice. It was the voice of a man from the desert, or wilderness of Judea, 
accustomed to the frugal fare of the desert, or natural productions of the wilder- 
ness, which have been called locust and wild honey, and he resembled old Elijah, 
having a rough or hairy garment of camel's hair girded about his loins with a 
leathern girdle. This was John, the son of Zacharias, who had spent about 
twenty-nine years of life in that retired spot, and now begins to travel the country 
all along the Jordan and proclaim the baptism of repentance into the remission 
of sins. 

2. Pkophecies Verified. — The evangelists say this is the messenger going 
before the Jehovah — angel of the covenant — predicted by Malachi, and the voice 
crying in the wilderness, prophesied by Isaiah. This voice does not deny the 
literal fulfillment of the prophecy at a future time, but applies it figuratively to 
the moral obstacles hindering the triumphs of the kingdom of God, which must 
be first removed and the spiritual character of His people prepared before these 
material roads will be needed for Christ and His people to travel in triumph. 
But the rabbi of Israel could not decide what prophetic character he was. 



OttAi^f ER lXxxiv. t sEotioisrs m.-vi. 313 

3. Plain Talk. — John talked plainly to all. He calls the Pharisees and 
and Sadducees coining with the crowds from Jerusalem and Jiidea a generation 
of vipers, and refers to a coming wrath that they had need to escape. Bat the 
only way of escape was by true repentance, or a genuine reformation. He assures 
them, and the whole multitude, that flesh and blood relation to Abraham will not 
secure them citizenship any more in the kingdom of God (I. Oor., 15:50), and 
God was able, out of the stones, or the gentiles, publicans, harlots, and sinners, 
to supply Abraham heirs to His covenants, oaths, promises, and His predicted 
greatness. He assures them that the judgments of God were now waiting, ready 
to cut them off, and every one remaining impenitent should be destroyed. Nothing 
but genuine reformation will save them. Though the teachers, law expounders, 
priests, scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees remained unmoved, the common people, 
publicans, and soldiers inquire what they shall do in regard to their positions and 
avocations. On the people, he enjoins benevolence; on the publicans, justice, 
and on the soldiers, moderation, mercy, truth, contentment, and subordination. 

4. His Success. — Notwithstanding his plain talk, multitudes were, during 
his short ministry, baptized by John, in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 
The language is universal — all Judea, Jerusalem, and the Jordan region — but this 
must be taken according to the common way of speaking about communities, as 
the rulers said of Christ: The world is gone after Him.^ Christ is said to have 
made and baptized more disciples in these same regions than John.^ Then the 
Pharisees, lawyers, chief priests, elders, and Sadducees all rejected him, and 
Christ, too, 1 and after the apostles' labors only a remnant was saved by the 
Gospel. 2 The common people, stigmatized as sinners, publicans, and harlots, 
furnished the larger portion of disciples to John's ministry. 

5. Superiority op Christ's Mission. — The preaching of John and his bap- 
tizing of disciples raised the expectations of the people, and they began to debate 
among themselves if he was the expected Messiah. John soon informed them 
that the Messiah would follow him, but was as much greater than he as the greatest 
dignitary among the Jews was above the meanest slave, and Christ's dispensation 
would be as much greater than his as the Holy Spirit was superior to water. All 
John could bestow upon his disciples was an external rite, that soon disappeared 
without conferring moral quality or supernatural power; but Christ would bestow 
upon them the Holy Spirit without measure, and endow them with powers that 
none can equal or resist. But He would separate the pious and sincere from the 
impious and hypocrites ; the first He would make citizens in His glorious king- 
dom, but the last He will destroy with irresistible destruction and a fire that cannot 
be extinguished. So John taught the people not to confide in him, but to believe 
in Christ, who was the Teacher, Savior, and King ; and the kingdom of Heaven 
was His. The figure John uses is different from that used by Malachi, but 
imports the same great and dreadful truth. As Malachi intimated, so John plainly 
declares that flesh and blood relation to pious parents can no longer give title to 
inherit the kingdom of God ; but every one must experience a radical moral 
change, and develop the same by corresponding fruit in words and actions. This 
doctrine was very offensive to scribes, Pharisees, and teachers, and though they 
might tolerate the purifying of the common crowd for the reception of Messiah 
and His kingdom, yet to require it of them — the very heirs of the kingdom — 
was as inconsistent as for an old man to be dissolved into original elements and 
born again of his same mother ; and this baptism into the remission of sins would 
dispense with both the sin and trespass offerings, which furnished meat for the 
priests and a good market for the Levites' cattle, sheep, and goats, or pigeons and 
doves. 

6. Baptism Among the Jews. — With baptism for purification they were 
familiar, and reckoned it indispensable to new proselytes from the nations (Num. 

(8) John 12:19. (9) 3:22. 4:1, 2. (1) Luke 7:29; Matt. 21:23, 32. 3:7-14; Acts 23:8. (2) 
Rom. 11:5. 



814 THE KINGDOM OF GOB DEVELOPED. 



n 



31:19-24), and those Jews using the Greek translation of their sacred writings 
were familiar with this terra, here used by the evangelists, and its import. In 
the law of Moses we have purifying or cleansing, washing or bathing, pouring, 
sprinkling, and dipping, all in the same rite and in the same passage, expressed 
by different Hebrew words, and translated in the seventy by different Greek 
words. ^ The Hebrew to express "to purify or cleanse," is Taher, and is 
translated into the Greek by Kathairo, or Katharizo, and Agnizo. The Hebrew 
to wash, or rinse clothes, is Kabas, and is rendered in the Greek by "Pluno." 
The Hebrew to wash or bathe the body, in whole or in part, is "Rahhats," 
and is rendered in the Greek by "Louo," when applied to the whole body, and 
by "Nipto" when applied to a part. The Hebrew to pour out, is "Shaphak," 
and is rendered into Greek by "Ekcheo." The Hebrew word to express sprink- 
ling is "Nazilh," and is rendered in the Greek, seventy, by "Raino," and 
twice "Kantidzo;" and referring to these same sprinklings, the New Testament 
uses "Rantizo."^ The Hebrew word to dip is "Tabal," and is rendered in 
the Greek translation of the seventy by " Bapto " mostly, but once by "Bap- 
tizo."^ Also the phrase, "put into water," is rendered by the seventy, " Bap- 
hesetai eis udor" — dipped into the water. 

7. Actions in Purification of Persons. — In all the cleansings or purifi- 
cations of a person, they must first be sprinkled, or rantized, with water contain- 
ing blood or ashes of the red heifer, and then the person must wash, or bathe, 
him or herself in water; and it is evident the law intended that every part should 
come in contact with the water. Tlie manner or action in this washing is not 
prescribed, but the law respecting vessels, garments, etc., touching the carcass 
of anything unclean, demanded they should be put in water. Hebrew, Bam- 
mayim y voboa ; Greek of the seventy, Baphesetai eis udor. "^ Also, when Israel 
smote the Midianites, they were ordered to purify themselves, spoils, and cap- 
tives, and tarry out of the camp these seven days. And Eleazer, the high 
priest, said to them: "The ordinance of the law commanded Moses was this: 
Everything that may abide the fire ye shall make go through the fire, and it shall 
be clean, nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation ; and all 
that abideth not the fire ye shall cause to pass through in the water" — Hebrew, 
Tha eebyirvo bammayim. ^ It is hard to see how a person could comply with 
all these injunctions and at the same time wash himself and clothes without im- 
mersing. 

8. Words Used, and Rabinical Testimony. — Elisha commanded Naaman 
to wash seven times in the Jordan, using the very same words used in the law, 
and Naaman went down and dipped, or immersed, seven times in the Jordan ; 
and this was according to the saying of the man of God. The word here trans- 
lated dip, or immerse, is the very same used in the law to express the action of 
dipping the hysop and the finger in blood, or in the water of separation, to be 
sprinkled upon some one. The Greek of the seventy rendered this dipping of 
Naaman "baptized seven times in the Jordan." They translate the same He- 
brew word as used in the law, by the same Greek words used in their translation 
of the law, except "Tribal," which there they translated by "Bapto," but here 
by "Baptizo. " They use this same word, to express Naaman's action in the 
Jordan, that is used by the evangelist to express the action of John's disciples 
in the same river, which, according to the Hebrew, was "immersion." The son 
of Sirach uses baptizo in the Apochrypha to designate these washings. Mai- 
monides, a Jewish rabbi of the twelfth century, who wrote a commentary on the 
Mishna and an abridgment of the Talmud, says: "In short, it is a rule with the 
Jews that wheresoever in the law washing of the flesh or clothes is mentioned, it 
means nothing else than dipping — tabal of the whole body in water — for is any 



(4) Num. 19:12, 18, 19. (5) Heb. 9:13, 19. 10:22; I. Pet. 1:2. (6) II. Kings 5:14. (7) Lev. 
11:32. (8) Num. 31:23. 



CHAPTER LXXXIV.: SECTIONS IX. -XI. 315 

man washed all over except the tip of his little finger, he is still in his unclean- 
ness. ^ Paul designates the sprinkling of blood and ashes of the heifer by 
"rantizo," while they are designated in the law by "raino," and surely he don't 
mean the same thing by "divers baptisms," when in the law bapto designates 
the dippings and baptizo is used for the immersion of Naaman in obeying the 
command to wash. He means those washings for diiferent purposes, performed 
by immersion. Of these were six classes, containing twenty-five different 
objects. The Jews also practiced the immersions to excess, as we find from the 
New Testament, compared with the rabbinical accounts of their traditions and 
practices. 

9. Proselyte Baptism. — As the law required everything coming from the 
nations to pass through the fire or through the water, ^ so the Jews required a 
total purification of all new proselytes. The covenant national requirement 
was "the circumcision of every male in a man's house, old and young," but as 
every one of the family, man and woman, adult and child, had a right, or obli- 
gation, to eat the passover and mingle with the purified, it was necessary that 
every one be immersed or pass through the water, and be so thoroughly wjished 
that every part and spot come in ccmtact with the water, and be covered or 
washed by it. And this was nothing more than the Jews required of themselves 
when polluted. Witseus, a Dutch Reformed noted divine, says of proselyte 
baptism: After farther instructions from the three judges, while the candidate 
was standing in the water, the entire body was to be plunged at once, for if but 
the tip of a finger was undipped, such a person was accounted still in his un- 
clean ness ; yet it was not necessary that the person baptised should put off all 
his clothes, provided they were such as the water could easily penetrate. ^ 

10. Robinson, a Baptist, says: A river was preferred, but any collection of 
clean water of a depth sufficient for dipping, would do. If a bath were neces- 
sary, a square with- about four and a half feet of water was requisite. A woman 

•was conducted by three women — the three judges having withdrawn or turned 
their backs — and when notice was given that she was up to the neck in water, 
she plunged herself in the water. ^ Dr. Adam Clark, as Episcopalian, says: 
But as the Jewish custom required the persons to stand in the water, and having 
been instructed and entered into a covenant to renounce all idolatry and take the 
God of Israel for their God, then to plunge themselves under the water, it is 
probable that the rite was thus performed at Enon. ^ Thus, Naaman dipped, or 
ijaptized, himself seven times in Jordan. None of the evangelists represent 
John with the Saviour in coming out of the river. This rite being performed 
on the proselytes, on their entering the Jewish church and their renouncing 
idolatry and taking Jehovah for their God, gave it the appearance of an initiatory 
ordinance ; and so it became regarded at last, and is practiced to this day. ^ 
Now, John required the Jews to prepare for their Messiah in the same way, 
which was degrading them to a level with gentiles and sinners, publicans and 
harlots. But Baptism into the remission of sins was new doctrine, for all remis- 
sion of sins was by sacrifices.* 

11. Christ Baptized. — Having directed the people to look for the Messiah 
coming to take his place and consumate the work just begun by him, and hav- 
ing taught them the true character of His ministry and government, he attended 
to the baptism of all present desiring to become disciples on the conditions and 
with the expectations now set before them, while those off*ended watched for 
some occasion for accusation against him. Now, when all the people present 
who wished, or complied, were baptized and the river cleared of candidates, 
and John, as I suppose, standing on the shore in full view of friends and foes, 



(9) Gill. Comnt.; Mark 7:28. (2) Num. 31:23. (3) Witseus on Bap , chap. 16 § 5. (4) Hist. 
Bap., pp. 45-6. (5) Comnt. John., 3:23. (6) Hakefc. Christ. Revw , Oct. No. {*) Heb. 9:22. 10:4, 
16; I. John. 1:9. 2:1. 2. 



316 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Behold! Jesus of Nazareth came from Galilee to the Jordan and approached 
him and offered Himself for baptism. From some inspiration within, John recog- 
nized His great superiority, and refused in the presence of disciples, friends, and 
foes, and exclaimed: " I have need to be baptized of Thee! and comest Thou 
to me." Jesus answered, "Permit it now; for in this manner it becomes us to 
fulfill all righteousness." The word of God had come to John in the wilderness, 
and had sent him, as " Christ's porter," to open the sheepfold and introduce the 
Messiah, in a regular and authentic way, to His work and the attention of His 
people."^ Then John complied immediately. Jehovah never asked nor allowed 
His people, in any age, to believe or follow any pretended Messiah without 
authenticated commission. Also, the Christ would teach obedience to laws and 
institutions, by example. (See chapter 98, §§ l-^t.) 

12. Christ's Sonship Acknowledged. — As no others were in the river, 
Christ's baptism was witnessed by the multitude that lined the banks. When 
Jesus arose, He went directly up out of the water and from it upon the shore a 
short distance, but in full view of the multitude, and there addressed Himself in 
prayer to God above, as one having some business there and contidence to speak 
about it. The blue sky opened, and lo ! from beyond, a glory in visible form, 
with the gyrations or undulations of a dove, descended, and hovering over Him 
alighted on Him and remained. This was the Holy Spirit, or Spirit of God. 
Then a voice followed from Heaven, saying : Thou art My beloved Son ; in Thee 
I am well pleased ; and repeats it to the people : This is My beloved Son, in 
whom I am well pleased. John exclaimed : This is He of whom I spake. He 
that cometh after me is preferred before me, for He was before me. Many of the 
rabbi, who spent time in searching the Scriptures, were there and saw His shape, 
or that glory which dwelt between the cherubim on the Ark at the first, and was 
called the Jehovah that dwells between the cherubim. ^ They heard the voice 
of the Father in Heaven acknowledging and approbating this His Son on earth. ^ 
Thus, were manifested the Three Persons so often called Jehovah, their God, and 
declared to be one Jehovah, i and if this did not reconcile them to John's baptism 
and induce them to receiv^e Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, they were without 
excuse. 

13. Jesus Always Presents Additional Evidence. — Jesus immediately 
disappears. The testimony of the shepherds was giv^en to the people in and about 
Bethlehem, and the more remarkable testimony of the Magi, whose actions, 
journey, and expenses corroberated their words, was given to those of Jerusalem, 
and the testimony of Simeon and Anna is given in the temple ; then the child 
disappears. The rabbi witnessed His superior knowledge in their midst, and 
then the boy disappears. And now, again He disappears without followers. All 
aspirants are careful to preserve and avail themselves of every advantage, and 
take the people under the impulse of the moment; but Christ leaves every pro- 
motion and advantage, and gives the people time to examine and study every 
testin)ony in His favor, whether from Heaven or of men. He sought not His 
own glory. 



(7) John 10:1-3. (8) I. Sara. 4:4; II. Sam. 6:2; Ps. 80:1. 99:1. (9) John 5:38; Mark 12:29; 
Deut. 6:4. (1) Mark 12:29; Deut. 6:4. 



CHAPTER LXXXY. 



INTRODUCTION TO CHRIST'S MINISTRY. JESUS ENTERS UPON 

HIS WORK AS KING INCARNATE ON THE THRONE 

OF DAVID. A. M. 4030. A. D. 26. 

1. His Royal Prerogatives Established. — Jesus of Nazareth has now 
been acknowledged from Heaven both audibly and visibly, and in the presence 
of multitudes of friends and foes to be the Son of God, and this establishes His 
title to the throne of David and King of Israel ; and so the Jews understood it : 
Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God ; Thou art the King of Israel. (John 1:19.) The 
titles. Son of God, Son of Man, Messiah, Christ, and Son of David, were all 
understood by the Jews to designate their long-expected king to occupy the throne 
of David and deliver Israel. We have seen (chap. 70:29-33, 46) the Hope of 
Israel embraced a king both human and divine, and such the evangelists show 
Jesus of Nazareth to be. Matthew has given His genialogy through Joseph, the 
son of Jacob, and Zerubbabel and David, to Abraham. The choice of Israel 
for the peculiar people of God commenced with Abraham, who, by means of his 
seed, was constituted heir of the whole world, and the covenants, oaths, and 
promises respecting Christ were made to them. Luke gives His genioiogy through 
Mary, the daughter of Heli, to Zerubbabel, and then on up to Adam, whose 
prerogatives as head of the human family Christ now inherits. The first promise 
of favor to fallen man was made to Mother Eve, whose seed should destroy the 
Old Serpent, and here is Jesus of Nazareth, acknowledged to be the Christ, who 
is shown to be literally "the seed of the woman." Thus, His humanity is 
clearly shown and traced back through the channel given in the divine programme : 
He is the son of man, or Adam ; the son of Abraham ; the son of David, and 
inherits all the promises made to them. 

2. His Divine Nature and Superior Excellency Established. — John 
1:1-14. — John, the apostle, shows the name, Son of God, is not a mere title of 
honor or office, but designates His true divine nature or person, which existed 
before His incarnation. John asserts His existence before the beginning of all 
things ; for in the beginning He was there, and did not receive His existence then. 
He was with God alone when nothing else existed, and was God. When creation 
work began He was with God, and created all things, and not anything was made 
without Him. Life was in Him, and was not derived, but He communicated life 
to all things, and this life was the light of men. The life given to man was an 
intelligent spirit, animating an organized body, and capable of perceiving good 
and evil, right and wrong, happiness and misery, and had divine knowledge 
revealed to it at first. By repeated revelations, traditions, and the dispersion of 
the Israelites and Jews this light was kept shining in the darkness of Polytheism, 
but was not embraced. This divine person was the true light that enlightens 
all men, Jew or gentile ; all other sources gave a false light, whether they were 
priests or philosophers. He had been in the world, which was made and organ- 
ized by Him, and conversed with the patriarchs, and spoke to kings and prophets, 
but the nations degenerated so they did not know Him. He came to His own 
people, the Jews, but the nation refused Him ; but some received Him, and to 
them He gave the authorit}^ to become the sons of God. 



318 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

3. His Incarnation, Claim, and Kingdom. — During the four hundred years 
since the closing writings of the old covenant, many new words had been incor- 
porated in the Jews' theology; and here John uses the term Logos, or Word, to 
designate this Divine Person, to whom he attributes everything which in the 
Jewish writings is attributed to the Jehovah, God of Israel. He also says this 
Divine Person became flesh and dwelt in midst of them ; and they saw His 
glory, as of the orly Begotten of the Father ; and He was full of grace and 
truth ; and of His fullness they all had received ; and favor upon favor ; or grace 
corresponding to every grace in Christ ; or one adorning grace upon another. 
If Christ is the only Begotten of the Father, He must be the Son of God in some 
other way than Adam, or angels, or saints. And this Divine Person, made 
flesh, was the person of whom John the Baptist did bear witness. The apostle 
John also agrees with John the Baptist, that the terms of adoption, or citizenship, 
in the kingdom of God, are changed ; so that flesh and blood can no longer 
inherit, or secure citizenship, in it. He also shows a new dispensation has taken 
-place. In the law of Moses it was works and ceremonies ; in Christ it is grace 
and realities, or truth. Justification was obtained by deeds of the law, and 
purification by ceremonies prescribed ; but now justification is of free grace, and 
puritication is by the Spirit. Justification is now a fact that stands at the bar of 
God ; and without holiness, no man shall see the Lord ; they must be born of 
God ; they must believe in His name. Thus, we see the human and divine 
natures of this Jesus of Nazareth is shown by the evangelists, and hence He is 
the King hoped for by Israel and foretold by the prophets. He is the Christ of 
the Greek, and Messiah of the Hebrew. 

4. His Headship of the Human Family. — Christ now enters on the work 
of His kingdom ; and as the promise to our first parents was entrusted to 
Abraham's seed and David's son, the bruising of the serpent's head must be 
accomplished by Him, as well as the blessing of all families of the earth, and 
the universal and everlasting empire of David's throne. Another character 
hoped for in their king was his conquest of all their enemies ; but this cannot be 
done till the head, or principal, of the antagonism be destroyed. This principal, 
or chief, is Satan, who achieved his first victory over man by temptation through 
the serpent, and hence, is properly called the Old Serpent, and must be van- 
quished. But as the justice, or reasonableness, of the law must be vindicated, 
Christ must first be tempted by him. Adam was head of the human family by 
natural generation, and plunged himself and posterity into perdition. Christ 
becomes the head, or chief, by deliverance, and proves His competency by over- 
coming temptation, obeying the law, sufi'ering the penalties, and by the conquest 
of Satan himself, and all his agents, both visible and invisible. He is said to be 
the Captain of Salvation, made perfect through suff'erings (Heb. 2:10-18.); or, 
rather, by suff'erings and temptations He was shown to be perfect. The imper- 
fection is in His subjects, who can not confide in Him unless they are assured He 
has experienced what they do. So He must suff'er and be tempted, or be 
tempted under suff'ering, to show the law, or injunction, was not too severe, but 
Adam was able to withstand the temptation ; and to show Christ's competency 
to inherit Adam's prerogative, and to show His subjects how He can sympathize 
with them and deliver them. 

5. The Temptation.— (Luke 4: 1-13; Matt. 4:11; Mark 1:12 p. 13) '^ ^' ^■ 
Alone in the wilderness: Impelled by the Holy Spirit, Christ retires alone into the 
rugged wilderness to be tempted by the Diabolus. When our first parents were 
tempted, they had everything needed for soul or body, animal, and mental, and 
spiritual enjoyment. Taste for the good looking fruit, and a cultivated desire for 
knowledge she was better without, led Eve to disobey God, and thus violate the 
law of supreme love to Him. Adam was overcome by the love of Eve's society 
and fear of solitude; and their offspring are overcome by every kind of tempta- 
tions. Christ is in solitude and destitution ; no one to cheer Him up, or minister 



CHAPTER LXXXV. : SECTIONS VI. -VII. 319 

to his wants, or encourage him to resist. How easy to overcome one in sohtude, 
friendless and destitute? Approach them as a friend, and cover your designs 
with plausible speeches or texts of Scripture. Christ was there forty days with- 
out food, tempted of the devil. What these temptations were, we are not told ; 
but either here, or during life. He was tempted in all points and particulars as we 
are, and yet never sinned, but resisted, and knows how to succor those that are 
tempted, before overeome. 

6. Three Temptations Recorded. — (Heb. 4:15, 16.) At the close, he felt 
all the cravings of hunger, and the tempter thought now to succeed. He 
approaches Christ as a Jewish rabbi, well acquainted with the Scriptures and the 
power of the Messiah. Christ answers his friendly advice by quoting the Scrip- 
tures. The sword of the spirit is the word of God. This tempter disappears, 
and another, in angel form, robed in light and of mighty power, transports Him 
to Jerusalem, where eager multitudes were expecting the Jehovah angel to come 
suddenly to his temple, and places Him on a battlement of the temple, and in a 
friendly manner tells Jesus to cast himself down, and quotes a promise that 
would certainly apply to Him. Jesus shows him that violating a known law of 
creation, depending upon divine promises to prevent the eifects or consequences, 
is to tempt God; and this is forbidden by the law. Defeated again, this false 
angel transports Him to the highest hill or mountain in the country, and disap- 
pears. Another approaches in the ensignia of wealth, power, and position, pre- 
tending to be some great favorite of the Roman emperor, who had conferred 
upon him the rule and income of those kingdoms of this world within view. 
These he shows to Christ in a moment, with one sweep of the hand, and points 
out their glories as far superior to Judea, or all Palestine; and then adds, "I 
will give them all to you for one act of divine adoration. " This was plausible 
enough. The Roman emperors did sometimes bestow provinces and kingdoms 
to favorites, ^ and they did claim divine homage, and a highly favored dignitary 
might covet the same. Jesus replied : "Get thee behind me, Satan : for it is 
written, 'Thou shalt worship the Lord, thy God, or Jehovah, thy God, and Him 
only shalt thou serve'." Then the Diabolusleft Him there ; and then the angels 
came and ministered to all His wants. Thus, Christ triumphed over the Old 
Serpent, or Satan, in all forms, under various circumstances, and disadvan- 
tageous conditions. , 

FURTHER TESTIMONY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.— John 1:15-37. 

7. Message of the Sanhedrim to John, while Christ was in th^: Wil- 
derness.— (John 1:15-37.) While Christ was in the wilderness the public mind 
was agitated about Him, but no one knew where He was. The preaching and 
baptizing by John the Bapist, the baptism of Jesus of Nazareth, and His 
acknowledgement from Heaven to be the Son of God, excited the Jews to 
such an extent that the Sanhedrim, or senate, thought it necessary to in- 
quire into John's commission, and bring him to account for acting without 
authority from them. So they sent priests and Levites of the Pharisee sect — 
the rabbi of Jerusalem — who demanded of him who he was. Who art thou? 
John confessed he was not the Messiah. What then? Elijah? No. That 
prophet? No. Well, who are you? We are acting under authority, and must 
return an answer. John answered them as he had done the people: " I am the 
voice in the wilderness," etc. By what authority, then, do you undertake to 
introduce the kingdom of God and baptize disciples for it, for none else have 
authority to do so ? John answered : "I do baptize in water ; but One standing 
among you, whom you know not, comes after me, and is, by far, my superior, 
who will perfect the work." To reconcile the apparent contradictory prophecies, 



(9) Joseph. Ant. 18:6, 10. 19:5, 1. 



320 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

some Jews expected four prophetic characters, including Jeremiah, and John 
himself was that Elijah. They were right when they disputed his right to begin 
the new dispensation, if not one of these. Their understanding of prophecy — 
that Elijah must be the forerunner of Christ — was in accordance with the facts 
of the present case. 

8. Christ the La:mb of God. — This testimony was given in Beth-barah, or 
Bethany, on the east side of Jordan, where John was then baptizing. Whether 
Jesus had returned from the wilderness and was present when the priests and 
Levites interrogated John, or John, knowing nothing of the temptation, supposed 
Him to be in the crowd all the time, we don't know ; but the next day John sees 
Jesus coming unto him, perhaps about the time the morning or evening daily 
lamb was offered to expiate sins, and pointing to Him, said : '* Behold the Lamb 
of God, which takes away the sins of the world. •' I^either the lamb offered in 
the temple, nor John's baptism in water, takes away sins ; but all sins of the 
Jews, and of the nations, must be expiated by the sacrifice of that Person, who 
is the Son of God, as was proved at His baptism. Thus, John points Him out to 
the people, who did not recognize Him as the same superior One. John says he 
did not know Him, but was sent to baptize in water, that He, Jesus, might be 
openly, publicly, and in a regular manner, manifested to Israel, so that there 
could be no imposition on the Jews, nor excuse to follow false Christs that were 
never authenticated. John knew nothing of His official character till the Spirit 
descended and remained upon Him ; then he knew and testified that same person 
was the Son of God. This he knew ; for when God had sent him to baptize in 
water, He gave him this token as certainly pointing out and designating the Christ 
who would baptize in the Holy Spirit. John may never have seen Christ, or 
known him, even, personally, for he abode in the wilderness south of Judea, and 
Christ in Nazareth, fifty miles north of Jerusalem, and such multitudes crowded 
Jerusalem at the feast that they may never have met there. But here John is 
speaking of the knowledge of His official character. But, after all this testimony, 
none appear to have followed Jesus. 

9. Christ's First Followers. — The next day John was standing, and two 
of his disciples from Galilee, and, looking at Jesus walking, said: Behold the 
Lamb of God; and these two disciples immediately followed Jesus, determined 
to not lose Him this time. Jesus, turning, saw them following, and asked them : 
What seek ye? They answered : Teacher, or Rabbi, where abidest Thou? He 
replied: Come and see. They did, and stayed with Him that night. Here we 
see the Messiah had no ostentation or complimentary etiquette, but is lowly, 
plain, familiar, and social. These two disciples were Andrew, and John, who 
writes the account, and were the first followers of Christ. Andrew finds his 
brother Simon, and exclaims : We have found the Messiah, or Christ. This 
exclamation shows that some were on the hunt for Jesus, but did not recognize 
Him; but Andrew and John, having heard John the Baptist, and saw Him 
pointed out by him, stuck by Jesus till they introduced others. 

10. Returns to Galilee. — Christ takes no advantage of the many testi- 
monies to His Messiahship, but retires unobserved from public excitement, and 
gives new proofs of His power and character and office wherever He goes. He 
knows His own business and is intent on doing it, but seeks no honor nor rewards 
from men. The excitement about Him down in and about Judea must have 
become intense; and Jesus goes north up the Jordan into Galilee, and thus 
retires again, leaving the multitudes and Jewish rulers and teachers in suspense. 
His example teaches us to do our work in earnest, but avoid the applause and 
excitements of the multitudes, and let God direct our way and end. We are 
now forming our acquaintance with the King of the Jews, in whom we gentiles, 
too, look for salvation and government. On the road to Galilee Christ receives 
two more followers — Philip and Nathaniel. Jesus found Philip and told him to 



CHAPTEE LXXXVI. : SECTION I. 321 

follow ; and Philip finds Nathaniel. Philip is sure this Jesus is the person 
Moses and the prophets foretold and promised. Nathaniel thinks Nazareth 
rather a hard place to produce a prophetic character, but, being a sincere, blunt, 
honest man, was satisfied with a proof of Christ's omniscience, and acknowledged 
Him the Son of God and King of Israel. Christ promises still stronger proof; 
for the angels shall attend on Him in His humanity, as well as in His divine 
character — or the Son of Man. 

CHKIST AT HOME. A. M. 4031.— John 2:1-2. 

11. Attends a Wedding. — Jesus has now returned to Galilee, having five 
disciples to be witnesses in the future of the works and words in the present. 
Christ's neighbors treat Him as a social being and invite Him to a wedding, and 
He shows His appreciation of social enjoyment and lawful animal gratification. 
They were too poor to have wine, but at His mother's instigation, who appears to 
have had some knowledge of His supernatural powers, He turns water into wine 
— enough for the occasion, and, perhaps, to sell and make a start in new life. 
The miracle was well authenticated and His new disciples believed in Him, 
though His time for working miracles and manifesting His power and preroga- 
tives had not yet come. Next He appears with His mother, brethren, and 
disciples at Capernaum, on the sea of Galilee, but soon proceeded to Jerusalem 
to keep the Passover, which is the first in His ministry, or when He exercised 
His authority as King of Israel. 



CHAPTER LXXXYI. 



FIRST MISSIONARY TOUR TO JERUSALEM AND BACK TO 
GALILEE. A. M. 4030. A. D. 26. 

1. Christ's Sudden Appearance in the Temple. — John 2:13-25. A. M. 
4031, OR A. D. 27. — The feast of the Passover is now approaching, and the Jews 
and proselytes are flocking into Jerusalem to obtain remission of their sins by 
sin offerings and trespass ofi'erings, and purification by sprinkling water mixed 
with blood, or ashes of the red heifer, and then washing their clothes and bathing 
themselves in water, that they might keep the Passover according to the law. 
Here were the pious pilgrims from remote regions, coming with their gifts and 
ofi'erings to worship the Jehovah in the beauty of holiness. But this time they 
find Jerusalem all excitement, and hear the accounts of the new dispensation 
commenced in Jordan, and the descent of the Holy Spirit on One, and the voice 
from^ Heaven announcing Him to be the Son of God, and the action of the San- 
hedrim and testimony of John; but no one could tell where He was. This was 
thrilling news to the pilgrims; but it was sad disappointment to not know where 
to find Him. However, they must keep the law, enjoy the feast, and visit the 
temple of Jehovah. But when they enter the court of the gentiles, where the pious, 
but unclean according to the law worshiped God, here were the oxen, sheep, goats, 
doves, and pigeons, and money shavers, with all the hubbub and bustle of 
traffickers. Those having to stop here had but a sorry time to worship. Here 
enters a humble, unpretending man, followed by a few who call Him Teacher. 

-21 



li. 



322 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

He does not hurry through to mingle with the purified worshipers, where the 
scribes and Pharisees are, but lie pauses, looks around the premises, picks up 
the loose cords thrown around and makes a whip, and drives cattle, sheep, and 
goats out, commands the sellers to take the doves away, pours out the money, 
and upsets the brokers' tables. He exclaims : Make not My Father's house a 
house of merchandise. Ah ! the Jehovah whom ye seek shall suddenly come 
to His temple : the Angel of the covenant, in whom ye delight ! But who shall 
abide His coming? (MaL 3:1-3.) 

2. His Reception. — Those having an interest in this market were taken 
unawares, and while filled with wrath remembered the account of the Messiah 
and advent, suppressed their vengeance, and simply asked for a sign proving His 
authority. He gave them a figurative answer, which, if they did understand, 
they thought they could better prejudice the people against Him by taking it 
literally. It was forty-six years since Herod commenced rebuilding the temple, 
and the Jews were still adding to its adornments. But His disciples understood, 
and after His resurrection they saw it was all before Him at the first. After this 
He gave them signs enough; and many of the people believed in Him when they 
saw His miracles. Here He showed His sympathy for the pious gentiles who 
were not circumcised, and His zeal for preserving the law of God and the purity 
of the temple. Though many believed in Him, He put Himself in the power 
of none ; for He knew what was in man, and knowing the rulers had now learned 
He would not acquiesce in their hypocricy, schemes of violence, and robbery, 
and of polluting the worship of God for gain; He so kept Himself they could 
neither misrepresent Him to the people nor secretly assassinate Him. The 
people, seeing His miracles, believed in His claim to be the Christ; the rulers 
knew He came from God, and that God was with Him; but some of them were 
atheists, smd others covetous, malignant demons. 

CONVERSATION WITH NICODEMIJS.— John 3:1-21. 

3. Citizenship and Eternal Life. — §§ 3-8. — We have said that the preach- 
ing of reformation and baptizing Jews into the remission of sins preparatory to 
entering the kingdom of God was off"ensive to the rabbi and rulers, and now we 
have one of them disputing this matter with the King Himself Nicodemus con- 
fesses that the rabbi and rulers knew Him to be sent from God, by the miracles 
they had witnessed Him do. Knowing their aversion to John's teachings, Christ 
commences and affirms the same. He says : Except a man be born from above, 
he cannot see — understand, enjoy, nor approach — the kingdom of God; He made 
no exceptions. Now, Nicodemus was very wealthy, very benevolent, very pious, 
according to Jewish accounts, and was both a ruler and a rabbi ; if any one might 
enter the kingdom of God on their Jewish standing, he might. Nicodemus 
opposed the Savior's position as irrational, and as inconsistent as for an old 
man to be born a second time of the same mother; but the Savior assures him 
that he must be born of water and spirit or he cannot enter. He must enter as a 
little child and grow up a new creature. This placed the matter right before 
Nicodemus, who had come by night, that it might not be known that even he 
believed with the plebian herd ! Must he, and the high priest, too, now come out 
before the world, renouncing all former superiority, and be baptized into the remis- 
sion of sins upon his repentance and acknowledgement of sins, and be thus put 
on a level with gentiles, publicans, harlots, and sinners in common? But so 
Christ has affirmed. 

4. Must be Born of God. — This profession of repentance and a new nature 
corresponds with the facts of the case. The Jews inherited their position in the 
kingdom by flesh and blood relation to Abraham, and were governed by a law 
armed with penalties, because many of them were transgressors. (Gal. 3:19. 
4:1-7.) Now, that born of flesh and blood is indeed the same as the parent body, 



CHAPTER LXXXVI. : SECTIONS V. -VII. 323 

but may not have one moral or spiritual trait of the soul ; and that born of the 
Spirit is spirit, and inherits the traits of the Spirit, too. The kingdom of God is 
designed for those born of God, or of the Holy Spirit, and cannot be inherited 
by flesh and blood relation ; hence, Jews and gentiles must inherit this kingdom 
by a new grant that excludes the transgressors. Be not astonished at the saying, 
Ye must be born from above, as if impossible to tell who are thus regenerated. 
We can tell when the wind blows by the effects, without knowing how it origi- 
nates or what becomes of it ; so we can tell who are born of the Spirit : they 
reform and produce fruits according to their new nature. 

5. Nicodemus ought to have known this. Nicodemus could not under- 
stand how this electing a part of Israel and rejecting the rest could be reconciled 
with the Scriptures. Jesus intimates that he, being a rabbi, ought to have known 
it ; for the old prophets foretold it, and always represent the age of the Messiah 
as a holy and happy age. Zachariah understood this, and so represents the hope 
of Israel when John the Baptist was born ; and why could not every rabbi know 
this? Christ assures him that John and Himself spoke what they knew, and 
yet their testimony was rejected by the leaders of the Jews. Now, what John 
and Christ had told them Were truths within the'reach of men on earth, for they 
were clearly taught by the prophets, and were (see chap. 70:36-8) yearly or daily 
read in the temple or synagogues ; but if so prejudiced they could not believe 
these, what use in telling them heavenly things which they could not test or 
examine? JN^one of their prophets or rabbi had ever ascended into Heaven to 
ascertain what was not clearly revealed, and none but the incarnate Son of God, 
who is present in Heaven and on earth at the same time, can make them known. 
Nicodemus, the rabbi, knew Christ to be a teacher sent from God, but had not 
acknowledged His Messiahship, and so reserved the right to dispute His teach- 
ings, and Christ taught them nothing but what He could prove by the Scriptures 
and from their own expositions of them. 

6. God's Love to the World as Well as to Israel. — The king of Israel 
now tells Nicodemus some other truths taught in Scripture, and read in their 
synagogues, which their prejudiced reasonings did not comprehend. First: The 
crucifixion of Christ. When -he taught the same truth on another occasion, they 
said : We have heard out of the law that Christ abides forever ; how sayest 
thou, the Son of Man must be lifted up ? Who is this Son of Man ? What pro- 
phetic person is He? Or what do you mean? Second: Salvation to all nations 
by faith in the Messiah. The devastations so often spoken of by the prophets 
include the impious Jews as well as the nations, but the nations must have a 
time of trial as well as the Jews. God has not sent His Son into the world to 
judge the world; but that the. nations misjht be saved through Him; or, as pro- 
mised to Abraham, might be blessed in Him. God did not hate the world when 
he chose Israel ; but oat of love to them, has preserved Israel and the truth ; and 
now has devoted his only begotten Son, that whosoever, Jew or gentile — believes 
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. This is something more 
than Moses ever promised Israel or that could be obtained by the law. (John 
3:14-19, 36.) 

7. Justification and Condemnation. — Whoever believes in Him — Jew or 
gentile, priest or publican, rabbi or harlot, Pharisee or sinner — is not judged. 
But everyone, of every nation, rank, or condition, that believes not, is judged 
already, because he has not believed in the only begotten Son of God. This 
judgment shall be given in view of the fact that the light has come into the 
world, and the men have loved the darkness rather than the light, because their 
deeds were evil. This is manifested by their actions and will need no witnesses; 
they hate the light and will not approach it, because they do evil and fear 
detection and reproof. But those receiving the truth and obeying it, come to 



324 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the light with a clear conscience, that it may be manifested that their deeds are 
wrought in God. Thus, everyone decides his own case by his own conduct, and 
goes with his own company to their own destiny. 

8. Complete Reconciliation Made. — Here another characteristic of the 
King of the Jews is given in accordance with their hope. (Chap. 70:31-33). He 
makes complete reconciliation between God and His subjects. They must believe, 
or confide, in Him as fully sustaining whatever character and office He claims to 
possess. If He claims to be a teacher, they receive His instructions as infalUbly 
true, and most suitable to the case ; if a sovereign, they accept His laws as wise 
and the best, and obey them. What Nicodemus and the Jews understood by the 
phrase "eternal life," we shall not now stop to determine. Nicodemus returried, 
but I fear he did not communicate his instruction to his brother rabbi and fellow- 
rulers. 

9. John the Baptist Rejoices in Christ's Superiority and Success. — John 
was now in Galilee, preaching and baptizing in Enon ; and Jesus, with His 
disciples, tarried in Judea and baptized there. A dispute arose between some of 
John's disciples and the Jews about cleansing (katharismou), but I don't know 
what it was. Some of John's disciples told him that Jesus was baptizing, and 
everyone going to Him; thus, John was about to be superseded. John shows 
them that this is as it ought to be, and reminds them that, at the beginning of 
his ministry, he told them he was only Christ's forerunner. This information 
filled him with joy, though about to be superseded. To prevent any party 
following him, John gave renewed testimony to Christ's Messiahship ; and John 
was a most disinterested witness to any gain or reward here, for Christ left him 
on every occasion without any social interview. 

10. John Asserts Christ's Competency to Testify to Divine Truths. — John 
asserts Christ came from Heaven and was above all earthly teachers, for He was 
eye and ear witness to all he testified ; and yet none of the leaders of the Jews 
received his testimony. But those who did receive it for the truth, affixed their 
seal before the world that to their testimony that God is true; he, whom God 
has sent, speaks the very words of God; God gave Him the Holy Spirit at His 
baptism for a witness to all present of His Messiahship ; and God gives His 
Spirit without measuring, "for not out of a measure gives God His Spirit." 
The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hands: the world 
and nations, Judea and Jerusalem, the Jews, with their temple, laws, institutions, 
and Scriptures ; and blessed are they who receive Him, and receive the authority 
to become the sons of God. John reaffirms what Jesus assured Nicodemus. He 
that believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who believes not, or is not 
persuaded by the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests on him. To 
believe in Jesus Christ is necessarily to become His disciple, receive His teach- 
ings, rely on Him alone for eternal life, to implicitly obey His commandments. 

11. Imprisonment and Death of John the Baptist. — Matt. 14:1-12; 
Mark 6:17-29 ; Luke 3:19, 20. 9:7-9. — John's preaching in Galilee had its usual 
effect. Herod Antipas, the tetrarch, reverenced John, knowing him to be just 
and holy, observed him, heard him with approbation, and obeyed him in many 
things. But John was like old Eh'jah, and reproved Herod for having his brother 
Philip's wife, and for other violations of the law of Moses. Herod was like 
Ahab, and had a wife like Jezebel, who had abandoned her husband, Philip, and 
cohabited with Antipas, who was in more opulent circumstances. Fearing 
John's influence over Herod might result in her divorce, she importuned him to 
kill John. Guilt creates fear. Herod would have complied, but he feared the 
multitude, who counted Joiin a true prophet; so he sent and seized John and 
bound him in prison. But Jezebel, like Ilerodias, watched her opportunity and 
got the advantage of Herod by a rash, drunken oath, to give her dancing daughter 
whatever she asked. The bloodthirsty mother instructed the foolish daughter to 



CHAPTER LXXX VI. i SECTIONS Xll.-XIV. 325 

request the head of John the Baptist. The king regretted the oath ; but fearing 
the consequences of giving his subjects a precedent for violating oaths, he had 
John beheaded in the prison secretly. Thus was the porter of the kingdom of 
God sacrificed to the vengeance of a bad woman, by a ruler of God's people. 
Though the multitude regarded John as a true prophet, and received his testi- 
mony concerning Christ, the rulers of Galilee acquiesced in the murder. 

12. On Christ's Journey to Galilee, He Converses With the Woman 
OF Samaria. — -John 4:1-45. — When John was imprisoned Jesus left Judea 
and came into Galilee. The Pharisees had heard that Jesus was gathering more 
disciples than John, and fearing Christ's influence, perhaps, they were beginning 
to raise trouble; so Christ left Judea, and went to Herod's jurisdiction. Jesus 
preached and instructed the people, but His chosen disciples baptized the new 
adherents. Now Samaria lay between Judea and Galilee, and He passed 
through it. Being way-worn when he came to Sychar, he sat down at Jacob's 
well, while His disciples went to buy provisions. This King was a man of 
sorrows and acquainted with griefs, while His disciples do not appear fatigued. 
The Samaritans were waiting for the Messiah, and were acquainted with all that 
had transpired in Judea and Jerusalem, and a weary traveler sits on Jacob's 
well, and no herald proclaims the presence of the Son of God. A woman 
coming for water unexpectedly discovers the man and takes Him to be some 
outcast Jew, induced by adversity to ask favor of a Samaritan. Though by 
miracles He provides food for others. He seeks a supply for His own wants by 
ordinary ways, and accepts hospitalities and acts of kindness. He asks for a 
drink and is met with contumacious insult and taunt, and notwithstanding His royal 
prerogative. He receives the rebuff with meekness. He teaches her the superi- 
ority of the influences of the Spirit in the soul to the use of water for the body, 
and His willingness and ability to bestow it on her, though she was a Samaritan. 
Then He stops her insolence by showing His knowledge of her history ; this 
causes her to acknowledge Him as a prophet and to change the subject to the 
dispute about worshiping Jehovah on Mount Gerizim. The Samaritans were a 
mitxure of races, as, also, of character; sometimes they worshiped Jehovah, 
and sometimes Jupiter, and perhaps both were worshiped at the same time and 
at the same place ; hence they knew not what god they did worship. But salva- 
tion to the world and to individuals was a prerogative of the Jews, and must be 
obtained through them and their institutions. Their institutions were of God's 
appointment, and His promises were to them ; so they knew who they worshiped 
and what they were doing, though some of them were very wicked and some 
of the Samaritans were beloved of God. But that dispute is of no consequence 
now, for henceforth all worship must be reality and spiritual, and not ceremonies 
and professions. Henceforth God seeks all true worshipers to worship and 
acknowledge Him in all places and conditions. And both temples will soon be 
destroyed and worship ended. 

13. People Were Waiting for the Advent of the Messiah — By this 
time the disciples had returned with provisions, and though they said nothing 
they were surprised that He conversed with a Samaritan woman. They ask Him 
to eat, but He shows them more important work; there is Samaria, the nations, 
and Israel waiting for the Messiah and His teachings, and those who labor in 
teaching them shall be rewarded in eternal life. The old prophets and saints 
labored, and now the disciples of Christ reap the reward, and both rejoice 
together. 

14. Acknowledged by the Samaritans. — Having learned she was talking 
with the Messiah they were waiting for, the woman dropped her water jar and 
went and told the news in the city and gave the evidence. Some believed on her 
testimony, but others came to see Him, and besought Him to tarry with them. 
He staid two days and taught them, and many believed Him to be the Messiah. 



3^6 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOI*ED. 

]^ow, they knew Christ intended His kingdom for them also, and on the same 
terms as given to the Jews. Here the disciples got the first shock to their exclu- 
sive prejudices. After the two days at Sychar in Samaria Christ went into 
Galilee, though he testified that a prophet received no honor about his native 
place. But the Galileeans did receive him, having witnessed all He did in 
Jerusalem at the feast. 

CHRIST IN GALILEE. — Matt. 4:12-17; Mark 1:14, 15; John 4:46-54; 

Luke 4, §§ 15, 16. 

15. What Christ Preached. — Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the 
Spirit, fully empowered to commence the setting up of His kingdom and the 
manifesting of His Messiahship. He proclaimed the glad tidings of the kingdom 
of God. His proclamation was: The time is fulfilled; the kingdom of God is at 
hand; repent ye and believe the glad tidings, and the teachings of the kingdom. 
His fame went through all the surrounding country, and He taught in their syna- 
gogues, being glorified by all. No writer recorded His instructions and we can 
not tell what He taught. In Cana, where He had turned the water into wine at a 
marriage festival. He healed the son of a distinguished ruler ; the miracle 
was wrought so none could dispute it, nor Christ's knowledge and power at a 
distance, and the parents and all his household believed in Jesus of IS^azareth. 

16. His Reception in Nazaketh. — Ciirist goes to JSTazareth, where He was 
brought up and known, and, as usual, stood up to read a portion of the Scriptures. 
A prophecy of Isaiah presented itself on opening the book or roll, or was the 
lesson for that day. Having read it, He sat down, with all eyes fastened upon 
him, never suspecting this former neighbor was the Messiah that had appeared 
in the temple at Jerusalem. He began by telling them that this prophecy was 
then fulfilled in their presence. How he explained and applied it, we are not 
told; but all testified in wonder at His gracious words, for they knew Him to 
be unlearned. The prophecy is true of Him, whether taken literally or figura- 
tively. He told them their thoughts and desires, but refused to abuse His 
powers to gratify curiosity or gain favors. This filled them with wrath, so they 
put Him out of the city and conducted Him to the brow of a precipice to throw 
Him down headforemost. He permitted them to show their wickedness and spite, 
and then He wrought a miracle by passing back through their midst, and, leaving 
them, went down to Capernaum. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ? 
At Capernaum He taught the people on the Sabbath days, and they were aston- 
ished at His teaching, for His word had power. Thus, another prophecy of 
Isaiah was verified. Those bordering on the nations and mingled with them sat 
in darkness, compared with Jerusalem, but now they had great spontaneous 
light. Jesus continued preaching to all, and saying : Repent, for the kingdom 
of Heaven is at hand. 



CHAPTER LXXXYII. 



SECOND MISSIONARY TOUR, INCLUDINO JERUSALEM CIRCUIT 
IN GALILEE.— A. M. 4031, or A. D. 27.* §§ 1-4. 

1. Christ's Power over Fishes, Demons, and Fevers. — While abiding at 
Capernaum, His disciples that generally accompanied Him followed their old 
occupation of lishing. Walking by the lake, Jesus saw and called Andrew and 
Peter, James and John, who immediately left their fishing apparatus and fol- 
lowed Him. On one occasion the multitude crowded around Him to hear the 
word of God, till He got into Simon's boat, pushed from shore, and taught them 
out of the boat, and afterward showed His dominion over the fishes. Convinced 
of His divine character, Simon Peter requested Jesus to leave him because of 
his sinfulness. But having shown them their dependence on Him for success, 
Jesus assures them that they shall catch men. On the Sabbath He taught in a 
synagogue, with authority, and did not guess and speculate as the scribes, who 
perverted the Scriptures by traditions and false reasoning. He also cast out a 
demon. These demons dreaded His power, declared they knew Him to be the 
Holy One of God, and they obeyed His word. The people were astonished at 
both His teaching and miracles, and His fame spread widely through Galilee. 
From the synagogue they entered Simon's house, where He healed Simon's 
mother-in-law of a fever. 

2. Journeying, Preaching and Healing. — In the evening the whole city 
were gathered at the door of Simon's house, bringing all kinds of diseased per- 
sons and demoniacs, and He healed all of them. The demons confessed Him to 
be the Son of God, but He suffered them not to call Him the Messiah. In the 
morning, rising long before day. He went alone to pray in a secret or solitary 
place. Simon and his companions followed Him, and, on finding Him, said : 
All men seek Thee. Notwithstanding the importunities of the people to stay. 
He went to other towns and preached to them also the kingdom of God. His 
mission was not to free men from the afflictions and sorrows of life by miracles, 
but to open the way for the complete emancipation of the human family from all 
physical, mental, and moral derangement and corruption. He was sent to preach 
the gospel throughout all the coasts of Israel and show them His compassion and 
power to save; and thus. He went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, 
proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of diseases 
and sicknesses. His fame spread beyond Galilee into Syria, and He had no rest. 
They brought to Him all kinds of diseases and torments, demoniacal possessions, 
palsies, and lunatics, and He healed them. So He was followed by great multi- 
tudes from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond Jordan. 

3. The High Priest Must Pronounce on the Genuineness of Christ's 
Cures. — Matt. 8:2-4; Mark 1:40-5; Luke 5. — A very leprous man, kneeling, 
besought His healing power and was cured immediately, and bid to comply with 



(*)Matt. 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:1-11; Mark 1:21-8; Luke 4:33-7; Matt. 8:14, 15; 
Mark 1:29-31; Luke 4:38, 39; Matt. 4:23-5.8:16, 17; Mark 1:32-9; Luke 4:40-4; Matt. 8:2-4; Mark 
1:40-5; Luke 5:12-16; Matt. 9:2-8; Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5:17-26; Matt. 9:9; Mark 2:13, 14; Luke 

5:27,28. 



82^ THE KINGDOM OF OOD DEVELOPED. 

the law of Moses and show himself to the priest; and thus the priests who 
had pronounced the man a confirmed leper had now to declare the leprosy cured. 
(Lev. 13.) Though commanded to not publish the cure, yet the man did pub- 
lish it, and the multitude crowded to hear and be healed; so Jesus could no 
more enter into that city openly, and withdrew into the wilderness to pray, but 
even there they flocked to Him from every quarter. 

4. Christ's Power to Forgive Sins. — Again He entered Capernaum, and, as 
usual, was besieged by the eager multitude, and He preached the word to them. 
One day He was preaching in the presence of Pharisees and doctors of the law, 
who had come out of every town of Galilee and Jerusalem, and the power of the 
Lord was present to heal the people ; a paralytic was brought in a bed and let 
down from the top of the house, in full view of the multitude, before Jesus. 
Jesus said to him : "Be of good cheer, tliy sins are forgiven thee;" but did not 
heal him. These scribes and Pharisees began in their thoughts to accuse Him of 
presumptious blasphemy in assuming a divine prerogative. Jesus shows them 
His knowledge of their thoughts and asks them: Which is easier to say, Thy 
sins are forgiven thee, or. Arise, take up thy bed and walk? But th^t ye 
may know thnt the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, I heal this 
man. Then He said to the paralytic: Arise, take up thy bed and walk. The man 
took up his bed and carried it, in presence of all, and went home glorifying God. 
The multitude were filled with fear, or awe, saying: We have seen strange things 
to-day; we never saw the like ! And they glorified God, who had given such 
power unto men. Thus, Jesus proved in the presence of scribes and Pharisees 
His power to forgive sins. Again the multitude crowded Him on the sea shore, 
and He taught them. Going thence He found Matthew Levi receiving custom, 
or tribute, and bid him follow, and Levi left all and followed Jesus. Again 
Jesus leaves Galilee and passed through Samaria into Judea. 

TOUR TO JERUSALEM. §§ 5-13. 

5. Christ's Divinity. — John 5. — Having returned to Jerusalem, Jesus 
found and healed, on tlie Sabbath day, an object of compassion well known 
to the Jews, being an invalid for thirty-eight years. The leaders of the Jews, 
watching every opportunity to criminate Jesus and prejudice the multitude against 
Him, made an attack and charged Him with disregarding the law and breaking 
the Sabbath. Jesus, their King, did not see proper to vindicate His action, as 
He did on another occasion, but asserts His divinity, claiming God for His 
Father, and a right to act as He did. This gave them another charge, and they 
sought to kill Him under pretext of executing the law for breaking the Sabbath 
and putting Himself on equality with God. His casting the merchants and 
brokers out of the temple was an offense they could not forget, for it spoiled onu 
source of gain ofiT the pious worshipers from a distance. They did not want such 
a king and were determined to dispute His claims and reject His authority. 

6. Unity of the Father and Son. — Jesus fears them not, and proceeds to 
show the mutual agreement and cooperation between the Father and Son; so 
they might as well reject God at once as oppose the Son or condemn His works 
and teachings, for they were the words and works learned of the Father. And 
as the Father loves the Son and shows Him all things, He will show Him greater 
works than they have yet seen, and the Son will do them in the sight of them- 
selves and all the people, whether dwelling in Jerusalem or come to the feasts, 
that all may wonder. The people shall have greater evidence of His Messiah- 
ship than they have yet witnessed ; the Father raises and gives life to whom He 
pleases, and so does the Son, and they shall see this demonstrated before the 
people. 

7. Christ as Judge Must be Honored and Will Save. — The Father judges 
no man, but has committed all judgments to the Son, because He is also the Son 



OflAPTER LXXXVlI. : SiiCTlONS Vllt.-X. 329 

of Man, or is possessed of human nature; so man will understand His process 
in the judgment and the cljaracter of His decisions, and all men, Jews and gen- 
tiles, must honor the Son of Man as they profess to honor the Father. Those 
who do not honor the Son do dishonor and disobey the Father who sent Him. 
Priests, kings, rabbi, and rulers are not exempted. But rest assured those who 
hear and obey the teachings of the Son now manifested in the flesh, and believe 
Him who sent Him, and on His baptism testified from Heaven in the presence of 
the multitude that this Jesus from Nazareth was His well beloved Son, has ever- 
lasting life and comes not into judgment, but he has passed out of death into life, 
and are the children of the resurrection ;t they have passed from under the death 
sentence and become heirs to the resurrection. They must appear before Christ, 
give an account, show how much they are indebted to free grace, and be rewarded, 
but judgment in the sense of trial they have passed.^ But those not persuaded 
by the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on them ; they are 
condemned already, and the wrath of God abides on them, because they have not 
believed in the name of the Only Begotten Son of God. 

8. Christ Will Kaise and Judge the Dead. — Take warning in time. A 
time is coming when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and live. 
Yes, and even now is such a time, and some shall hear and return to life, giving 
evidence of the power of the Son of Man. The Father has life in Himself, and 
to bestow it as He pleases. Also, He has given Him authority to execute judg- 
ment, because He is the Son of Man. You need not be astonished at this, for the 
time is coming when all in their graves shall hear the voice of this divine and 
human Son, and shall come forth : those having done good, to the resurrection of 
life; they that have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. This judgment 
shall be given by the Son in and through 'His humanity, that all may see and 
understand; but it shall be infallibly correct, for this humanity is never separated 
from that divinity which is one with the Father. Though the judge presiding be 
human, and the lips pronouncing the decisions are those of man, yet the judg- 
ment is divine, and having come from the supreme authority, cannot be reversed. 

9. Evidence of His Messiahship. — Having asserted His divinity. His 
powers and prerogatives possessed and exercised in and through His humanity, 
and having stated the salvation and privileges of the believer and obedient, the 
King of Israel now refers these Jews to the evidence of His Messiahship already 
in their possession. According to the law, Christ's testimony of Himself could 
not be taken, although it be true ; Christ complies with the requirements of the 
law, and proves His mission by other evidence. For a time, at first, the Jews 
regarded John the Baptist as a burning and shining light, and manifested a will- 
ingness to be taught by him ; they sent unto John, who gave them a true testimony 
concerning Him. Jesus did not ask to be received on the testimony of any man, 
or set of men, whether shepherds, prophets, or magi from the east, but that the 
Jews might be convinced and saved, He referred them to John. Wherever He 
went His power, character, and mission were proved by His miracles. The 
works given Him to do were predicted by the prophets of Israel, and as they 
were fulfilled, bore witness that the Father sent Him and was with Him. 

10. Divine Testimony to His Mission. — The Father Himself bore witness 
of Him at His baptism. Did they not hear His voice saying: This is My beloved 
Son in whom I am well pleased ? Did they not see His form — or that glory 
that dwelt between the cherubim and the mercy seat — hovering over Him like a 
dove and then alighting and remaining upon Him? Then they heard John's 
testimony, that this was the Son of God ; for this was the token given to John 
by Jehovah to enable him to recognize the Messiah. But they had not the Word 
of God abiding in them, and did not believe John, who was sent before, nor the 
Son when He appeared. Also, they searched the Scriptures, thinking that in 



(t) Luke 20:36j chap. 3, § 7. (*) Rom. 14:12; 11. Cor,, 5:9, 10. 



330 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

them thej obtained eternal life, or by their directions ; and they also testified 
and pointed them to Jesus Christ. These prophetic descriptions, verified in Jesus 
of Nazareth, proved Him to be the Son of God and King of Israel, as Nathaniel 
said, and yet they would not come to Him and obtain life. 

11. The Cause of Their Unbelief. — Christ now tells the Jews the real 
difficulty in receiving Him for their king. He did not expect to receive honor 
from men, for He demanded reformation and would not tolerate any hypocracy 
nor sin of any kind, and He knew they had not the love of God in them. He 
came in tlie Father's name and character and well authenticated as their Messiah, 
and they refused to receive Him on any terms ; but when false Christs came in 
their own name and authority, and without any authentication of any kind, except 
acquiescing in their crimes, them they would receive to their own destruction. 
They could not believe in Jesus because they sought to be honored by one another 
according to their own standard of merit, and that honor which was from God 
alone, but which the world never appreciated, they sought not. Man's judgment 
is often governed by his wishes, and it is hard to induce men to confide in what 
they hate ; very few decide moral or religious subjects according to evidence, but 
according to good or bad prejudices. Jesus wonld not accuse them to the Father 
or pray wrath upon them, but Moses himself had pronounced their condemnation. 
They professed to be Moses' disciples, yet disobeyed his moral injunctions, made 
his law void by their traditions, disbelieved his teachings, and prevented the great 
object of his institutions. Moses wrote of Christ, and their own interpretations 
of these passages, as preserved in their rabbinical writings, were verified in the 
person of Jesus of Nazareth, and had they believed his writings they would have 
received Christ's teachings. 

MATTHEW 12; MARK 2:23-3:1-19; LUKE 6:1-19. 

12. Christ Superior to the Law. — The Pharisees brought another charge 
of Sabbath-breaking, because the disciples, being hungry, plucked heads of wheat 
and ate while passing through the grain on the Sabbath day. Jesus defends 
them on the ground of necessity, referring them to the case of David eating the 
shew-bread, and the priests working in the temple on the Sabbaths. These posi- 
tive laws must yield to higher laws ; mercy is more important than sacrifice. The 
Pharisees eat on the Sabbath, and so must the disciples ; atonements must be made 
on the Sabbaths ; the Sabbath was made for man's benefit, and not man to keep 
Sabbaths. The Son of Man, who is present, is greater than the Sabbath, and is 
Lord of tlie Sabbath ; He appointed it at the first, instituted rites to be performed 
on it by the law of Moses, and can annul or change it, if He pleases. Here 
again He asserts Ais divine and royal right over Jewish institutions. 

13. Hostility to Christ. — On another Sabbath He entered a synagogue and 
taught, where was a man with a withered hand ; the scribes and Pharisees 
watched to see Christ heal on the Sabbath, intendino^ to accuse Him. Jesus knew 
their designs, and called the man to stand forth. They ask Him: Is it lawful to 
heal on the Sabbath days ? He retorted : Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do 
good, or to do evil? To save life, or to destroy it? But they gave no answer. 
Then He refers to facts in life, of saving sheep on the Sabbath day, and adds: 
Man is better than a sheep, and it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days. Then 
surveying them in indignation, being grieved for their stubbornness. He bid the 
man to stretch forth his hand. The man obeyed and was perfectly cured. The 
Pharisees were raging, and took counsel with the Herodians to destroy Jesus. 
The mercenary religion of the Herodians suff'ered under Christ's preaching as 
much as did the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Jesus left Judea again and returned 
to Galilee. It appears as if all the impious Jews had gathered around Jerusalem 
to live by extortion on the pious from other provinces, who often came to keep the 
feasts of Jehovah at Jerusalem. 



0HA1»TJ2R LXXXVlI.t SECTiOl^S XIV. -XV. 831 

RETURNED TO GALILEE. 

14. Missionary Labor. — Jesus returned to the sea of Galilee, followed by 
His disciples and great multitudes from Idumea, Judea, Jerusalem, east of the 
Jordan, Tyre, Sidon, and Galilee. They crowded around Him, and He healed all 
their diseases of every kind, and got into a boat and taught them. After some 
time He went into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God, 
or in the place for praying, and in the morning He called disciples to Him and 
chose twelve to be with Him. These He called apostles, because He sent them 
forth to preach, to heal the sick, and to cast out demons. They were called by 
name. He came down to the plain, and was again crowded by disciples and 
multitudes from those regions already named. He taught and healed them, and 
even those touching Him were healed, and none were disappointed. A prophecy 
of Isaiah was fulfilled, which runs thus : 

Behold My servant whom I have chosen ; 

My Beloved, in whom My soul is well pleased ! 

I will put My Spirit upon Him, and 

He shall show judgment to the nations. 

He will not strive nor cry — with the Jews — 

Neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets. 

A bruised reed He will not break ; 

And the smoking lamp-wick He will not extinguish, 

Till He send forth judgment into victory. 

And in His name shall the natiyns trust. '^ 

The weariness and suffering of Jesus in traveling, speaking, and healing 
must have been very great. In His first trip to Galilee He was wearied and sat 
on Jacob's well, while His disciples went to buy food. Both David and Isaiah 
describe His worn-out and suffering frame. ^ When we see such multitudes flock- 
ing after Him, we might suppose the whole country would soon be converted ; 
but these countries were densely peopled, and many followed for cures, self- 
interest, and curiosity, who would never submit to spiritual and holy teachings. 
Jesus never told the crowd He was their expected Messiah, but that He was sent 
of God to induce them to reform, and so be prepared for the kingdom of God, 
which was just at hand ; hence they had different notions about Him. 

SERMON ON THE MOUNT.— Matt. 5. 7; Luke 6:20-49. 

15. Who are Blessed. — The persons addressed on this occasion were the 
disciples, and not the multitude, and so the instructions were for them, and not 
for the multitude, nor for civil governments which rule by coercion. ^ He com- 
mences by pronouncing happiness, or blessings, upon certain traits of character 
that the nations and the leaders of the Jews despised. The humble, contrite 
spirits, willing to be led, taught, and helped, are the genuine heirs of the king- 
dom of God. Those now mourning over the impiety of the Jews and the 
perversions of the laws and institutions of Jehovah, shall be comforted by the 
triumphs of truth and holiness. Those patiently bearing insult and injury shall 
inherit the earth when the wicked are finally cut off, i and in times of revolution 
and subjugation shall remain in their homes; while the boisterous and revengeful 
will provoke their own destruction. Those hungering and thirsting after right- 
eousness shall be satisfied ; they shall be wholly transformed into the image of 
God in knowledge, holiness and righteousness. ^ Those now weeping over their 
frustrated hopes of redemption in Israel, and taunted over the shepherd's story, 
visit of the Magi, and sayings of Simon and Anna, shall laugh and triumphantly 
shout, having realized their fondest hopes. Those showing favor to the unmer- 

(7) Isa. 42:1-4. (8) Ps 22; Isa 53. (9) Rom. 13:1-6. (1) Ps. 37:9-11, 22, 28, 29, 34, 38. 
(2) Eph. 4:23,24; Col. 3:10; II. Cor. 4:16. 



332 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

iting and those deserving their revenge, shall receive unmerited pardon and favor 
from God; and even the world, witnessing their disposition to others, will treat 
them in the same manner, and revenge will become unpopular. Without 
holiness no man shall see the Lord,^ but those pure in heart, whose minds are 
filled with pure, holy, and proper thoughts, prompting to proper words and 
actions, shall be received into the presence and full enjoyment of God. Those 
preventing wars and contentions, removing animosities and reconciling enemies, 
shall be acknowledged by Jehovah for His children. The policy practiced by 
nations in weakening others by inducing mutual destructions, is not in accordance 
with love to mankind or the teachings of Christ. 

16. Shall be Persecuted, but Still are Blessed. — The disciples of 
Christ expected then to triumph and govern ; but He taught them the contrary, 
though they appear to forget it. The power is yet with the impious, and perse- 
cution for righteousness' sake is an evidence to the persecuted that they are sure 
to obtain the kingdom of God as their inheritance, when it is consummated. 
Christ's disciples shall be hated, cold-shouldered out of society, reviled, 
persecuted, slandered in every way, and their very name cast out, or excommun- 
icated, as evil and odious, for no other reason than that they belong to Christ, 
the Son of Man, or incarnate Son of God, or they witness for His truths and 
laws. But even in this they may have superlative joy, for great is their reward 
in Heaven; and they are in good company, for this is the manner in which the 
Jews persecuted the old prophets. Christ, also, shows the doom of the opposite 
characters that have heard His teachings and seen His work, but rejected Him. 
Those now unconcerned and merry, or laugh in derision at the pious and at God's 
message, shall mourn and weep in disappointment and misery. Those applauded 
by the men ruling this generation, as were the false prophets by their fathers, 
are sure of destruction and woe. 

17. Position in the World. — The position of Christ's disciples in the 
world is conspicuous as a city set on a hill, and cannot be hid; they must have 
an influence, and will be discovered by friends and foes and may expect the 
consequence. They are the light of the world and salt of the earth. All 
systems of philosophy and rites and teachings of Polytheism have failed to 
teach men the way of happiness in time or eternity ; and their examples, conduct, 
and influence have not reformed society, nor even checked the social degradation. 
But the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth can and must teach the way of happiness, 
and show by their walk and conversation, dealings and character, that true hap- 
piness is in and among themselves as individuals and societies. Then others 
seeking individual or social happiness, and finding it in them, may be converted 
and glorify their heavenly Father. The reformation of society and preservation 
of communities depend on them and their influence. If they pervert the truth 
and abandon the Christian character so their influence becomes bad, they are fit 
for nothing but destruction from God. This we see illustrated in the case of the 
Jews, who, by neglecting, disregarding, and perverting their Scriptures, were 
fitted for destruction. All the miracles and teachings of Christ and His apostles, 
and the example of their pious followers, could not save them. The same has 
been verified on the Christians by the Goths, Yandals, Hans, Saracens, and 
Turks. 

18. Licentiousness Not Tolerated. — No one, Jew or Samaritan, need 
follow Jesus Christ in hopes He will abolish the law and the prophets and leave 
His disciples to follow animal inclinations, unincumbered with moral restraints 
and civil checks and burdensome rites. Everything in the Jewish Scriptures 
must remain in full force till fulfilled, or its object be obtained. Any one vio- 
lating the least injunction and teaching others to follow his example, shall be the 
least esteemed in the kingdom of Heaven, but those observing these commands 



(3) Heb. 12:14. 



CHAPTER LXXXVII. : SECTIONS XIX. -XXI. 333 

and teaching others to do so, shall be esteemed by the King and all legitimate 
citizens. The moral precepts of Scripture are the laws of creation, and did not 
originate with Moses and can never be abrogated ; all men, Jews, nations, and 
Christians, must obey them or suffer the consequences, and reformation by faith 
in Christ insures obedience. Prophecies and rites will all be fulfilled in Christ 
and His kingdom. As John and Christ had fully shown, citizenship in the king- 
dom of God is now restricted to the truly pious, and civil government is no 
longer needed in it, ^ and the highest penalty is exclusion. Christians are taught 
to submit to and support the civil governments wherever they sojourn, so far as 
they do not require apostacy from Christ or disobedience to Him, and even then 
they may suffer, ^ but must not stir up mutiny or rebellion. When a nation 
needs to be revolutionized or subverted, Christ will use His enemies to do that. 

19. Excellencies of Moses' Laws. — Those laws of Moses which are 
exclusively civil and not ecclesiastical, are the best laws to govern societies of a 
mixed character, and civil governments should adopt them. The God of wisdom 
and justice gave them to govern such a society. Christ's disciples act out of love 
to God and man, but the children of the world are governed by fear of suffering 
in person or property. Where love is perfect, fear is cast out;^ but until per- 
fected, should be coupled with fear. ^ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of 
wisdom, and as a master may drive us to Christ; ^ but when we become 
acquainted with Him and His service, we love God and His word, and obey out 
of love to both — it is our delight. It is folly to enter the wild forest and attempt 
to control the ferocious beasts by the same laws you govern a flock of well trained 
sheep. Subdue the animal first, and then you may train it at your will ; and 
just so with the animal man. 

20. The Text foe the Sermon on the Mount. — Christ's disciples must 
exceed the scribes and Pharisees in righteousness. Satan may put his own chil- 
dren into the kingdom of God in this age, but they have no more right there 
than tares in a wheat field, and at the end of this age they shall be gathered out 
and cast into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels.^ This is the text: 
Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees 
ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of God. And now Jesus proceeds to 
show how their righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. 

21. Must Obey Civil Laws and Excel in Moral Character. — The Jew 
must not kill, but the Christian must not be angry with his brother Christian, nor 
use reproachful epithets to him ; and if he has injured or given occasion of offense 
to him, he must seek reconciliation the first thing ; and if not aware of it till 
about to offer his gifts for the Lord's service, he must do that before offering his 
gifts. If he has injured one not a brother in Christ, nor recognizing His 
authority, agree with hi in quickly before he applies to the law; no mercy will be 
shown to the true Christian when found in the fault. Such is often, if not gen- 
erally, the hatred borne to the truth and laws of Christ. The Jew must not com- 
mit adultery, but the Christian must not look upon a woman till inordinate 
desires are excited, or harbor a desire for her embraces. It is better to lose an 
eye or hand that causes one to offend against God, than to be cast into Ghehen- 
neh with the body entire, so better suffer any loss and pain in conquering any 
lust than endure the penalty or consequences of gratifying it. Nothing but 
adultery will justify a dissolution of the marriage contract between Christians. 

' If any necessity compels separation, let them not form other marriage connec- 
tions, but become reconciled and dwell together."^ Christ says : Whoever hates 
his brother is a murderer, but does not say he broke the sixth commandment; 
and so, a man may be an adulterer, yet not break the seventh commandment. 
(See chap. 26:4.) 



(1) Gal. 3:19. (2) Acts 25:11. (3) I. John 4:18. (4). Fs. 111:10; Prov. 1:7. 9:10; Job 28:28. 
(5) Gal. 3:23, 24. (6) Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43. (7) I. Cor. 7:11. 



334 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

22. Yarious Cases Specified. — Jews must not swear falsely, nor break an 
oath ; but the Christian must not demand oaths of Christians, nor promise any 
thing on oath. Profane not Heaven, God's throne ; nor the earth, his footstool ; 
nor Jerusalem, city of the Great King; implicate no curse upon yourself, for God 
will not inflict it. Anything more than yes or no is of evil ; it implies that the 
person will speak falsely and break his word, and Christians must have confidence 
in each other. Civil governments must deal with all alike, and Christians must 
not claim exemptions from laws necessary to govern all classes, though the 
requirement implies distrust in his Christian character. He must support civil 
government to coerce men, ^ though he will do right without coercion. The law 
authorized the Jew to seek revenge on his fellow Jew, and such laws deter the 
rash and sav-age from inflicting injury. But the Christian must not resent the 
evil, or, literally, place himself against the evil. But if anj one smites one 
cheek, he must turn the other. To revenge or resent an injury done, and to 
defend against attacks made and continued, or where more than a rash and hasty 
slap is anticipated, are different things. Paul threw himself on the protection 
of the Roman government, which protected by force ; he used the power of a 
citizen,^ and was defended by the sword in the hands of a minister of wrath. ^ 
The law allowed the Jew to keep his mantle from the creditor, but the Christian 
must not take advantage of exemption laws, but must pay what he owes. Must 
not yield a stubborn obedience to civil officers, though heathen, but be accommo- 
dating. Must be charitable and give and loan ; and as the borrower takes away 
the article, must not remand it, thinking it will not be repaid, but must loan 
hoping for nothing. It is understood the person is in need, for we must not 
encourage idleness, or any other vice; he that does not work must not eat. ^ The 
general law for the Christian is this : As ye would that men should do to you, 
so do ye to them. 

23. Same Continued. — The Jew must love his neighbor, but with the idola- 
trous inhabitants of Canaan they should make no covenant, but destroy them;^ 
and should not seek the peace of the Ammonites and Moabites. ^ But the 
Christian must love all men, and their enemies, too : do good to haters ; bless 
those cursing them ; pray for those using them spitefully ; and thus show 
themselves to be the children of their Heavenly Father, who makes His sun to 
rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and unjust. As the 
old covenants embraced those related to Jacob by flesh, blood, and property, 
the mass of them were prone to Polytheism and its sins, and it was necessary to 
keep up a national hostility to prevent Israel from being absorbed by Pol3'theism ; 
but discipleship to Christ and interest in the new covenant, being restricted to 
those born from above, no such hostile barrier was needed to preserve genuine 
Christianity ; being governed by supreme love to God, they might love all men 
without following their hateful vices ; love to God in all His attributes will 
preserve them distinct from all the wicked and polluted. Christians must excel 
publicans and sinners in civilities, acts of kindness, and accommodations. Must 
be like their Heavenly Father, merciful, beneficial, kind to all, and perfect, and 
their reward shall be great. The Pharisees did their alms and made their prayers 
to be seen of men, and got their reward ; but the Christian must do his alms, 
and prayings, and fastings in private, and then his Father will reward him 
openly. His Heavenly father knows all his wants and needs no repetitions, so 
he need not make them, as the heathen do. God knows all our wants and 
desires, but requires His children to know and express them in prayer, to receive 
everything from Him in answer to prayer ; and yet God may bestow the same 
things upon the wicked, who never ask or acknowledge Him. 



(8) Matt. 17:24-27; 22:15-21; Rom. 13:1-7 (9) Acts 23:23-35; 35:10-12 (1) Rom. 13:1-7. 
(2) II. Thes., 3:10. (3) Ex. 3:4-12; Deut. 7:2. (4) Deut. 23:6. 



CHAPTER LXXXVII. : SECTIONS XXIV. yXXVI. 335 

THE LORD'S PRAYER. 

24. Address and 1-3 Petitions. — As a model, freed from vain or useless 
repetitions, He gave a perfect example. The address presents the great unap- 
proachable and incomprehensible God as sustaining to us the endearing and 
confidential relation of Father. He is contemplated as dwelling in Heaven, which 
is presented as our home. His name His associated with is attributes — wisdom, 
power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth — is all that is positively known or 
comprehended of Him ; this name we are taught to reverence, and pray that it 
be regarded as holy and adorable by every person. Though the kingdom of God 
has existed from the days of Adam and Eve, yet its intermediate and consum- 
mated ages are called its setting up, Neither of these ages had arrived when this 
prayer was given, and when the first had arrived the last age still remains the 
object of desire and subject of prayer. This kingdom and its righteousness is 
given to the believer as the supreme objects of pursuit in life, and should be con- 
stantly the subject of prayer. Obedience to God is indispensable to the reforma- 
tion and happiness of the world, and Heaven is presented as the model of perfect 
obedience ; and in connection with the consummation of the kingdom of God we 
are taught to pray and labor for that implicit obedience to divine authority which 
is practiced in Heaven. Hypocrisy is not tolerated by Christ ; so His people 
must act as they pray. 

25. Petitions 4-6. — The indifferent and wicked get their food as regularly 
as the pious, without praying or thanking God for it ; but no moral or spiritual 
improvement is made in their souls. The Christian must recognize his daily food 
and nourishment as the gift of God, in His providence bestowed, and ask it daily 
at His hand. This cultivates a familiar dependence on God, and a sense of our 
demerit for sin and satisfaction with our condition. Trespasses and injuries are 
common evils of society, and forgiveness is indispensable to peace, harmony, 
and happiness, and here Christ has taught His disciples to pray forgiveness of 
God on the same conditions and to the same extent that they forgive those tres- 
passing against them. And He assures them, whether they so pray or not, that 
God will regulate His forgiveness to them just as they practice to others. If they 
hope forgiveness from God, they must forgive injuries and debts. Trials and 
temptations are strewn around the pathway of the Christian continually, and 
where duty calls he must encounter the trial ; but he must not expose himself, 
thinking his strength invincible. This caution is put into his mouth for a petition 
to God, to not lead him by unforeseen and providential circumstances into trials, 
but deliver him from the evil, or that evil, or the Evil One. Satan is not only 
an adversary, but a tempter also, and achieves more victories by temptation than 
by open hostilities. Christ defeated him in his grand strategy, and is able to 
deliver those tempted (Heb. 2:18) by him. But they must always remember 
their own weakness and seek for help where their great strength lies, in God. 
The kingdom they seek, the power they need, and the glory of the consummation 
belong to their Heavenly Father. 

26. Singleness of Purpose. — Christians must have their thoughts and reflec- 
tions placed on Heavenly things, and consequently must have their treasures and 
desirable objects in Heaven ; treasures there cannot be destroyed nor stolen. 
Keep the eye on the one object, and let not that object be darkened or befogged 
by the many conflicting impressions of opposing interests. When the mind is 
fixed on one object, it becomes clear and all its connections are visible to the 
mind, as when the eye is fixed on one object till all its parts and positions are 
seen. But when the conceptions of the mind become confused and distracted by 
too many subjects and ardent desires, it becomes darkened, confused, and unde- 
cided, as the eye becomes dazzled, dim, and blind by viewing too many dazzling 
or indistinct objects. The mind must be kept clear of corroding cares, animal 
gratifications, ambitious aims, and covetous pursuits, or it can never comprehend 



336 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

t 

and distinctly understand the spiritual nature and mysteries of the kinffdona of 
God. The animal man discerneth not the things of the spirit, niether can he 
know them ; but the spiritual man judges all things. (I. Cor., 2:14, 15.) 

27. Supreme and Subordinate Objects. — The Christian must be decided 
on the one supreme object — the kingdom of God — and all other objects must be 
kept in subordination to this one, and, if necessary, be abandoned for it. Man 
cannot have two objects equally esteemed, but will soon make one subservient to 
the other, and so the Christian cannot serve Jehovah and also the Syrian god of 
wealth. The wise man provides in time for himself and household, but the 
Christian must not take corroding care about sustenance in the future, but having 
done his duty, must trust his Heavenly Father, who knows his wants and will 
supply them in some honest way. If the advancement of the kingdom of God 
requires it, he must neglect altogether providing for this life, and trust God for 
sustenance, and, if necessary, must give up property and life itself. But if the 
advancement of the kingdom does not require it, the Christian who provides not 
for his house has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.'^ The Chris- 
tian must make the kingdom of God and His righteousness the first or primary 
object of his life, and trust God for sustenance while he lives. The righteousness 
of God for justification is faith in Jesus Christ, ^ and the righteousness He requires 
Christians to cultivate and practice must surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees. 
Christ is talking to disciples who have believed in Him and had already passed 
out of death into life, and now they have a work to do — advance the kingdom 
and practice the work required of those in it. 

28. More Careful to be Right than to Censure Others. — The Christian 
must be more solicitous to be right himself than to condemn others for being 
wrong. While he keeps a splinter in his own eye, he must not be solicitous about 
picking a mote out of his brother's eye. Nor can he undertake to lead the blind, 
lest both fall into the ditch of error. Nor can he teach the truth and righteous- 
ness, for though the finished disciple may be equal to his Teacher, yet in what he 
learned from Him he cannot be superior to Him. If the teacher be wrong, what 
his pupil learned cannot be right. He cannot censure others, for they will point 
to his greater errors and faults. Nothing damages truth and right more than to 
hear them advocated by the notoriously false and flagitious. While the Jew 
labored to proselyte the heathen to the true religion, his own conduct caused the 
heathen to blaspheme Jehovah and curse the Jew. ^ 

29. Respect for Holy Things. — Christians must not profane holy rites, 
institutions, or privileges by giving them to the impure and such as cannot appre- 
ciate them ; it may make them impious persecutors of the pious, as the history 
of Israel has shown. The Christian must persevere in his importunities with 
God, being assured God is more willing to give needed good, even the Hol_y 
Spirit, to those asking Him tlian compassionate parents are to give food to their 
hungry children. Their general law of action is repeated : Whatsoever ye would 
that men should do to you, do ye also to them, for this is the law and the prophets, 
or what they inculcate. 

30. Guard Against Popular Measures. — The Christian must s^uard against 
being led away by what is popular, and must prefer the society of the few. The 
way that requires self-denial, losses, or sufi^ering, is most likely the right one. 
The entrance on this way is difiicult, like crowding through a little arate, and when 
on this way, they are straightened and circumscribed by many difficulties. But 
this is the way to eternal life, and but very few find it. The way to destruction 
is wide, having but few restraints and very little opposition ; the entrance is easily 
found and effected; many enter with ease and travel it without difficulty. There- 
fore, beware of popular measures, easy religions, and loose morals. 



(7) I. Tim., 5:8; Rom. 12:11; Prov. 6:6-9. (8) Rom. 3:21, 22. (9) Rom. 2:24. 



CHAPTER LXXXVIII.: SECTIONS I. -II. 337 

31. Must Receive and Practice the Truth. — The Christian must beware 
of false prophets, who make fair pretensions and fascinating speeches, but are 
sapping the very foundations of the true religion and laboring to destroy the 
kingdom. Judge them by their fruits, and not by their address. 

The Christian must obey Christ. Not every one acknowledging Jesus to be 
his Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven when it is consummated, nor 
gain a title to it in this age, but only those doing the will of His Father who is 
in Heaven. Many will say to Christ in that day : Lord ! Lord ! have we not 
prophesied in Thy name? In Thy name cast out demons? In Thy name dojie 
many wonderful works ? But He will profess he never knew them as His sheep. 
They were hypocrites, professing His name, using His miraculous gifts, but 
working iniquity. Hence, those coming to Christ, hearing and obeying Him, 
are permanent children of the kingdom — cannot be dislodged from their founda- 
tion and ruined. But those hearing these teachings and not reducing them to 
practice, are easily forced from rectitude by allurements and trials, and are utterly 
ruined in sin. Practice makes perfect and permanent. Hearing and eloquent 
talking may fascinate the mind, but leave it without foundation and superstruc- 
ture. Christ must be obeyed. The people standing around were astonished at 
His teachings, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes ; 
but how many reduced His teachings to practice, I don't know. After He came 
down out of the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. What Matthew 
records was delivered on a hill ; what Luke relates was spoken on a plain ; but 
we have paraphrased them as one discourse. The same subjects and the same 
teachings are in both, with but little variation. 



CHAPTER LXXXVIII. 



pEISSIONARY CIRCUITS IN GALILEE. CAPERNAUM THE CENTER. 

A. M. 4031. A. D. 27. 

1. Centurion at Capernaum. — Luke 7:1-10; Matt. 8:5-13. — After the 
jermon on the Mount Jesus went to Capernaum, where He met elders of the Jews, 
sent by a Roman centurion to implore Him to heal a servant, which Jesus did. 

fThis centurion, though a gentile, favored the Jews and their religion, built them 

[a synagogue for worship, and exhibited more veneration for Christ and faith in 

"im than any of the Jews. This occasioned the utterance of that awful truth, 

low obviously verified: "They shall come from the East and the West, and sit 

jdown, or recline, at feast, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of 

[Heaven ; but the children, or heirs of the kingdom, shall be cast out into outer 

larkness, and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. " Unimproved 

familiarity with divine things destroys veneration for them, due appreciation of 

|them, and gratitude to the Giver of all Good. 

2. John's Message and Christ's Reply and Discourse. — Luke 7:11-50; 
Latt. 11:2-30. — Approaching Nain, He met the funeral of a widow's only son. 

lesus compassionated her, and restored her son to life. Here was verified what 
[He told the Jews in Judea: The hour has now come : the dead have heard the 

-22 



338 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

voice of the Son of Man, and returned to life. The people were astonished as 
usual. All this time John the Baptist was shut up in prison, but learned of 
Jesus' works from some of his disciples. John himself did not understand the 
prophecies about the Messiah, and so sent two of his disciples to inquire if Jesus 
was the only prophetic character that should appear, or if another should follow. 
Jesus bid them report what they saw, and to tell him they are blessed who were 
satisfied with Him, not offended, and did not reject Him. When these messen- 
gers had departed, Christ reminded the people of their former regard for John, 
asserted him to be the Elijah, and the commissioned messenger of Malachi, sent 
before the Jehovah, angel of the covenant, and that He was greater than any of 
the prophets ; but such would be the superior advantages of the kingdom of 
God, that the least prophet in it would be greater than John ; they will have 
greater endowments of the Holy Spirit and a more comprehensive and correct 
knowledge of the dispensations of the kingdom. 

3. Rejecters of John Reject Christ. — Those baptized under John's 
ministry, and even the publicans, approved the testimony given to John, and 
iustified God in fulfilling His promises and sending John. But the Pharisees and 
expounders of the law rejected or frustrated the counsel or purpose of God, so 
far as it respected themselves, and were not baptized by John, and did not accept 
Christ; but the detriment was their own. They objected to John's poor manner 
of living, and said he was possessed of a demon. Jesus lived like His neighbors, 
and they called Him a glutton, a toper, and an associate of publicans and sinners. 
But wisdom is justified or approved at all times, in all places, and in all 
things, by those who are wise, while such blind, determined hostility to all 
evidence and all good, is fool madness. Notwithstanding the great miracles, 
teachings, and popularity of Christ, these theaters of his operations remained 
impenitent and unprepared for the kingdom of God ; but, as their privileges had 
been great, so shall be their perdition in the time of judgment. 

4. Happiness in Christ Alone. — From these sad pictures of stubborn 
impiety, Jesus turns to those who labor and are burdened with a sense of guilt 
and pollution and can find no relief by the burdensome traditions of the Phar- 
isees imposed by the expounders of the law, or lawyers, and invites them to 
come to Him, assuring them rest. They must come under His authority and 
tuition and learn by His example. He is meek and lowly in heart, and when 
they imbibe His spirit and disposition they will find rest to their souls. His 
authority is easy and His burden, or requirements, light ; just confide in Him 
and reform. Pardon is free, and reformation nothing more than what is indis- 
pensable to happiness, according to the constitution of man. This reformation 
is not perfected at once, but, obeying His instructions, they shall become holy 
and see the Jehovah and enjoy His blessings. Christ thanks the Father that, 
while His teachings are obscure to those credited for wisdom, learning and pru- 
dence, they are plain to those reckoned as babes in knowledge and experience. 
Such is the will of the Father, that, while He resists the proud, He gives favor 
to the lowly. All things are given over unto Christ by the Father, even the 
Jews and Roman empire, and they are mutually acquainted, but no man knoweth 
either, except as the Son reveals them. So, if Jew or gentile would know God, 
they must become a disciple to the Jehovah, Jesus Christ, receiving His teach- 
ings and obeying His commandments. 

5. The Weeping Woman. — Going thence, a Pharisee, named Simon, 
invited Christ to eat with him, and watched Jesus closely. Now, while they 
reclined around the dinner table, one of those women called sinners, knowing it, 
came behind Jesus and bathed His feet with falling tears, wiped them with the 
hair of her head, kissed them, and then anointed them with costly ointment. 
Simon concluded Jesus was no prophet or He would have known she was a 
sinner and not have permitted her to touch Him. For a time Jesus appears to 



CHAPTER LXXXVIII. : SECTIONS VI. -VIII. 339 

have taken no notice of her, either to cheer or reprove her, but left her to her 
own thoughts. This is one of Christ's ways of receiving sinners to salvation, but 
He never rejects any. At last He spoke a parable, which drew the right answer 
from Simon. Then, pointing to the woman. He reminded Simon of those com- 
mon acts of hospitality that had not been shown to Him by Simon, but more 
than superseded by this woman. Her many sins are forgiven because she had 
loved much ; but those thinking they have but few sins to forgive love but little, 
and show it like Simon. Then He told her that her sins were forgiven. This 
excited the thoughts of those at table against Jesus. She had not offered any 
sin or trespass offering, nor observed any purification by the law, and Jesus was 
not a priest of the house of Aaron. Who has a right to forgive sins without com- 
pliance with the law but God ? Jesus told her : Thy faith has saved thee; go in 
peace. 

6. A General Tour.— Luke 8:1-3; Mark 3:19-21. — After this He went 
with the twelve through every city and village, preaching the glad tidings of the 
kingdom of God; He was supported in this tour by women He had healed. 
They followed Him and saw Him fed and sheltered, and, perhaps, provided 
clothes for Him. When He returned to Capernaum and entered home the multi- 
tude crowded them so they could not eat. Then His kindred went to apprehend 
Him, saying He was beside Himself, or deranged. Just then He healed one that 
wasblind and dumb, and the people began to say : Is this not David's Son ? This 
led to a long altercation. 

ALTEECATION.— Matt. 12:22-50; Mark 3:19-35; Luke 11:14-36. 

7. Charge Made and Repelled. — Some scribes and Pharisees had come 
down from Jerusalem to counteract Christ's influence, but being in Herod Anti- 
pas' dominions, where the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem had but little power, they 
had to content themselves with using argument and influence. Hearing the 
people surmise Jesus to be the son of David, they assert to the people that He 
was in league with the king of the demons, who, to give Jesus influence, made 
them obey Him. Jesus convicts them of falsehood and malignity. If Satan 
cast out Satan, his kingdom is in civil war and about ended ; and if they were 
good men, they would rejoice, and not prevent it. But they knew Satan was no 
such fool as to aid one whose teaching and influence was so directly opposed to 
his kingdom and influence, to cast out his faithful demons. But, again, if Jesus 
cast out demons by Beelzebub, their prince, by whom did the children, or dis- 
ciples, of these scribes and Pharisees pretend to cast them out ? Were they, 
too, in league with Satan ? Christ cast out demons that none else could disposses. 
Their own disciples would repudiate the charge. But if Jesus cast them out by 
the Spirit of God, which every person (even the scribes and Pharisees,) knew to 
be the case, then it was evident the kingdom of God had come to the Jews, and 
scribes and Pharisees should not oppose its victories over Satan. Satan is strong, 
too strong for the scribes and Pharisees, and his demons would not obey them 
nor their disciples. ^ He has kept the nations for ages without molestation, and 
now has taken possession of Jews, and no priest, scribe, or Pharisee can cast 
him out. The multitude testified they never saw the like as Jesus did. The 
only rational conclusion is that Jesus cast out demons by a power superior to 
Satan ; and if Satan will not destroy himself, and was too strong for the Jewish 
rabbi and rulers to cast him out, then their charge was a known and malignant 
falsehood. 

8. No Neutral Ground. — Jesus now tells them there is no neutral ground 
for them to occupy and act as spectators of His work. All not cooperating with 
Him are against Him and are enemies, and shall be treated as such. They are 



(1) Mark 2:12; Acts 19:14-17; Matt. 9:23. 



340 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

lost ! Now all sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven, even blasphemies against 
the Son of Man, and speaking against Him. But blasphemy against the Holy 
Spirit, and speaking against Him, shall not be forgiven in this age, nor in that to 
come, but is bound to eternal judgment. There were no expiations in the law 
for sinning with a high hand, or presumptiously, or contumaciously. Jesus said 
this because they said he had an unclean spirit — Beelzebub — and attributed 
those miracles evincing His divine power, to Satan. This they did out of malig- 
nant hatred to His divine teaching and the expelling of the traffickers out of the 
temple, while they knew, as Nicodemus acknowledged they did, that He was a 
teacher come from God, and that no man could do such works except God were 
with him. They saw the good fruits of Christ's ministry and reformation 
following His preachins", and knew they could not come from a bad source any 
more than good fruit could come from a bad tree. 

9. Their Real Chajracter. — Having convicted them of malignity and false- 
hood, Christ now charges upon them their real character — " brood of vipers and 
consummate hypocrits" — and tells them men must give an account in the day of 
judgment for every idle word; and by them, or according to them, they shall be 
justified or condemned. How, then, can such malignant defamations of His 
works and teachings escape condemnation ! Putting on the appearance of ration- 
ality before the multitude, they told Him they wished a sign from Him proving 
His mission — as if they had not seen signs enough. He calls them an evil and 
adulterous generation, and gives them for a sign the death and resurrection of 
the Son of Man, and assures them of being condemned by the i^inevites who 
repented at the preaching of Jonah and by the queen of Sheba, who came to 
hear the wisdom of Solomon, for a greater than Jonah or Solomon had spoken 
to them. 

10. Danger of Partial Reformation. — In the next place, He warns them 
of the danger of partial reformation. Forsaking vice but not cultivating virtues 
is like a tenant house prepared for rent, and the former vices, witii sevenfold 
worse ones, will return and make that man, nation, or community worse than 
ever ; and assures them that such will be the fate of that generation. The nation 
must have been somewhat reformed, in anticipation of their Messiah, under the 
preaching of John and Christ; some repented and followed them, which would 
compel opposers to reform or lose their credit for religion. But not embracing 
the Gospel and entering the kingdom, they were liable to relapse and come to a 
fearful end. He then reminds His disciples of their position in the world and 
the necessity of keeping a clear view of divine things, and not become bewildered 
and darkened by covetousness and animal gratifications. Hearing and obeying 
the word of God is more important than animal relation to Christ, David, or 
Abraham. Whoever doeth the will of God is Christ's brother, sister, or mother. 



CHAPTER LXXXIX. 



MISSIONARY CIRCUITS IN GALILEE CONTINUED. PARABLES 

DESCRIRTIYE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD.— Matt. 

13:1-53; Mark 4:26-34; Luke 8:4-18. §§ 1-3. 

1. Parable of the Sower. — Jesus again resorts to the sea of Galilee, and 
taught on the lake shore till the pressing crowd compelled Him to enter a boat ; 
then stationed in the lake, He taught the people in parables. Some hear the 
word of the kingdom, but not understanding it at the time, forget it before reflec- 
tion makes it plain. Others embrace the teachings joyfully, and for awhile believe 
and practice accordingly, but when trials, tribulations, or persecutions arise against 
the truth, they soon become offended and fall away. Others receive the teach- 
ings of the kingdom and honestly intend to obey them, but the cares or pleasures 
of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and lusts of other things choke the 
word and they become fruitless. But some receive the words of Christ into an 
honest and sound mind, and remember it, patiently endure trials, and produce 
good fruit in adundance. But while He spoke to the multitude in parables about 
the kingdom of God, He enjoined upon the twelve to make known afterward 
everything they learned about it in secret ; light was made to shine abroad, and 
not to be hid under a vessel. The twelve were happy in seeing and hearing what 
many, prophets and righteous men desired to see and hear, but never enjoyed the 
privilege ; but privilege begets responsibility. Measure out liberally what ye 
learn and more will be committed to your trust ; but if ye conceal it out of fear 
or hope of favor and gain, what ye have shall be taken away. 

2. Parables Showing the Imperceptible Growth of, and the Tares in, 
THE Kingdom. — The kingdom of God takes root, springs up, and matures, and 
the most vigilant observer cannot tell how. It is constitutionally and designedly 
restricted to those born of God, but Satan, taking advantage of un vigilant 
churches, puts his own children into it to tarnish its beauty and defeat its object. 
But at the end of this age Christ will send His angels and gather out of His king- 
dom the children of the Wicked One, who cause offences, are trap-triggers, and 
do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, where there shall be wailing 
and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the children, or heirs, of the kingdom shine 
forth in the kingdom of the Father as the sun. Then shall the old prophets' 
glowing descriptions of the holiness and glory of Jerusalem be realized and pass 
into historical facts. The command to let the tares remain during this age is not 
absolute, but contingent, and where the children of Satan can be certainly known 
and rooted up without endangering the rights of the legitimate heirs, they should 
be eradicated, which may be done by casting them out or withdrawing from them. 
In Israel we find the holy seed and the sons of Belial. In Christianity we have 
true churches and false churches ; witnesses, or Sons of Oil, and persecutors. In 
Israel both had constitutional rights, and were necessary for the design. In Chris- 
tianity hypocrites and adversaries are constitutionally excluded, but are used in 
the development of the kingdom of God. In the consummated age all unregen- 
erated persons will be actually excluded, 



342 THE KmGDOM OP GOD DEVELOPED. 

3. Kingdom Small at First, but Self- Appropriating. — The kiogdom of 
God is small at the beginning, and works unobserved, but will become great and 
leaven communities before kings and priests know it. Also, it has a self-appro- 
priating influence ; so persons learning what it is and its value, will part with 
all they have to advance its interests and inherit its blessings and glories. These 
truths of the kingdom they were expecting were given to the people to remember, 
though contrary to their notions and not understood by them ; but the apostles 
were instructed into the kingdom of Heaven, and after the gifts of the Holy Spirit 
they understood the subject, and taught the people the old things learned of 
Christ and the new things revealed by the Spirit. 

4. Christ Sleeps in the Storm. — Matt. 8:18-27; Mark 4:35-41; Luke 
8:22-25. — Having finished these, and other parables not recorded. He left the 
multitude and ordered a departure to the other side of the lake, that He might 
rest awhile. A certain scribe proposed to follow Him and become a permanent 
disciple. But Jesus assures him that he will gain no idle repose and make no 
riches by it ; the Son of Man Himself has not a place to rest His weary head. 
Another disciple proposed to follow after he had buried his father, but Jesus told 
him to follow now, and let those who live for no other destiny than to die attend 
to burying those already dead. When He entered the boat to preach, the disciples 
had gone aboard with Him ; so when He dismissed the multitude, they immedi- 
ately started. The Savior, worn out with labor, lay down in the hind end of the 
boat — which was elevated, or had a small cabin on it — and rested His weary head 
on some person's pillow and fell asleep. A storm of wind came down on the 
lake, but he awakes not. The maddened waves roar and lash the boat till every 
timber quakes, but still He sleeps. Ah, that is a deep sleep ! Such as none but 
the exhausted sleep. The waters rushing, raging, thundering, fill the middle of 
the ship, and yet He sleeps ! The terrified disciples shout : Carest Thou not that 
we perish? Lord, save us ! We perish ! He answers: Why are ye fearful, O 
ye of little faith ? He arose and said : Peace, be still. All was calm ! The 
weary Son of Man is now the Mighty Son of God ! He reproved them for their 
want of faith in Him. They wondered and feared, as in the presence of the Great 
God. This is the Incarnated Son of God! This is the Divine Son of Man! 
This is the hoped-for King of Israel and Savior of the nations. 

5. Gadarene Demoniac— Matt. 8:28-34; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39. — 
Landing on the Gaderene, or Gergesene, shore, Jesus met two demoniacs, so 
exceedingly fierce that none ventured to pass that way. One of them, especially, 
had been for a long time in an unclean spirit, as Mark expressed it, or, as Luke 
says, having demons. He went naked, dwelt in no house, but in the tombs. 
Often bound and fettered, he snapped the chains and broke the fetters into pieces ; 
could not be tamed by exorcism or any other art, but in mountains and tombs, 
or tombs in the hills, day and night, he was crying or howling and cutting himself 
with stones. Seeing Jesus at a distance, he ran, fell before and worshiped Him, 
and cried out : What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Son of the Most High God ? 
Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time? I adjure Thee by God to 
not torment me ! For Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out — 
the leading spirit, whose name was Legion, or six thousand, because they were 
many under this leader. They all besought Christ to not send them into the 
deep, or depths of sheol, but into the herds of swine. This He granted, and 
they went and scared the hogs into the sea and drowned them. Jesus lets the 
Devil torment the impious, and when he cannot keep a repenting sinner, the 
demons will take revenge on the impious. The keepers of the swine fled and 
reported the whole transaction. The whole city came and witnessed the facts of 
the cure ; but a guilty conscience made them fear and reject the Savior, and aU 
the surrounding region besought Jesus to leave their country ; for, like all the 
wicked, they feared the Savior more than the demons. Having shown the Gad- 
arenes His power and willingness to save, He left them and allowed them to seek 



CHAPTER LXXXIX. : SECTIONS VI. -VIII. 343 

Him. His promises are to those who come to Him ; He may go to them, but 
has not promised to do so. At their request He leaves them, and now they must 
come to Him or perish. The delivered man desired to keep with Jesus, but was 
sent to tell his friends what great things the Lord had done for him, so they might 
seek the Savior. He did so, and published in Decapolis and throughout the whole 
city what Jesus had done for him. Jesus returned to Galilee, having shown the 
twelve His power over the worst of demoniacs, and shown the Gadarenes where 
they could find a Savior, if they saw proper to come unto Him. 

6. Christ Keceives Sinners. — Matt. 9:10-17; Mark 2:15-22; Luke 
5:29-39. — In the next place, we find Jesus in Matthew Levi's house ; but I don't 
know whether it was in this house or not that He expounded the parables to the 
apostles. Levi made Him a great feast, where many publicans and sinners ate 
with Jesus and His disciples, and, as usual, the scribes and Pharisees found fault. 
Jesus informed them that His mission now was not to call the righteous to their 
reward, but to call sinners to repentance, and bids them learn the meaning of that 
passage in Hosea (Hosea 6:6): I will have mercy, and not sacrifice. Again they 
found fault, because His disciples never fasted, while they and the disciples of 
John fasted often. Jesus taught them. That was not the proper time for His 
disciples to fast, but they would have occasions enough to fast in earnest, without 
any ceremonial fasting. He also taught that it was useless to patch up their old 
system of traditions and ceremonies with new principles and practices ; better 
keep both by themselves. It was not plausible that those accustomed to old rites 
and traditions would relish the new dispensation, unless they were born from 
above and become new creatures. External rites and ceremonies may please the 
unconverted, but right principles and practices are appreciated only by those born 
of God. Christ resisted the proud Pharisee and gave favor to the humble sinner. 

7. The Touch of His Garments Heal. — Matt. 9:1, 18-34; Mark 5:21-43; 
Luke 8:40-56. — The people had watched for His return from Gadara, and find- 
ing Him back, collected around Him as usual. While talking to them, Jairus, a 
ruler of the synagogue, came and besought Him to come and heal his dying 
daughter. This Jewish ruler had not as much faith as the Roman centurion, but 
Christ went with him to lay hands on her, as requested. Many people followed, 
and a woman, having spent all her property on physicians and still got worse, 
slipped up in the crowd behind Him and touched His garment and was instantly 
healed, just as she believed she would be. Jesus was in no hurry about the 
child, and turned about and showed He knew what was done. The woman, 
trembling, confessed the whole and was approbated and cured by Him. Thus, 
the people were taught to ask and receive blessings ; there was no use in trying 
to steal them without detection. 

8. The Daughter and Others Healed. — By this time a messenger came to 
the ruler : No use troubling the Teacher, the child is dead. JSTow Jesus encour- 
ages the ruler to believe, and not fear disappointment or disgrace. He asked 
Jesus to come and lay hands on her, and Jesus did so. Had he asked Jesus 
to speak the word and heal her, she would not have died. Jesus waits till she 
dies and then surpasses the ruler's hopes. Jesus takes but three witnesses — the 
multitude had witnessed enough already and they gave Jesus no rest. Having 
caused the people about her to satisfy themselves about her death, Christ restores 
the only child to life and charged those present to not report it, but it was famed 
abroad. Departing thence, two blind men followed him, crying : Thou, Son of 
David, have mercy on us ! He let them follow Him and shout after Him till He 
entered a house. They follow up with their importunity, and He simply touched 
their eyes and told them the cure should be according to their faith. Their faith 
was strong and had been well tried ; they were cured and reported it all around, 
though charged to keep it quiet. As they departed from that house the people 
brought to Him a dumb demoniac. The demon being cast out, the dumb spoke, 



344 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

and the multitude marveled, saying : It was never so seen in Israel. But the 
Pharisees here said: He casteth out demons through the prince of the demons. It 
appears the Pharisees have all got this solution of Christ's miracles from Jerusalem. 

9. The Demons. ^ — These demons are sometimes called unclean spirits; 
sometimes they are said to be in the man, and sometimes the man is said to be in 
the spirit. The same difference of phraseology is used in regard to the Holy 
Spirit : sometimes He is said to be in the person as in a temple (they were filled 
with the Spirit) and again, they are said to be in the Spirit. ^ By such phrase- 
ology, I understand the person under the control of the Holy Spirit, or of the 
demons. The heathen supposed demons to be spirits of the dead, but Christ 
classes them as satans, and to cast them out was to cast out Satan. Hence, they 
are fallen, or wicked, angels, as Satan himself, and the torment they dread is the 
tire prepared for the Diabolos and his angels. Good ano^els are ministering 
spirits, sent forth to minister to the heirs of salvation. They encamp around 
those fearing Jehovah and deliver them, as they did around Elisha. When God 
gives a man up to Satan these holy angels abandon ^him and the wicked spirits 
surround him and act upon body and mind, giving tliem superior power and 
intelligence. Some snapped chains and broke fetters, and many of them knew 
Christ and confessed Him to be the Son of God and the Holy One of God, but 
they were never permitted by Jesus to call Him the Messiah. 

10. Christ Gives Salvation from Demons. — Having failed to conquer Israel 
in his Red Drasjon development, Satan afflicts the Jews by the government of 
Polytheists without and by demons within ; Jehovah now permitted both, that 
they might feel the need of a Savior and receive Him gladly. Though they 
despised Polytheism and abhorred idols that sanctioned every species of crime, 
yet they were guilty of almost all the sins they practiced in days of Jeremiah 
under protection of false gods. When the Messiah came He manifested Himself 
as Jesus, and proved His power and good-will to save and labored for their 
reformation; if they repented and received Him, then, as the Christ on the 
throne of David, He would give them the dominion over all the nations. 
Reformation must come first, and then deliverance from moral evils and invisible 
foes. Jesus called to repentance, forgave the sins of those coming to Him, 
healed their diseases, and delivered them from those invisible angels of Satan. 
Now He developed the Jesus, and if the Jews accept deliverance through Him, 
then He will display the Christ, or Anointed King of Israel. He will first van- 
quish Satan and his demons in personal conflict, and afterwards destroy all his 
systems and developments. But His citizens, or those who follow after His con- 
quests to possess and govern the nations, must wear white garments without 
hypocricy. They must be justified by faith in the Jesus Christ, be regenerated 
and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and labor to do His will on earth as it is done 
in Heaven. Souls of the saved will not come to tempt their friends to do what 
God has forbidden — to communicate with the dead — hence, all such communica- 
tions must be from fallen spirits or lost souls. 

11. Jesus Rejected at Kazareth. — Matt. 13:54-58; Mark 6:1-6. — Jesus 
pays a second visit to Nazareth and taught in the synagogue, to the astonishrnent 
of all. They knew He never received any rabbinical instruction, and ought to 
h^ve concluded that His knowledge was from a superior source, and received His 
teachings. But they were offended at Him, and, perhaps, attributed His wisdom 
and power to fellowship with Satan. They did not believe in Him, and so would 
not apply to Him for cures, so He could do but few mighty works. He healed 
a few sick folk by the imposition of His hands, and left them, wondering at such 
stubborn unbelief. He went about all their cities and villages, teaching in their 
synagogues, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness 
and every disease. 



(3) Acts 2:4; Rom. 8:9. 11; Rev. 1:10. 



CHAPTER IXXXIX.: SECTIONS XII.-XVI. 345 

12. The Harvest Large. — Matt. 9:35-38.— When He saw the multitude 
flocking to Him for instruction or healing, He was moved with compassion on 
them, because thej fainted, and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shep- 
herd. He said to His disciples : Truly the harvest is great, or plenteous, but the 
laborers are few. Pray ye the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His har- 
vest Then He called the twelve and gave them power to cast out unclean 
spirits and heal all manner of sicknesses and diseases. 

MISSION OF THE TWELVE. A. M. 4032. Matt. 10; Mark 6:7-29; 

Luke 9:1-9. 

13. The Commission. A. D. 28. — Jesus sent the twelve in couples to 
preach the kingdom of God, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, 
cast out demons ; and as they were given this power without expense, so they 
were enjoined to do all these favors without chargiag a price. They must go 
without any provisions or encumbrance of baggage, and let the people shelter 
and feed them; as they labored without charging for cures and instruction they 
were entitled to shelter and food, and would receive them gratis. They must not 
go to the gentiles nor Samaritans, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 
Where they labored for any length of time they must have but few places for 
lodging, and these must be suitable. Every house and city and village must be 
saluted with peace, and, if accepted, must be taught and healed ; but if rejected, 
they must leave the dust oiF their feet behind for a witness against the rejectors, 
and it will be better for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment than for 
those places. , 

14. Their Treatment. — Though their mission was benevolence and of ines- 
timable worth and peculiar favor to the Jews, yet they must be wise as serpents 
and harmless as doves, for among their own brethren they would be as sheep 
straying among wolves. They would be tried by councils, scourged in syna- 
gogues, and brought before civil rulers, because they belong to Christ ; and it 
shall be a witness in their favor, and for giving the Gospel free to the gentiles, 
and against the Jews to transfer their prerogatives to the nations. They need 
not study up defenses, for the Holy Spirit spoke through them while on their 
mission and would furnish words to them on every occasion. This mission of 
peace will be the occasion of much contention in families and communities, for 
the impious Jews are as much the children of the Old Serpent as the Polytheists, 
and as hostile to the kingdom of God, and they will persecute to death their 
nearest relatives who embrace the truth. The apostles will be hated by all ranks 
and conditions of their own people because they belong to Christ and proclaim 
His teachings, but their perseverance will be rewarded with salvation, or deliver- 
ance. 

15. They Must N"ot Fear JMen. — The field was large for so few laborers. 
Persecution in one place showed it was time to move to another, and even then 
they would not have visited all the cities of Israel till the Son of Man be come 
in His kingdom. They need not expect better treatment than their Lord and 
Teacher; but without fear they must make publicly known whatever they had 
learned from Him in public and private. These enemies are hostile to God, 
who can destroy soul and body in Gehenneh, and better fear Him than they who 
can destroy the body only, and even this they cannot do without permission from 
the Heavenly Father. Even a sparrow can not fall to the ground without His 
permission; and He valaes the apostles more, and has all their hairs counted, so 
they need not fear men. 

16. Must Be Ready to Give Up All for Christ. — Christ's disciples must 
not expect favors from the world ; however close the animal relation and strong 
the ties of friendship, Christ must be openly confessed and obeyed before men 



346 THE ^NGDOM OF GOB DEVELOPED. 

and relations, or they will be denied and rejected before God in Heaven. Those 
loving relations, life, or property, can not be His disciples, for such is the hos- 
tility of the world to Christ and His teachings and laws, that they will compel you 
to give up these, or give Him and His cause up. So, a person that will not take 
up the cross and endure reproach and suffering can not be a Christian. Who- 
soever saves life by abandoning Christ shall lose it at last, and whoever loses it 
for His sake shall find it in life eternal. There is no compromise between truth 
and falsehood, nor between Christ and Satan. 

17. Whatever is done for Christ's sake shall be rewarded, no matter who 
does it or how small the favor. If done to the least disciple because he belongs 
to Christ, it is the same as if done to Christ Himself. If any receive a prophet or 
righteous man, believing them to be such, and support and befriend them, he 
shall receive a reward for the same. But the true Christian does not work for 
rewards; being saved by free grace and having all his blessings bestowed on 
him, he acts out of love to God and man, delights in the glory of God, the suc- 
cess of the kingdom, and the happiness of man. 

18. The Twelve Mission ate. — Having received their charge, the twelve 
departed to preach and teach the Gospel and repentance in all the cities and 
towns. They cast out many demons, anointed with oils many sick, and healed 
them everywhere. But of this interesting mission of the twelve without their 
Teacher we have no particular account but their success. No description of these 
mission scenes in Judea and Galilee has been given, and I shall not attempt it. 
Jesus continued at the same time to preach in the cities, and His fame reached all 
classes, and various opinions, surmises, and wild notions filled the public mind. 
Some said Elijah had appeared, others said one of the old prophets had arisen 
from the dead, and some said that John the Baptist had come to life again. 
Herod Antipas was much perplexed, for he had beheaded John, and a guilty con- 
science made him fearful and superstitious. He concluded John had risen indeed, 
and mighty works showed forth themselves in him. He desired to see Jesus, 
but fear of seeing John, who often reproved him, deterred him from going to 
see who He was and what He did. How will persecutors dread to meet the per- 
secuted at the Judgment seat ! John's disciples had buried his body, and about 
the time of the return of the Apostles they informed Jesus of John's death. 



CHAPTER XC. 



MISSIONATING STILL IN GALILEE. A. M. 4032. A. D. 28. 
Matt. 14; Mark 6; Luke 9:7-17; John 6. §§ 1-8. 

1. Five Thousand Fed. — ^Having returned, the apostles reported all they had 
done and taught ; then they retired by boat to the desert of Bethsaida to rest, for 
they did not get time to eat where they were. But the people saw them steering the 
course, and recognized Jesus ; so they ran along the coas.t and were there before 
Jesus. Though Jesus had come for repose. He compassionated the eager multi- 
tude, who were like sheep without a shepherd. He received them, spoke of the 
kingdom of God, taught them many things, and healed the infirm ; and, as usual, 
multitudes followed Him into the mountains. Jesus went up into a mountain, 
and there rested with His disciples. This was about the last of March, for the 
passover was nigh at hand. Observing the multitude, Jesus suggests the 
difiiculty of feeding them. Not having yet formed any adequate idea of His 
divine power, the apostles decided it impossible, and advised their dismissal and 
dispersion through the country to buy themselves food, for the day was far spent. 
Jesus answered they need not depart, told the apostles to feed them, and 
inquired how much provision was on hand. Peter said a boy present had five 
barley loaves, or cakes, and two small fishes, but that was nothing among so 
many. Jesus said : Bring them to Me, and make the men sit down on the grass 
in companies of fifty men, each man with his women and children. And there 
were an hundred of these ranks, or five thousand men, besides the women and 
children. Jesus took the five loaves and two fishes, and looking up to Heaven, 
blessed, or gave thanks ; then He broke the loaves and gave to His disciples, 
who distributed to the multitude, and the same way with the fishes, till all 
were satisfied. Then Jesus taught them economy, and bid them gather the 
fragments, that nothing be lost ; and they filled twelve baskets. The people were 
refreshed and pleased, and said : Of a truth, this is the prophet that was to 
come. They were disposed to make Him king of the Jews on the spot, and to 
march under His banner to Jerusalem, and place Him on the throne of David ; 
and no doubt but the apostles acquiesced in the proposition. 

2. The Disciples Alone in a Storm. — Jesus perceived the design, and 
constrained the disciples to enter their boat and start to the other side, and at the 
same time sent the multitude away, and then He retired alone into the mountain 
to pray. It was evening when they parted, and when dark came on Jesus was 
alone in the mountain, and the disciples in the midst of the sea. A storm arose 
against them, tossed their vessel about, and made their rowing hard, a toil, and 
vexation ; and after three o'clock they had advanced but three or four miles. 
They had learned the power of Jesus to save in a storm, when present, but now 
they had no Son of Man in the boat, and they had not learned His omniscence 
and almighty power at a distance. They were not yet prepared to encounter 
storms on earth and let Him go up to heaven. They were not good theologians, 
but must learn by degrees and be taught by experience. 



348 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

3. Jesus Walks on the Sea. — Jesus saw them toiling in rowing, but did 
not calm the storm for them. After three o'clock He walked on the boisterous 
sea, as if passing them by. Thej all saw Him and were frightened, thinking it 
a spirit. W hat if one of those spirits thej^ had been casting out ! He turned 
His course to the vessel, now in speaking distance. They cried out in terror. 
Jesus said: " Be of good cheer. It is I. Be not afraid." Peter, always ready 
to speak before he knew what he was about, answered : " Lord, if it be Thou, 
bid me come to Thee on the water." Jesus said : Come. Peter tried it, and 
appears to have succeeded for a while, but the boisterous wind overcame his 
faith, and sinking, he cried out : Lord, save me ! Jesus caught him, saying : 
Thou of little faith ! Wherefore didst thou doubt ? Jesus was gladly received. 
The wind ceased. They were in port. Then they gathered around and 
worshiped Him, and confessed Him to be the Son of God. They were blind in 
heart and mind, could not reason on past experiences and miracles, and had 
confused ideas about Him and His kingdom. 

4. Refuses to be Made King. — When landed, the people, knowing Him, 
sent all around and gathered in the diseased, as they did everywhere now, and 
besought Him to let them touch but the border of His garment, and all of them 
were cured. Christ was soon followed by the multitude He had fed, determined 
to crown Him king of -Israel. They did not follow the disciples the previous 
evening, for the disciples had taken the only boat there, and beside Jesus did not 
go with them. Next morning, finding neither Christ nor disciples, they took 
boats, come from Tiberias, and followed to Capernaum, seeking Jesus, and 
finding Him, inquired how He got there. Jesus did not tell them, but preached 
truths they did not like ; so they gave up their project. 

5. They Were Not Proper Subjects of Christ. — Their object was worldly 
stores, ease, and glory, and not to cooperate in the great objects of the kingdom 
of God. Jesus admonishes them to seek those graces which accompany eternal 
life, and are given by the Son of Man, and by Him only; for He has the sealed 
commission from God the Father. The first work God requires of them is to 
believe in Him whom He has sent. The manna eaten in the wilderness was from 
the air, or first Heaven, but the food giving eternal life is from Heaven, the third 
Heaven, or throne of God, and is Him, sent of God, to give life eternal to the 
world. This person is Jesus Christ, and those coming to Him will always be 
supplied, and never hunger on account of want; and those believing in Him will 
never thirst on account of supplies, but they shall always be supplied. These 
persons had seen enough of evidence proving Jesus to be the Messiah, and that 
He could and would save, yet they believed not in Him as a teacher, a savior, 
and a king. They wished to be fed, and advanced in power and in wealth, but 
did not want His teachings of holiness, salvation from sin, nor government by 
righteous laws. The Father has given Him, for subjects, the poor in spirit, 
broken-hearted, the bruised, bound, and captives. ^ These shall come to Him and 
in no wise be cast out. Satan's volunteers are never bruised nor bound to force 
them into his service, but with stout hearts and proud spirits they serve him. 
They are not the subjects of Christ's kingdom, and will not believe in Him. 

6. The Proper Subjects of Christ's Kingdom Shall Never be Lost. — 
Christ came down out of Heaven to do His Father's will in all things. It is the 
Father's will that Christ should lose not any thing given to Him, and that every 
one seeing the Son and believing in Him may have eternal life, and Christ will 
raise him up at the last day of the intermediate age.* No one can come to 
Christ as a king and become a subject of His kingdom, except the Father draw 
him, or he be born of God. The prophet said : They shall all be taught of God. 
As this is the character of His subjects, none but those who have heard and learned 
of the Father will come to Christ and be raised up at the last day ; all others are 



(4) Luke4:18,|19. (*) Chap. 118, 119, 121. 



CHAPTER XC: SECTIONS VII. -IX. 349 

excluded by the terms of citizenship. . Yet no man has seen the Father except 
the Son, so this teaching of the Father must be effected by the Word and Holy 
Spirit. Those eating the manna in the wilderness have died, but those believing 
in Christ, and deriving their instruction, graces, and comforts from Him, have 
everlasting life. They shall not die, but forever live the life of love and obedi- 
ence first enjoyed by faith in Him. The change in manner of existence cannot 
alter this life in Christ Jesus. As bread sustains life in the body, so Christ, who 
came down from Heaven, procures and sustains eternal life. This was secured 
by His obedience and suffering in the flesh, or human nature, and this obedience 
and suffering in His flesh was not for Jews alone, but the gentiles, also ; not for 
one nation, but for all nations. 

7. Christ an Absolute, Independent, and All-Sufficient King. — Christ 
has no need for counselors, ofiicers, nor armies, so all hopes of influencing or 
controlling Him in government, or in making ourselves necessary to His success, 
are in vain. But, on the other hand, His subjects are under the most absolute 
dependence on Him for life and every privilege and enjoyment, and consequently 
must be most submissive to Him. They are so dependent, it might be said, 
they must eat His flesh and drink His blood, or have no life in them ; but if 
submissive and obedient they never die. As the Son lives in and by the Father, 
so must the subjects of His kingdom live in and by Him. This was hard 
doctrine for the scribes and Pharisees, whose self-importance expected the 
Messiah to receive their counsels, cooperate with the Sanhedrim, and receive 
recommendations and commissions from them ; and this giving life and happiness 
to the world instead of subjecting the nations to the Jews, was intolerable. Not 
only the nmltitude, but many disciples also, murmured against this. Jesus 
asked them, if offended at this, how could they endure to see Him leave them in 
disappointment, and ascend up where He had been before? Though He suffered 
in the flesh for them, yet that flesh itself profited none; but the Spirit secured 
to believers by this suffering, gives the life, and His Word is accompanied by 
the Spirit, and so it also is life, or life-giving. 

8. Disciples Offended and Abandon Him. — Christ told some of His 
disciples they did not believe in Him. He knew from the first who believed 
and who would betray Him, and for this reason He had said : No man can come 
unto Me except it — the power or authority — were given unto Him of My Father. 
Those not having the character of subjects have not the power to enter the 
kingdom of God. From this time many of His disciples abandoned Jesus 
altogether. He asked the twelve if they, too, would go away. Though they 
did not understand nor relish the doctrine of a crucified Messiah, nor the free 
extension of the kingdom to the nations, yet no other teacher had the words of 
eternal life, and thev were convinced that He was the Messiah and Son of God. 
Jesus had elected the twelve out of the multitude of disciples, and even of them 
one was a Diabolus ; this was Judas Iscariot. Jesus kept out of Judea after this 
and stayed in Galilee, because the Jews were seeking an opportunity to kill Him. 

MATTHEW 15, 16; MARK T, 8; LUKE 9:18-27. §§ 9-12. 

9. Delegates from Jerusalem Oppose Him. — Scribes and Pharisees from 
Jerusalem tried to prejudice the people against Jesus, because He paid no respect 
to traditions and eat without washing. Jesus convicts them of violating the 
law of God by their traditions, charges them with hypocrisy, and quotes the 
prophet Isaiah assustaining the charge. (Isaiah 29:13.) Their worship was vain 
and unacceptable, for they laid aside the commandments of God, and held the 
traditions of men. Not anything physical is religiously unclean in itself, and 
unless the use is forbidden by divine law, it is clean. But evil thoughts, 
words, and actions of every kind are unclean in themselves, always unlawful 



350 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

and defile men, and so they cannot see God nor receive His favor.* But let the 
blind leaders alone, and every plant in the kingdom of God which is not planted 
by Him, shall be rooted up. Jesus now travels in the west of Galilee, by the 
coast or border of Tyre and Sidon, and north by Decapolis, and His fame was 
there before Him. A Syro-Phenician woman, showing great faith and humility, 
implores Him, as the Son of David, to heal her demoniac daughter. At 
first she meets great discouragement, but persevering, she obtained her request 
and a commendation for her faith. At Decapolis, where the legion demoniac 
spread abroad His fame, He healed one deaf and dumb. He retired into a 
mountain, and was surrounded by multitudes with diseased persons. He healed 
them, and they glorified theGod of Israel. These bordering countries were 
Folytheists, but they glorified the Jehovah, the God of Israel, but perhaps did 
not abandon their own gods. 

10. Four Thousand Fed. — The multitude had remained with Him three 
days in a manner destitute of sufiicient food. Jesus considered their deprivation, 
compassionated their suffering, and proposed to feed them. The disciples did 
not refer to the former miracle of that kind, but presented the impossibility of 
obtaining sufiicient food in the wilderness. To His inquiry they reported seven 
loaves and a few little fishes. With these He fed four thousand men, besides 
women and children, and had seven baskets of fragments left. Then He dis- 
missed the people and took ship with His disciples for Magdala, or Dalmanutha. 
Here the contending sects of Pharisees and Sadducees united to tempt Him, and 
demanded from Him a sign from Heaven. But He taught them, in presence of 
the multitude, that as they were so good in judging the weather by the face of 
the sky, they ought to be able to judge the times from a knowledge of their 
prophecies. Then He tells them their true character, gives them the sign of 
Jonah, enters the boat, and departs to the other side. All these questions and 
demands were designed to disgrace Him in the eyes of the people, or get against 
Him a charge of breaking the law. His answers show His wisdom, for He 
always exposes and silences them before the people. In this voyage He warns 
His disciples against the teachings of the Pharisees, who act the hypocrit and 
make the law void by their traditions ; and of the Sadducees, who deny a future 
state and the existence of spirits ; of the Herodians, who would accommodate 
their religion to anything they supposed for their present interest. 

11. Opinions About Christ Coming to Bethsaida. — He heals a blind man, 
and then visits the towns and coasts, or borders of Csesarea Philippi : After 
praying on the way with His disciples. He asked them what prophetic character 
the people took Him to be. They answer: some say John the Baptist, some say 
Elijah, and others say Jeremiah, and others say one of the old prophets ; but the 
apostles confessed Him to be the Christ, the Son of God. Peter spoke for the 
others, and Christ pronounced him blessed, for he had been led to that belief by 
the Father in Heaven, for the Son of Man exhibited a character and condition 
contrary to all his prejudiced notions about the Messiah. He calls Simon Peter 
a petros, or stone, and tells him that upon this petra — Christ, the Rock, — He 
will build His church, or synagogue, and the gates of sheol, or hades, shall not 
prevail against it, though it has demanded and received all the saints down to 
the present time, and has left the throne of David vacant, and the priesthood of 
Aaron to be filled with wicked profligates. And He will give .to Peter, and to 
the other apostles for whom he spoke, the keys of the kingdom of Heaven, or 
authority to open and shut it, and whatever he did in regard to that opening and 
shutting, should be ratified in Heaven. Then He strictly commanded them to 
tell no man that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, or Christ. Here the term 
ekklesias (assembly or congregation) is used to designate the kingdom of God, 
and hence we may use the term church interchangeable with the phrase kingdom 



(*)Gal. 5:18, 26. Rom. 8:9-14. 



CHAPTER XO. : SECTIONS XII. -XIY. 351 

of God. Christ is the only foundation, ^ and Peter, Paul, and the other apostles 
were only builders,'" and the history of the development of the kingdom shows 
who used the keys, and how they used them. The door of faith was opened to 
gentiles by Paul and Barnabas. ^ Christ is the chief corner in the foundation of 
apostles and prophets^. Peter has no more prominence in this foundation than 
any other apostle or prophet, and Christ is the Kock on which the foundation 
stands. 

12. Christ Foretells His Death and the Proximity of His Kingdom. — 
Jesus now began to plainly teach His disciples the fact and manner of His death, 
and Peter attempted to dissuade Him from submitting to such disgrace and 
suffering ; but Christ rebukes Peter for having more regard to the opinions 
of men than to the purposes of God. Then He calls His disciples and 
the multitude to Him, and teaches them what He has taught others: that in 
following Him they must lose and suffer, and must make their calculations for 
the same. But to save themselves from present losses and sufferings by perse- 
cutions, would prove the loss of themselves in the end, and to lose all friends, 
property, and life now for Christ and His Gospel, is to gain everlasting life. 
This weary, way-worn Son of Man shall come in His own glory, and in the 
glory of His Father, and of the holy angels, and then shall He reward every 
man according to his works. Whoever is ashamed of Christ in any adulterous 
and sinful generation, of them shall Jesus be ashamed in that day. But before 
that time, and before the death of some of the disciples then present, the king- 
dom of God shall come, or, the kingdom of God shall come in power ; or, the 
Son of Man shall come in His kingdom. Here are two great events, the one is 
far off, and the other near at hand. The one within the lifetime of some present 
is the intermediate age of the kingdom ; the other the consummated age. 

MATT. 17; MAKE 9; LUKE 9:28-50, §§ 13-19. 

13. The Transfiguration. — Jesus saw proper to give James, John, and 
Peter a view of the glory of His person, or human body, and took them up into 
a high mountain and prayed. As He prayed, His face became as luminous as the 
sun; His raiment glittered with snowy whiteness. Moses and Elijah appeared in 
glory, too, and talked with Him about His suffering at Jerusalem. Enoch and 
Elijah had gone to Heaven without tasting death; Moses and thousands of 
the saints had passed through the gates of sheol, or hades, and both classes are 
most deeply interested in this decease. Here they discourse on what the Savior 
told the Apostles — Christ's death. Here are shown some of the glories of con- 
summated age of the kingdom. Here the lawgiver of Israel, the great reformer 
of the ten tribes, met in glory and conversed with the king of Israel, and the 
doctrine of the Saduccees is annihilated. The three apostles were sore afraid, 
but Peter must talk off his fright. While he talked a bright cloud of glory 
enveloped them, and they feared again. A voice out of the cloud said : This is 
the same testimony as was given at His baptism. They fell on their face in fear. 
The voice passed. Jesus was alone and bid them arise and not fear. They 
never had thought of such glory belonging to His kingdom or. to Himself. 
Here two saints from Heaven, or one from Heaven and one from sheol, met 
three disciples of Christ and conversed with their Teacher. 

14. The Disciples cannot Understand the Decease and Resurrection of 
Christ. — The power of wrong teaching and deep-rooted prejudice is seen in these 
apostles. Jesus charged them to keep this sight a secret till the Son of Man be 
risen from the dead. They obeyed, but could not understand what this rising 
from the dead meant. Fully satisfied Jesus was th§ Christ, they now call in 



(6) I. Cor. 3:11. (7) I. Cor. 3:9-10. (8) Acts 14:27. (9) Eph. 2:20. 



352 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

question the teaching of the rabbi, and are informed that John the Baptist was 
the person predicted under the name of Ehjah, and that the Son of Man must 
suffer bj them as did John the Baptist. 

15. Disciples Could not Cast Out a Certain Demon. — Coming down from 
the Mount, He saw a great multitude about the remaining apostles, and the 
scribes questioning them. A father had brought an only child, which was 
afflicted and possessed, and the disciples could not cast out the demon ; their 
hesitating faith could not with confidence command it to come out, besides, that 
case required of them prayer and fasting, which they had not the faith to under- 
take for fear of disappointment and ridicule. They had once been commissioned, 
and had they acted on that commission with the smallest faith they could have 
cast him out. If Christ commissions any one to remove mountains or pluck up 
trees, and they act relying on His authority, the mountains and trees will obey 
them. Jesus told the doubting parent that all things are possible to those 
believing, and healed the child. He lamented that unbelieving generation and 
exclaimed : How long shall I be with you ! How long must I suffer you ! We 
are no longer astonished to see Jesus perform miracles of mercy, but would be 
disappointed if He rejected any suppliant. Again, He informs them of His 
death, and He should be betrayed into the hand of His enemies and should be 
raised the third day. Still they could not understand how to reconcile this with 
other hopes, and feared to ask Him. But they were exceedingly sorry. 

16. The Greatest in the Kingdom of God. — Matt. 18. — §§ 16-19. At 
Capernaum he pays tribute and teaches His disciples to submit to impositions 
from governments, but causes a fish to furnish the money. He did not stand 
upon His rights, but complied with the demand. A dispute about superiority in 
the kingdom of God arose among the disciples. Jesus tells them they must be 
converted and become as little children, teachable and depending on a superior, 
or not enter the kingdom, and whoever humbles himself as a little child, the same 
is the greatest in it. Who so shall receive one such little child in Christ's name 
receives Him, and whoever receives Christ receives the Father that sent Him ; 
and the least among the apostles shall be great. But whoever causes to offend, 
or entraps, one of those little ones who believe in Him had better be drowned in 
the sea and sunk to the bottom with a millstone on his neck. Take heed, ye, 
despise not, or neglect one of these little ones ; for in Heaven their angels always 
do behold the face of My Father, and it is not His will that one of these little 
ones should perish. These admonitions apply to all weak and humble converts 
of any age, and to such as may be converts, though we may not know it. Give 
them sound teaching and Christian example. 

17. Those Causing Offences. — Persons working for Christ are not to be 
prohibited, though they do not cooperate with us, and institutions of the world 
that do good may not be opposed, though Christians may not join them, but labor 
exclusively under Christ's banner. Offences, scandals, or traps — causes of offence 
or entrappings — will certainly come, or continue to exist; but woe to him by 
whom they come. If hand, foot, or eye entraps, or causes to offend, better 
destroy it, and enter the kingdom of God and enjoy eternal life in such mutilated 
condition than, with the body entire, to be cast into the Gehenna of fire — where 
their worm dieth not and the tire is not quenched. There is no neutral ground. 
We must enjoy life in the consummated kingdom of God, or be cast into the fire 
and be consumed by the worm of Gehenna. The kingdom in which life is enjoyed 
is put in opposition to the Yalley of Hinnom, where in time of Josiah the car- 
casses and other filth of Jerusalem were continuously burning and worms 
continuously gnawing. ]!^ow, as this valley is no longer such a place, and, so far 
as I can learn, was not in the time of the Savior, this language must be taken 
figuratively to denote the fire into which the tares are cast : the fire prepared for 
the Devil and his angels (Matt. 25:4), the lake of fire and brimstone in sheol. 



CHAPTER XC: SECTIONS XVIII. -XX. 353 

18. All Must Reform from Sin. — These mortifications are fiery trials, but 
we must endure them patiently and resolutely ; and tribulations work patience, 
and patience experience, and experience hope — which is the anchor of the soul. 
(Rom. 5:3-5). Thus, in this life we are preserved in the kingdom by these 
severe mortifications as salted. Disputes about superiority in the kingdom in this 
age of fiery trials are useless, and in the next age the least in the kingdom shall 
be great, and all such desires will be eradicated. Jewish sacrifices must be rubbed 
with salt, but Clirist's desciples must have the grace within them that preserves 
from becoming stumbling blocks, and they must have and keep peace among 
themselves, and not quarrel about superiority. Salt is good, and so are the 
graces of the Spirit ; but if the salt is gone, the dross or residuum is worthless, 
and if the graces of the Spirit are wanting in the disciple of Christ, they cannot 
be restored by any institution of man. Therefore, we must receive His teachings, 
accept Christ for our Savior, and obey His laws. 

19. Christ's Laws are Adapted to Secure Peace. — ^The Son of Man came 
to save what was lost, and as a good shepherd seeks the lost one and rejoices 
more over it than over ninety and nine that strayed not, and the Heavenly Father 
chooses to not lose one of those little, weak, straying ones. Instead of aspiring 
to ofiice, attend to the weak and humble. To keep peace in the kingdom, Christ 
gave laws which, observed, will restore peace or remove the ofi'ender, and Christ 
in Heaven will approve the deed. First, tell the offence to the offending brother 
alone ; if this will not do, take two or three brethren for witnesses and try again 
for reconciliation ; if this fails, report it to the assembly, or congregation ; if he 
refuses to hearken to them, then regard him and deal with him as with the heathen 
and publicans. If he confess and repents, he must be forgiven any number of 
times. As Christians deal with those offending them, so will their Heavenly 
Father do to them. Do to those in your power as you wish God to do to you. 

20. The Seventy Sent Out. — Luke 10:1-16; Matt. 19:1, 2; Mark 10:1; 
John 7:2-10. — The Lord now sent seventy, by twos, into those places He intended 
to visit yet, to proclaim the kingdom of God had come nigh unto them, and to 
heal the sick where they were received. Such were His extensive travels, He 
had thirty-five circuits to travel yet, or places to visit and journeys to make. His 
directions were about the same as to the twelve, but their powers were not so 
great, if their commission is fully reported. Whatever treatment they met would 
be regarded by Christ as given to Himself. He denounces condemnation on 
places that had received the greatest privileges of His ministry — -Chorazan, Eeth- 
saida, and Capernaum. Their judgments would be in proportion to their abused 
or neglected privileges, and worse than the judgment on Tyre and Sidon. The 
feast of tabernacles was at hand, and the Jews began to flock from every quarter 
to Jerusalem. Christ's own kindred did not believe in Him, and wishing to get 
Him into the power of the Sanhedrim, they in taunt tell Him to go to the feast 
and show Himself, as He desired to be known. He tells them to go, for the 
world could not hate them, but it hated Him because He testified against its evil 
deeds. This was the cause of their own unbelief in Him ; He told them the truth 
and rebuked their iniquities. 



-23 



CHAPTER XCI. 



THIKD MISSIONARY TOUR INCLUDING JERUSALEM. A. M. 4032, 

Ob a. D. 28.— John 7:11-52. 8. §§ 1-8. 

1. Travels East of the Jordan and Enters the Temple. — After His 
kindred started to Jerusalem, He went down the east side of the Jordan, and the 
people resorted to Him and were taught. At Jerusalem there was great agitation 
about Him, and as the Jews sought to kill Him the last time He was there, some 
doubted whether He would attend. Jesus had many friends there, but fearing 
the Jews of Jerusalem, they did not venture to approbate Him openly. About 
the middle of the feast Jesus entered the temple and taught without fear. The 
people were astonished at His instructions, knowing He never learned. Jesus 
informed them His teaching was divine, and would be so recognized by all who 
obey God. He exposed the hypocricy of the rulers in pretending great zeal for 
the law and yet seeking to mob and assassinate Him, which was forbidden by the 
law. They deny the charge before the people, and assert Him to be possessed 
by a demon. Jesus justifies His healing on the Sabbath by their circumcising on 
that day. Some of those at Jerusalem were astonished to hear Him speaking 
without fear, for they knew and said the rulers were seeking to kill Him. They 
said: Did the rulers know Him to be the Christ? They knew Him, and knew 
He was not ; so they tried to prevent the visiting Jews and proselytes from believ- 
ing in Him. Jesus answered in presence of the multitudes, that these Jews and 
rulers did know Him, and knew He had been sent of God, as Nicodemus con- 
fessed, but they did not know the God of Israel, who had sent Him. 

2. Christ in Midst of Danger and Enemies. — Thus convicted before the 
strangers, they were mad, and made a move to take Him, but they did not touch 
Him ; as His hour for suffering was not yet come, they could do nothing. As 
King of Israel He reigned in the palace of Jehovah and they could not prevent 
Him. Many believed in Him and said : When Christ comes will He do more 
miracles than this man has done? The chief priests, learning what was the 
public mind, sent officers to apprehend Him. Jesus told them fearlessly that He 
would be with them yet a little while, and then go to where they would not come 
to hunt Him. They did not understand Him, but supposed He intended to go 
among the Jews dispersed among the nations and disciple them and the nations. 
This they dreaded, for those about the temple and in Jerusalem made their wealth 
by extorting off the Jews, proselytes, and pious gentiles from a distance. Those 
believing in Christ and baptized into the remission of sins upon repentance and 
confession would be under no necessity to visit Jerusalem and submit to the impo- 
sition of priests and rulers. In the last and great day of the feast, while the 
priests were bringing water from the pool of Siloam and pouring it out before the 
Lord, Jesus stood and cried aloud, and invited all thirsty souls to come to Him 
and drink, and whoever believed in Him should enjoy that abundant supply of 
the Spirit spoken of in the Scriptures. Many of the people said : Of a truth this 
is the Prophet. Others said : This is the Christ. But the impious objected to 
Galilee, and said : Christ must come of David and out of Bethlehera. They 
spoke the truth, and such were the facts in relation to Jesus of Nazaretli. 



CHAPTER XOI.: SECTIONS III. -VI. 355 

3. Enemies Confounded and Dispersed. — What a sight for the pilgrims ! 
They see the rulers raging and officers sent to apprehend Him and prevent His 
further influence, and yet that unassuming Teacher, without any visible protec- 
tion, is going in their midst, preaching openly and doing what He pleases. 
Another effort was made to take Him, but they could not lay hands on Him, and 
His power to govern His enemies was shown. The officers returned without 
Him and reported: ^ever man spoke like Him. The Pharisees answered: 
Are ye deceived, too? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in 
Him? But the rabble that know not the law are cursed. Nicodemus remarked : 
It was unlawful to judge a man without trial. They tell him that he, too, was a 
Galilean, and no prophet arose in Galilee. So they dispersed, and Jesus went 
into the Mount of Olives. The next morning they tried to ensnare Him in the 
trial of an adulteress, but Jesus made their own guilty conscience condemn them, 
and they left. Then He told the woman He would not condemn her to suffer 
the penalty of the law, and bid her go and sin no more. While sinners repent 
and strive against sin they will be forgiven, as David was, but if they refuse to 
reform, Christ will not force regeneration and sanctification upon them by miracle. 
Christ's pardoning her did not exempt her from the penalty of the law by the 
proper authority. 

4. Christ Talks to His Enemies. — Jesus declares tlimself the light and 
hope of the world, and those following Him shall not walk in darkness, but have 
the living, or perpetual, light. They shall have correct knowledge and true 
enjoyment. The Pharisees impeach Him before the people with witnessing for 
Himself, and not true nor admissible in law. Though not admissible in law, 
still it was true and reliable ; He knew all about Himself, and none other did, 
nor could contradict. They judged according to the flesh, and were prejudiced 
by animal propensities and prejudices. Christ judged none as yet, but if He did, 
it would be Divine judgment. But, according to their law His testimony was 
valid, for it was backed by the Father. They ask for His Father. Jesus tells 
them that they were ignorant of both Him and His Father, and if they had 
known Him they would have known the Father. Though in the treasury, none 
laid hands on Him, and yet they were seeking to kill Him. 

5. Solemn Warning. — Jesus addresses His enemies in solemn warnings for 
their good, if improved. He will leave them ; they will seek Him in time of 
distress, but shall not have access to Him; they shall die in their sins unpar- 
doned, and will provoke their own destruction by their sins. He was from above, 
and could not be reached by them when they pleased to seek Him ; thev were 
from below and subject to all the evils on earth, and unless they believed Him to 
be the Messiah, and received and practiced His teachings, they would perish in 
their sins and for their sins. He will still maintain His first claim, to be the Son 
of God. He had many things to teach them, and in many things to judge them ; 
He who sent Him is true, and what Christ speaks to the world is from Him and 
is the truth. When the Jews have crucified Jesus of Nazareth they will find out 
that He was their Messiah, and had spoken nothing but what was of Divine 
authority. This they would find out by the attending circumstances and follow- 
ing consequences of His death, and by their destruction, according to His word. 
The Father had not left Him to work and suffer alone, notwithstanding His pres- 
ent forlorn appearance, but was still with Him, and He always did what was 
pleasing to the Father. Hence, all opposition to Him and His words was hos- 
tility to God. 

6. True Freedom. — As Christ spoke the above words to His enemies and 
held them in perfect awe, many Jews believed in Him. Jesus said to those 
believing Jews : If ye abide in my instructions ye are truly my disciples, and 
shall know and understand the whole truth, and that truth shall make you free. 
Those who do not obey Christ are not recognized by Him as disciples, no matter 
what their professions, and shall not inherit His kingdom in the coming age. 



356 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Truth frees men from superstition, burdensome rites, tyranny of teachers, and, 
if improved, from a guilty conscience. Whoever commits sin is the servant of 
sin, and needs to be set free. Moses was a faithful servant in the Father's House, 
but did not abide here, and those officiating are themselves slaves to sin ; expi- 
ation by the law must be repeated, and even then they have not perfect free- 
dom from sin. But if the Son, the Messiah, who is the heir of the kingdom, 
makes one free from sin, they are perfectly free ; there is no higher power in the 
universe to remand them back into that bondage. The strength of sin is the 
law ; the law being satisfied by the Son, sin has no legal power over the disciple, 
and he is free. It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns ? It is Christ 
that died and arose. (Heb. 3:5, 6; Kom. 6:23. 8:33, 34 ; I. Cor. 15:53.) 

7. Children of Abraham and of the Devil. — The Jews were the children 
of Abraham according to the flesh, but they sought to kill Christ because His 
teachings were not acceptable to them, though they were from the Father and 
were the very truth; such was not the conduct of Abraham. If they were the 
children of God, they would love Christ because He came from God and was 
sent by Him to do His work and speak His words. But those opposing Jesus 
were not related to Abraham by any moral trait of character or spiritual graces, 
for they did not receive God's words nor obey His laws, whether given by Moses 
or by Christ, and the common people knew it. They were children of the 
Diabolos and followed his inordinate desires and perpetrated his deeds of lying, 
murder, and other wickednesses and pollutions. He was the author of lying, 
murder, and every crime ; all following these things are his children and shall 
heir his inheritance. The Jews never convicted Jesus of any sin, yet they 
would not believe His words on any amount of evidence, though they were the 
truths of God. They were not the children of God, but dishonored Jesus and 
understood not His teachings, because their malignant dispositions would not let 
them hear His words. So they attributed all His superior power and wisdom to 
Satan. 

8. They Still Resist the Truth. — Jesus never sought His own glory, but 
always attributed His words and wisdom and mighty works to the Father, whom 
He always honored ; and the Father seeks Christ's honor and judges those not 
receiving Him. Jesus said, if a man kept His sayings, or teachings, he should 
never see death, or experience its stings and terrors and go to sheol ; it will be 
to him a sleep and rest. Abraham desired to see the times of Christ ; he got a 
view of it and was glad — glad to see all the families of the earth blessed in him- 
self by means of his seed. Before Abraham was born Christ existed, though in 
His incarnate state He was not now thirty-three years old, but the toils, sorrows, 
and sufferings of this short period had given Him the appearance of one about 
fifty. Whether the Jews understood Him or not, they thought it a good pretext 
to stone Him on the charge of blasphemy, and they thought they could make the 
people afterwards believe Him guilty. They could not argue the case with Him, 
but if they succeeded in killing Him first, then they could convict Him before 
the people. There is a delusion accompanying apostacy under light and knowl- 
edge that induces the apostate to think he is doing right while persecuting the 
truth. Stepping into the crowd while they picked up stones, Jesus concealed 
Himself and went out of the temple. Afterward He walked through the midst 
of them and left Jerusalem — the holy city. 

LUKE 10-13. §§ 9-15. 

9. The Seventy Keturned and Success of the Gospel. — The seventy now 
returned, rejoicing that even the demons were subject to them when ordered in 
Jesus' name. Jesus answered: I saw Satan fall from Heaven as lightning. These 
victories of Jesus and His eighty-two missionaries were only a presage of the 
entire overthrow of demon possessions and demon worship (I. Cor. 10:20), or 



CHAPTER XCI.: SECTIONS X.-XIt. 35? 

Polytheism. But a greater subject for rejoicing was the fact that their names 
were registered in Heaven, so it mattered not to them what became of the Jewish 
records, or if the rulers should cast them out of the synagogue and strike their 
names off their records. Jesus now gave them power over all the emissaries ot 
Satan, that nothing should hurt them in their missions, not even serpents and 
scorpions when tread upon. Then Jesus rejoiced and repeated what He had said 
on a former occasion. (Matt. 11:25, chap. 88, § 3. 

10. How TO Inherit Eternal Life. — An expounder of the law asked Jesus 
what he should do to inherit eternal life, of which Jesus so often spoke. His 
object was to tempt, or try Him. Jesus, whose wisdom was adequate to any 
emergency, pointed to the law, and asked what was written and how he read it 
The lawyer read : Thou shalt love the Jehovah, thy God, with all thy hearty 
with all thy strength, and with all thy mind ; and thy neighbor as thyself. It is 
said this is a summary of the law repeated in the synagogue twice every Sabbath. 
This is a law of creation binding on all men, and is the foundation of all moral 
law. Christ told him that was all right. Just do so and thou shalt live and not 
die. ]^ot willing to be defeated, he raised the question : Who is the neighbor ? 
Jesus proposed a case and left him to decide, which he did. Jesus told him to 
act accordingly. A Jew from Jerusalem needed help ; a priest turned off the 
road to avoid giving it ; a Levite looked at him and passed on ; a Samaritan gave 
the needed help. The lawyer decided that the Samaritan acted the neighbor, and 
was told to follow the example. The object of revealed religion is to reform man 
and bring him up to this law of love, or foundation of all moral law. 

11. Part Most Pleasing to Christ. — Martha of Bethany received Him 
into her house, and was very busy to give Him a good entertainment, but her 
sister Mary, forgetting His comforts, listened to His instructions. Martha 
complained to Him of Mary, but Jesus decided Mary had chosen the good part 
for herself, and it should not be taken away from her, for it was the one, or lirst 
thing, needful, or of the first importance. At another time, when praying, the 
disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, as John had taught his disciples, and 
He taught them the same prayer which He gave in His sermon on the Mount. 
He urged them to importunity, from examples in life, and if they who were evil 
would give good gifts to needy children, how much more readily would their 
Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them who ask Him. 

12. Hypocrisy of the Pharisees. — Dining with a Pharisee, who was 
surprised Jesus did not baptize His outside before dinner, as the Pharisees did, 
He reproved them for this outside religion while they neglected the inside, 
which was full of ravening and wickedness. They were exact in giving the tenth 
of their garden herbs, but passed over justice and mercy, and the love of God. 
He told them to give tithes as they were able, and then all things would be clean 
to them. But they were vainglorious hypocrits. An expounder of the law, 
said He, reproached them, also. Jesus showed no respect to persons, and 
showed him their character. They imposed heavy burdens on those desiring to 
obey God, but themselves would not touch these burdens with their fingers, 
much less would they bear them. They were the offspring and heirs of those 
who killed the prophets, and the wisdom of God, said He, would send them 
prophets and apostles, and some of them they would slay and persecute, that the 
blood of all the prophets might be required of that generation, and it would be 
done. Ko more shall hypocrits and persecutors inherit the kingdom of God, 
by virtue of any covenant with ancestors, whether pious or impious. These 
lawyers had taken away the correct means and methods of acquiring correct 
knowledge. They did not ascertain the truth of the Scriptures, and they 
prevented those who would study and expound them right. They entered not 
into the kingdom when John preached, and by their false teaching and influ- 
ence they prevented others from reforming and being baptized into the remission 
of sins. For the purpose of getting an accusation against Jesus, they urged Him 



358 tHE KING^DOM OF GOt) DEVELOl^ED. 

and provoked Him vehemently to speak of many things, and watched Him 
closely. Bat Christ's wisdom and knowledge was boundless, and He convicted 
them before the multitude, and none were able to bring even tthe shadow of a 
charge against Him. It is difficult to teach, convict, admonish, and refute 
without uttering some thing that enemies might twist into an accusation, but 
Christ defeated His most learned, skillful, watchful, and inveterate enemies. 

13. Exhorts to Tkue Piety. — In the meantime, a dense crowd was 
collecting. He first addressed His disciples, and warned them to beware of the 
hypocrisy of the Pharisees, and assures them that everything, without exception, 
shall be laid open before all, and that every one's true character shall be made 
known one day. Then He repeats former admonitions to not fear men, but God 
(Chap. 89, § 15), exhorts to confess the Son of Man, warns against blaspheming 
the Holy Spirit, and promises answers by the Holy Spirit when accused before 
tribunals. He refuses to act in civil cases, and to judge on the division of 
property, and dissuades from worldly-mindedness by the sudden loss of it at 
death ; better be rich toward God in doing His service. He repeats part of His 
sermon on the Mount, about corroding cares for food or clothing, laying up treasures 
in Heaven, seeking the kingdom of God, and adds : Fear not, little flock, for it 
is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. This was very improb- 
able at that time — sell what ye have and give alms. Provide for yourselves bags 
that wax not old, a treasure in Heaven that faileth not, where no thief 
approaches, nor moth corrupteth. Where your treasure is, there shall your heart 
be. (Chap. 87.) 

14. Watchfulness and Endurance. — Jesus now exhorts to watchfulness 
and endurance as servants that know not when the Master will return from the 
wedding, or as the owner for a thief, not knowing when he will make the 
attack ; for the Son of Man will come in an unexpected hour. Then the faithful 
servant will be rewarded, but the unfaithful one, thinking he has time to gratify 
animal propensities and still be ready for that coming, shall be taken unawares and 
be given his portion with the unbelievers. There will be a difference between the 
sins of ignorance and those committed in knowledge. To whom much is given, 
of them much shall be required. Peace will not be the immediate result of 
Christ's advent, but fiery contentions and wars in families, synagogues, and 
communities. Jesus Himself has to endure an overwhelming baptism of 
afflictions ; He was then pained, and would continue to be so till it was accom- 
plished. He repeats some more reproofs and admonitions about discerning 
times and avoiding difficulties. 

15. Doom of the Impenitent Jews. — Some told Him of those Galileeans 
following Judas, whose blood was shed by Pilate, and mingled with the blood of 
the sacrifices they were off'ering, and intimated He and His followers might meet 
the same fate for His pretensions to be the king of Israel. Jesus answers: 
These were not the greatest sinners in Galilee, nor were the eighteen killed by 
the fall of the tower in Siloam the greatest sinners in Jerusalem, and unless the 
Jews in Galilee and Jerusalem repented, they all should perish likewise. They 
were now spared in answer to the prayers of the Savior and the pious now 
laboring for their reformation, and when these gave them up as hopeless, then 
they shall be cut down. Again, when teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath, 
He healed a woman who had been bowed double eighteen years, and raised the 
indignation of the ruler. Jesus charges him with hypocrisy, and refers him to 
their custom of watering stock on the Sabbath day. 



CHAPTER XCII- 



FOtJKTH MISSIONARY TOUR, INCLUDING JERUSALEM. A. M. 4033. 

A. D. 29. John 9, 10. §§ 1-8. 

1. Pke ACHING ON THE Way TO JERUSALEM. — Again Jesus joumeys to 
Jerusalem, and preached in the cities and villages as He passed through. In His 
journey He healed a man born blind ; said the object of that blindness was to 
manifest the work of God. Jesus must do His work during the time 
for work; when suifering and death come He can work no more. While 
in the world He was the source of light, wisdom, and relief from suffering. He 
made the cure depend upon the faith and obedience of the man; and faith, shown 
by obedience, cured the man on this Sabbath day. This miracle was severely 
scrutinized by the Pharisees, and though they could not dispute the evidence, 
they decided Jesus was not from God, for He did not keep the Sabbath, hut 
healed the aiflicted on that day. Before this they had decided to turn any one 
out of the synagogue who confessed Jesus to be the Christ, or the Messiah, and 
the common people feared their excommunication. However, the blind man 
fearlessly defended Christ's divine mission and righteous character by unanswer- 
able arguments. But they reviled him, cast him out of the synagogue, and 
deprived him of his rights as a Jew. Thus, they have commenced open war 
with their own Savior and King. 

2. The Man's Faith and Jews' Obstinacy. — The blind man professed his 
faith in the Son of God, when he learned on the testimony of Jesus, who had 
healed him, that this Son of Man was the Son of God, and he worshiped Him. 
Jesus came into the world to instruct the ignorant and foolish, who are blind for 
want of knowledge, and to prove the wise and scienced to be ignorant of God, 
and foolish in their pursuits of happiness and blinded by sinful lusts and 
prejudices. If the scribes and Pharisees had not been instructed by the law and 
the prophets, their rejection of Christ had not been reckoned more than the sin 
of ignorance : but as they had this instruction, and considered they could not be 
taught, their sin remained without excuse. If they had not been taught by divine 
revelation, they would have considered Jesus divine; but being taught and 
familiar with divine things, and being accustomed to abuse and reject them, and 
pursue wickedness, they were prepared to reject all evidence, resist the Spirit of 
God, and rebel against their own convictions of truth and duty. 

3. Jesus Proved to be the Messiah. — False christs might appear, but 
their manifestations would not be according to the prophetic programme, nor 
would they be followed by the pious Jews. But Jesus came in the regular way, 
and according to the divine programmes. John was sent for a messenger to 
prepare the people for His reception, and as a porter to introduce Him, as God 
commissioned him to do. God, from Heaven, acknowledged Jesus, by voice and 
Spirit, to be His beloved Son ; and then the pious Jews have followed Him, 
because they recognized Him, by His teachings and works, to be from God. 
Now, the pious, whose works are wrought by God, or His Spirit, will not 
follow false christs, for they do not recognize in them the characteristics of a 



360 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

teacher come from God ; bat they were resolved to have their own way, and 
recognize no other. They pretended to not understand His parable of the 
shepherd, fold, and porter. 

4. The Door and Shepherd. — Christ, or faith in Christ (Acts 14:27), is 
the right way of entrance into the kingdom of God, which is also His sheepfold ; 
and all entering in this way will be well pleased, and will go in and out, and find 
all spiritual nourishment and enjoyment for their souls. All coming into the 
fold without the porter, or in an irregular way, claiming to be christs or shep- 
herds, as some before Him did, are thieves and robbers ; 'but the pious of Israel 
did not listen to them. The thief comes to steal the wool, kill and eat the 
sheep, and destroy and scatter the flock ; but Christ is the Good Shepherd and 
sacrifices His very life for the sheep, and gives them riches and fuller privileges 
and enjoyments. The hireling works for the pay, cares not for the sheep, will 
not risk any danger for them, but runs away and lets the wolves devour and scat- 
ter the sheep. Christ is the owner of the flock, the Good Shepherd that knows 
every sheep and is known by them, for He is familiar with them ; so, also, the 
Father knows Him and He knows the Father, and He lays down His Kfe for the 
sheep. Christ had many sheep scattered over the world who never saw Jerusa- 
lem, and most of them never were in the Jewish fold ; but He will gather them 
all into one fold having but one Shepherd. This devotion to the flock was pleas- 
ing to the Father ; no power could impose this suffering and death upon Him ; 
but out of love to the flock He sacrificed Himself, even unto death, and then 
arose again to take care of them and destroy all their enemies. 

5. Thieves and Robbers. — All the high priests, and most or all of the chief 
priests, and a majority of the rabbi and rulers of this time were robbers and 
hirelings; but the pious left them and followed Christ and the apostles. After 
Herod exterminated the Asmonean dynasty, the high priests never obtained the 
office according to the law of Moses; they never entered that office in the fold, 
by the door ; nor were they introduced by the porter or right authority ; but 
were chosen by the Herods and Roman governors, and they were such per- 
sons of the priests as best suited the wicked and political whims of these kings 
and governors. As the infidel sentiments of the Sadducees best suited these 
Polytheists and atheists, so we find them in the high priest's office. Their 
terms of office were very short, and sometimes did not last one year. Their 
object was to fleece, devour, scatter the flock, and introduce Roman rights and 
customs. The rulers of the Jews, or most of them, must have been thieves and 
robbers also, or they would not have allowed the house of God to have become 
a den of thieves ; and the best rabbi and rulers, as Joseph and Nicodemus, were 
no better than the liireling shepherds that would not risk their wealth and lives 
to save the flock from these ravages. 

6. Christ's Care of the Sheep, and the People's Decision. — How dif- 
ferent the Royal Messiah ! He casts the traffickers out of the temple, withstands 
the whole Sanhedrim, rabbi, and sects at the risk of His life ; spends His time in 
wearysome journeys, exhausting discourses, and constant healings ; and finaly 
bears the wrath of God and saves the sheep. Christ's words had both point and 
edge, and His enemies felt them. They exclaim : He is mad and has a demon ! 
Why do you listen to him ? Others replied : These are not the teachings of 
demoniacs. Can demons open the eyes of the blind ? The people spoke com- 
mon sense, and the rulers discovered they had to change their tactics or incur 
the contempt and opposition of the multitude, which was composed of the com- 
mon people, and Jews, and proselytes from other countries. 

7. Pharisees Pretend to Want Evidence. — There was a feast called the 
Dedication, commemorating the dedication of the temple by Judas Maccabees 
after he recovered it from the pollutions of Antiochus Epiphanes. It was winter, 
and Jesus walked in that part of the temple called Solomon's porch, or gallery. 



CHAPTER XCli.: SECTIONS VIII. -IX. 361 

The Jews of Judea, or their rabbi, and Pharisees surrounded Him, pretending 
before the people to be desirous of getting correct knowledge about Him, and 
said : How long dost Thou make us to doubt ? If You be the Messiah, tell us 
plainly. Knowing their designs, Jesus told them He had done that before and 
they believed not. But thev could look at the works He did in His Father's 
name ; these works proved Him to be sent of God, whether He was the Messiah 
or not. The reason of their unbelief was not the want of evidence, but because 
of their impiety. They were not His sheep, as He had told them, and in the 
presence of the multitude He continued His former discourse about His sheep. 
Christ's sheep, or people, recognize His voice in His teachings, and follow or obey 
Him ; He knows every one of them ; gives every one eternal life ; they shall 
never perish or be lost into eternity ; no one, man or beast of prey, shall pull or 
snatch them out of His hand. The Father, who is greater than all beings, gave 
these to Him, and no one in the universe is able to pluck them out of His hand. 
The Father wills that not anything given to Christ shall be lost or perish. He 
adds : I and the Father are One. 

8. Attempt to Kill Him. — -These Jews were watching for something they 
could make the people believe to be a breach of the law, and so turn them against 
Christ, and now as they thought they had got a charge, they will kill Him first 
and condemn Him afterward. But, as Christ told them that no one could take 
His life, so now He proves it to them. He does not leave them, as He did once 
before, but overawes, or palsies, them, and while they stood with the stones in their 
hands He addresses them thus : Many good works have I shown you ; for which 
of these do ye stone Me ? They answer : It is not for good works, but for blas- 
phemy; for, being only a man. Thou makest Thyself God. Jesus did not see 
proper at this time to discuss the subject of His divinity before the people, but 
showed their own Scriptures had called the men, to whom they were given, gods, 
and they could not condemn their own Scriptures. If the Scriptures spoke thus, 
they could not condemn one (set apart and sent on a mission by the Father) of 
blasphemy for claiming to be the Son of God. If He did not such works as none 
but the Father could do, He asks them to not believe Him. But if He did such 
works, and they did not wish to believe Him to be the Messiah because they hated 
Him, yet they were inexcusable if they did not believe the testimony of the 
works themselves, and so know with certainty and believe assuredly that the 
Father was in Him and He was in the Father : that is, the Father and He were 
One. This exasperated them more, for He had justified His.speech by their Scrip- 
tures before the multitude, then appealed to His divine works in proof of His 
divine mission, and the people could see these works and hear their evidence. 
Therefore, they sought to take Him and kill Him in some other way than by 
stoning Him for what the people witnessed ; but before they could mature their 
plans to take Him, give Him a mock trial, condemn and kill Him, and then 
satisfy the people that He was guilty. He left them, and so escaped their hands. 
He crossed the Jordan and abode where John at first baptized before he went 
into Galilee. Many resorted to Him, believed in Him, and said : John did no 
miracles, but all he said about Jesus were now proved to be true. 

LUKE 13:23 TO 15. §§ 9-12. 

9. Narrow and Broad Ways. — While journeying in Galilee, some one 
asked Him if the saved were few. This question had been answered in the 
sermon on the mountain. Here the afiirmative is implied by the direction into 
the little gate, where few enter. They are urged to strive in desperation to enter 
it for two reasons : Many shall seek to enter, but shall give it up on account of 
the difficulties, self-denials, and persecutions ; also, it shall be shut by the Jeho- 
vah, and then none can enter. JSTo professions made nor privileges before enjoyed 
can obtain entrance for workers of iniquity ; they must all depart from Him. 



362 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Then shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when strangers and despised ones 
from all quarters shall be seen enjoying the kingdom of God, in its consummated 
age, with pious ancestors and honored names, and the expecting heirs thrust out. 
Many who think themselves first in importance will be the last chosen, or not 
chosen at all. 

10. Laments Over Jerusalem and Censures Lawyers and Pharisees. — 
Some of the Pharisees thought to scare Him out of Galilee by telling Him Herod 
would kill Him, as he did John the Baptist. Such schemes show they did not 
know Him any better than they did the Father. Jesus lets them know He did 
not fear Herod, and that Jerusalem was the place they killed the prophets. Then 
He utters a lamentation over Jerusalem and pronounces her desolation. Often 
would her dispersed children have been regathered and the prophecied blessings 
been bestowed on her, but her disobedience and wickedness prevented. They 
were better in their synagogues in heathen lands. Again He dines with a Phar- 
isee, and, as usual, they watch for an opportunity to accuse Him. A man having 
the dropsy was there. He asked them if it was lawful to heal on the Sabbath, 
but they gave no answer. He healed the man and silenced them by referring to 
their care of stock on that day. He censures their vanity for preeminence, and 
admonishes to humility ; for the self-exalted shall be abased, and the self-humbled 
shall be exalted. He advises to bestow favors on those not able to return them, 
and it will be recompensed in the resurrection of the just. One of the guests 
exclaimed : Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Jesus 
shows them, by a parable, that when that kingdom has come many of them 
would not enter it to eat bread, but their places should be filled by the most 
despised and hopeless in their estimation, aud those bidden and expected to come 
in when all was ready, but refused on various pretexts, should not taste that great 
supper of everlasting bliss in the kingdom of God, when consummated. 

11. Calculate the Cost Before Beginning. — Great multitudes, as usual, 
followed Him, and He turned and taught them to calculate, before they enlisted 
in His service, what it would cost them to become a disciple, lest, being disap- 
pointed, they should apostatize and become subjects of ridicule and derision. 
The world and false religions will require them to apostatize or give up all rela- 
tions, property, and life. So, unless they take up Christ's cross and bear it 
continually, and give Him such preference to all things that their love to them 
might be called hatred, they cannot become His disciples. No use for salt that 
has lost its saltness ; nor is there any advantage to persons entering the kingdom 
of God without the true Christian character, for they will at last be cast out and 
trodden under foot of men deriding them. Let everyone having ears hear what 
Jesus has said, and not charge Him with deceiving them. 

12. Angels Interested in Sinners. — Christ now shows how all repenting 
sinners and apostates are welcomed home by the Heavenly Father and holy 
angels. All the publicans and sinners, or those so called in contempt and scorn, 
drew near to hear Him, and the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying : He 
receiveth sinners and eateth with them. And so He did. He told them there 
was joy in Heaven in the presence of God and angels over one repenting sinner 
more than over ninety-nine just persons, who need no reformation. Also, peni- 
tent apostates will be received back into the family with joy, and recognized as 
children ; but what belongs to faithful children they cannot get by gift or acquisi- 
tion, but it becomes every confirmed child of God to rejoice over them. 

PARABLES.— Luke 16. §§ 13, 14. 
I 

13. Advice and Warning. — Christ again taught by parables, or allusions to 
occurrences in life. Ye cannot serve God and mammon, but Christians should 
use their wealth, or mammon, in liberal and generous benevolence, so as to gain 
the gratitude of the world, and when persecution strips them of their property 



CHAPTER XCII.: SECTION XIV. -XV. S63 

and casts them out of house and home, they may expect to find lasting habita- 
tions with, or among those they have befriended. If they make use of the worldly 
riches God has committed to their care, then He will entrust them with the true 
riches that never fly away, nor become wasted by moth and rust, nor can be stolen 
by thieves. The Pharisees were covetous, and hearing this about wealth derided, 
or cast up their noses at Him, and ridiculed His teachings. Jesus replied : Ye 
justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. Then He lays down 
two positions, which He illustrates and afiirms : First, What is highly esteemed 
among men is abomination in the sight of God ; second, the law and the prophets 
were, until John's ministry, the supreme authority in the kingdom of God, and 
remission of sins was by the shedding of blood. Since that time the kingdom of 
God has been proclaimed and its teachings made known, and every person presses 
into it, and are baptized into remission of sins. But still the law and prophets 
are not abrogated, nor can the least thing in them fail. The second position is 
the first considered. At this time the Jews practiced divorce to a great extent, 
though the law authorized it in but one case, and what that was it is hard to deter- 
mine. It did not disqualify her to marry another man, but must never remarry 
her former husband. Jesus says this permission was granted on account of the 
unregenerated nature of the nation, and it was the best for the time. Bat the 
original law made the two one flesh, and what God has joined no man can put 
asunder. The law now in the kingdom is : Whosoever puts away husband or 
wife, except for fornication, or marries again, commits adultery, and so do they 
receiving them in marriage, and, according to the law, should be stoned. Forni- 
cation is before marriage, and adultery after. Still I doubt if this law prohibits 
divorce in the case permitted by the law of Moses. All persons cannot live in 
the single state, and it is better to marry than to burn in Gehenna. ^ But those 
that can live pure in the single state may do so, for good reasons given by Paul. ^ 

14. — EiCH Man and Beggar. — To illustrate the first position, Christ pro- 
duces two cases. The beggar was what Pharisees and all covetous persons 
despised and regarded as rejected of man and forsaken of God. He died, and, 
perhaps, the dogs that licked his sores while living picked his bones when dead. 
But himself, as Jesus presents it, or his spirit, was borne by the glorious angels 
into Abraham's bosom; here he was comforted and could not be sent as a ser- 
vant to minister to the rich. The rich man's position was what every covetous 
Pharisee desired, and was considered a token of Divine favor. He also died, 
and, without doubt, his body was laid in a grand sepulcher in princely style ; but 
he, or his spirit, awakened in hades, or sheol, being tormented with flames of 
the burning lake, and not a drop of water to cool his tongue. Though in sight 
of his illustrious progenitor and Lazarus, he could not get to them, nor receive 
aid from them, nor send a warning message back to his brethren. He had 
his good portion here, and Lazarus his evil portion ; but there the beggar is com- 
forted and the rich man tormented. Here, also, Jesus taught that persons not 
reformed by the law and prophets, of which the Pharisees boasted, could not be 
reformed by the preaching of a returned spirit or a resurrectionized saint, and 
these Pharisees were not converted by the preaching of the Son of God. Now, 
if the plain and simple truths of the Gospel, the laws and testimonies of Jesus 
Christ, the faithfully translated word of God, do not convert sinners, extra 
preachers can not, though they may induce them to make a confession. But the 
work in the kingdom of God requires different gifts, and if the pastor has not all 
the gifts needed in his church, he should have help occasionally, or constantly, to 
feed the flock and gather in sinners. 

15. Conversion Necessary to Citizenship. — Matt. 19:13-15; Mark 
10:13-16; Luke 18:15-17. — Christ receives babes, takes them up in His arms 



(1) I. Cor., 7:2, 9. (2) 1. Cor., 7:2, 4, 7, 26, 29-38, 



364 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

and blesses them. He disapprobated those that rebuked them, commanded their 
permission to come to Him, and repeated His former instructions to the Apostles 
about them. For of such are the kingdom of God composed, and those who are 
not such shall not enter the kingdom. Every one must enter the kingdom as a 
little child, begin a new life, and receive help, instruction, and government as a 
little child. Then He repeats His former instructions about offenses, settling dif- 
ficulties, and faith.* And when His disciples have done all their duty they must 
regard themselves as unprofitable servants, and not entitled to any reward. They 
must expect and receive every blessing as a free gift, and work out of love to God, 
to His service, to man, and to beasts. Free gifts and free labor. 



CHAPTER XCIII. 



LAST TOUR TO JERUSALEM. A. M. 4033, or A. D. 29. §§ 1-4. 

Luke 9:51-62. 17:11-37. 18:1-14. 

1. His Work in Galilee Done. — When the time was come to be received 
up into Heaven again, He steadily shaped His journey to Jerusalem ;. this was 
His last. No more would His sacred feet tread the mountain paths of Galilee. 
No more should His voice divine reviberate through its rugged ravines. No 
more His weary body shall repose in boats on stormy Galilee. No more will 
multitudes be fed by miracles. No more shall the afflicted there feel His healing 
touch, nor demons tremble at His approach and come out at His word. No 
more shall the burdened soul hear Him speak forgiveness and witness the truth 
by His healing power. No ! His work in Galilee is done, and now He must 
finish His work in Judea and then return to the Father. He passed through the 
midst of Galilee and Samaria. In His first journey to Galilee the Samaritans at 
Sychar received and believed in Him; now they know Him, and this village 
rejects Him because He was going to Jerusalem. They wished to appropriate the 
prerogatives of Jerusalem to themselves, hated the Jews, and rejected Jesus on 
their account. But Jesus would not sufi'er His disciples to take vengeance on 
them for the insult. He rebuked and condemned that disposition as unsuitable 
now to the work to be done in the kingdom of God. The Son of Man came to 

*save, and not destroy. So they went to another village. Next, we have former 
events and instructions repeated again. Those not determined and persevering, 
but fluctuating and giving up, are not fit for the kingdom of God ; difficulties are 
in the way and must be encountered. 

2. Enemies Made to be Witnesses. — Ten lepers stood afar off and cried 
to Jesus for mercy. He bid them go and show themselves to the priests. They 
obeyed and were healed on their journey. The Samaritan returned to give glory 
to God. Jesus attributed the cure to his faith, and excused him from showing 
himself to the priest. The nine Jews displayed not the same gratitude, but in 
showing themselves to the priest, who pronounced them incurable lepers, they 
presented to the priests the evidence of Christ's power. Thus, His enemies were 
made the unwilling witnesses of Christ's divine power and mission. The Phari- 
sees, who had no kingdom of grace within them individually, but were leavened 



(*) Luke 17:1-10. 



CHAPTER XCIII. : SECTIONS III. -V. 365 

with hypocrisy, wickedness, and covetousness, ^ demanded of Jesus when the 
kingdom should appear. Jesus tells them it comes not with close inspection ; nor 
will one say, see here, and another say, see there : For, behold ! the kingdom of 
God is within, or among you. They were the heirs of the kingdom, ^ but 
because there was no piety within them individually, ^ the kingdom was taken 
from them and given to those who produced fruit. ^ 

3. Second Advent. — He knew the desire His disciples would have to see 
one of the days, or manifestations, of the Son of Man, and guards them against 
imposition. Those manifestations would be so conspicuous as the flash of light- 
ning across the heavens. But before the time of His coming, either in His king- 
dom or in the clouds of Heaven, He must suffer many things, and be rejected 
of that generation. When He does come in either way, people will not be expect- 
ing Him, but be attending to their common business ; and when He has come, it 
will be too late to prepare for Him ; everyone will be taken as he then is, and 
comrades and relations will be parted. Whoever will save his life by abandoning 
Christ's cause, will lose it at last; and whoever loves his life in those revolutions, 
for Christ's sake, shall preserve it. The location of these events will be wher- 
ever the objects of their occurrence exist : Wherever Jews, Christians, and cor- 
rupters of the truth exist. Eagles flock to the place where the carcasses are. 

4. Patience and Perseverance. — Christ's disciples must not despair and' 
give up, because the enemies of the kingdom persecute with success for long 
periods of time ; but must pray, and not faint. Perseverance has secured pro- 
tection and justice from unjust judges, who feared not God nor regarded man. 
And will not God avenge His own chosen ones who cry continually unto Him ? 
Though He bear long with their enemies. He is not willing any should perish, ' yet 
He will avenge them speedily. But after all these revolutions and manifestations 
of the Savior's power, according to the prophetic programmes that should convince 
and convert the whole world, yet when He comes shall He find the faith upon the 
earth. Yes, He will find the faith on the earth, ^ though the most will wail 
because of Him. ^ It is proper we should thank God for spiritual attainments, 
but not in a boasting and ostentatious manner, as if we did not receive them ; 
but the humble soul, comparing himself with what he ought to be, and cries, God 
be merciful to me, a sinner, is more acceptable to Him. The self-humbled shall 
be exalted, and the self-exalted shall be abased. 

5. Rich Men Enter with Difficulty. — Matt. 19:16-29; Mark 10:17-30 ; 
Luke 18:18-30. — In the way, a ruler, in sincerity, asked by what good thing, or 
one good work, he could obtain eternal life. Jesus reproved him for calling Him 
Good Master, unless he considered Him divine, and told him to keep the com- 
mandments, which the ruler had repeated. This he said he had done, and, as I 
suppose, it was true ; for Jesus, knowing all things, loved him. But to obtain 
eternal life by merit, a person must be perfect ; and he lacked one thing to qualify 
him for the kingdom at that time : He must distribute his property to the poor, 
take up his cross and follow the homeless Jesus. He went away sorrowful, for 
he had great possessions, and I don't know whether he complied or not. Jesus 
took occasion to speak of the difficulty rich men, who valued and leaned upon 
their riches, would encounter in entering the kingdom of God; for persecution 
would strip them of everything, and life, too. Now, as a time is coming when 
everyone must be in the kingdom of God, or in the Gehenna of fire, ^ the disci- 
ples exclaimed : Who then can be saved ? Jesus replied : With men this is 
impossible, but not with God, who can do all things, and bring rich men into 
the kingdom, as its history will show. ^ Peter put in the apostles' claim, as they 
had left all and followed Him. Jesus tells them that in the regeneration, or 



(3) Matt. 23:13-34. (4) Matt. 8:11, 12. (6) Matt. 21:43. (7) II. Pet. 3:9; II. Tim. 2:4. 
(8) I.Thes. 4:15; I. Cor. 15:51. (9) Rev. 1:7. (1) Matt. .5:29, 30; Mark 9:47,43-6. (2) Chap. 
93, §9. 



366 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

restoration of all things, when the saints shall govern the world, the Son of Man 
shall sit on His glorious throne, executing judgments and justice ; and thej shall 
sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone for- 
saking all property and relations for Christ and His Gospel and this kingdom 
of God, shall receive manifold more of those things, as he may need them, accom- 
panied with persecution in this time, and in the coming age eternal life. But 
no promise of wealth, prosperity, or triumphs in this age is promised. We 
must do the work of the kingdom and take things as we get them, without mur- 
muring and complaint. 

6. Terms OF Citizenship THE Same to All. — Matt. 19:30. 20:1-16; Mark 
10:31-52. — In the development of the kingdom of God, the Jews had borne 
the burden and heat of the day from the time of Abraham till the first advent 
of Christ. Proselytes, Samaritans, and some gentiles favored it at difiirent 
times, as we have seen in the passed history. Some, as the Romans, began to 
labor and favor it at the latest hour, yet all receive citizenship on the same terms, 
and enjoy the same privileges as the Jews. Faith and obedience are the terms, 
and citizenship the promised reward. What is promised on conditions will be 
given to those fulfilling the conditions, but the same may be given to some who 
worked without stipulating conditions. But the Christian's hope is not based on 
the mercy of God, but upon His veracity — His promise. The Jews thought 
they should be the lords and masters, but Christ puts them on equality. They 
murmur and refuse to work any more, and so are dismissed. Jews were the first 
Christians, formed the first mass of the first Christian churches and the govern- 
ing influence; but refusing the terms and conditions of the new dispensation, 
were cast out of the adoption, and the gentiles took their place, became more 
prominent in the kingdom, formed the mass of the citizens, and have the influ- 
ence. As a nation the Jews were cast out of the adoption, and their national 
hostility prejudiced the pious of their decendants against, and prevented individ- 
uals of them from believing in Christ Jesus and receiving the adoption. Many 
were invited to become citizens, but very few were chosen. And in the consum- 
mated age, many of the first rank in influence in this age will be reckoned in the 
last and lowest standing. The nations having abandoned hostility to Christianity, 
pious individuals of them received the truth, and witnessed for it, and obtained 
the adoption, while many of them professing faith and taking the lead in the 
kingdom, will be put lowest or be cast out. 

7. Traveling AND Preaching with Depressed Spirit. — John 11:1-16; Matt. 
20:17-19 ; Mark 10:32-34; Luke 18:31-34.— About this time Jesus heard of the 
sickness of Lazarus and began His journey to Bethany. The disciples opposed 
this journey, fearing the Jews would kill Jesus, but finally concluded to go and die 
with Him. While on this journey, Jesus gave His apostles a minute and circum- 
stantial account of the treatment and death He was about to endure at Jerusalem 
from the chief priests, scribes, and gentiles. He showed what the prophets had 
predicted about Him, and that these things were now about to be accomplished, 
and for this purpose He was now going up to Jerusalem. They could not compre- 
hend His teaching and exposition of the prophecies, but were amazed and 
confounded, and followed Him in fear and dread. The past treatment at Jeru- 
salem, and Christ's fore warnings now, filled them with dismay, but still they 
follow Him. What a sight we here behold ! There walks the Son of Man before 
His disciples up to Jerusalem to suffer in soul and body what no tongue can tell 
nor pen describe! He bears all these anticipations on His mind and is oppressed 
by them. He may not roll all these burdens off His human soul on to His 
omniscient, almighty, divine nature ; humanity must suffer all the penalties and 
consequences of human transgressions — must magnify the law and sustain its 
dignity. The Creator and Governor of the universe will not suffer any of His 
laws, natural or positive, to be violated with impunity by intelligent creatures ; it 
would derange and destroy the whole physical, mental, and moral creation. 



CHAPTER XCIII. : SECTIONS VIII. -XI. 367 

Humanity must honor the divine positive law, or laws, by obedience and suffer- 
ing. Christ's divinity may not impart insensibility nor almighty strength and 
firmness. He must bear ; He must feel ; He must endure ; He may not even 
faint, though an angel must be sent to strengthen Him. There He goes, antici- 
pating a dreadful conflict with earth and hell, while enduring all the infirmities 
of a human soul and debilitated nervous system. But, with all this load upon 
His mind, He travels on, teaching and healing. 

8. Rank and Authority in the Kingdom of God.— Matt. 20:20-28 ; Mark 
10:35-45. — It appears the amazement vanished from the minds of the apostles, 
and they indulged in fascinating dreams of power and prosperity. The next 
thing we have is an ambitious effort of James and John, with their mother for 
petitioner, to secure the right and left hand positions about Christ's throne in His 
kingdom and glory. But they knew not what they were talking about. They 
must experience the bitter and overwhelming afflictions of Christ, but positions 
of honor and trust in the kingdom would be disposed of by the appointment of 
the Father, and not by favoritism. Indignation against the two brothers 
swelled the bosoms of the other disciples, but Jesus informed them that the gov- 
ernment of His kingdom would not resemble that of any other people. No 
princes should domineer nor great ones exercise authority in it, but the Great 
shall be minister, or deacon, for the citizens, and the Chief one shall be servant, 
or slave-doulos, to all, or every one. No official dignitaries in this kingdom; 
even the Son of Man, who is the King, came not to be attended by ministers or 
deacons, but to minister, or wait upon as a deacon, and to give His life a ransom 
for many. 

9. KiCH Men Can Enter the Kingdom. — Matt. 20:29-34; Mark 10:46-52; 
Luke 18:39, 40. 19:1-28. — Followed by a great multitude. He approached 
Jericho, where two blind men, of whom Bartimeus was most prominent, having 
learned who passed by, cried after Him: Jesus, Lord, Son of David, have mercy 
on us. Though the multitude tried to stop them, they continued to cry thus till 
Jesus called them. Then they dropped their mantles, run to Him, and were 
cured. Thus, their faith prompting to action secured the cure. The faith neces- 
sary to secure any blessing from Christ, is so much as will prompt one to go to 
Him, ask of Him, and do what He commands. These men followed Christ, 
glorifying God, and the people did so, too. As He passed through Jericho, He 
called the curious Zacheus, a rich publican, or head tax-gatherer, to descend the 
tree and give Him entertainment. Zacheus came down and received Him joy- 
fully, and professed what he had done, or would do. Jesus proclaimed salvation 
come to that house, for he was a son of Abraham, and Christ came to seek and 
save the lost ones. Thus, the people saw that Jesus saves the chief of sinners, 
and the apostles saw that a rich man could enter the kingdom of Heaven. 

10. Talents Must be Improved. — As He approached Jerusalem, and the 
people thought the kingdom of God would immediately appear, He spoke a 
parable, showing that all His subjects must use all time, property, abilities, and 
influences, for the advancement of His kingdom, and they shall be entrusted and 
promoted according to their gifts and improvements. Those who will not 
improve their talent, or pound, but keep it idle, shall be deprived of that one, 
small as it may be, and all his excuses proved by his actions to be false. (Chap. 
94, § 29. ) His enemies who will not have Jesus of Nazareth for their King, shall 
be slain before Him, but He shall possess the kingdom. This may apply to the 
Jews in His first advent, and it may apply to Christians in His second. Then 
He went before the multitude up to Jerusalem. 

RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS.— John 11:17-57, §§ 11-16. 

11. Lazarus Dead. — Though Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, yet 
He did not go immediately to their relief when they sent Him word, but made 
the event subserve the glory of God and of His Son. His affections for His 



368 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

friends and followers are subservient to His work and glory. Disciples must be 
confirn^ied, strangers convinced, and enenoies rendered inexcusable. Though 
enemies seek to kill Him, He goes when and where His work requires ; He has 
His appointed time to work, and cannot stumble nor be killed during that time ; 
but His time to suffer and die will come, and then He can do no more. He calls 
the death of Lazarus sleep, but will go and awake him. When Jesus came into 
the neighborhood He was informed that Lazarus had been in the tomb four days. 
He had told the Jews the hour had already come when those in the graves should 
hear the Son of Man and live. He had restored to life the daughter of Jirus and 
and the widow's son, but, according to rabbinical notions, these were not satisfac- 
tory. Three days the soul flies about the body as thinking to return to it, but 
after it sees the visage of the countenance changed it leaves it and gets its gone 
forever. 3 But here, not two miles out of Jerusalem, is the case of Lazarus four 
days already in the tomb, and, according to their notions, his spirit is gone forever. 
Many of the Jews were there, according to custom, to comfort the mourners. 

12. Interviews and Opinions. — Martha, once cumbered about serving, went 
to meet Jesus, but Mary remained in the house. She complained of His absence, 
but professed her faith in Him as Christ, the Son of God, and in His favor and 
influence with God, but never thought on Him having all power in Himself 
without asking. She believed in the resurrection. Jesus informs her that He 
is both the life and resurrection, or the author of both, and the believer, though 
dead as Lazarus was, should live, and the believer in Him, that now lives, shall 
never die ; his new life in Christ shall continue through death, to all eternity ; 
he may sleep, but can never die and go to hades* — shall never see, taste, or 
experience death. f Martha believed whatever He said, because He was the 
Christ, though she did not understand Him nor know the extent of her own 
faith. She goes secretly and tells Mary the Teacher has come and calls for her. 
Mary went, and the Jews follow, supposing she went to weep at the grave. 
Mary uttered Martha's complaints, and falls at His feet and gave vent to her 
grief; and the Jews wept, too. Viewing them, Jesus groaned in the spirit and 
troubled himself; He appreciated human sympathy, compassionated human afl9.ic- 
tion, and grieved over Jewish stubbornness. Jesus said : Where have ye laid 
him? Come and see. Jesus wept. The Jews said: See how He loved him; 
He opened the eyes of the blind, and could He not have prevented the death of 
this beloved friend ? Jesus wept for the stubborn blindness of the Jews, and not 
for Lazarus or his sisters. On hearing these remarks, Jesus again groaned in 
Himself, or uttered suppressed groanings, and came to the sepulcher. 

13. Lazarus Raised. — Jesus commands to remove the stone from the 
mouth. Martha, supposing Jesus simply wished to see the corpse, objected, 
because by that time it smelled bad. Jesus reminded her of what He had told 
her. If she believed, she would see the glory of God, but gave no intimation 
of what that glory was, and no one anticipated His intention. They took the 
stone awav. Jesus always gave the glory of His works to the Father, and showed 
the Jews His favor and unity with Him ; so now. He raised His eyes to Heaven 
before them all, and in their hearing thanked His Father for His constant 
approval, and avowed His object was to convince the Jews that He was sent of 
God. Then, with a loud voice, He called : Lazarus, come forth. Lazarus 
glided forth among them, though wound up in his grave clothes. Jesus said : 
Loose him and let him go. Many of the Jews present believed in Him, but 
some went and reported to the Pharisees what had been done. 

14. Consultation Against Christ. — Instead of reforming and accepting 
Jesus for the King of Israel, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered a council to 
devise some way to defeat Him. They appear to be in consternation. They 
confess He did many miracles, convincing and entitled to belief, while their 



(3) Town,, note 3. pt. 5, in loco. (*) Chap. 98, § 9- (f) John 8:51; IL Tim. 1 :10; Chap. 91, §8, 



CHAPTER XCIII. : SECTIONS XV. -XVI. 369 

opposition accomplished nothing, and if they let Him alone, all people will 
believe in Him and forsake them, and the Romans will swallow them up and blot 
out their existence. Thej were now conquered by the Romans, and nothing but 
their prestige in religion perpetuates their existence. So many Jews scattered 
among the nations and so many proselytes from the nations, caused the Romans 
to respect their temple and city and to deal cautiously in absorbing Judea. But, 
if all the Jews and proselytes out of Judea, and the common people in Judea 
and Jerusalem believed in Jesus and were baptized into the remission of sins, 
the temple service would cease, and with that their power, resource of wealth, 
and very offices, were ejone. 

15. -Decision. — Caiaphas was high priest at that time, and filled the office 
nine years under the Roman governor's authority. He was a Saddusee, and, I 
think, an atheist. How any such character dared to enter the holy of holies and 
officiate on the great Day of Atonement, I do not know, unless he was an 
atheist. Caiaphas impeached the whole council with ignorance of statesmanship, 
for every person would admit that it was better that one man should die, though 
innocent, than that the whole nation should perish. So, as supreme judge of the 
Jews, he decided that Jesus must die to save that nation. As he was the high 
priest, this decision might be taken for a prophecy that Jesus must die for the 
Jews, though not as Caiaphas meant. He did die for the Jews, and not for them 
only, but that He might gather into one fold all the dispersed children of God. 
From that day forward they were counseling together to put H im to death. 
What a contrast between this council and Christ at the grave of Lazarus. 

16. Christ's Precaution and His Enemies' Vigilance. — Jesus walked no 
more openly among the Jews, lest they might assassinate Him privately, or, by 
overawing them continually, they might abandon their project. Christ must lay 
down His life publicly, as programmed by the prophets and Himself, and He 
had given the apostles the whole programme. Now the passover was nigh, and 
it was customary for multitudes to assemble at Jerusalem, and go through all the 
rites of purification before the Passover. Some of these rites required seven days, 
hence Jerusalem was filled with non-resident Jews and proselytes for some time, 
and many came from far countries. The news about John the Baptist and Jesus 
of Nazareth had now been carried to distant nations by the pilgrims returned 
from former feasts, and an unusual crowd of strangers would fill the holy city. 
The chief priests and Pharisees were busy in the crowds hunting for Jesus and 
slandering Him to the people, and they gave rigid orders that if any knew where 
He was they should point Him out, that they might take Him before He worked 
any miracles among the people and captivated them with His teachings. Often 
the people said to one another: What think ye? Will He come to the feast? 
The Old Serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, has tried, hard to destroy Jesus 
before all the Scripture predictions were fulfilled, but all in vain ; the programme 
cannot be altered. 



--24 



CHAPTER XCIY. 



CHRIST'S LAST PASSOVER TEACHIISrGS. A. M. 4:033. A. D. 29. 

Matt. 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; John 12:1-11. 

1. Mary Anoints Christ. — On the Sabbath, or six days before the passover, 
came Jesus to Bethany, where He had raised Lazarus from the dead. In the 
house of Simon, a leper cured by Jesus,, the Savior reclined at supper. Martha 
served, Lazarus reclined at table, and Mary anointed Jesus with pure liquid 
nard, very precious and costly. She poured it on His head, anointed His feet, 
wiped the feet with the hair of her head, and the house was filled with the 
fragrant odor. Some of the disciples murmured, and Judas Iscariot openly 
censured this waste of ointment, as he termed it, for it might have been sold for 
about forty-five dollars, and this given to the poor. But as he was treasurer for 
the disciples, he coveted the money and cared not for the poor. Jesus accepted 
the honor, justified her act, and told them she had anointed His body beforehand 
for His burial, and wherever His gospel would be preached, over the whole 
world, this act would be told to her honor — a memorial more lasting than 
monuments. The poor they had always with them, and could show them 
kindness at any time, biit Jesus would soon leave them. Knowing Jesus was 
there, many people came to see Him, and also Lazarus, the raised man. On 
account of Lazarus, many more of the Jews believed in Jesus and abandoned 
the party of the priests and Pharisees ; so the chief priests consulted about 
putting Lazarus to death. These priests and Pharisees were past repentance, 
and resisted all evidence. 

TRIUMPHANT ENTRY OF JERUSALEM, AND TEACHING IN THE 
TEMPLE.— FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK AND FIFTH BEFORE 
THE PASSOVER.— Matt. 21:1-17; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 
19:29-44:; John 12:12-56. §§ 2-9. 

2. The Crowd Meet Jesus at Bethany. — On the next day, or first day 
of the week, many people from abroad who had come to the feast, having heard 
that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, and disregarding the orders of the priests 
and Pharisees, took branches of palm trees and went to meet Him at Bethphage 
and Bethany, on Mount Olivet, and saluted Him thus: Salvation now! Blessed 
the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Jehovah! Then Jesus sent 
two of His disciples to bring to Him a young ass that had never been rode, and 
gave them directions and orders. They found the orders and information correct, 
and brought the dam and colt to Jesus. And now He was about to fulfill a 
prophecy of Zachariah: Fear not, daughter of Zion ; tell the daughter of Zion : 
Behold thy King cometh unto thee meek and sitting upon an ass — a colt, the 
foal of an ass. (Zech. 9:9.) Also, Jesus was about to prove that He laid down 
His life, and none took it from Him. His enemies were seeking Him, and now 
He was about to ride publicly through their midst. The crowd cast mantles on 
the colt, and Jesus rode upon it. 



CHAPTER XOIV. : SECTIONS III. -VI. 371 

3. The Resuekection of Lazarus Increased the Crowd. — The people 
present when He raised Lazarus, reported this miracle, too, in Jerusalem, to the 
visiting Jews, which caused many more to meet and join the multitude. 
Great multitudes now be^an to spread their garments in the way. Descending 
the Mount of Olives, the disciples and multitudes before and behind Him began 
to rejoice and praise God with loud voices, for all the mighty works they had 
witnessed. They shouted: Salvation now to the Son of David! Salvation 
now in the highest ! Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the 
Jehovah ! Peace in Heaven, and glory in the highest ! Some of the Pharisees 
in the crowd, said : Teacher, rebuke Thy disciples. He answered : If these 
held their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. They were defeated, 
and said to one another : Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing ? See, the world 
is gone after Him ! 

4. Christ Weeps Over Jerusalem. — Descending Mount Olivet before 
noon, the city appeared in splendor and the temple in its glory by the reflection 
of the sunbeams.^ Every eye was dazzled, and every heart rebounded with 
exultation. There stands the glorious temple of the mighty God, and here comes 
the mighty King to reign in it and govern the nations ! All is exultation, joy, 
and anticipation of everlasting peace and prosperity. But the King Himself 
beheld the city and wept over it, lamented the impiety and stubborn blindness 
of its rulers and people, and to the astonishment of the triumphing multitude, 
foretold its terrible fate and utter destruction. Here the Son of God and Savior 
of sinners, full of love and compassion, weeps over the wicked, but will not stay 
the arm of justice and stroke of vengeance. If they believed in Him, their 
salvation was sure ; but if they will not, they must perish. Sinner, be wise in 
time ! 

5. Jesus Enters the City and Temple. — Jesus entered the city and temple 
triumphantly in the very midst of His enemies, and rules them with irresistible 
sovereignty. All the city was moved at His entrance and exclaimed : Who is 
this ? And were told : This is Jesus, of Galilee, the Prophet of Nazareth. He 
entered the temple and again cast out all trattickers, overturned the tables of the 
money changers and the seats of the dove sellers, and exclaimed : It is written, 
My house shall be called the house of prayer ; but ye have made it a den of 
thieves* Then the blind and lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed 
them. The children in the temple chanted the One hundred and eighteenth Psalm, 
or part of it : Salvation now to the Son of David. The chief priests and scribes 
saw and heard" these wonderful things, but instead of believing, they were sore 
displeased, and said to Him : Hearest Thou what these say ? Jesus answered : 
Yes. Have ye never read : Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings Thou hast 
perfected praise? (Ps. 8.) Thus, we see the Jews, and every rank in Judea 
and Jerusalena, had all the evidence possible that Jesus of Nazareth was a mes- 
senger sent from God, and it was their duty and privilege to be taught by Him. 
They themselves had witnessed all kinds of evidence, and now they saw and 
heard the multitudes honor Him for what they experienced on themselves and saw 
done to others. 

6. Greeks Seek to See Jesus. — Among those come to worship Jehovah 
were some Greeks. Their place in the temple for worship was the court of the 
gentiles. So, they had witnessed Christ casting out the merchants, and heard 
Him declare the temple a house of prayer for all nations, as He did the first time 
He cleared it. Like the Roman centurian, these Greeks did not venture to 
approach His sacred person, but came to Phillip, saying: Sir, we would see Jesus. 
Phillip tells Andrew, and they tell Jesus. Jesus exclaimed : The hour is come 
that the Son of Man should be glorified. The gentiles are now drawn by His 
fame to seek an acquaintance with Him, and if He continues His present course. 



(5) Joseph. Ant. 15:11, §§ 3-6. Wrs. 5:5, §§ 1-6. 



372 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

they will supersede the Jews and prevent His crucifixion. But it is as necessary 
for Jesus to die before His power and glory be manifested to the nations as for a 
grain of wheat to be buried to produce a harvest. Notwithstanding this great 
spread of His fame and influence, those who cannot bear the cross need not 
attempt to follow Jesus. Whoever will save his life, which must be by apostacy, 
will lose it at the last ; but he that may be said to hate life, compared with his 
love for Christ and His kingdom, shall preserve it into life eternah If any man, 
Jew or Greek, will serve as a deacon to Christ, let him follow Jesus ; and wher- 
ever Christ is, whether in the grave, sheol, or Heaven, there shall His deacon, or 
waiting minister, be also, and shall be honored as a child by the Holy Father, 
and not treated as of lower grade. 

7. Christ Troubled in Mind. — This thought of suffering within six days 
came up and troubled His soul in the midst of these triumphs over His enemies. 
What should He say ? Father, save Me from this hour ? But for that very pur- 
pose He had come to that hour — come on purpose to suffer and lay down His 
life. Then He said : Father, glorify Thy name — Thy name for justice, wisdom, 
holiness, goodness, truth, and power. Without holiness no one shall see the 
Jehovah ; the law must be honored before justice will let any favor flow to man ; 
wisdom must devise the plan of deliverance ; goodness can then work out the plan 
and let mercy flow in favors and reformation ; truth will then be manifested in 
the fulfillment of covenants, oaths, promises, and threatenings, and the power 
of God to consummate His engagements will be conspicuous. A voice from 
Heaven said : I have glorified it now, and will glorify it again. The people 
standing around heard the voice, and those not understanding the language said 
it thundered ; but those understanding the words said an augel spoke to Him. 
Jesus said this voice came for their sakes, that they might know whence He was 
and believe in Him, and not as an honor to Him. He continued : Kow is the 
judgment of this world. ]^ow shall the prince of this world be cast out. And 
if I be lifted up — on the cross — out of the earth, I will draw all men to Me. He 
said this signifying what death He would die. Satan has been the chief, or prince, 
of this world ; has turned all the nations from Jehovah to the worshiping of many 
gods, and is now ruling the Jews ; but by His death Christ will sustain the dignity 
of the law — and the strength of sin is the law (I. Cor., 15:56) — and cast Satan 
out of his princely office ; have all power in Heaven and earth vested in Himself; 
will cast down Polytheism, and draw all nations to Himself and His religion. 
But the first thing now is the crucifixion. 

8. Danger of Abusing Divine Teaching and Warnings. — The people 
answered : We have learned out of the law that Christ abides forever, and how 
sayest Thou the Son of Man must be lifted up? Or, who is this Son of Man? 
Their ignorance was only pretended, and their altercation was designed to divert 
and deceive the people. So, instead of instruction Christ gives them warning. 
The light was yet with them for a little while ; they had better improve it and 
become wise, good, and blessed, lest darkness, tribulation, and distraction of 
mind come upon them, and they know not what to do nor where to go, and so be 
lost. Then He left them and concealed Himself for a short time. Notwith- 
standing the evidence was irresistible to a rational mind, they did resist it, as 
Isaiah predicted of them. They could not believe, because they had perverted 
and abused all the warnings and teachings of the prophets till they were past 
understanding and feeling. Thus, Isaiah indirectly accomplished what he was 
told to do when inaugurated as a prophet. ^ The prophets by teaching and warn- 
ing, and they by rebelling and resisting the truth, had blinded and hardened 
themselves beyond all recovery. Paul quotes it as their own act. ^ The Jehovah 
seen on that occasion ^ was the Divine Word^ that became incarnate — this Jesus 
Christ. 



(8) Isa. 6:9-12. (9) Acts 28:25-27. (1) Isa. 6:1-4. (2) John 1:1-14. 



CHAPTER XCIV. I SECTIONS IX. -XI. 373 

9. The Necessity of Keceiving- Christ. — Among the chief rulers many like 
Joseph and Nicodemus believed in Him, but did not confess it for fear of the 
Pharisees putting them out of the synagogues, for they loved the praise of men 
more than the praise of God. Jesus reappeared and spoke for the benefit of 
those man-fearing believers. The Son of Man does not act on His own authority, 
nor is His humanity separated from His divinity. So, seeing and believing in 
Him is seeing and believing in the Father who sent Him. He is the source of 
all true light and knowledge in regard to God, to the happiness of man and his 
destiny. Those believing shall not walk in darkness, but shall discover the way 
of reformation, life, and happiness, and by persevering shall enjoy the same. 
Christ did not come now to judge the world, but to save it, and will not now 
judge unbelievers and rejectors of Him. But His word, which is also the Father's 
word, will decide the judgment of all rejectors of Him. The Father's command- 
ment, or commission and instructions, if received, gives eternal life, and they, 
by rejecting it, decide their own destiny. They will not be forced to possess a 
life in eternity which they refused in time, but shall be consigned to the society 
and portion they have chosen and abide the consequences — everlasting death. 
It was now evening ; He looked around upon all things in the temple, said nothing, 
and left them. He retired with the twelve to Bethany and lodged there. 
Whether Jesus refreshed His worn-out system with peaceful slumbers, or medi- 
tated on the coming conflict, I do not know ; but there He stayed till morning. 

EETURN AND ACCEPTANCE.— Matt. 21:18, 19; Mark 11:12-19. 

SECOND DAY, AND FOURTH BEFORE THE 

PASSOVER. §§ 10, 11. 

10. Christ Can Curse as Well as Bless. — Next morning He returned to 
Jerusalem without breakfast and was hungry. I think He had not lodged at 
Martha's house. A flourishing fig-tree appeared before Him, and the time for 
gathering in figs was not yet come ; finding no fruit at all on it. He resolved to 
give His disciples and all passers-by a sample of His mighty power to curse and 
punish. No friend nor enemy had ever witnessed His power to curse and punish, 
and perhaps thought He had none. In hearing of His disciples, Jesus said to 
the fig-tree : Let no fruit grow on thee forever ; and it immediately dried up from 
the roots. It struck the attention of all passers-by. What did that so suddenly ? 
Jesus of Nazareth cursed it ! Ah ! Jesus can curse, as well as bless ! Yesterday 
it flourished in dark-green foliage ! To-day dried from the very roots ! Jews, 
beware of your hostility ! But He said He would not judge them now ; so they 
will go on awhile longer. 

11. The People Hang on Him in the Temple for Instruction. — Jesus 
entered the temple and again cleared out the court of the gentiles, and would not 
sufl'er anyone to carry any vessel through the temple, and He taught, saying : My 
house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer, but ye have made it a 
den of thieves. Now, the pious gentiles would see the regard He had for them, 
and might conclude when He ascended His throne He would make ample accom- 
modations for them. He taught daily in the temple, and all the people hung on 
Him to hear, and thus He sent His instructions away to the utmost bounds of the 
dispersed Jews, and with His teachings on this occasion will go the astounding 
fact of His crucifixion. What a report these pilgrim Jews, proselytes, and pious 
gentiles would this time carry back to their synagogues and pious brethren in 
distant lands ; but many would wait to see the end, and so wait till the day of 
Pentecost. The chief priests, scribes, and chief of the people sought to destroy 
Him, but could not find how they might do it without incurring the indignation of 
the people. They feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His 
teachings and had learned some things they never learned before. This will be 



374 ' THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the greatest Passover ever celebrated. For over one thousand five hundred years 
have these Passovers been celebrated, and some of them have been glorious 
events, but all must yield in importance to this one. The people from all parts 
of the dispersion will receive the greatest teachings they ever heard. When 
evening came, He went out of the city. 

THIRD DAY, AND THIRD BEFORE THE PASSOYER.— Matt. 21:20-46. 
22-25; Mark 11:20-33. 12, 13; Luke 20, 21. §§ 12-30. 

12. Powers Given to the Apostles. — Next morning, passing by the devoted 
fi^-tree, the disciples marveled, and Peter called the Savior's attention to the 
effects of His curse. Jesus replied : Have faith in God, and repeated His former 
instructions about working miracles. (Chap. 90, § 15.) He was about to endow 
them superabundantly with the Holy SjDirit, so their words and actions would be 
regulated by Him. They must not resist the promptings of the Spirit, fearing 
disappointment, but ask, command, and act in firm confidence of success. Such 
being Christ's promise, to ask or act hesitatingly, or not act at all, is to impeach 
His power and fidelity. Also, He repeats His former injunctions about for- 
giveness. 

13. Source of Christ's Authority. — As He preached the Gospel and taught 
in the temple, the chief priests, scribes, and elders of the people came and asked 
Him for His authority to do the things He was doing in opposition to their 
arrangements, for the Sanhedrim had never commissioned Him. Now, the inter- 
mediate age of the kingdom of God, or the Christian dispensation, commenced 
with John's mission, and John had introduced Jesus as the Son of God, and 
Heaven confirmed John's testimony. So, if thev can tell where John got his 
commission, they will know where Jesus got His. Intending to make them 
answer their own question or silence them before the people, Jesus asked them 
whence came John's baptism? From Heaven, or of men? They discovered 
their fix before the people. If they said from Heaven, He would reply: Why 
did ye not believe Him ? Though they cared not for the conviction, they did not 
like the exposure before the people. If they said from men, they feared the 
people would indignantly stone them, for all the people considered John's pro- 
phetic character a settled point that none but a fool or malignant knave would 
dispute. So they answered : We cannot tell ; and Jesus replied : N^either do I 
tell you by what authority I do these things. 

14. Who Obeys God. — Jesus presents them the case of two boys, whose 
father bid them work in his vineyare. The first refused, but afterward repented 
and obeyed ; the second promised to go, but did not. Now, which did the will 
of his father? They answered: The first. Jesus applies the case to themselves 
and those they stigmatized as publicans and harlots. John came in a righteous 
way that none could fault, yet they believed him not ; the publicans and harlots 
believed him, and so did the will of God. They saw this, and yet repented not 
of their impiety and criminal intentions, which prevented their belief in him. 
Thus, these hopeless publicans and harlots entered the kingdom of God before 
the chief priests, scribes, and elders. 

15. Why the Jews Were Rejected. — While they were trying to prejudice 
the people against Him, He exposes them by a parable that causes them to 
pronounce their own rejection from the kingdom of God : A man planted a 
vineyard and fixed it up in complete order and rented it on the shares to men 
who made husbandry their business, and then moved into a far country. At 
different times he sent servants at the proper season, for his share of the fruits, 
but the tenants beat, stoned, and murdered different servants, but paid no rent. 
Then he sent his only son, supposing they would respect him. But they said he 
was the only heir, and if they killed him the inheritance would fall to them. So 



CHAPTER XCIV. : SECTIONS XVI. -XVII. 376 

they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ISTow, 
what will the owner of the vineyard do? They answer: He will come, 
miserably destroy these wicked men, and rent the vineyard out to others, who 
will render to him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus answers : So shall the 
kingdom of God be taken from you and given to a people bringing forth the 
fruits thereof. They replied : Impossible ! They considered if they were not 
Polytheists and idolaters, God was bound by covenant to keep them in the 
kingdom, and give them the government over the nations. Jesus looked at 
them and said: What does this writing mean: "The stone rejected by the 
builders has become the head of the corner." This is Jehovah's doing, and it 
is marvelous in our eyes. Now, whoever falls on this stone shall be broken, but 
whosoever it falls upon shall be ground to powder. 

16. The Wedding Garment Necessary. — The chief priests, scribes, and 
Pharisees perceived the application was to themselves, and it was so apposite the 
people could not avoid seeing it. But when they had an opportunity to lay 
hands on Him they feared the multitude, who took Him for a prophet, if not the 
Messiah. Thus, their power was gone, and the King of Israel ruled the temple 
and controlled the multitudes ; so this set left Him and went their way. Jesus 
continued speaking in parables, and represents the reception of an invitation into 
the kingdom of Heaven to a marriage feast for a king's son. The Jews were 
the heirs of the kingdom, and when all things were ready for it to go forth in its 
conquest of the nations, they were expected to fill its ranks. But when 
summoned after the Pentecost to enter, they refused on diiferent pretexts, and 
the rulers persecuted to death the servants who told them all things were ready 
and bid them come. The God of Israel sends armies and destroys these 
murderers and burns up their city. Still the kingdom will be consummated, 
though the rulers of the Jews were unworthy of citizenship. Jews, sinners, 
publicans, harlots, Samaritans, gentiles, and some of the very rubbish of society 
must be brought into it. All their diseases shall be healed, sins pardoned, 
souls and bodies purified, and royal garments bestowed. If any one enters the 
banquet hall, or attends the marriage supper of the Lamb, without a wedding 
garment, or the true Christian character, it is because he refuses to accept it when 
offered. The time for reviewing the guests, or citizens, is at the end of this age, 
when the" tares shall be gathered out and the kingdom consummated. ^ Then 
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when the children of hopeless reprobates 
will rejoice with pious ancestors in happiness, and the children of these pious 
ancestors are cast into perdition with these hopeless reprobates. Many were 
called, but few chosen ; many come now into the kingdom who will not obey the 
King, and will not have the legitimate character of citizens when reviewed. 

17. Pat Tribute to Civil Pulers. — The next project was to entangle Him 
with Jewish prejudices and Poman laws. We ought to observe His wisdom in 
defeating all their schemes. Here the Pharisees who detested paying tribute to 
heathen rulers, and the Herodians who made their religion suit the times and 
not offend the Romans, consulted together to ensnare Him and deliver Him to 
the Romans. They pretended to be very pious, and to have the highest regard 
for His teachings and authority, and they wanted to know whether they ought 
to pay tribute to the Poman government or not. Jesus understood their object, 
and said : Why tempt Me, ye hypocrits ? Show me the tribute money. It 
was Poman coin having Csesar's likeness and inscription, showing they used it 
without any shock to their piety. He makes them describe it aloud, so all the 
people could hear. Then He tells them to render back to Csesar his own things, 
and render up to God the things that belonged to God. They were- defeated 
and left. 



(2) Matt. 13:36-43. 



3T6 *rHE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

18. Spirits, Future State, and Resurrection. — ]^ext the Sadducees try to 
entangle Him. They denied any future existence and the resurrection, and they 
had an argument that could not be answered. According to the requirements 
of the law, one woman had seven husbands in succession, but no children ; 
whose wife will she be in the resurrection? Jesus told them they went wrong 
because they were ignorant of both the Scriptures and the ])ower of God. The 
children of this age marry and are in given in marriage, but those who shall be 
counted worthy to obtain that age and the resurrection from the dead, do 
neither, but are as the angels of God. Nor can they die any more, for they 
are equal unto the angels and are the children of God, being the heirs of the 
resurrection. But as for the Sadducees' doctrine of the resurrection, it is 
confuted by the writings of Moses, which they had to receive or subvert the 
Jewish government, which at this time they administered and wished to control. 
Moses says : Jehovah declared Himself to be at that time the God of Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob. But He could not be the God of them at that titne if they 
were not some where in existence. For all live to Him, whether in the body or 
out of it. ^ Their denial of the resurrection rested on their denial of the 
existence of spirits, and having destroyed the foundation, their superstructure 
fell. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob still exist, and will be raised up to inherit the 
promises. A certain scribe, a Pharisee, of course, w^as well pleased to see the 
Sadducees silenced, and exclaimed in the presence of the people : Teacher, Thou 
hast said well ! They dare not ask Him any more questions, for they dreaded 
the exposure. Jesus defeated Satan in the wilderness by the Scriptures, and now 
He defeats the Jews by the same sword of the Spirit, and by their own answers, 
but He never interposes His divinity to silence opposition or temptation. 

19. Love the Foundation of All Moral Laws. — When the Pharisees 
heard He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, 
a scribe and expounder of the law, who heard Him reasoning with the Sadducees 
and perceived He answered well, tried Him with another question, saying : 
Teacher, which is the first in importance of all the commandments? Jesus 
answered him : The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O, Israel, the 
Jehovah, our God, is one Jehovah, and thou shalt love, the Jehovah, thy God, 
with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy 
strength. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like unto 
it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self. ^ There is none other command- 
ment greater than these. On these two commandments hang all the law and 
the prophets. The scribe said : Well, Teacher, Thou hast said the truth, and 
to obey them is greater than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. Jesus, 
seeing he answered discreetly, said to him : Thou art not far from the kingdom 
of God — a proper subject. This ended all tempting questions. 

20. Love is a Law of Creation. — Love is the source and center of all 
moral principles or laws, and the object of all revealed religion is to bring man 
up to this high standard of pure love. Love to God must be supreme ; to our- 
selves must be greater than any animal gratification or coveted object ; to the 
rest of mankind must be equal to love for ourselves ; also, we must love all 
animals capable of pleasure or pain, and take pleasure in all God's creation. 
This love, and all moral laws emanating from it, are laws of creation binding on 
all mankind, and on every individual in every nation. It did not originate with 
Moses, and is not restricted to Jews or Christians. When this love is perfected, 
the Christian has arrived at the full stature of the perfect man in Christ Jesus. 
The penalties for breaking these commands are the consequences growing out of 
the violation. These consequences are innumerable and awful. (See Paul's 
account of love, I. Cor. 13.) 



(3) Acts 17:28. Rom. 14:7, 8. (4) Deut. 6:4, ^. Lev. 19:18. 



CHAPTER XCIV. : SECTIONS XXI. -XXlIl. 377 

21. Yakious Topics. — While the Pharisees were collected together, Jesus 
questioned them in the presence of the multitade. To His question they 
answered : Christ is the Son of David. To this Christ replied as He taught in 
the temple : David, speaking by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, calls Him 
my Lord. How, then, is Christ David's son ? ISTo one was able to solve the 
mystery. According to the flesh, or human nature. He was David's son ; 
according to His divine nature. He was the Son of God and heir of all things ; 
so He was David's son and David's superior and Lord. (Rom. 1:3,4). Then, 
in hearing of all the people — and the common people heard Him gladly — Jesus 
said to the multitude and to His disciples : The scribes and Pharisees occupy 
Moses' seat when they read the law and prophets in the old Hebrew language and 
translate and interpret them in the vernacular tongue of the congregation ; there- 
fore, observe and do what they bid, but do not follow their example; they read and 
interpret right, but do not obey the teachings. But beware of the scribes, who 
add the traditions, and impose heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, but 
never touch these burdens themselves. Then He gives their impious and 
hypocritical character, which He censures in strong terms. Christ forbids His 
disciples to wear any titles of honor or authority, such as Doctor, Father, Leader, 
for One in Heaven is the Christian's Father, and Christ is the Teacher and 
Leader, and all the disciples are brethren. He repeats former teachings, and 
denounces woe on scribes and Pharisees for not entering the kingdom of Heaven 
and prohibiting others who would, and for crimes, hypocrisy, foolish and wicked 
perversions and evasions of oaths, and for persecutions, as He had done before. 
Christ asserted the poor widow's two mites cast into the treasury were entitled 
to more reward than the larger donations of the rich, for it was her living, and a 
greater sacrifice to her than the thousands cast in by the rich was to them. 

22. Three Questions Proposed; Destruction of Temple, etc. — ^ As Jesus 
went out of the temple, the disciples called His attention to its stability, riches, 
and splendor. Jesus recognized the facts, but informed them it would be so 
completely demolished that one stone would not be left upon another. As He 
rested on Mount Olivet, opposite the temple, and in full view of it, four of His 
disciples asked Him privately three things : When shall these things be ? What 
the sign of Thy coming? What the sign of the end of this age? The phrase, 
the age, or this age, might refer to the Jewish dispensation, as distinguished 
from the Christian; or it may refer to the intermediate age of the kingdom of 
God, as in the parable of the tares, and what He says may apply to either one, 
or to both; the same or similar signs may precede the end of both. Jesus had 
spoken of coming in glory, when He would acknowledge those not ashamed of 
Him in the sinful generation, ® and also of coming in His kingdom before the 
death of some of those present. '' This last mentioned coming is expressed by 
another evangelist, thus : The kingdom of God come with power ; and by the 
other, thus: The kingdom of God be come. Kow these signs may precede any 
one of these comings, or they may precede both. History will determine these 
questions. 

23. End of This Age. — Jesus cautions His disciples against false christs, 
who will deceive many. Wars and commotions must precede these events, but 
as they are common evils and unavoidable, they furnish no certain evidence that 
the end of the age is come, or even near. Still the collision of nations and 
kingdoms, the occurrence of earthquakes in different places, of famines, pesti- 
lences, troubles, fearful sights and great signs from Heaven, are the beginnings 
of sorrows or pangs and sufferings. But before these events, Christ's disciples 
will find trouble enough. They will be persecuted, tried, imprisoned, beaten 
in synagogues, and afflicted, shall be brought before governors and kings for 
Christ's sake. This treatment shall turn, or prove, a witness for the disciples 



(6) Matt. 16:27. 25:31-46; Mark 8:38. (7) Matt. 16:28; Mark 9:1; Luke 9: 



378 THE ElNGBOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

that they have been faithful, and against the persecutors, whether Jews or 
gentiles, that they rejected Christ and salvation. Notwithstanding this great 
opposition, the Gospel will be published among all nations before the predicted 
time of sore distress and the expiration of this age. As the Holy Spirit spoke 
in the apostles, they could not be successfully contradicted nor resisted by their 
enemies, and so needed not to premeditate speeches for trials. Their very 
kindred would persecute and put them to death, and they should be hated by all 
nations for Christ's name's sake. Some of the disciples would apostatize and 
betray others, and many false prophets would arise and contradict the true 
teachings and deceive many. Iniquity will abound among Christians, and the 
love of many will wax cold ; but those persevering in the truth to the end of 
life, or of these trials, shall be saved ; not a hair of their heads shall perish. 
Therefore they might, and ought to, keep their minds in calm and patient control 
amidst all their trials. This glad tiding of the kingdom shall be proclaimed in 
all the inhabited world, into a witness to all the nations, as well as the Jews, 
and then shall the end of the, or this age, come. All these predictions were not 
verified before the end of the preparatory age, or Jewish dispensation, and must 
refer to the end of this intermediate age. 

24. Destruction of Temple and City. — Polytheistic arms and ensigns had 
desolated Jerusalem and polluted everything holy in and about it, and, according 
to Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks, will again pollute and desolate it like 
a flood ; and when the disciples would see this abomination of desolation stationed 
in the holy place (Dan. 9:26), and all Jerusalem surrounded with armies, as 
Christ foretold when lamenting over it, then they might know the terrible deso- 
lation of the city and country is at hand. Every one believing Christ's words 
must flee from the city and country with all possible expedition to the nearest 
refuge to be found, but woe to those that can not flee ! Let the disciples pray 
that it happen not in the winter, when clothing and shelter are needed, nor on 
the Sabbath, when in the temple or synagogues, and the scribes and Pharisees 
did not allow the afliicted to be healed. (For history, see chap. 99, § 8-9.) 

25. Calamities and False Christs. — In those days will be afflictions 
unparalleled in the history of the world, and, unless the Lord made this time 
short, not one Jew could be saved ; but for sake of His chosen ones among the 
Jews, He has determined these days of evil shall be of short duration. Many 
false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so 
that, if it were possible, they will deceive the very elect ; but, as they are fore- 
warned, they need not be deceived and follow, for the advent of the Son of Man 
will be as universally conspicuous as the lightning of Heaven. Wherever the 
desired object is, there will those desiring and seeking it be congregated, and 
those desiring a sensual king will follow their false christs and false prophets. By 
their fruits they shall be known, and the chosen ones will not be deceived by 
them. These are the days of vengeance for the fulfillment of all things recorded 
respecting these Jews and days of distress and wrath upon these people, and 
wherever these objects of wrath are found, there will the Roman eagles be gath- 
ered together. The Jews shall fall by the sword, and be led away captives from 
this land into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the nations 
till the predicted times of the nations be fulfilled. fFor historv, see chap. 99, 
§§3-9.) 

26. Signs Preceding Second Advent. — Immediately after the tribulation 
of these days of wrath and dispersion, when He has finished scattering the holy 
people, according to what is written (Dan. 12:7), there will be signs in the sun, 
moon, and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea 
and waves roaring, men's heart's failing them, or fainting for fear and for looking 
after, or into, those things coming on the earth. Having finished the vengeance 
on the Jews, their great prince, Michael, will stand up for them, and a time of 



OfiAPTER :^civ. : siJCtioifs xxvii.-xxix. SfO 

tribulations on the nations, such as they never experienced, shall come. (Dan. 
12:1.) After the Gospel is preached to the nations, Jehovah vi^ill reckon with 
them for their perversions of the Gospel, as He did with the Jews for their per- 
versions of the law and the prophets. Then the sun will be darkened, the moon 
shall not give her light, the stars shall fall from Heaven, and the powers of the 
heavens shall be shaken. This will be realized, figuratively, and, perhaps, to 
some extent literally, as shown in the Sixth Seal. Meteors fall, but real stars do 
not fall. (See chap. 109, §§ 16-18.) 

27. The Second Advent. — Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in 
Heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, because in a state of 
hostility to Him. Then they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of 
Heaven, with power and great glory ; then shall He send His angels, with a great 
sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect, or chosen ones, 
from the four winds — from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part 
of Heaven, from the one end of Heaven to the other — to Jerusalem and vicinity. 
When these things last mentioned begin to come to pass, then the true disciples 
of Christ may elevate their heads, for their redemption from all trouble draws 
nigh. By these instructions Christians may know the consummated age of the 
kingdom of God is nigh. The setting up of the kingdom in power during the 
lifetime of some of the apostles, and its consummation when the tares are gath- 
ered out of it, can be ascertained by observing these signs. As it respects, ''All 
these things," predicted when the disciples called His attention to the temple 
and its adornings, which were under their full view from Olivet and easily desig- 
ignated by a gesture common in oriental discourse, and constituted the first ques- 
tion of inquiry, that generation should not pass away till all of them were fulfilled. 
Heaven, or the atmosphere, and the earth shall pass away, but Christ's words 
shall not pass away. Here is an important addition to the prophetic programmes. 

28. Necessity of Watching for Christ's Coming. — As to the precise time 
(the day and hour), neither man nor angel knows; and as the Son reveals nothing 
but what He sees and hears the Father do and say, and the Father sees proper 
not to reveal this now, so it may be said the Son knows nothing about it. (Rev. 
1:1.) Hence, the importance of watching the developments of the kingdom and 
be able to approximate the time of great events, lest we be taken unawares and 
grope in darkness and stumble into destruction. The coming of the Son of Man 
in His kingdom, and His coming in the clouds and glory, will, both, be sudden 
as the springing of a snare, and unexpected by all men except those watching. 
Then the faithful will be rewarded and the unfaithful punished, as He had taught 
before. Christ has now gone to Heaven, having given authority to His servants 
and to every man His work, and commanded the porters to watch. Everyone 
must be up and doing his part in the kingdom of God and guarding against all 
sin and falsehood, lest he be found unprepared, and so be rejected with hypocrits, 
where is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Watch ye, therefore, and pray always 
that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these predicted evils which shall 
come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man. What Christ said to the four 
disciples He said for all : Watch ! 

29. The Ten Yirgins. — Those in the kingdom of Heaven in this inter- 
mediate age, as in the preparatory, are compared to ten virgins watching for the 
bridegroom. All fell asleep, but awoke at the porter's cry, "The bridegroom is 
coming !" They trimmed their torches, but five had provided no oil to pour on, 
and their torches went out. While the five hunted oil, the party came, and the 
five who were ready went in with the bridegroom, the doors were shut, and the 
five foolish virgins were excluded as unknown strangers. So, the unprepared 
Jews were rejected when the kingdom came with power ; and when the Son of 
Man comes to consummate His kingdom, those having the character of legitimate 
citizens shall enter with Him, and all others shall be excluded. Again Christ 
introduces the parable of the talents, or pounds (see chap. 93, § 10), somewhat 



380 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

varied, and illustrating the same truts of rewarding His servants according to the 
improvement of their gifts, opportunities, and means ; and the unprofitable are 
cast into outer darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

30. Grand Ditision in the Human Family of Those Who Came in Con- 
tact WITH Christ or His Brethren. — When the Son of Man comes in His glory, 
and all His angels with Him, He will sit in His glorious throne and judge all 
nations as well as the Jews. They shall be divided into three classes, called 
brethren, sheep, and goats — or pious and impious. All who have befriended 
Christ or the least of His brethren shall be invited into the kingdom which was 
prepared for them before the foundation of the world. All those who did not 
befriend them are bid depart from Him, as cursed, into the everlasting fire pre- 
pared for the Diabolos and his angels. Thus, the actual friends of Christ are 
awarded eternal life, while the indifferent and hostile are sent into everlasting 
punishment. All who are Christ's friends indeed — or truly pious, though not 
professing — will befriend His brethren, or His witnesses, for they are taught to 
do good to all men and love those bearing the image of God ; but the children of 
the Wicked One, intruding themselves upon the kingdom for the purpose of get- 
ting to Heaven when they die, bring all, or many, of their evil dispositions with 
them, and cultiv^ate them, too. But honorary membership will not profit them, 
for the division line is run according to character. All befriending Christ, or 
His brethren, will be rewarded for it, though it were only a cup of water they 
gave,"^ but, if ashamed to confess Him before men, their acts of kindness can be 
rewarded tenfold and yet Christ not confess them brethren, in the judgment, 
before the Father and the angels. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. ^ 
Everyone must be born from above,* and act out of love to God and man. All 
persecutors must be cut off with the goats. Thus ends the third day's labor in 
the temple, where the people had met Him early in the morning to hear Him. 
At night He went and abode in Mount Olivet ; perhaps He spent hours in the 
garden or olive-orchard of Gethsemene. Thus, the Anointed Son of David per- 
fected praise out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, and ruled priests and 
rulers in the House of Jehovah. What is the difierence between Christ's friends 
and His brethren? Inasmuch as ye did it unto the least of these, my brethren, 
ye did it unto Me. For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are 
all one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Christ's 
brethren are those who are identified with Him in the work of His kingdom — the 
seed of Abraham according to the promise ; in thee shall all families of the earth 
be blessed. They are not ashamed of Him or His cause among opposers, and 
He will not be ashamed to acknowledge them before the Father and the holy 
angels. But whosoever gives a cup of water to the least disciple because he is 
indeed a disciple of Christ, shall in no case lose his reward. A centuriah loved 
the Jewish religion and nation and built them a synagogue, who had greater faith 
in Christ than any in Israel, but felt himse-lf unworthy to come to Christ and 
sent an elder of the Jews, but was not identified with the Jews in the kingdom 
of God. Another, noted for piety and benevolence and family devotion, but not 
identified with the people of Jehovah, for some reason, was the first uncircum- 
cised pious person taken into the adoption of God's family, became one of the 
brethren of Jesus Christ. No doubt the misconduct of some of God's people 
prevented many pious gentiles entering the adoption; by reason of the Jews the 
name of God was blasphemed among the gentiles. False teaching, confusion 
and contradictory teaching, impious walk and conversation, a sense of unworthi- 
ness, fear of coming short in living the Christian life, fear of apostatizing or dis- 
gracing the Christian religion, prevent many from becoming identified with the 
children of God. Tet these persons love Christ and the true Christian, and 
delight to befriend them and advance the cause of the kingdom. Though these 



(3) Heb. 12:14. (4) John 3:3, 5. (*) Matt. 10:40-42; Mark 9:41, 42; Chap. 119, § 10. 



CHAPTEK XCV.: SECTIONS I. -II. 381 

can not be called Christ's brethren, nor have entered into the adoption, yet they 
are Christ's friends, and will aid the least of His brethren because they develop 
the true character of His disciples, and Christ has promised a sure reward to 
them. Whether such will have part in the first resurrection or not may be a 
question of importance. In this place Christ's brethren appear to have been 
separated from those in judgment before the judged were collected, and this 
agrees with the order of judgment in Revelations; these are rewarded according 
to their works of kindness to Christ's disciples ; they pass from under the death 
sentence into eternal life. (See chap. 119, § 10.) 



CHAPTER XCY. 



LAST MEETING WITH THE APOSTLES. FOURTH DAY. A. M. 4033. 
A. D. 29.— Matt. 26:1-5, 14-16; Maek 14-1, 2, 10, 17; Luke 22:1-6. 

1. Judas Bargains to Betray Jesus. — When Jesus had finished all His 
teachings in the temple, He, in the next place, instructs and comforts His 
disciples in regard to His departure from them. He said to them : Ye know that 
after two days is the Passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified. 
The chief priests, scribes, and elders assembled in the palace of the high priest, 
called Caiaphas, and consulted how they might take Jesus by craft and put Him to 
death, but not on the feast day, lest an uproar 6f the people be made and the 
Roman soldiers interpose. They feared the people, before whom they had been 
silenced by Jesus. Satan prompted Judas Iscariot to go to the chief priests and 
offer to betray Jesus at a suitable time. They were glad of the offer, and bargained 
with him for about twenty-one dollars and sixty cents (the price paid for the loss 
of the meanest slave), to betray Jesus when He was away from the multitude and 
they would not know anything about it. From that time Judas watched for a 
suitable opportunity when he could conveniently betray Jesus in the absence of 
the people. 

FIFTH DAY.— Matt. 26:17-56; Mark 14:12-50; Luke 22:7-53 ; 

John 13-18:1-11. §§ 2-28. 

2. Time and Place of this Last Passover. — The first of the seven days in 
which the Jews must not eat any leavened bread commenced this fifth day of the 
week, at sun-setting, and was their sixth day. On this sixth day sunshine they 
killed the Passover lamb, but they ate it after sunset, which was the beginning of 
their seventh day. But our Lord sent Peter and John to prepare the Passover on 
this fifth day, and, according to our reckoning, ate it on the evening of the fifth, but, 
according to the Jewish reckoning from sunset to sunset, it was the evening of 
their sixth day. Speaking according to Jewish custom, Christ ate this Passover 
in the evening of the sixth day of the week and beginning of the fourteenth day 
of their month Nisan, which, according to our arrangement of months, would be 
that year, A. M. 4033, or, A. D. 29, April 16 or 17. The disciples ask Him 
where they shall prepare the Passover for Him. He gave them directions. 



382 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

which they found exactly correct — as when He sent them for the colt. All times, 
places, and circumstances were, on all occasions, plainly under His view. The^/ 
made all the preparations, and in the evening He came with the rest. 

3. Passover Supper Commenced. — Jesus knew His time of sojournino: here 
with His disciples was about ended, and that He was about to return to the Father 
and leave them here among enemies. But He did not forget them in anticipation 
of His excruciating sufferings and glorious return to His home in Heaven. He 
loved them while with them in the world ; He loved them all through His suffer- 
ings, and He will love them to the end of this age. He had an ardent desire to 
eat that Passover and hold His parting conversation with them, while He kept 
His approaching death before them. The kingdom of God was so near that 
another Passover would not be celebrated till the Lamb of God that taketh away 
the sins of the world should be sacrificed, and so finish all other sacrifices and 
offerings, and instead of commemorating their deliverance out of Egyptian 
bondage, Jehovah's people will commemorate their deliverance out of the bondage 
of sin by the sacrifice of Christ, their Passover. Then He took the cup of wine, 
with which the Jews commenced the Passover supper, and gave thanks and 
said: Take this and divide it among yourselves; for I say unto you, I will not 
drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God be come. 

4. Contention About Superiority Rebuked. — On the announcement of the 
proximity of the kingdom, the old dispute about superiority arose among the 
disciples, and Jesus repeated His former lecture on that subject and refers to His 
own example among them. The supper was fully commenced ; the Devil had 
instigated Judas Iscariot to betray his Teacher, and the bargain was made ; Jesus 
knew the Father had given all things into His hands, and as He came from God, 
so He returned to Him, and He saw proper to give His emulous apostles a 
practical illustration of His teachings about superiority. Having told them He 
was among them as one serving the rest, He arose from the supper, laid aside His 
mantle, took a towel, girded Himself as a servant, and proceeded to perform to 
His disciples the lowest service of hospitality : He washed their feet. Peter 
objects to His Teacher stooping to so mean a servitude that a rabbi could not exact 
ofi" a pupil, and refused to accept the service. Jesus told him he did not under- 
stand it then, but he would hereafter, and if he did not accept it now he had no 
part in Christ. Hearing this, Peter was willing for an entire washing, for he 
desired a large share in the Savior. Jesus told him that those just bathed, or 
loutronized, needed no more than to wash, or niptize, his feet ; so they were now 
clean; but not all. Judas was still among them. His language was figurative, 
and so they understood it. 

5. The Lesson Taught. — Having finished this washing, or niptism, of a part, 
He replaced His garments and resumed His place at the table. Then He taught 
them the application : If He, their Lord and Teacher, washed their feet, so ought 
they to do tlie same, or any other, servile work for each other. Though the prin- 
ciple of serving instead of ruling one another is the prominent thing intended, 
yet this act of hospitality is classed among good works, and is obligatory when 
and where occasion requires. (1. Tim., 5:9, 10.) Not the knowledge of Chris- 
tian duties, but the practice of them perfects and makes blessed. Christ not 
only gives laws to His subjects, but also sets them the example of obedience. 
What a lesson ! Christ came from Heaven and was about to return to the Father, 
and with all His sufferings depressing His soul, He stooped to the meanest service 
to impress the lesson of humility and mutual acts of kindness and service. No 
dignitaries in the kingdom of God ! All mutual servants. 

6. Treachery of Judas. — Jesus repeats His former lessons about receiving 
His servants and Himself: Those doing so receive the Father. Jesus now 
discovers the betrayer to the other apostles, who were sad to find in their little 
number anyone so vile as to betray their beloved Teacher. Though everything 



CHAPTEKXCV. : SECTIONS VII.-IX. 383 

was predicted about Christ's sufferings, and must be verified, yet woe to that man 
who betrays Him. All these solemn lessons were given in the ears of Jiidas 
Iscariot, but produced no repentance in his treacherous soul ; he kept with the 
Savior, and dipped his hand in the same dish, that he might know where to find 
Him to deliver Him into the hands of murderers. Jesus exposed him, and then 
bid him do his treacherous work quickly. Judas goes out in the dark to do what 
he could not accomplish in the light while the multitudes were in and about Jeru- 
salem. Still none of the apostles suspected any such attempt that night, but 
thought he was gone to purchase what was necessarj^ for the feast. He was their 
treasurer. 

7. Christ Glorified, and the Father Glorified in Him. — Judas had gone 
out, and all present are the true disciples of Christ, and after following His foot- 
steps through tribulations they will reign with Him in glory. Now Christ looks 
beyond His sufferings and animates and comforts them with the results of His 
labors. Man, being promoted to honor and affluence, disgraced himself when he 
disobeyed God and surrendered all his prerogatives to Satan. Then man was a 
disgraced captive slave, that surrendered without striking a blow or resisting a 
temptation. God was dishonored as having conferred such riches, power, and 
dignity upon such an incompetent and unworthy favorite ; and now Satan exult- 
antly possesses the rich inheritance bestowed upon man, and reigns prince of this 
world. The Son of Man is glorified in resisting every temptation of Satan, 
though in destitution and desertion ; accomplished all His work without a single 
failure ; rendered perfect obedience to the divine law, and sustained its dignity 
by suff*ering its penalties incurred by man. God is glorified in Him as in a beloved 
and dutiful Son, worthy every honor conferred upon Him and every position and 
trust committed to His care. The arch-enemy of God is dethroned and the rich 
and glorious inheritance ignobly surrendered by man is recovered to God and to 
righteousness. The wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth of the 
Father and the Son are sustained in the victory without a stain. Now God will 
glorify the Son with that glory which the Son of God had with Him before the 
world began, and with the consummated kingdom of God. The Son of God 
became the Son of Man, obeyed the law, and suffered its penalties in human 
nature ; but now He shall reign, the Incarnate Son of God forevermore. And 
this glory shall straightway be bestowed on this worn-out and suffering Son of 
Man. 

8. Sympathy for His Disciples. — In view of this ,2:lory, Jesus sympathizes 
with His disciples who remain to carry on the work of His kingdom. They will 
desire to see Him and seek to find Him, but cannot yet follow Him to His Father's 
glory. He enjoins a mutual love, such as should exist among the children of 
God while carrying on His work in the midst of enemies. The happy fruit of this 
love among themselves will distinguish them as the disciples of Christ while they 
witness for Him here. They had not deserted Him in these times of His trials 
and temptations, and He appoints a kingdom to them, as His Father has done to 
Him, and they shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 

9. Peter's Denial Foretold. — Peter wished to know why he could not 
follow Christ then, for he was ready to accompany Him into prison and death, 
and even die that Christ might escape. Jesus assures Peter that he would deny 
his Teacher repeatedly before the cock had done crowing that night. He also 
informed Peter that Satan had an eye on him in particular, a'r.d wished to utterly 
destroy him ; but Christ had prayed for Peter, that his confidence in Jesus of 
Nazareth would not fail, nor should he wholly apostatize through despair or pride. 
When recovered from his fall, Peter must confirm the rest by his experience. 
When Peter denies Christ, and then remembers what was foretold, he might 
assure the rest that all the other predictions would be verified, even the resurrec- 
tion on the third day. Jesus assures them that the things written in the Scriptures 
concerning His ministry on earth were about ended, and that prediction : He was 



384 THE KINGDOM DF GOD DEVELOPED. 

reckoned with, or among, transgressors, mast yet be accomplished, so they might 
not expect such favorable reception as when sent on their former mission. Though 
it will be time to justify the use of the sword in defence of rights, yet one or two 
were enough for His purpose. Peter knows how to use the sword, and let him 
try it; the Savior will heal all the wounds that Peter inflicts, and show friends 
and foes that Jesus lays down His life and no one takes it from Him. (See 
chap. 96, § 1.) 

10. The Lord's Supper Instituted. — Thus, the Savior instructed His 
disciples at the last Passover ; and had they not been blinded by early instruction 
and unyielding prejudice, they might have witnessed understandingly these scenes 
with awe and reverence. As they were still eating at the Passover supper, Jesus 
took some of the unleavened bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to the disciples, 
and, speaking according to the Hebrew idiom, told them it represented His body 
given for them and broken and crushed by toil, sorrow, and suffering, and bid 
them eat it in remembrance of Him. Also, He took the cup of wine after the 
Passover supper, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them and bid all 
of them to drink of it, and they all drank of it. Speaking again according to the 
Hebrew idiom, He told them this wine represented the blood of the new covenant 
predicted by Jeremiah, which is shed for many, and it represented that new cov- 
enant in His blood, and sealed with His blood, and this blood, which represents 
the life, was shed for them and for many, for the remission of sins. And He 
told them to do this in remembrance of Him. Hence, as often as His disciples 
eat this bread and drink this cup of wine they continue to show the Lord's death 
till He comes again. (I. Cor., 11:23-26.) The broken body represents His life 
actually laid down. He suffered and died. Now this fact was impressed upon 
their minds, so that they could no more misunderstand His meaning nor doubt 
the fact. He again assures them that the kingdom of God was very near, for He 
would not drink wine, or this fruit of the vine, again till He drank with them new 
wine in His Father's kingdom, or the kingdom of God. Either He will not drink 
wine again, not even new wine, or the kingdom of God comes before new wine 
of the present crop can be made. That year (A. M. 4033, or A. D. 29) the 
Passover was about the 17th of April ; the Pentecost, about the 6th of June ; tlie 
vintage is in June and July ; first ripe grapes sooner; but He ascended about the 
27th of May. If the kingdom did not come in power before the Pentecost, 
Christ did not drink new wine in it then, nor before He ascended. He must have 
spoken figuratively, or it will be fulfilled in the consummated aare of the kingdom. 
Of the cup used at the beginning of the Passover, He said He would not drink 
of the fruit of the vine till the kingdom of God would come. He might not 
drink another Passover cup of wine till the kingdom be come in its intermediate 
age, but He may drink new wine with His disciples in the consummated age of 
the kingdom, when it will be fully verified in Christ's having come. As oft as ye 
eat this bread and drink this cup ye do show forth the Lord's death till He come. 
When He comes, all will be fulfilled. 

11. Disappointment and Comfort. — The sufferings and death of Christ being 
impressed on their minds now, the apostles' hearts were troubled. Hitherto they 
had met with no disappointment, and their faith in Him had not been put to the 
test ; but now they were about to be severely tried, and all their brilliant hopes 
and ambitious aspirations dashed to the ground ; therefore. He exhorts them to 
have that firm faith in Him which they had in God. As Israel's faith in Jehovah 
was tried in the wilderness, so their faith in Jesus of Nazareth was about to be 
tried. In His Father's house, which is not in sheol, were many apartments — if 
this were not the fact. He would have told them before that time, and before they 
became disciples — and now Lie goes to prepare a mansion for them ; then He will 
come again and receive them to Himself, that wherever He is they may be there 
also. He tells them that they knew where He was going, and they knew the way; 
He had taught them both. But they understood not to what He alluded ; and 
so Thomas tells Him. 



CHAPTER XCV.: SECTIONS XII. -XV. 385 

12. Christ the Way, Truth, Light, and One with the Father. — Jesus 
was not going down into sheol, where the Jews supposed all disembodied spirits 
went, but to the Father up in Heaven, where are living paths and paths of life, 
fullness of joys and everlasting pleasures. (Ps. 16:10, 11). The way to get 
there is by faith in Christ as a teacher, savior, and king. He is the truth itself, 
revealing and presenting everything divine and human just as it is. He is the 
life, saving from wrath and misery, transfusing light, life, and enjoyment to the 
soul, and securing the resurrection from the dead. In Him is the fullness of the 
divinity visibly manifested. (Col. 2:9.) All that can be seen of the Father are 
attributes, and these were as conspicuously developed in Christ as any man is 
capable of witnessing them. Now, as they had seen these in Christ, they had 
seen all they were capable of seeing of the Father. But thej^ did not compre- 
hend this, and Philip asked Him to show to them the Father, saying that would 
satisfy them. Again Jesus asserts His perfect unity with the Father. To see 
Christ, behold His works, and hear Him, is to see the Father, behold His works, 
and hear His words. He asks Philip to receive this testimony, or believe the 
works he had witnessed, and this evidence would be strengthened, for those 
believing would be enabled to do the same, and even greater works! He was 
going to the Father and would advocate their cause, and everything they asked 
in His name He would do for them, that the Father might be glorified in the Son 
by the success and triumphs of His kingdom. 

13. The Comforter Promised. — Not only provide a mansion for them in 
Heaven and come to take them there, but Christ will not leave them here as 
orphans, but come and abide with them by the Holy Spirit. Thus, we have four 
comings of Christ: Coming in the clouds and glory; coming in His kingdom; 
coming to take His people to the Heavenly mansion; and coming by the Spirit 
of Truth, or the True Spirit, to abide with them. If His people love Him they 
will keep His commandments, and He will pray the Father, who will send them 
another Comforter to abide with them forever (if they do not resist and grieve 
Him) and He is the Spirit of Truth. They had some knowledge already of 
this Comforter, for they had been born of the water and Spirit, and had entered 
the kingdom. (John 3:5.) He had regenerated them into loving and 
following Christ, and will still abide with them when Christ is gone, and will 
sanctify them and comfort them as the saints of old. The children of the world 
do not receive the Holy Spirit because He makes no external display, but quietly 
works great and happy changes in persons, and as the world can not see Him 
with their eyes, and do not experience His operations in their minds, so they do 
not know Him. He is known by a consciousness of a sacred change in the soul 
that induces a love to all the attributes of God, and a desire to be transformed 
into them, and induces a hatred to sin with an ardent desire to be freed from it. 

14. The Competency of this Comforter. — This Comforter was promised 
to the disciples to an extraordinary extent, and He would teach them to know 
and understand all things pertaining to the kingdom of God, and bring to their 
remembrance all Christ's teachings. He comforts by enlightening the mind in 
regard to divine things, and inducing hope in Him and submission to His will. 
He also acts on the mind through the faculty called original suggestion, and by 
guiding the reasoning powers and the memory, and the association of ideas. He 
is promised to those asking the Father for Him; but His supernatural endow- 
ments were promised to the disciples. The sure evidence of His possessing any 
one is in the fruits produced, which are always in accordance with the divine 
teachings in the Scriptures. (Gal. 5:22-24.) 

15. Christ Visible to the Disciples and not to the World. — Now Jesus 
presents another mystery to them. After a little time the world would see Him 
no more, but the disciples would see Him, and as He would still be living and 
acting, so they would live and act also. Judas Ben-Alpheus inquired how this 



386 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

could be. He who has or ascertains Christ's commandments, and keeps them, 
is the one who loves Him, and will be loved by the Father, and Christ will love 
him also. He that loves Christ will keep His commandments, and he that loves 
Him not keeps not His sayings, and yet His sayings are the Father's words. 
The Father will love the obedient, and both Father and Son will come unto him 
and abide with him on social terms. This divine communion and fellowship is 
by the regenerating, sanctifying, illuminating, and comforting influences of the 
Holy Spirit, and He endowed the prophets with supernatural powers and 
intelligence. This Holy Spirit will come to the apostles in Christ's name, and 
enable them to speak and act in Christ's name as Christ did in the Father's name. 
In no other name will the Holy Spirit be given to Jew or gentile, and every 
intelligent person capable of knowing and obeying the divine will, must become 
a disciple of Jesus Christ or not receive the Holy Spirit, or at least these 
superabundant endowments given to the first disciples. What God may do for 
heathen. He has not told us, but Christians are commanded to preach the gospel 
to them and let them know the gospel way of salvation. 

16. Why Christ Foretold These Things. — These things Jesus said to 
them while yet with them, though their minds were in no condition to receive 
them, but He dropped them as seed in the ground, leaving the recollection, 
understanding, and profiting of them to the Holy Spirit. He leaves His peace 
and friendship with them permanently and enrichingly, so they need not be 
troubled about the separation nor afraid of its consequences. Their love to Him 
should cause them to rejoice that He was about to leave these scenes of toil and 
sufi'ering and go to the happiness of the Father, who was greater than He; also, 
He promised to return to them and for them. These things He foretold that, 
when realized, they might know that nothing happened to Him unawares, and 
might still believe in Him, for He would have but very little more conversation 
with them. Satan, the chief of this world, was coming upon Jesus to make a 
desperate attack with concentration of temptations without and within, by men 
and by devils, which would prevent farther conversation for a time. But as 
Satan can find nothing in Christ to give him any power by law, so he can find no 
compliance nor fear to enable him to seduce Jesus to abandon His work for the 
salvation of men. The Father gave Him a commandment to lay down His life 
for the sheep, and that the world may know His love for the Father as well as 
the sheep, so He obeyed Him, and submitted to the assaults of devils and of 
men, whom He could have destroyed by a word. 

17. The Supper Closed. — Now Jesus bids His disciples arise from the table 
and go hence — to some other place. So they sung a hymn, or part of the great 
hymn sung at the Passover, which was Psalms 113-118, and came down and went 
out of the city to the Mount of Olives, as usual, and the disciples followed Him. 
But before He crossed the Kedron, and perhaps in the city, and perhaps in the 
same house after they sung the hymn, Christ gave His parting address. 

18. The Yine and Bra:nches. — Christ compares Himself to a vine and His 
disciples to the branches, who are united directly unto Him. He enjoins them 
to abide in Him and become very fruitful, for thereby they glorify the Father 
and show they are His true disciples. The Father disciplines them, but now they 
were in good condition by means of the instruction received from Him, and if 
they continued in their faith, love, and obedience, they would bear much fruit ; 
and ask whatever they wished, it should be granted unto them. But if they did 
not thus abide in Christ, they would be cut off by the Father, dry up and be 
burnt ; for out of Him they could do nothing ; they must exercise unwavering 
confidence in Him, receive His teachings, and obey His commands. As the 
Father loved Him, so He loved them, and as He kept the Father's command- 
ments and continued in His love, so if they kept His commandments they also 
should continue in His love. 



CHAPTER XCV.: SECTIONS XIX. -XXII. 387 

19. Persecution Will Come ; Only Safety in Faithfulness. — Christ 
insists on obedience to His commandments, their faithfulness, and mutual love. 
He taught them that their joy might be complete ; He laid down His life for them 
and treated them as friends, and not servants ; He chose and ordained them to 
be living examples of true Christianity, and whatever they asked in His name the 
Father would give them. But they must not expect better treatment from the 
world or the Jews than their Lord received, and they may expect just as good. 
The Jews had seen unparalleled works done by Him, and yet they hated both Him 
and the Father, and now have no excuse for their sin ; they did not have a correct 
knowledge of either Christ or the Father, and so showed their true character ; 
they will persecute the disciples, because they follow Christ, and in killing them 
will think they serve God. IS^ow, being apprised of this kind of treatment, they 
need not be discouraged nor disappointed when it is experienced. When Christ 
was with them they did not need this information. The Comforter will testify 
of Christ by His endowments, and the apostles will bear testimony because they 
were eye and ear witnesses. 

20. Necessity of Christ Departing and the Comforter Coming. — The 
disciples were much dejected at the thought of being left without having realized 
their fond expectations. But He tells the necessity of His going, and the Com- 
forter's coming and doing a work for them and the world that could not be done 
till He did go. When the Holy Spirit does come He will convince of sin in not 
believing in Jesus of Nazareth, and induce that repentance required by the 
Gospel ; He will prove that Jesus was the Righteous One who taught righteous- 
ness and truth and returned to God, who sent the Spirit; and He will convince 
the world of judgment, because Satan, the chief of the world, is already judged 
and cast out of that office and out of demoniacs ; and now Heavenly gifts flow 
down abundantly on men who believe in Jesus, and they are made righteous and 
holy before the world by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will guide the apostles 
into all truth ; show them things to come ; glorify Christ by taking of His full- 
ness and showing it to them, and all the Father has belongs equally to the Son. 

21. Warnings, Exhortations, and Consolations. — He told them again 
that His departure was at hand, but they did not comprehend it yet ; He most 
earnestly impresses upon them the fact of present afflictions and sorrows await- 
ing them, but also, of future deliverances and triumph. Again He reminds them 
of their resource in time of trouble — whatever they ask the Father in His name, 
the Father would give. As yet they had not asked anything in His name, but 
prayed Jewish prayers ; and now He insists on them asking and receiving in His 
name, so their joy might be full. But the Father Himself loves them, and 
needs no intercession from the Son, but will promptly answer their petitions 
made in Christ's name. Then He said plainly : I came forth from the Father 
into the world ; again I leave the world and go to the Father. The disciples said 
they now understood Him, and believed He came from God. Jesus replied, 
within that hour they would desert Him, and return to their own friends or rela- 
tions ; yet He would not be alone, for the Father was still with Him. All these 
things He had told and foretold to them, that they might have peace in Him, 
seeing nothing happened but what He foreknew. In the world they should have 
tribulation, but He had overcome the world with all its temptations, and so they 
might be encouraged and of good cheer, for He was able to give them the victory, 
too. 

INTERCESSORY PRAYER. §§ 22-25. 

22. Christ's Intercession for Their Safe-Keeping. — Having finished this 
parting discourse to His bewildered and dejected disciples. He lifted up His eyes 
to Heaven and said : Father, the hour is come ! Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son 
may glorify Thee! The Father had given Him power over all flesh, that He 
might give eternal life to all those given to Him. To know the Father, who is 



388 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, whom He has sent into the world, 
is the source and sustenance of eternal life. The Son has given this knowledge 
correctly, has glorified the Father on the earth, and finished the work given Him 
to do, and now He prays the Father to glorify the Son with His own self, with 
that glory He had with the Father before the world was. Then He mentions the 
work and the result, and prays for those who received the Father's word and 
believed He had sent Jesus. They were the Father's as well as the Son's, and 
the Son was glorified in them. Now the Son was about to leave them in the 
world while He departed to the Father, and He prayed the Father to keep them 
through His own name, that they mi2:ht be united, as the Father and the Son are 
One. The Son kept them safely while with them here, so that none of them was 
lost ; but that one devoted to perdition from the first was lost, as the Scriptures 
foretold, and now are verified. These things He spoke in the world, that they 
might realized HJis joy in them. 

23. Christ Argues Their Case. — He gave them the Father's word, and this 
made the world hate them, because, like the Savior, they were no longer of its 
number or character. He does not ask them to be taken out of the world, but to 
be kept from the evil that was in it and the evil one that rules it by seductions 
and violence, and to be made holy by the word of God, which is the very truth, 
and teaches true holiness and happiness. For their sakes, Christ makes Himself 
holy by sacrificing Himself and securing the gifts of the Holy Spirit and sanctify- 
ing them by means of the truth. 

24. This intercession is not restricted to the first disciples, but includes all 
who should afterwards believe in Jesus Christ, that they all, whether Jews or 
gentiles, ancients or moderns, might be one. Perfectly united in one body, and 
every one perfectly one with the Father and the Son ; and this union must be 
perfect as the union between the Father and the Son. The Son does the works 
and speaks the words which the Father does and speaks. All Christ's people 
must be united in faith and love, principle and practice, and these must be the 
faith and love, principles and practices of the Son and Father. No hypocritical 
pretentions, no ignoring of the laws and testimonies of the kingdom of God, no 
compromises of truth or acts of obedience. This perfect union among His fol- 
lowers dispersed among the nations, would convince the world that this Jesus 
Christ was sent of God, and that both Christ and His followers were beloved of 
God. I in them and Thou in Me — perfect union. 

25. Prays for Their Perfection and Glory. — He prays that all His people 
who believe in Him and obey Him may be with Him where He is, to behold His 
glory which the Father had given Him, for the Father loved Him before the 
foundation of the world. Never since the adoption of Polytheism, and, perhaps, 
for some time before, has the world had a correct knowledge of the Father, and 
even a majority of the Jews appear to have lost it, if they ever had it. But the 
Son has the perfect knowledge of Him, and had declared and taught it to the dis- 
ciples, who had known from the most satisfactory evidence that He was sent by 
the Father, and He will still show that correct knowledge of God, earnestly, 
openly, and clearly, by the Holy Spirit about to be given to the first disciples, 
especially to the apostles, and it will be accompanied with indisputable evidence 
that the Spirit is divine and knows the things of God. Thus, the love of the 
Father to the Son will be in them and exhibited by them. And the Son Himself 
shall be in and among them by His Spirit, teachings, and graces. They shall be 
renewed into the image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.^ 
They shall be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. 

26. Christ Still Foretells the Approaching Events. — Having thus inter- 
ceded for His disciples in this simple and ardent prayer. He continues informing 
them of approaching events, that they might have the clearest evidence that He 



(9) Eph. 4:26; Col. 3:10. 



CHAPTER XC v.: SECTIONS XXVlI.-XXVllI. 389 

was not taken by surprise, nor put to death by force, but fulfilled the Scriptures 
and carried out His own programme, and when they reflected on these facts, they 
might be comforted and with confidence hope to realize the great things promised 
to them. He tells them that they all would be ofi'ended, because of Him, that 
night, for He would be apprehended and His flock scattered abroad, and Peter 
would deny Him ; but He would arise again and go before them into Galilee, 
which was their home, where they calculated to return when the feast was ended. 
Peter and all the apostles protested and said they would never be offended nor 
deny Him though they had to die for Him. 

27. Agony in the Garden. — Now Jesus goes into the garden, or olive 
orchard, of Gethsemene, where He oftimes resorted with His disciples during the 
feast, and Judas Iscariot knew the place. The night was cold. He told the dis- 
ciples to sit down while He prayed yonder. Then He took Peter, James, and 
John, and went to that place yonder. He began to be dejected, annoyed, full of 
anguish and a deathlike sorrow that can not be described in words. He tells the 
three of His anguish and requests them to tarry there and watch with Him, and 
also to pray, that they themselves might not be tempted. Then withdrawing, or 
going forward about a stone's cast. He kneeled down, and fell on His face on the 
cold ground, and prayed : Father ! Father ! if possible let this cup pass from Me ! 
AH things are possible to Thee ! If Thou be willing to, remove this cup from Me ! 
Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done ! This cup of horror, anguish, 
consternation, depression, and panic, alternating and combined, exhausted His 
strength, sundered His joints, and melted His heart. ^ An angel from Heaven 
appeared, strengthening Him, but did not remove the distress of mind. This 
was the hour for Satan and all the powers of darkness. We have seen the power 
of demons in the human body and in the human mind, and none could give 
relief but Jesus. Here their access to Jesus gives us some idea of their power 
in tormenting the soul alone, for there appear no injuries inflicted on His body. 
Strengthened by the angel. He is in agony and prayed more earnestly, and His 
sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Whether 
spirits can inflict what we call pain and suffering on other spirits, I cannot tell ; 
but if demons can use, or excite to action, human bones and muscles to perform 
prodigies of strength, they might excite human nerves to acute and excruciating 
pain, while they distressed the soul with mental sufferings. "Alas! if Christ 
sinks under sin. How shall the man that dies therein? When to the whole 
amazing load He adds the slighted blood of God. "2 

28. Disciples Sleep with Sorrow ; Christ's Compassion. — Jesus arose from 
praying, and comes and looks upon the three disciples overcome with sorrow. 
Peter, the boldest, James and John, the most aspiring. They saw Christ in His 
glory on the Mount ; now they see Him overwhelmed in distress. Why do ye 
sleep! Simon, sleepest thou! What! could ye not watch with me one hour? 
Watch, ye. Kise, and pray that ye enter not into temptations. The spirit indeed 
is willing, but the flesh is weak. A second time He went away and prayed the 
same prayer, saying : O ! My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me 
except I drink it, Thy will be done. Keturning, He found them asleep again, for 
their eyes were heavy. Neither knew they what to answer Him. So He left 
them and went the third time and prayed these same words. The conflict was 
now over, and Christ was conflrmed in His mind to endure the next conflict, and 
drink all that was in that bitter cup of wrath. Eeturning the third time. He said 
to them: Sleep on now, and take your rest. It is enough; the conflict is over; 
the hour is come. Kise up ! Let us go ! See, he that betrayeth Me is at hand I 
The lanterns and torches shone around. 



(1) Ps. 22:14, 15, 17. (2) Gospel Sonnets. 



CHAPTER XCYI. 



CRUCIFIXION AND DEATH. A.M. 4033. A. D. 29, APRIL 17. 

1. Apprehension. — While Jesus spoke these words Judas appeared, and 
with him a company from the chief priests and Pharisees, scribes and elders, con- 
sisting of a military band and a great multitude with swords and staves, to prevent 
the people from rescuing Jesus if they found out what was doing. The traitor 
approached Jesus, saying : Hail, Teacher ! and kissed Him. This was the token 
by which he had promised to designate Him to the band. Jesus responded, 
knowingly : Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss? Then, knowing 
all that was to be done, Jesus stepped forward and asked the band who they were 
after. They answered : Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered : I am the person. 
They immediately sallied back and fell to the ground, showing they had no power 
against Him, only as He permitted. Repeating the question and receiving the 
same answer, Jesus told them He was the person, and bid them let the disciples 
escape; thus, as the Savior promised, none of them were lost. Then the band 
laid hands on Jesus and took Him. Seeing this, the disciples asked : Lord, shall 
we smite with the sword ? Without waiting the answer, Peter fetched a blow 
that cut off the right ear of Malcus, a servant to the high priest. No doubt Peter 
expected to realize the victories promised by Moses and achieved by the Judges 
and others ; but Jesus taught him that covenant was at an end, and the churches 
were divested of civil power, and the fate of war must be expected, and Chris- 
tians have no promise of victory by the sword, but may fall by it. Jesus touched 
the ear and healed the servant, who was holding Him. If let alone, Peter would 
have sacrificed his life for Jesus, and so would the others, for they were men of 
valor in their own way. But Jesus bid Peter to put up the sword ; all those about 
Him who had taken the sword to capture Him should perish by the sword ; and 
if He wished help. He had but to ask the Father, and more than seventy-two 
thousand angels would be at His command. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled, 
and it must be so, just as they saw. The cup given to Him by the Father must 
be drunk. Then addressing the priests, officers, elders, and people, Jesus asked 
why they come after Him with arms, as after a thief? for He had taught daily in 
the temple and they never took Him. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled, and 
this was their time to perpetrate their wicked designs in confederacy with the 
powers of darkness ; so He gave Himself into their hands. Then the disciples, 
seeing they might not fight, and not knowing what to do, forsook Him and fled. 
A certain young man followed, but the band laid hold of him, and he left his 
only clothing in their hands and fled away naked ; but Peter and John followed 
at a distance. 

MATTHEW 26:57-75. 27:1-56; MARK 14:51-72. 15:1-41; LUKE 22:54-71. 

23:1-49; JOHN 18:12-40. 19:1-37. 

2. Those in the Palace. — Though Jesus agonized in the garden and sweat 
great drops of blood, yet in the midst of His murderers He was unmoved, and 
talked and acted with calmness, firmness, and composure. Having bound Jesus, 



CHAPTER XC VI. t SECTIONS III. -VI. 391 

as if any danger of His trying to escape, the band, under the captain of the tempJe 
and officers of Jews, led Him to Annas lirst, who sent Him bound to Caiapas, 
the high priest, and He was brought into the palace, where all the chief priests, 
scribes, and elders were assembled against Him. Being cold, a fire was kindled 
and the servants sat around it, and Peter among them. John also was known 
to the high priest and was admitted with Jesus, but Peter was kept out till John 
spoke to the doorkeeper and brought him in. Both had followed at a distance. 
Caiaphas, the high priest, had already decided in a former council that Jesus 
must die, lest all men believe in Him, and the Jews would lose their national pre- 
rogatives, and the rulers, priests, and rabbi their stations. All they wanted 
now was a pretext to put Him to death and yet sustain their influence over the 
people. 

3. The Mock Trial. — The high priest pretends to inquire concerning 
Christ's disciples and teachings, designing to construe something He taught, said, 
or had done, into a criminal charge. Jesus simply replied that His teachings 
and actions were always public, and the lawful way to proceed in trial was to 
examine witnesses. Defeated in this attempt, an officer struck Jesus, impeaching 
Him with contumacy. This ruffianism was contrary to the law, which required 
him to bear witness if Christ had said or done evil, but permitted no abuse ; 
when convicted, the person must suffer the penalty of the law. The whole 
council sought false witnesses, and though many appeared, they contradicted each 
other in their testimony so, as made it worthless ; and as Jesus answered nothing 
to their charges, they had no opportunity to wrest His words and make a charge 
out of them. In vain the high priest tried to provoke Him to reply. Then he 
asked Jesus if He were the Christ, the Son of the Blessed ? As he had no right 
by the law to extort words for the purpose of ensnaring or forcing to a crime, 
Jesus gave no answer. Then he adjured Jesus by the Living God to tell them if 
He were the Christ, the Son of God. Having put Christ upon His oath, they 
were bound to receive His testimony or refute it. Now Christ gives His testi- 
mony on oath, in addition to all works and former and public testimony on this 
point, and they were bound by law to receive it, or invalidate it by the testimony 
on oath of some one equally competent to testify on that subject. In addition to 
all other evidence, they now have the highest evidence the law required ; they 
must either refute it or receive it. Jesus, on oath, asserted His Messiahship, and 
that hereafter they should see the Son of Man — the title He mostly applied to 
Himself — sitting on the right hand of Power and coming in the clouds of Heaven. 
The hypocritical high priest tore his garments, pretending to be shocked at what 
he termed blasphemy, and asserted they needed no more witnesses, for the council 
had witnessed His blasphemy. He asked : What think ye ? They all agreed He 
was guilty of death. So they condemned Him to death. 

4. Ruffianism in the High Priest's Palace. — Now commences a scene 
of ruffianism and mobocricy that would disgrace the tribunal of savages ; and 
when we reflect that by one word Jesus could have hurled them all into perdi- 
tion, we must regard this to be one of His great temptations. If a man cannot 
help himself he must endure, but what man would endure such taunts and 
insults from servants for the gratification of hypocritical priests, judges, rulers, 
and rabbi, and at the same time possess the power to blast them in a moment I 
But Jesus does it out of love for the glory of God's justice, the dignity of the 
Divine law, and the salvation of man. The men, or servants, holding Him, 
derided Him, smote Him, spit on Him and in His face, and beat or slapped Him 
with the open hand. Again, they blindfolded Him, buffeted Him, and struck 
Him in the face, saying. Prophecy to us. Thou Christ I Who is He that smote 
Thee ? And many other things they blasphemously spoke against Him. We 
must recollect the power of darkness is now on the throne, and we have here 
a specimen of the scenes under the government of the prince of this world. 



392 THE KlNGt)OM OF GOB t)EVELOl>ED. 

From the time Christ entered the Garden of Gethsemane till He expired on the 
cross, Satan was in power and devils and men were in his control. 

5. Peter Denies His Teacher. — How John acted during these scenes we 
are not told. Perhaps he remembered what Jesus had told theai beforehand 
and quietly witnessed, without fear, the fulfillment. Peter had forgotten every- 
thing, and having gotten himself into a place of trial, feared for his own safety. 
In their wicked revel, the girl that kept the door first accosted Peter, perhaps, 
hoping to see him share his Teacher's disgrace. Peter said he did not under- 
stand what she meant in accusing him, for he did not know the Man. When 
Peter was among the servants and ofiicers standing around the fire, they asked 
him if he was not a disciple. He answered : I am not. A kinsman to one-eared 
Malchus said : Did not I see thee in the garden with Him ? Peter denied again, 
and went out to the porch ; and immediately the cock crowed. After a while 
another accosted him, and he replied : Man I am not. Another maid accosted 
him, and said to those arround : This is one of them that was with Jesus of IS'az- 
areth; he denied again, with an oath: I know not the Man. Then he appears to 
have returned where Jesus was. About an hour afterward, another confidently 
affirmed that Peter was one them, for he was a Galileean ; Peter replied : Man, 
I know not what thou sayest. Then those standing by said : Surely thou art one 
of them, for thou art a Galileean, and thy speach betrayeth thee. Then Peter 
began to curse and swear: I know not this Man of whom you speak. Imme- 
diately the cock crowed the second time. The Lord turned and looked upon 
Peter ; Peter recollected the Lord's prediction ; recovered from his panic ; went 
out, and wept bitterly. 

' 6. Jesus Before the Sanhedrim; Judas Confesses. — Morning has now 
come, and straightway the chief priests, scribes, and elders, and all of the council 
consulted to put Jesus to death, and led Him into the council, or Sanhedrim, say- 
ing : Art Thou the Christ ? Tell us ! Jesus replied : If I tell you, ye will not 
believe Me ; and, if I ask you, ye will not answer Me, nor let Me go. Then He 
shows them they will be in His power in the end. He continued : Hereafter shall 
the Son of Man sit on the right hand of the power of God. Then they all 
clamored out : Art Thou the Son of God ? Jesus replied : Ye say that I am. 
Then they repeated their former decision, and needed no more witnesses. 

When Judas saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented, and confessed his 
sin in betraying inocent blood. All the consolation they gave hirn was: That 
was his own lookout, and not theirs. This is the way the wicked reward those 
who aid them to accomplish their wicked deeds. He cast down the money in the 
temple, which he received for betraying Jesus, and went and hanged himself. 
The priests could not put the unholly bribe into the treasury, so they took the 
money, and purchased the potter's yard to bury strangers in, and so it was called 
the field of blood when Matthew wrote. (A. D. 37-62. 3) Then was verified 
again the prophecy of Zachariah, appended to the book or roll of Jeremiah. 

7. First Charges Before Pilate not Sustained. — For fear of the people, 
who would begin to hunt for Jesus to hear and be healed, the conspirators 
hastened early in the morning to lead Jesus, bound, from the palace of the high 
priest unto the hall of judgment, and delivered Him to Pontius Pilate, the 
Poman governor of Judea ; but lest they should be ceremonially defiled, and so 
could not eat the Passover that evening — not having time to purify again — they 
did not enter the hall, but stood without. Pilate, knowing their customs and 
not wishing their hostility, though he had no regard for them, went out and 
asked for their accusation, and was told that Jesus was an evil doer, or they 
would not have delivered Him over to the governor. Pilate told them to try 
Him by their own law. They replied, the Roman government did not permit 
them to put anyone to death. Thus they let Pilate know they required His death. 



(3) Horn, Vol. II., p. 296, 



CHAPTER XCVI. t SECTIONS VIlL-lX. 3D3 

And, as Jesus foretold His disciples, He was delivered to the Romans to be cru- 
cified and slain by them. Then they made another false charge : of perverting 
the nation and forbidding to give tribute to Csesar, or the Roman government, 
and pretending to be Christ, a king. This charge required the attention of the 
Roman governor, so he returned into the hall, and, altogether ignorant of the 
august character before him, Pilate called Jesus. Jesus obeyed the summons 
and stood before him, and, to his inquiry : Art thou the King of the Jews? 
answered : Is this your own apprehension, or did others prefer this charge ? If 
He knew it, why inquire? If others preferred the charge, let them prove it. 
Pilate replied: Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have 
delivered Thee unto me ! What hast Thou done. 

8. Pilate Finds no Fault, and Sends Him to Hekod. — Christ informrs 
Pilate of the character of His kingdom, and shows that the Roman government 
has nothing to apprehend of Him. Christ's kingdom is in this world, but not 
of it ; therefore His servants did not fight the Jews, and prevent His apprehen- 
sion by them. Then Pilate asked Him if he was a king. Jesus assented to the 
implication, and shows how He obtains subjects, and what was their character ; 
He bears witness to the truth, and everyone that is of the truth hears His voice 
and obeys Him. Perhaps Pilate knew something about the philosophical. Poly- 
theistic, and rabbinical disputes, and doubted whether there was such a thing as 
truth, and asks : What is truth ? but did not wait for an answer. Then he went 
out and told the chief priests and the people that he found no fault in Jesus. 
Then they accused Him of many things, but Jesus made no reply. Pilate called 
His attention to their many accusations, but He answered not to any of them, 
and Pilate was greatly astonished, for He never witnessed the like behavior. 
Then, in a fierce clamor, they said : He stirs up all the people throughout Judea, 
commencing at Galilee. When Pilate learned He belonged to Herod's jurisdic- 
tion, he sent Him to Herod, who was at the feast in Jerusalem. This was Herod 
Antipas, who beheaded John the Baptist, and he had been anxious to see Jesus, 
and now hoped to see some miracle done by Him. He questioned Jesus about 
many things, but received no reply ; and he had no right to try, examine, or sit 
in judgment on Jesus at Jerusalem or in Judea. The chief priests and scribes 
were vehement in their accusations, and Herod, with his soldiers, treated Him as 
of no account ; they derided Him and arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe as a mock 
king and sent Him again to Pilate. As Herod had no right to examine Jesus, 
so He had no right to do Him an indignity. Though Christ had the power to 
avenge the insult. He bore it meekly for our sakes. Pilate had put some of 
Herod's subjects to death, which caused enmity between them, but now they were 
made friends, and out of regard to the priests Herod sent Jesus back to be put to 
death by the Romans. How astonishing that the Son of God would endure to 
be thus derided by such unjust and undignified civil ofiicers. 

9. Pilate Proposes to Release Jesus. — Pilate calls the chief priests and 
rulers and charges them with malignant persecution and falsehood, for neither 
he, nor yet Herod, had found any fault in Jesus of Nazareth, but instead of 
acquitting Him and thus condemn them for unjust seizure, he proposes to play 
the arbitrary despot, and, to please them and free them from censure and dis- 
grace, he proposes to chastise Jesus and release Him. No use to compromise 
with the devil or any of his emissaries ; they must be resisted from the start. 
Pilate was accustomed to release at the Passover some one prisoner selected by 
the people. Pilate reminded them of this custom, and they called upon him to 
confer this favor at this feast. Pilate thought this a good chance to escape injus- 
tice and avoid the hostility and impeachment of the Jews, so he gave the people 
of Jerusalem the choice between Jesus Christ and a notorious robber and mur- 
derer called Barabbas. When Pilate was again sat down on the judgment seat 
his wife sent unto him, saying : Have thou nothing to do with that just man, for 
I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of Him. 



S94 THE IKINGDOM OF Got) t)EVELOPED. 

10. Pilate's Efforts to Release Jestjs Defeated by the Priests. — Insti- 
gated by the chief priests and leaders, the multitude all at once cried out : Away 
with this Man and release to us Barabbas! Anxious to release Jesus, Pilate 
again said : Whether of the two shall I release unto you ? Again they 
vociferated : Not this man, but Barabbas. Then Pilate inquired : What shall 
I do with Jesus, called Christ the King of the Jews ? They yelled out again : 
Crucify Him ! Crucify Him ! Let Him be crucified ! Pilate spoke the third 
time: Why, what evil has He done? I will chastise Him and let Hira go. 
Then they raised up a constant clamor of loud voices vociferating for His 
crucifixion, and the voices of the people and the chief priests prevailed. By 
this time some of the multitudes of Jews, proselytes, and pious gentiles from 
other provinces came to the feast (and no doubt some of them had Roman 
citizenship which Pilate was bound to protect), began to collect and inquire into 
the cause of this excitement around the hall of judgment, and a tumult was 
rising. Pilate seeing a tumult was rising, took water and washed his hands 
before the persecuting multitude, and said : I am innocent of the blood of this 
just person. Behold ye ! Then answered all the crowd of the priest's party : 
His blood be on us and on our children ! Why entail innocent blood on your 
children ? Are ye not atheists ? Have ye forgotten the criminality of Manasseh's 
shedding innocent blood ? 

11. Christ Mocked by the Soldier; Pilate in Trouble. — Pilate knew 
nothing of that magnanimity that risks position and life for justice. Willing to 
satisfy the people, he released the seditious murderer, and having scourged the 
innocent, benevolent, and holy Jesus, he delivered Him to the soldiers to be 
crucified. Then the Roman soldiers under the governor took Jesus into the 
common hall in the governor's house, and collected the whole band. Here the 
gentiles stripped Jesus the King of the Jews and robed Him in royal purple, 
put a crown of thorns on His head, and a weed in His right hand for a scepter ; 
then they bowed the knee and worshiped in derision, saying : Hail ! King of 
the Jews. Then they slapped Him with their hands, spit upon Him, took the 
reed scepter out of His hand and struck Him on the head ! Now is the power 
of darkness, and this is the sport of spirit and incarnate devils on their victims 
and on each other. The Almighty Son of God submits to it for the sake of His 
sheep and love to all His disciples. He layed down His life for the sheep, and 
none took it from Him. Pilate was uneasy with a guilty conscience, and went 
out again to the multitude and said : Lo, I bring Him forth unto you that ye 
may know I find no fault in Him ; and pointing to Jesus standing above the crowd 
on the elevated steps leading to the hall, wearing the purple robe of mock-royalty 
and the crown of thorns upon His head, said : Behold the Man ! The people 
were struck dumb with sympathy and astonishment at such abuse of authority, 
and such treatment of one confessedly without a fault. But the chief priests and 
oflScers, steeled to barbarity and crime, yelled out like demons : Crucify Him ! 
Crucify Him ! Pilate told them to take Him and crucify Him themselves. They 
answered : We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, for He made 
Himself the Son of God. 

12. Pilate's Last Effort to Deliver Jesus. — This information with 
Christ's astonishing behavior, and his wife's message, filled Pilate with fear, and 
reconducting Jesus into the hall, he asked Him : Whence art Thou ? But Jesus 
gave him no answer. Had Christ told him, the heathen Pilate would have 
thrown the whole gentile Roman army around Him and protected the King of 
the Jews from the steel-hardened priests and rabbi of the true God. But He 
was there to suffer and die, so He answered not. Pilate exclaimed: Speakest 
Thou not unto me ! Knowest Thou not that I have the power to crucify or 
release Thee ? Jesus answered : Thou couldst have no power against Me unless 
it were given to thee from above. The highest tribunal in Israel had delivered 
Jesus to the gentiles to be crucified, and on them rested the greatest criminality ; 



OtiAPTER XCVt.: SlECTiONS Xlll.-XtV. S05 

for had not they rejected their own Messiah all the nations could have had no 
power against Him. Thenceforward Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews 
exclaimed : If thou let this man go thou art not Caesar's friend ! Whoever 
maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar, the Roman emperor. This 
settled the question. Personal interest and safety bore down all other consider- 
ations with Pilate ; he feared the Roman emperor more than he feared any God. 
He was a Polytheist and knew not the true God. Pilate brought Jesus out to the 
pavement where the Jews were, and sitting down in the judgment seat, said to 
them : Behold your King ! They yelled out : Away with Him ! Crucify 
Him? Pilate said in taunt: Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests 
answered : We have no king but Caesar ! If Jehovah recognized this declara- 
tion of the chief priests as the action of the nation, the Jews have now rejected 
their Messiah, renounced their high and Heavenly privileges, hurled themselves 
down into a grade with the nations, and put themselves under the power and at 
the disposal of the Roman government. 

13. Christ Bearing His Cross. — Pilate passed sentence of condemnation 
on Christ, and delivered Him to the soldiers to be crucified. It was now about 
nine o'clock in the morning according to our time, or the third hour according to 
their time. Jesus had eaten nothing since the Passover supper, had agonized in 
the garden in the cold night, had been beaten and abused in the palace, and 
again in the judgment hall, and now must carry His cross to the place of 
execution. IS^ow the soldiers take off the purple robe and replace His own 
clothes, laid the cross on His shoulders, and led Him forth as a criminal to be 
crucified. But His exhausted strength trembles and sinks under the weight ! 
Simon, a Cyrenian, coming in from the country, is compelled to carry the hind 
end of the cross after Jesus. There followed a great company of people, and 
among them were some women who bewailed and lamented Him; and amidst 
these sufferings Jesus turned about, without any regard to the soldiers, and said 
to the women : Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but for yourselves 
and children ; for if they do these things to the innocent and righteous, what 
shall be done to the wicked and guilty ! Such terrible days are coming on the 
Jews that they will bless those never born, and will call on the mountains and 
hills to crush and cover themselves. Two criminals were led along with Jesus 
to be executed with Him. Contemplate Christ in this procession. His visage 
was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men ; a 
Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief! Let us forget the divine in Him and 
contemplate the human. (Is. 52:14. 53:3.) 

14. The Crime for which Christ was Crucified. -— Having arrived at 
Golgotha, or Calvary, they offered Him a stupifying drink, but He would not 
take it, and suffered all the penalty due to man for sin without any alleviation or 
mitigation. Then they nailed His hands to the cross-piece and His feet to the 
upright. A criminal was executed on each side, as the Scriptures foretold. He 
was numbered with the transgressors and executed with them. Pilate placed the 
charge for which He was crucified on the cross over His head. It was written 
in Greek, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews ; and in Latin, The King of the 
Jews ; and in Hebrew, This is Jesus the King of the Jews. The chief priests 
pressed this charge upon Pilate till he yielded through fear of impeachment 
before Caesar, and on this charge alone did Pilate give sentence against Him. 
Many of the Jews read the title, for it was near the city and written in the three 
languages spoken by many or most of those attending the Passover. The chief 
priests wanted it altered so as to read : He said, I am the King of the Jews. 
Pilate told them it should stand just so. They compelled Pilate to crucify Him 
or be accused before Tiberias Caesar for allowing a pretended king of the Jews to 
escape. Thus, Polytheism, atheism, and wicked spirits in the Heavenlies, 
who were the witnesses for Jehovah that He only is the true and living God, 
crucified the King of the Jews. 



896 THE KINGDOM OF QOt> DEVELOl»EB. 

15. Christ is Crucified and Guarded. — Then Jesus exclaimed : Father 
forgive them ; they know not what they do ! The chief priests, rabbi, and 
rulers did know they were crucifying a man sent of God (John 3:2), but the 
Roman soldiers and Pilate did not. Then the soldiers that executed the dead, 
parted His clothes and cast lots for His coat, as the Scriptures foretold. It was 
the third hour, or nine o'clock in the morning, and the soldiers sat down to guard 
Him, lest His friends should take Him down. IS^ow the Savior hangs on the 
cross fastened by nails driven through His hands and feet, and every nerve 
twitches with pain. Contemplate His position and suffering, for I cannot describe 
them ! Read the Twenty-second Psalm and the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. 
How many of those attending the feast knew anything about it till now, I don't 
know ; and how many of those who entered Jerusalem in triumph with Him 
know it yet, I cannot tell. But the chief priests, rabbi, rulers, and Jews of 
Jerusalem form the crowd around the Roman soldiers who guard the cross, and 
everything they can say and do to overthrow the people's faith in Him they will 
say and do. They have gained one object and secured their own destruction. 

16. Christ Derided on the Cross. — The chief priests, rabbi, and rulers 
derided Him, saying : He saved others. Himself He cannot save ! Let Him 
save Himself if He be the Christ, the chosen of God ! If He be the King of 
the Jews let Him come down from the cross and we will believe Him ! He 
trusted in God, let God deliver Him now if He will have Him ; for He said, I 
am the Son of God ! Let Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, 
that we may see and believe ! But when He arose from the grave they did not 
believe. Also the soldiers derided Him, offering Him vinegar, saying: If 
Thou be the King of the Jews, save Thyself! Those passing by reviled and 
railed on Him, saying : Ah ! Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in 
three days, save Thyself and come down from the cross ! If Thou be the Son of 
God come down from the cross ! He did arise on the third day, but they did not 
believe in Him. One of the evil doers railed on Him and said : If Thou be the 
Christ save Thyself and us ! The other rebuked him, talked of fearing God, 
confesses the justice of their punishment, and maintains the innocence of Christ, 
and then asks Jesus to remember him when possessed of His kingdom. Amidst 
all His sufferings Jesus acts the Savior, and replied : To-day shalt thou be with 
Me in Paradise. 

17. Christ Himself on the Cross. — Near the cross stood His mother, 
Mary Cleopas, Mary Magdalene, and the apostle John. Seeing them, Jesus 
said to His mother : Woman, behold thy son ! And then to John : Behold thy 
mother ! Then John took her to His own home from that time. When noon, 
or the sixth hour arrived, Jesus had hung three hours on the cross. There was 
darkness over all the land until three o'clock in the afternoon (the sun was dark- 
ened). At three o'clock Jesus cried with a loud voice : Eloi ! Eloi ! Lama saback- 
thani ! Eloi! Eloi! Lama sabackthani ! Which interpreted is: My God! My 
God ! Why hast Thou forsaken Me ! Ah ! What were the internal distresses, 
agonies, and anguishes of those six hours on the cross — three of them in darkness. 
Were the distresses of the garden experienced again ? What feeling is this ? 
Forsaken of God ! What anguish of spirit ; what horror of mind ; what distress 
of soul ; what pains ; what aches ; what weakness ; what weariness ; what 
suffering of body ! He hangs there on the cross, His whole weight supported 
by the nails driven through His hands and feet. While it was light, if He looked 
down from the cross He saw the undulating multitude bowing, wagging 
and shaking their heads, pouting their lips, and twisting their faces in derision 
and fiendish triumph. These were priests, scribes, rabbi, and rulers. He heard 
their taunts, animadversions, banters, false accusations, false inferences, misrep- 
resentations, misconstructions of His words, and perversions of Scripture. He 
might discern the expiring hope, the wavering faith, and failing confidence of 
His disciples and followers, who ventured to appear before the persecuting crowd. 



CHAPTER XC VI. : SECTIONS XVIII. -XIX. 397 

If He discerned the spirits around Him they were the demons and Satan, the 
prince of darkness, who was now in power and in his own element of darkness, 
and exercising all his fiendish power to destroy a soul he could not tempt to sin. 
What suggestions ; what blasphemous whispering ; what fascinating allure- 
ments ; what dreadful apparitions ; what threatening aspects ; what torturing of 
nerves ; what confusion of brain ; what failing of strength ; what fainting of 
heart, during' those three hours of darkness ! The Savior ventures not to speak, 
lest derangement of brain and faltering of tongue should utter something that 
might dismay His friends and followers and cause His foes to exult in triumph. 
As these dark hours expire He turns His eyes and thoughts to Heaven, for one 
bright gleam of the Father's countenance watching over His tortured Son. But, 
Ah ! no conception of the Father's presence can be formed ; no sense of His 
watching care relieves the anguished mind ; no feeling of divine protection 
reanimates the sinking soul ! A feeling as if His divine nature had left His 
humanity to suffer in this gulf of woe and black despair forces the heartrending 
exclamation : My God ! My God ! Why hast Thou forsaken Me ! 

18. 'Tis Finished. — The heartless priests, pretending to understand the 
Hebrew, Eloi (My God), to mean Elijah, said : He was calling for Elijah, so let* 
us wait and see if Elijah will come and take Him down from the cross. Their 
purpose was to induce the people to believe He was not beloved of God, or Elijah 
would come to His deliverance. Having now fathomed the depths of human 
woe, Jesus knew there was but one thing more to be fulfilled, and said : I thirst. 
A soldier ran to their vessel of sour wine, filled a sponge, stuck it on a weed, and 
put it up to His mouth. When He had tasted the vinegar He said : It is finished ; 
and then, with a loud voice that all could hear and understand. He exclaimed : 
Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit. Then He gave up His spirit, and 
His weary head sunk down on His sacred bosom. 

19. Attending Circumstances. — The veil, or curtain, that separated the Most 
Holy from the Holy in the temple was rent down the middle, from the top to the 
bottom, and the way into the Holy of Holies was laid open. The earth quaked, 
the rocks rent, and graves opened ; the Roman centurian and Roman soldiers 
that guarded the cross and malefactors, witnessing these events, feared greatly, 
and the centurian said: Truly this was a righteous man ! This was the Son of 
God ! All the people visiting the scene and witnessing the phenomena smote 
their breasts and returned. And all His acquaintances, and the women that fol- 
lowed Him from Galilee and provided for Him, stood afar ofi" and witnessed 
these events. Among these were Mary Magdalene, Mary Alpheus, and Salome 
Zebedee. 



CHAPTER XCYII. 



RESUKRECTION AND ASCENSION. A. M. 4033. A. D. 29.— John 
19:31-42; Matt. 27:57-66; Makk 15:42-47; Luke 23:50-56. §§ 1-4. 

1. Not a Bone of Christ Broken. — This sixth day was the Preparation; 
it is after three o'clock, and at sunset the great Passover Sabbath commenced, 
and the Jews of Jerusalem, or the chief priests and rulers, did not wish the great 
multitudes attending the feast to visit the spot and witness the facts. So, they 
besought Pilate to have the sufferers dispatched and removed before sunset. 
They were killed by mauling them on the legs till broken. But Christ was already 
dead, for He dismissed His spirit when all the predicted sufferings were ended ; 
so a bone of Him was not broken, as the Passover lamb prefigured and the Scrip- 
ture foretold. But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side into the heart 
to be sure of His death, and some blood and water flowed out, and thus another 
prediction was veritied : They shall look on Him, whom they pierced. 

2. Christ Buried and Pests. — Some of the Sanhedrim had not agreed to 
the death of Jesus. One of these, named Joseph of Arimathia, who waited for 
the kingdom of God and was secretly a disciple of Jesus, shook off the fear of 
the Jews and went openly to Pilate and besought him for the body of Jesus. 
Pilate, fearing some trick, inquired into the fact of His death, and being con- 
vinced by the centurian and soldiers that He had been dead for some time, com- 
manded the body to be delivered to Joseph. Also, Nicodemus, another ruler and 
secret disciple, brought a mixture for embalming, and they wrapped, or wound, 
the body of J esus with the embalming spices in clean linen and laid Him in 
Joseph's new rock-hewn tomb in his garden, near the place of crucifixion, and, 
as the Sabbath was drawing on, they rolled a great stone to the door of the sep- 
ulchre and departed. Now, as both these rulers were rich, another prophecy was 
fulfilled : He made His grave with the rich in His death. Now, Mary Magdalene 
and Mary Alpheus saw where His body was laid, and continued sitting opposite 
the sepulchre till the Sabbath was about come. But other women from Galilee 
who followed the corpse and saw how and where it was laid, went and prepared 
spices and ointments, but it was too late to do more, and so they rested during 
the Sabbath, according to the fourth commandment. Now the sun is setting, 
the Sabbath begins, the Passover supper is eaten by the Jews, and in the morning 
will be a great convocation and feast, and the body of Jesus rests in the tomb. 
He finished His work on the sixth day, and now rests in Joseph's tomb on the 
Sabbath. 

3. Exultation and Dejection Among the Jews. — Once more the hope of 
the pious Jews expires ! The Jesus of Nazareth, who entered Jerusalem triumph- 
antly on the first day of the week, was crucified on the sixth and laid in the tomb, 
and there, on the seventh day, sleeps in death the Son of God and King of Israel ! 
Had the disciples understood the Scriptures, remembered and believed the words 
of Jesus, they might have awaited the first day of the coming week with joyful 
anticipations of a triumph over death and hell more glorious than the preceding 
first-day triumph over the priests and rulers. But, however His followers may 



CHAPTER XCVII.: SECTIONS IV. -V. 399 

still believe in Him as a great Teacher come from God, their hopes in Him as 
their promised Messiah are al4 blasted now. Herod Antipas had beheaded John 
the Baptist to please his vicious strumpet, and now Pilate has crucified Jesus of 
Nazareth to please the malignity of the hypocrits and atheists who rule the Jews. 
What think these pilgrim Jews, proselytes, and pious gentiles from far and near, 
who came to see Jesus, received His teachings with delight, saw His miracles 
with astonishment, shouted salvation to the Son of David, and now hear of His 
murder and burial? The disciples were dejected and fear the wrath of the Jews 
of Jerusalem, who are instigated and led by the chief priests, scribes, and rabbi. 
But how can these priests discharge their Passover duties with this guilt upon 
their minds ? How can any of these dignitaries eat the Passover and sing the 
Psalms for that occasion P While priests were offering the daily morning lamb 
for the sins of the people, chief priests caused the soldiers to be fastening Jesus 
to the cross ! and while priests were offering the daily evening lamb, Jesus expired 
for the sins of all nations ! Also, the third hour in the morning and the ninth in 
the evening were the hours of prayer ; and could they offer up these timely 
prayers without associating with them the space of crucifixion ? What a day was 
this to friends and foes ! From two to four millions of Jews and proselytes ate 
the Passover this day in and about Jerusalem. ^ Multitudes of them are disap- 
pointed and dejected. A multitude are congratulating themselves over their 
successful conspiracy against Jesus of Nazareth, and think they have secured their 
monopoly of the Jewish religion and can now fleece the pious Jews, proselytes, 
Samaritans, and gentiles at their pleasure. But some, who had bought spices, are 
waiting till the Sabbath be over, till they anoint that dear body lying in Joseph's 
tomb ; but late on the Sabbath day, as it began to draw toward the first of the 
week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre (perhaps 
it was a Sabbath's journey); and when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, 
and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices that they might 
anoint Him. 

4. The Sepulchre Guarded. — These atheists and hypocrits cannot rest. 
Christ had told them to destroy this temple and in three days He would raise it 
up again. They understood Him at the time, thougii they pretended to take it 
literally ; and now they fear the fulfillment. Now, on the morrow — the daylight 
of the next day, which included the last light of the Sabbath and the evening, or 
first light, of the first day — after the Preparation, when they saw the Sabbath sun 
was set and the Sabbath ended, and the evening of the first day was come, the 
chief priests and Pharisees came to Pilate and told him Jesus had said He would 
arise on the third day, and wished him to secure the sepulchre ; and Pilate gave 
it into their hands. So they sealed the stone at the door of the sepulchre and set 
a watch and made it doubly sure. 

MATT. 28:1-18; MARK 16:1-15; LUKE 24:1-50; JOHN 20, 21. §g 5-15. 

5. The Resurrection. — The morning of the first day began to dawn. The 
two Marys and Salome started for the sepulchre with the spices to anoint the 
body of Jesus, but anticipating some trouble in getting the great stone rolled 
from the door. Had they known the guard was there, and not feared their oppo- 
sition, they might have got them to roll it away. Suddenly a great earthquake 
shook the ground ; an angel of the Lord descended from Heaven and came and 
rolled back the stone from the door and sat down upon it. His countenance 
was like lightning, his raiment white as snow, and for fear of him the men on 
guard did shake and became as dead. And after Christ's resurrection many 
bodies of the saints arose and came out of their graves, which were opened by 
the earthquake at the crucifixion, and went into the holy city and appeared unto 



(5) Ps. U3-118. (6) Joseph. Wrs 6:9; 3,4, and note; 5:3; 1. 5:13. 7. 



400 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

many. So, when these three women came they saw the stone rolled away from 
the door and from the sepulchre — it was rolled ba#k — but knew not who did it. 
Mary Magdalene leaves the other two women and runs to Peter and John, exclaim- 
ing : They have taken away the Lord, and we know not where they have laid 
Him. 

6. The Three Women and Peter and John Yisit the Sepulchre. — While 
she was gone the other two women entered the sepulchre and saw two youthful 
persons in long white garments, sitting on the right side, and they were affrighted. 
These were angels, and said : Fear not ! Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was 
crucified ; He is not here, but is risen, as He promised. Come, see the place 
where they laid Him ! but go quickly and tell His disciples and Peter that He is 
risen from the dead and goes before them into Galilee ; there shall they see 
Him, just as He told them. The two women fled from the sepulchre in fear and 
trembling, and without speaking to anyone, they run, and with great joy bore the 
news to the disciples. Hearing the report of Mary Magdalene, Peter and John 
run to the sepulchre. John arrived first, and looking in, noticed the linen cloths 
lying there. Peter arriving, went right in and discovered the gravecloths disposed 
of in order and deliberation. Then John went in and viewed the disposition of 
things, and believed that Jesus had risen, but knew not that the Scriptures had 
taught His resurrection. They must have forgotten what Jesus had told them, 
or thought He spoke figuratively. So they returned to their lodgings without 
more information. But Mary Magdalene, having followed them to the sepulchre, 
remained at the entrance, and stooping down as she wept, looked into the sepulchre 
and saw two angels in white robes, one sitting at the head and the other at the 
foot of the niche in which Jesus had been laid. They said : Woman, why weepest 
thou? She replied : They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they 
have laid Him. Saying this, she turned back, or looked around, and saw Jesus 
standing, but did not recognize Him. 

7. Appears to the Three Women. — Now, when Jesus arose early the first 
day of the week. His first appearance was to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He 
had cast seven demons ; but she recognized Him not. He said : Woman, why 
weepest thou ? Whom seekest thou ? Supposing Him fo be the gardener, she 
said : Sir, if Thou hast borne Him hence, tell me, and I will take Him away. 
Jesus said : Mary! She recognized His voice, and turning entirely around said: 
My Teacher! and was about to embrace His feet. Jesus said: Touch Me not, 
for I am not yet ascended to My Father (so she would have other opportunities 
for worshiping Hira, as with the other two women), but go to My brethren and 
tell them I ascend, or will ascend, to My Father and your Father, and to My God 
and your God. She started, but meets the other two returning, who turned to 
go with her, and as they went to tell the desciples, Jesus meets them all three 
and saluted them with an All Hail ! and they embraced His feet and worshiped 
Him. Then He said: Be not afraid ; go tell My brethren to go into Galilee and 
there shall they see Me. There was the place He appointed before His crucifixion 
for meeting, and this is the second message to them to go there depending on 
His word. Yet they believed not and did not go. Such is the influence educa- 
tion and prejudice has over men's reasoning powers ; and how important to 
ascertain the truth and implant it in the minds of the rising generation. 

8. Story of the Guard. — When the guard recovered from then* panic they 
fled into the city and reported all these things to the chief priests. Then the 
priests and elders held a council and decided to bribe the soldiers with a large 
amount to confess they all had incurred the penalty of death by sleeping while on 
guard — all of them, about sixty, and their captain, too — and while they slept the 
disciples stole the corpse. They also engaged to secure them from the penalty 
for sleeping on guard. The soldiers took the bribe and told the story to the 
people, but I suppose they told the truth to the governor, who cared nothing 
about the Jews' guard, nor the body, either ; but the whole plot got out and was 



CHAPTER XO VII. : SECTIONS IX. -XII. 401 

commonly reported among the Jews when Matthew wrote the account. These 
atheists thought the supernatural evidence was over, but they have yet to face the 
evidence to be given by the Holy Spirit. 

9. Second Party of Women. — By this time the second party of women, from 
Galilee, who had bought their spices on the evening of the crucifixion, came, and 
certain others with them, while it was very early in the morning, bringing their 
spices. These found the stone rolled away, and so they entered the sepulchre ; 
but not finding the body they were much perplexed about it. Observing by them 
two men in shining garments, they bowed down their faces to the earth in rever- 
ence. The angels said: Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not 
here, but is risen. Eemember how He said unto you in Galilee, ''The Son of 
Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the 
third day rise again." Then they remembered His words, and returned from, the 
sepulchre and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. Also, Mary 
Magdalene and her company reported their message to the apostles and to those 
who had been with Him, while they mourned and wept. But these reports were 
regarded as idle tales and not believed. Peter run again to the sepulcher and 
inspected things ; he saw the linen cloths still laid by themselves, and departed, 
wondering about what had come to pass. If he saw Jesus this time, we are not 
told. Perhaps he did. 

10. Two Disciples Going to Emmaus. — These disciples were all Galileeans 
attending the feast of the Passover at Jerusalem. They feared the Jews of Jeru- 
salem and kept close quarters by themselves. They dreaded to return home and 
encounter the derision that awaited their disappointment. The twelve had for- 
saken all for Christ, and some of their mothers had supported Christ and His 
company out of their own property, and now to return with all their hopes 
blasted, was to give the victory to atheists, sceptics, and hypocrits. The women 
were rejoiced and favored with the first visits, while the better instructed disci- 
ples — the twelve and seventy — were left to sufifer awhile the fruits of their 
unbelief. Cleopas and another disciple left their lodging quarters and started to 
Emmaus, a village about seven or eight miles off". They talked about these 
events and were dejected in spirit. Jesus Himself fell into company with them 
and inquired into their trouble. They did not recognize Him, for they never 
expected to see Him in the flesh before the resurrection. They tell of the events 
and their expectations and disappointment. Then He upbraids them for their 
stupidity and unbelief in the Scriptures, and then shows them out of Moses and 
the prophets that Christ should first suffer these things and then enter into His 
glory. Their hearts burned within them while He did so, for they were vexed 
at their own foolishness, and rejoiced with reviving hopes. Still, they did not 
recognize Him till, reclining at meal. He gave thanks, broke and distributed the 
bread as usual. Then they recognized Him, but He immediately disappeared. 
They arose the same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and 
their company all together, and said: The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared 
to Simon ; and then repeated their whole story. 

11. Why Not Recognized. — The Savior's appearance after His resurrection 
must have been very difierent from what it was before His crucifixion. The 
description of His appearance given by David and Isaiah is confirmed by the 
history of His life, but after the resurrection His body, freed from the curses of 
the law, would appear in all the vigor and beauty of youth. No one would know 
Him by His visage, but His familiar words and actions arousing the associations 
of ideas, led to His identification. 

12. Appears in Their Midst. — In the evening of this first day the disciples 
were assembled as usual, and had the doors shut, or barricaded, for fear of the 
Jews of Jerusalem. Cleopas and his companion had just finished their narrative 
as Jesus stood in their midst and said : Peace be unto you. They were fright- 
ened, supposing they saw a spirit. Jesus said : Why are ye troubled, and why 

—26 



402 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet; it is Myself. 
Handle Me and see. A spirit has not flesh and bones as ye see Me have. Then 
He showed His hands and feet, with the prints of the nails in them, and in His 
side He showed the mark of the spear. They were glad when they saw the 
Lord, but some of them could hardly believe such good news, and could not 
believe their own eyes ; so Jesus asked for some food, and they gave Him a 
piece of fish and of a honey comb, and He took it and did eat it before them. 
Notwithstanding they had forsaken Him and disbelieved His word, He again 
said : Peace be unto you. As My Father has sent Me, even so I send you, and 
breathing on them He said : Receive ye the Holy Spirit. Whosoever' s sins ye 
remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosoever's sins ye retain, they are 
retained. 

13. Convinces Thomas, and, as Appointed, They Meet in Galilee. — Thomas 
was not present on this occasion, and when the others told him he said, unless he 
saw the wounds made by the nails and spear and touched them to certainty, he 
would not believe. On next First day, or eight days after this, according to 
Scripture mode of calculation, the disciples were again within, and Thomas with 
them. The doors again being shut, Jesus again suddenly stood in their midst 
and said : Peace be unto you. And having reproved them for disbelieving 
those having seen Him, He said to Thomas: Reach hither thy finger and 
behold My hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into My side ; be not 
faithless, but believing. Thomas answered : My Lord and my God. Jesus 
said: Because thou hast seen thou hast believed; blessed are they who have 
not seen and yet believed. The feast of unleavened bread having ended at the 
last sunset, the eleven, with all their companions, returned to Galilee and went to 
the mountain Jesus had appointed to them before His suffering at Jerusalem. 
There Jesus met them a^jain and they worshiped Him. But some of those with 
the eleven doubted yet. If Christ appeared to any others at the feast we are not 
told. He was not all the time with the eleven, and so may have conversed with 
those pilgrims from a distance and expounded the Scriptures to them, as He did 
to Cleophas and his company, and thus may have sent the glad tidings to 
the synagogues in remote nations. What wondrous news these returning 
pilgrims have to carry back to their synagogues, families, communities, and 
nations. 

14. At the Sea of Galilee. — At the sea of Tiberias Jesus appeared to 
seven of His disciples, who were at their old occupation of fishing, and after 
toiling all night had caught nothing. In the morning Jesus stood on the shore and 
told them to cast the net on the right side of the boat and they should find. They 
obeyed and caught so many they could not lift them into the boat, and had to 
drag them over three hundred feet to the shore. When they inclosed the lot 
John told Peter it was the Lord. Peter jerked on his fisher's coat and swam to 
meet Jesus, and let the others drag the net with the fishes. When landed, they 
saw a fire of coals and fish cooking on them, and they saw bread. Jesus told 
them to bring some of the fish they had now caught, that they might be sure of 
the miracle. They drew the net to shore with four hundred and fifty-three large 
fish, and it did not break. They regarded both the unbroken net and quantity 
of fish as miraculous, and none doubted now for they all knew Him, and it was 
the third time He had appeared to the apostles in particular after His resurrec- 
tion. Jesus invites the disciples to come and dine with Him, and ELe distributed 
to them fish and bread, showing He still possessed humanity. 

15. Destiny of Peter and John. — Having dined, Jesus asked Peter if He 
loved Him more than he loved these fish, or more than these other disciples 
loved Him ? Twice Peter answered : Yes, Lord ; Thou knowest that I love 
Thee. The third time Peter was grieved and said : Lord, Thou knowest all 
things; Thou knowest that I love Thee. Christ told him once to feed His 
lambs, and twice to feed His sheep — both the weak and the strong. Three times 



CHAPTER XC VII. : SECTIONS XVI. -XVII. 403 

had Peter denied Jesus, and yet he loved the Savior ; and now he is told that he 
will glorify God by suffering martyrdom for Christ's sake. The same Jesus who 
foretold his denials now foretells His sufferings for Christ, and tells Peter to 
follow Him, and not fishing. Peter, turning round, saw John following, and 
remembering John stood by the Savior through all His trials without denying 
Him, thought something great must be reserved for Him ; so he asked the Lord 
what John should do? Jesus simply replied: If I will that he remain till I 
come, what is that to thee ? Follow thou Me. The brethren interpreted this to 
mean that John should not die ; but Christ did not say so. 

16. FoETY Days of His Visits. — Paul mentions His appearing to more 
than five hundred brethren at once, and again to James, but the evangelists do 
not pretend to give all His appearings, nor does any one give all that are 
mentioned, but we have to collect them out of all four. Though we have but 
eleven mentioned. He may have been with them every First day, and even 
every day. For forty days was He seen of them and spoke to them of the 
things pertaining to the kingdom of God. But the next appearing on record is 
at Jerusalem, when He commanded them to not depart from the holy city till 
they received the promise of the Father that they should be baptized in the 
Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4, 5), and thus be endued with power from on high. He 
said to them : These are the words that I spoke to you while I was with you, 
that all things written in the law of Moses, in the prophets, and in the Psalms 
concerning me must be fulfilled. Then opened He their understandings that 
they might understand the Scriptures, and said to them : Thus, it is written and 
behooved Christ to sufter and to rise, the third day, from the dead, and that 
repentance and remission of sins should be proclaimed in His name among all 
nations, beginning at Jerusalem; and ye are witnesses of these things. 

17. Commission and Promises. — Matt. 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-20; Luke 
24:50-53; Acts 1:6-12. — Then He led them out as far as Bethany, about two 
miles from eTerusalem. They asked Him if He would now restore the kingdom 
to Israel. He did not tell them. That was a mistaken, foolish idea, but it was 
not their business to know the times or the seasons which the Father keeps in 
His own power ; but they should receive the power after the Holy Spirit came 
upon them, and so be competent witnesses unto Him in Jerusalem, in Judea, and 
in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. And all power, or 
authority, in Heaven and earth was now given unto Him, and in virtue of that 
authority He commissioned the disciples to go into all the world and preach the 
Gospel to every creature, and disciple not only the dispersed Jews, but all 
nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Spirit ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever He had commanded 
them. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he who believes not 
shall be condemned. These signs shall follow those who believe : In His name 
shall they cast out demons, speak with new tongues, or in new languages; shall 
take up serpents, and if they drink deadly things they shall not be hurt ; shall 
lay hands on the sick and they shall recover, and He promises : Lo, I am with 
you alway unto the end of the age, or this age, which ends at His second advent. 
This was His commission to them and to His church, which is the salt of the 
earth, the light of the world, the foundation and pillar of truth. But His authority 
over all things, offices, and relations He reserves to Himself, and employs who He 
pleases and uses them as He pleases. He is head over all things to or for the 
church. His body. His bride, divested of all civil power. Must reign till He 
subdues all to Himself. Has many crowns on His head ; is Lord of lords and 
King of kings ; wears a robe dipped in blood, and a sharp sword goes out of His 
mouth and slays His foes. "^ He has reserved all civil power to Himself, hence 
He must have something to do in all revolutions, invasions, defeats, and 



(7) Eph. 1:22; Rev. 21:2, 9; I. Cor. 15:25; Rev. 19:15, 16. 



404 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

victories. He gives programmes, and events transpire, and the coincidence 
between demands attention and shows design and an intelligent, almighty 
controller. Revolutions in the world are necessary to the consummation of the 
kingdom of God, but these Christ reserves to Himself, and has not delegated 
any civil power to His disciples.* (See chap. 108, §§2, 6, 7, 8. 117:2, 2, 4. 24, 10.) 

18. Ascension. — After He had spoken these things unto them He lifted up 
His hands and blessed them. And while their eyes were fixed on Him as He 
blessed them. He parted from them and was borne up into Heaven, and a cloud 
received Him out of their sight. He was received up into Heaven and sat down 
at the right hand of God, or possessed Divine honor and power. And they 
worshiped Him. While they stood looking steadfastly toward Heaven as He 
went up, behold ! two men in white apparel stood by them and said : Ye men 
of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? This same Jesus who is taken 
from you up into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go 
into Heaven. Then the disciples returned from the Mount of Olives, which is 
seven and one-half furlongs, or near one mile, from Jerusalem. The place of 
ascension was between Bethphage, seven and one-half furlongs, and Bethany, 
fifteen furlongs. They returned to Jerusalem with great joy. 

19. Position of Friends and Foes, and Conclusion. — John 20:30, 31. 
21:25. — As the chief priests and their confederates saw no more of Jesus, they 
considered themselves safely in power, and the disappointed people quietly 
submitted to their yoke ; the disciples who knew of the resurrection and ascension 
were contionually blessing and praising God, and frequenting the temple 
services. This was ten days before the Pentecost, or feast of first fruits and 
harvest; also feast of weeks, which was seven weeks from the Passover, begin- 
ning the count with the first day of the week and counting in the seventh Sabbath; 
and counting the first day of the eighth week makes fifty days of the Lord's 
resurrection and the Jews' Pentecost. The evangelists did not pretend to give a 
full account of the Savior's teachings and doings, which would have filled more 
volumes than the world could or would receive. But the things recorded were 
to furnish evidence that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of God, and 
that all so believing in Him might have life through His name. 



(*) I. Peter 2:13, 14; Rom. 13:1-7. 



CHAPTER XCYIII. 



SOME OF CHRIST'S TEACHINGS. 

1. What He Did Not Command. ^ — When Christ commanded the apostles to 
baptize the disciples out of all nations, what did He command them to do ? He 
did not command to purify them, or the evangelists would have used agnidzo, to 
express it ; for this verb, with its kindred nouns, were used in the Greek version 
of the Old Testament for over two hundred and fifty years before Christ to desig- 
nate the purifications of the law, and is so used by the evangelists themselves.^ 
He did not command cleansing, or the evangelists would have used kathairo, or 
katharidzo, to express it ; for this is the verb, with its kindred nouns, used in 
this Greek Bible for three hundred years before this commission to designate the 
cleansings in the law, and is so used in the New Testament. ^ Christ did not 
command to pour, or pour out upon them, or the evangelists would have used 
cheo, or ekcheo, to express it ; these are the words used in the Greek Bible for 
three hundred years before the crucifixion to designate the pourings among the 
Jews, and they are so used in the New Testament. ^ The verb governs the water 
or blood, and the preposition — epi, upon — governs the person or thing. He did 
not command washing a part of the body, as the face, and feet, and hands, or they 
would have used the word nipto to express it ; for this is the verb, with its kindred 
nouns, used in the Greek Bible for over two hundred and fifty years before Christ 
was born in Bethlehem to designate these partial washings in the law, and is so 
used in the New Testament. ^ He did not command a bathing, or entire washing 
of the body, without respect to mode, or He would have used louo to express it ; 
for this is the word used in the Greek Bible for three hundred years before the com- 
mission was given to the apostles to designate the entire washing, or bathing, of a 
person, and it is the verb so used in the New Testament. ^ He did not command 
sprinkling, or the evangelists would have used rano, or rantidzo, to express His 
command. Raino is the verb mostly used in the Greek Bible for three hundred 
years before, and sometimes rantidzo, to designate the sprinklings in the law, and 
rantidzo is the word so used in the New Testament.^ The verb governs the 
water or blood ; the preposition governs the person or thing, and shows the rela- 
tion of the material to the subject : as in pouring, the material is put on the subject. 
But if He commanded immersion, the evangelists used the very word to express 
it, and the Greek language has not another word to designate a burial under the 
surface with as much certainty. Bapto is the word used in the Greek Bible to 
designate the dippings in the law, for three hundred years before Christ's cruci- 
fixion, and baptidzo is used to designate the immersion of Naaman, the Syrian, ^ 
where the Hebrew word used is the same translated by bapto in the law, and 
bapto 6 and baptidzo are so used in the New Testament. The verb governs the 
person or thing, and the preposition eis or en, into or in, governs the blood or 
water, and shows the relation between the subject and material : dip the hyssop 
or finger into the blood , Naaman dipped himself seven times in the Jordan. 
(See chap. 84, §§ 6-10.) 

(8) John 11:55; Acts 21:26; Jas. 4:8: I. Pet. 1:22. (9) Matt. 23:25; Luke 11:39; John 
2:6. 3:25 (1) Acts 7:17; Rev. 16:1-4. 6. 8. (2) Matt. 6:7; Mark 7:3; John 13:5-13. (3) John 
13:10; Acts 9:37. 16:37; II. Pet. 2:22. (4) Heb. 9:13,' 19; I. Pet. 1:2; Heb. 10:22. (5) II. 
Kings 5:14. (6) Mark 14:20; Luke 16:24; John 13:26; Rev. 19:13. 



406 THE KINGDOM OF GOt) DEVELOPED. 

2. Uses of Baptidzo in the Scriptures. — Now, as I^aaman's dipping seven 
times in the Jordan was according to the command to wash, or bathe, seven 
times, it shows how the washings, or bathings, in the law were understood and 
performed under the law. The prophet uses the same Hebrew word used in the 
law for washing or bathing, and the historian uses the same Hebrew word to 
designate the performance that is used in the law to designate the dipping of the 
fingers, or hysop, in the blood, or oil. In the Greek Bible, the washing is 
expressed by louo, and the dipping, by baptizo. A plain case. In the Greek 
Bible the dippings in the law are designated by bapto, and the sprinklings by 
rano ; in the New Testament these same sprinklings are designated by ban- 
tidzo; would they not designate these same dippings by baptidzo? And, 
if the bathing of the flesh was performed by dipping, as Naoman did, might 
they not with all propriety call them baptisms without regarding baptidzo to 
designate any other action than immersion? Baptidzo is twice used in the 
Apochrapha to designate these entire bathings required by the law. "^ It is evi- 
dent the law required every part of the object to come in contact with the water 
and be covered with it. And this washing of the clothes and bathing of the flesh 
in water ^ was most conveniently done by the immersion of the person with the 
clothes on. Baptidzo is used in the New Testament figuratively, to denote the 
deep sorrows and sufferings of the Savior, which are always represented by sink- 
ing in mire and deep waters, and being overwhelmed by them. ^ It is also used 
in the New Testament to denote these traditionary ablutions of the Jews, which 
their rabbinical writers say were performed by immersion. ^ Now, as the evan- 
gelists wrote in Greek, they certainly were acquainted with the Greek translation 
of their Scriptures, and they quote from it. This translation was completed before 
the days of the Savior, and the translation of the law was three hundred years 
old when they wrote. It was the Bible of the learned world, of the Jews speaking 
the Greek language of the Christians for over four hundred years, and all the 
Christian translations, except the Syric, till Jerome, of the fourth century, were 
made from it. It is not plausible that the evangelists, conversant with this 
Greek Bible and quoting from it, would use baptidzo for rantidzo, ekcheo, nipto, 
or any other word that precluded immersion, in giving the express command- 
ment of Jesus Christ. 

3. Concurrent Testimony of Lexicons. — In the debate between Campbell 
and Rice, eighteen lexicons of the Greek language were produced, and not one 
of them defined baptidzo to mean pour, sprinkle, or washing by any other action 
than dipping or immersion, and Campbell said he had examined thirty-five, all of 
which concurred in the same definitions. They define it, not as they define words 
expressing the effects of action, but as they define words expressing the action 
itself. Words expressing specific action, thev define as expressing that action 
and also denoting the effects of that action. Baptidzo may denote washing, just 
as rantizo may denote wetting, or purifying, but baptidzo can no more denote 
washing, cleansing, or purifying, by sprinkling or pouring, than rantidzo or 
ekcheo can denote these effects by immersion. The English word dip may 
denote wetting, and the English word sprinkle may denote wetting, too. But, 
does dip mean to wet by sprinkling, and does sprinkle mean to wet by dipping? 
That dipping, or immersion, fulfills the divine command to wash or bathe, we 
have seen in the case of Naaman; but to wash, bathe, purify, or clean by sprink- 
ling, pouring, or dashing, can not fulfill the divine command to dip or immerse. 

4. Uses of Baptidzo in the Language. — I have examined all the uses of 
this word, produced by the best and most responsible writers on both sides of 
the controversy, and since then have examined the uses collected by Conant, who 
professes to give all the uses of the verb to be found in the language, and the 



(7) Judith 12:7; Eccl. 31:30, in some 25. and in Trans. 34:25. (8) Liv. 11:32; Nam. 31:23, (9) 
Pd. 69:1, 2, 14, 15. 42:17. 134:3. 4. (1) Gill. Comnt ; Mark 7:28. 



0HA1»T]EK XCVIli. t SECl^IONS V.-VI. 40T 

English word immerse will make good sense in many places, whether used liter- 
ally or figuratively. Josephus was a contemporary of the apostolic mission, and 
commanded in Galilee when the Jews provoked their own destruction and dis- 
persion by the Romans, and wrote a history in Jewish Greek. He uses baptizo 
to denote the sinking of ships, drowning of persons, ^ putting the ashes into the 
water, as he expressed it before^ (though not the way the law directed), and for 
dead drunk, ^ plunging the sword in up to the hilt. ^ He designates John's rite 
by this word, and tells us the body was washed. ^ That immersion is the primary 
meaning of the word is granted by all entitled to the name of Greek scholarship, 
but some think it was not practiced in every case, and others think it not essential 
to the rite, though they admit it was the practice of John and the apostles. The 
English word immerse means to wash, wet, and purify, just as much as the 
Greek word baptidzine. Hence, the command of Christ is to immerse, and water 
is implied. The burial and resurrection"^ and the washing away of sin and pol- 
lution ^ are circumstantial, though significant and instructive. 

5. Faith that Saves. — What faith is this to which salvation is promised in 
the apostolic commission? (See chap. 86, §§ 6-10.) Faith is a co-relative term 
and must have an object, and it may be used as a part, to denote the whole 
gospel system. It can not denote the belief of some individual truth. The 
demons acknowledged Jesus of Nazareth to be the Christ, the Son of God ; the 
enemies of Jesus believed the Christ to be the son of David; nothing short of 
faith, or belief, in Him, or, as often expressed, into Him, can secure eternal life. 
He that believes into Him is not judged, but he that believes not has already 
been judged, because He has not believed into the name of the only Begotten 
Son of God. He that believes into the Son has everlasting life, and he not per- 
suaded by the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon Him.^ 
Thus, we see, believe what you may, or how you may, unless you have faith in 
Jesus Christ you are judged already, and the wrath of God abides upon you. 
I'aul's definition of faith^ includes both a vivid conception of the object and a 
firm confidence in its reality. Believing with the heart^ is believing with 
e .notions, or till the heart is afiected and strong emotions aroused and actions 
prompted, and stands in opposition to careless indifference. To believe in the 
Son of God in truth, is to have vivid conception of His attributes and offices, full 
confidence in Him, and strong emotions prompting to action. 

6. What is Faith In, or Into, Christ. — What do you mean by faith in th^t 
man? Faith in that man's honesty ? Faith in his teaching ? Faith in learning? 
In medicine ? I mean confidence. Now, if I have faith in Jesus Christ, I have 
confidence in Him that He is just what He professes to be, that He will do what 
He promises to do, and I will act according to that faith. If I do not act accord- 
ingly, I show a want of faith, or an indiff'erence about the object. Show me thy 
faith by thy works and I will show you my faith by my works. ^ This is the 
Christian motto. Now, Christ professes to be the Teacher, the Savior, and the 
Sovereign. Those altering or perverting His teachings show they have more 
conceit in themselves than faith in Christ. Those trying to get to Heaven when 
they die, and to be ready for death, show they have not confidence in Him as a 
Savior. Eternal life is the gift of God,^ and, having accepted this gift as a free 
grace, we leave the matter of getting to Heaven with Christ. Now, we make 
the kingdom of God the first object in importance, desire and labor to be wholly 
transformed into His image, seek to have His truths, laws, and teachings estab- 
lished in the world. Those who will not obey Christ, and those who try to 
remain ignorant of His laws, who set aside His commandments because they 
dislike them, and those who abuse language and pervert evidence to evade His 



(2) Joseph. Wrs., bk. 3, chap. 8. § 5. 2:2, 1. 3:9, 3. 3:10, 9; Life of, p. 4, § 3; Ant., 9:10, 2. 

(3) 4:4, 6. (4) Aat., 10:9, 4. (5) Wrs., 2:18, 4. (6) Ant., 18:5, 5. (7) Rom. 6:3-5. Col. 2:10-12. 
(8) Acts 22:16; I. Pet. 3:21. (9) John 3:18, 36. (I) Heb. 11:1. (2) Rom. 10:10. (3) Jas. 2:18. 

(4) Rom. 6:23. 



40^ T'HE KiNGBOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

authority, show they do not believe in Him as a Sovereign. If they believed in 
Him as their King, they would pray, without hypocrisy, Thy will be done on 
earth as it is done in Heaven, ^ and they would labor to know and do it. To 
believe in Jesus Christ is to become His disciple indeed, receive His instruc- 
tions, rely on Him for salvation, and obey His laws. 

7. What is the Salvation '? — The salvation promised to faith in Jesus Christ 
is eternal life. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son 
of Man be lifted up, that whosoever beHeves in Him may have eternal life. For 
God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son that whosoever 
believes in Him should not perish, but may have eternal life. He who believes 
in the Son has everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to judge 
the world, but that the world, through Him, might be saved. ^ Yerily, I say to 
you: He that hears My word and believes Him that sent Me has everlasting 
life and comes not into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. "^ For this 
is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him 
may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. He that 
believes in Me has everlasting life. ^ If any one keeps My saying, he shall never 
see death. ^ I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. ^ He who 
believes in Me, though he be dead, yet shall he live; and he who lives and 
believes in me shall never die. ^ He that loves his life shall lose it, and he that 
hates his life in this world shall keep it into life eternal. If anyone serves Me, 
let him follow Me, and where I am there also shall my servant be. ^ 

8. Eternal Life not Temporal Life. — Eternal life is distinguished from 
the present life and denotes the future life. Israel was promised in the law a 
large and prosperous life with rich enjoyments if they were obedient, and the 
Psalms predicate the same of the righteous, but not anything was said about a 
future life. But Christ promises His followers sorrows, tribulations, and perse- 
cutions in this life, but in the coming age, eternal life.* And he that loses his 
present life for Christ's sake, keeps it to life eternal. It stands in opposition to 
perishing at last, as a lost sheep starved to death or devoured by wolves, and 
denotes a happy life after the resurrection. But it also stands in opposition to 
natural death and sheol, or hades, and denotes a life of happy enjoyment which 
is not affected nor interrupted by natural death. ^ The living believer shall never 
die, and the believer already dead shall live; and this living is not after the 
resurrection, for Martha understood the resurrection and the Pharisees believed 
in it. Christ repeatedly presents this eternal life, and represents it as in the 
believer's possession now, and never suspended, broken, nor lost in natural 
death. The believer never dies, and those eating His flesh never die. ^ 

9. Opposed to Sheol, or Hades. — With the Jew, death and sheol were 
inseparably connected. '^ AH that died went to sheol, both the pious and impious, 
and remained there till the resurrection. Much of Christ's teaching is leveled 
against that opinion. If that opinion was only a myth. He designed to root it 
out of the minds of His disciples, and earnestly pressed the opposite on their 
minds in His farewell conversation. ^ He was going to the Father, but would 
come back and take them with Him ; and where He was, there should His servants 
and followers be, and He prayed that they might be with Him to behold His 
glory. If the opinion was authentic, then He intimated that He would release 
the pious spirits and make them perfect and happy with the angels in Heaven in 
the presence of God ; though dead, yet should they live with Christ after His 
resurrection, and henceforward His disciples never die, but when absent Irom the 
body they were present with the Lord. Paul set forth this fact in a very plain 
and forcible manner. ^ Thus, life and immortality were brought to light by the 



(5) Matt. 6:10. (6) John 3:14-17, 36. (7) 5:24. (8) 6:40. 47-50. (9) 8:51. (1) 10:^8. 
(2) 11:25, 26. (3) 12:25, 26. (4) Mark 10:29, 30. (5) John 11:25, 26. (6) 6:51, 54, 58 (7) See 
chaps. 27, §§ 16-19. 42, §§ 2-10. 72, § 3. (8) See chap. 95, §§ 11, 12. (9) II. Cor. 5:1-9. 



V 

ditll^tEK XCVIII. : SECTIONS X. -XI. 400 

Gospel;! and Stephen laid hold of that hope, and committed his spirit to Christ, 
whom he saw. ^ Thus, while the Christian was notified that the consummation 
of the kingdom of God was about two thousand years in the dim future, he was 
animated with the cheering assurance that death augmented his life and intro- 
duced him into the living paths, fullness of joys, and everlasting pleasures in the 
presence of God, and at His right hand.^ Israel was animated at different times 
with the hope of reahzing the promises of Moses in this age ; but now, that hope 
being postponed for many generations, the glorious inheritance just over there is 
brought to full view. The martyrs in the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus 
had no hope of reward till the resurrection. 

10. JosEPHUs ON Hades or Sheol. — Josephus professes to give an account 
of the Jews' ideas of hades, as the Greeks call the Hebrew sheol. It is a 
rough, untinished region away down under the earth, and very dark in the first 
part of it. There is but one descent down to the gate, where stands an arch-angel 
with an host. Both pious and impious have to go this same rugged path to the 
gate ; but here they take different ways. The pious are conducted, by angels 
singing hymns, on the right hand to a region of light called Abraham's bosom. 
Here the just have dwelt since the beginning of the world, enjoying the prospect 
of the good things they have in view, and rejoicing in the expectation of these 
new enjoyments peculiar to every one of them, and esteeming those things beyond 
what we have here. They have no toil, no burning heat, no piercing cold, nor 
any briers; but the countenances of the fathers, or patriarchs, and the just, who 
they always see, smile upon them, while they wait tor the rest and eternal new 
life in Heaven, which is to succeed this region. There they tarry till the resur- 
rection of all men, then they go to Heaven. The unjust are dragged by the angels 
to the left hand, then are sent to them the angels appointed over them to 
reproach and threaten them with their terrible looks, and to thrust them still 
downward and drag them into the neighborhood of hell itself, or the lake of 
unquenchable fire, where they continually hear the noise and feel the hot vapor. 
Having a near view of this terrible prospect of fire, they are struck with a fearful 
expectation of a future judgment at the resurrection, when they will be cast into 
it, and be tormented with fiery worms that always torment, but never destroy the 
body. Then they have perpetual griefs and cannot die. There is a chaos, both 
deep and large, separating them from the pious in Abraham's bosom, who they 
can see, and be seen by, but cannot pass or change places.^ The ideas of hades 
held by the most ancient Greeks are not much unlike those of the Jews as described 
by Josephus,^ and show a common origin. 

11. Correspondence in Scripture. — Now, this account by Josephus accords 
so well with the Savior's narrative of the rich man and Lazarus, and with all 
other allusions in the New Testament to it, we may regard it as a true account 
of the Jews' ideas about the disembodied state. His account of Abraham's 
bosom places it in a better light than any conclusion I had drawn from the Old 
Testament writers. 

Having by death destroyed him who had the power of death, Jesus has 
now the keys of hades, or sheol, and of death, ^ and can put in and take 
out who He pleases ; and He pleases now to have His disciples with Him in 
Heaven, where are the spirits of just men made perfect, and innumerable compa- 
nies of angels. '^ David represents Christ as being in sheol while His body was 
in the tomb ; but His body did not see corruption, and His soul was not left in 
sheol. After this, was he shown the paths of life, the fullness of joy before God's 
face, and the everlasting pleasures at His right hand. ^ If this description pre- 
sents things as they really happened, I have no doubt but Christ released all His 



(1) I. Tim, 1:10. (2) Acts 7:59. (3) Fs. 16:9-11. (4) Joseph. Hades, pp. 608-9; Isa. 
14:9-11; Ezek. 31:16-18. 32:21-27. (5) Comp. Cmmt., Vol.- 3, pp. 239-40. (6) Rev. 1:18. (7) Heb. 
12:22-4. (8) Ps. 16:9-11. 



410 TfiE KINGDOM Ot GOt) DEV£L01»ED. 

pious witnesses from sheol at His resurrection, and some, still remembered in 
Jerusalem, were permitted to reanimate their bodies in the opened sepulchres, 
aod to appear to their former acquaintances in the citj, and then all went with 
Him to ^lorj. Then would the language of another Psalm be literal : Thou hast 
ascended on high gloriously and led the captivity captives. Paul comments on 
this ascension as literal, and the descent into the lower parts of the earth as 
literal, and the gifts received and bestowed were literally the gifts of the Spirit.^ 

12. Viewed According to Our Ideas of the Universe. — According to our 
ideas of the universe, sheol would be some planet, or fixed star, different from the 
earth, and also from the Third Heaven. Now, is there anything implausible in 
the idea tliat departed spirits were detained in some other world than in the pres- 
ence of the divine glory or in the ultimate perdition prepared for the Diabolos 
and his angels till the resurrection and final judgment? Christ is the resurrection 
and the Judge, and now has all power in Heaven, earth, and sheol, and can open 
and shut as He pleases. He may now take His true followers directly into 
Heaven, and raise their bodies in the resurrection to life, and they" will not fear 
the resurrection to judgment nor the second death. They have passed out of 
death into life and shall not come into judgment. Those not truly His, He may 
reserve in sheol till the resurrection to judgment ; then death and hades shall give 
up their prisoners, who shall be judged according to their works. All in sheol 
will have to fear the second death till they hear the decision of the Judge. But 
the fact is, the martyrs in the persecution by Antiochus did animate one another 
with the hope of reward at the resurrection, but say nothing of any reward or 
enjoyment in the intermediate state, and the Old Testament furnishes no examples 
of dying saints speaking of any Heavenly felicity between death and the resur- 
rection. It is also the fact, since the resurrection of Christ, the apostles consider 
the spirits of just men made perfect, the innumerable company of angels, the 
records of the first-born, God the Judge, and Christ the Mediator, as constituting 
the superior Jerasalem, now in Heaven, and accessible to the followers of Christ 
on earth — ye are come ; and that is the royal city of the kingdom of God. 

13. The Christian's Hope at Death. — The Christian's hope at death is 
well presented by Paul: If our earthly mode of existence and communication 
were destroyed, we have another indestructible mode in the Heavens, made of 
God. In this we groan, longing for that from Heaven ; for we see we shall not 
be found destitute. Therefore, being always confident, and knowing that while 
at home in the body we are absent from the Lord, * ^ "^ we are confident and 
well pleased rather to leave our home in the body and to be at home in the Lord. 
To remain with the churches was more profitable to them, but to depart and 
be with Christ was better for him. To live, was Christ ; but to die, was gain. 
Wherefore we gjso strive that, whether present or absent, we may be well pleas- 
ing to Him. 1 iThis is the eternal life : To know all that can be known of the 
Father and of the Son, and to confide in them, and love and obey them. ^ This 
is a source of enjoyment and happiness that can not be interrupted by dropping 
this body into the tomb, but it continues and increases in Heaven, where Jesus 
is ; and after the resurrection, this knowledge qualifies the believer for whatever 
sphere he may occupy, and for whatever work God gives him to do. The 
believer in Jesus Christ has nothing now to do with sheol or hades. 

14. Salvation from God's Wrath in this Life. — Salvation is a co-relative 
term, and must refer to some evil from which the person is saved. From what 
evil is this salvation ? The prophet Joel speaks of a great and terrible day of 
the Jehovah, and in that day those who call on the name of Jehovah shall be 
saved ; for in Zion, and in Jerusalem, shall be deliverance or salvation. ^ All the 
prophets do predict some terrible times; the Savior, also, foretold to His apostles 
the destruction of Jerusalem, and temple, and of awful times to the Jews, which 



(9) 68:18; Eph. 4:8-11. (1) II. Cor. 5:1-9. (2) John 17:3. (3) Joel 2:28-32; Acts 2:14-40. 



cflAPTER xcvm. : section^ x v. -xvi. 411 

they would have prevented had they believed Him to be the Messiah and 
obeyed Hitn. He promised the disciples deliverance, and gave them signs by 
which they escaped that catastrophe in Judea. This salvation is not restricted to 
the Jews, but extends to all nations; and so the evil must be common to all nations. 
The prophets threathened all nations with terrible destructions, and that, too, in 
regard to their relation to the development of the kingdom of God. Now, if all 
nations believed in Jesus Christ and honestly obeyed Him, they would certainly 
be saved from these awful devastations, and they would also enjoy that happy 
age so glowingly predicted by the same prophets. Christ says : Those, Mine 
enemies, that would not that I should reign over them, bring them here and 
slay them before Me.* But if they had believed in Christ and obeyed Him, 
they would have been saved, and not condemned and slaughtered. Certainly 
this salvation is from these evils, terrible judgments, and devastations visited on 
the Jews and nations that disbelieve in Christ and do not obey Him ; or corrupt 
His religion and persecute His kingdom. All nations, communities, and socie- 
ties that do not believe in Jesus Christ, and obey Him, are condemned ; the 
wrath of God abides on them, and will be fearfully executed. 

15. Salvation from Eternal Wrath. — Christ speaks of other evils, from 
which salvation is desirable. Faith in Christ Jesus could not save from the 
opposition, hatred, and persecution of the world, for He assured His disciples 
they would be opposed, hated, and persecuted by the world, and by hypocrits. 
Nor are they saved from the derangement of creation, or bondage of corruption, 
under which the whole creation groans, and will groan, till the glorious consum- 
mation of the kingdom of God and manifestation of the Son of God. ^ There is 
an evil, represented by outer darkness, where is weeping and gnashing of teeth, 
where the unprepared watchers and unprofitable servants are cast, while the 
profitable servants are richly rewarded, and the wise virgins feasted. ^ There is 
also a furnace of fire where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth, into which 
are cast the children of the wicked one who get into the kingdom of God during 
the intermediate age ; while the righteous, or heirs of the kingdom, shine as the 
sun in the kingdom- of their Father. "^ Also, there is the everlasting fire for the 
Devil and his angels (also called everlasting punishment), where those who never 
befriend Christ's brethren are sent; while those befriending are blessed in the 
everlasting kingdom of their Father. ^ Then, there is the Gehenna of fire, where 
their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched, which is placed in opposition 
to the kingdom of God. Christ said it was better to loose an eye, hand, or foot, 
and go into the kingdom of God in that mutilated condition, than to keep the 
body entire and be cast into that fiery Gehenna. ^ And there is that lake of fire 
and brimstone called the second death, into which the beast, false prophet, red 
dragon, and all those not registered in the Lamb's book of life, and death, and 
hades are cast. The opposite to this lake is the consummated kingdom of God 
with its new Jerusalem, and the new Heaven, and new earth. ^ 

16. These Evils Are in the Future. — Now, all these representations of 
evil and misery refer to the second advent of Christ, or something in the spirit 
world, as was the case of the rich man and Lazarus, ^ and designate the destiny 
and condition of hypocrits, unbelievers, and hostile opposers of Christ and His 
kingdom ; hence, this salvation promised must certainly comprehend the salvation 
from these evils. Whether these representations literally describe diff'erent kinds 
and degrees of misery, or are figurative descriptions of what is hard to be 
described, they present the ideas of tribulations and anguish, indignation and 
wrath, terrible to be contemplated and awful to be endured. ^ From all these 
evils believers in Jesus Christ are saved, as well as from the wrath of God on 
nations and societies ; and to all these evils are the unbelievers condemned. 



(4) Luke 19:27. (5) Rom. 8:18-23. (6) Matt. 25:28. 30. 8:11, 12. 25:1-12. (7) Matt. 
13:49, 50. (8) Matt. 25:34, 41, 46. (9) Mark 9:47, 48". (1) Rev. 19:2. 20:10. 14, 15. (2j Luke 
16:19-25. (3) Rom. 2:6-10, 16. 



41S fHE KiNGJDOM OF GOD DiiVfiLOt'fiD. 

Contemplate these representations, both literally and figuratively. Remember, 
the righteous and the wicked shall be separated.'* Consider what sufferings and 
woe the wicked have inflicted on one another and on the pious. Think on the 
judgments sent on the impious in this world in famines, wars, pestilences. Reflect 
on the mental agonies of Jesus Christ! then you may begin to form some 
conceptions of the horrible condemnation of those who reject salvation by faith 
in Jesus Christ. 

17. Obedience Indispensable. — Obedience to Jesus Christ is indispensably 
connected with, and necessarily emanates from, faith in Jesus Christ. Christ 
commanded the apostles to teach the saved to observe all things whatsoever He 
had commanded. ^ No authority is given to alter or dispense with any command. 
Christ makes obedience to His commands the test of love to Him, of true 
discipleship, and genuine friendship. He says those who keep not His sayings 
do not love Him. ^ Some things commanded are good works and useful in 
themselves, and must be performed when occasion requires."^ Two institutions 
commanded are church ordinances, and separated from the commands have no 
virtue in themselves — produce no good nor evil in the order of cause and efl^ect. 
When observed out of obedience and love to Christ they become memorials of 
great events and instructions, present fundamental truths in tangible forms, and 
by the association of ideas, furnish the soul with pleasing contemplations and 
enriching meditations. But we must be careful and not ascribe to these acts of 
obedience the blessings conferred by free grace. These rites are not the 
procuring causes of salvation, nor yet the channels through which it is conveyed 
to the soul, but are privileges bestowed on believers, sources of heavenly 
enjoyment to them, and remind them of their present relation to Christ and 
future destiny. (Continued in chap. 100.) 



CHAPTER XCIX. 



COLLATERAL HISTORY OF THE JEWS AND ROMAN RULERS. 

(Continued from Chapter 80.) 

1. TiBEEiAS, Herods, AND PiLATE. — When Christ was born, A. M. 4000, 
Augustus was emperor of Rome and Herod was king of the Jews. Herod died 
A. M. 4002, and his kingdom was divided into four parts. His son Archelaus 
was tetrarch of Idumea, Judea, and Samaria; Herod Antipas was tetrarch of 
Galilee and Perea ; and Philip, of Iturea and the regions of Trachonitis. ^ In this 
change of rulers the Jews lost five thousand or six thousand men, slaughtered by 
Archelaus and by Sabinus Caesar's procurator.^ In A. M. 4011 Archelaus was 
banished and his dominions added to the province of Syria, and Coponius was 
the first governor under the president of Syria,* and Pilate was the fitth — A. M. 
4080, or A. D. 26. 5 In A. M. 4018 (A. D. 14) Augustus Csesar died, and was 
succeeded by Tiberias as Roman emperor. Pilate was the first Roman governor, 
or procurator, that attempted to infringe the sacred laws of the Jews : Removing 
the army from Csesarea to winter in Jerusalem ; he brought the ensigns, with 



(4) Matt. 25:31-33. (5) Matt. 28:20. (6) John 14:21, 23. 24. (7) I. Tim 5:9, 16. (1) Joseph. 
Ant. 17:11, 4; Luke 3:1. (2) Joseph. Ant. 17:9, 3. 10. (3) Joseph, Ant. 17:13, 5. (4) Joseph. 
Ant. 18:1, 1. (5) Joseph. Ant. 18:2, 2. 



tJHAPTER XCIX. : SECTIONS II. -V. 413 

Caesar's effigies on them, into the city by night. The people came in multitudes 
to him into Csesarea and besought him to remove them. On the sixth day he 
surrounded them with his soldiers and threatened them with immediate death 
unless they ceased disturbing him, and went home. But they threw themselves 
on the ground, bared their necks, and offered to suifer death rather than see their 
wise laws transgressed. Pilate relented, and respecting their zeal for their laws 
ordered the ensigns to be returned to Csesarea. ^ 

2. In A.M. 4041 ( A. D. 37) Tiberius Caesar died, and was succeeded by 
Caius Caligula as Roman emperor. Eusebius says''' Pilate wrote an account of 
Jesus and His crucifixion to Tiberius, who wished to have Jesus enrolled among 
the gods. The Senate refused. Tertullian asserts tliis in an apology addressed 
to the Roman emperor in his day, and ridicules the idea of the gods being 
dependent on men for their divinity. Pilate was banished about this time by 
Yitelleus, president of Syria, who restored to the Jews some of their rights and 
appointed Marcellus governor of Judea. Yitelleus also deposed Caiaphas from 
the high priesthood and appointed Jonathan. ^ Piiilip having died, his tetrarchate 
was given by Caius to Agrippa, grandson of Herod the Great by Mariamne; 
hence, some of the Maccabean blood ran in his veins. ^ Antipas was now 
banished and his tetrachate given to Agrippa. 

3. The Emperor Claims Divine Honors. — About this time the Jews^ of 
Alexandria sent an embassy to Rome to petition Caius for protection against the 
Greeks of that city, but Apion appeared for the Greeks and accused the Jews of 
refusing the divine honors to statues, altars, and temples of the Roman emperors 
that other nations paid to the Caesars. Caius was so enraged he would not 
permit Philo to speak for the Jews, but asked him if they were that odious race 
which refused to acknowledge him for their god ? After much ridicule, sarcasm, 
and insult, he dismissed the deputies, saying those men who would not believe in 
him as a god were, in his opinion, rather miserable than wicked, and then 
bid them to be gone. Philo told the Jews around him to be of good courage, 
for Cains' words did show anger to them, but in reality had already set God 
against himself.^ 

4. Attempt to Place His Statue in the Temple. — Caius did not stop 
here, but removed Yitelleus, who had conferred favors on the Jews, and super- 
seded him in the presidency of Syria with Petronius, and ordered him to raise 
an army, invade Judea and erect his statue in the temple of Jehovah. Petronius 
raised an army of auxiliaries and took two legions of the Roman army, but he 
stopped to winter at Ptolemais and reported progress to Caius, who commended 
him for his alacrity. But now came many thousands of the Jews and petitioned 
him to not do it, or to kill them first, for while they lived they could not permit 
what was prohibited by their legislator. Petronius told them their words were 
very proper to him if he acted from his own determination, but as disobedience 
would be destruction to him, he must obey Caesar. The Jews replied, as he would 
not disobey Caesar neither would they transgress the commands of their law. 
They referred to the fidelity of their ancestors in maintaining these laws, and 
dare not themselves fear to die for them. They profess their confidence in 
Jehovah and assert Him to be greater than Caius, the Roman emperor. Their 
speech was noble and magnanimous. 

5. Noble Conduct of Petronius. — Seeing their determination, he hastened 
to Tiberius to discover the condition of the Jewish affairs. Here again he was 
met by thousands who knew the consequences of war with the Roman empire, 
but judged the transgression of their law was of much greater consequence. 
These told Petronius they would not make war with Caesar, but they would die 
before they would see their laws transgressed. They offered to die on the spot, 



(6) Joseph. Ant. 18:3, 1. (7) Euseb. bk. 2, chap. 3. (8) Joseph. Ant. 18:4, 2, 3, 6. (9) Jos. 
Ant. 18:6, 10. (1) Joseph. Ant. 18:7, 2. (2) Joseph. Ant. 18:8. 1; Town, note 5, p. 6, New Test. 



414: THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

and left off attending to their crops ! Some of the Herod family, in great inflaence 
with the Romans, importuned Petronius to not drive the Jews to despair, but to 
write to Caius and show him the true state of things. Petronius summoned the 
Jews into the presence of his drawn up army and told them his wrath would be 
executed without delay on such as had courage to contradict him. But he saw 
proper to risk his own destruction from Caius Csesar rather than sacrifice so 
many of them, and with the supreme assistance and power of God he would 
not suffer their temple to fall into contempt by means of the imperial decree. He 
acknowledges the power of God to be above the contrivance and power of any, 
and he commended them for their fidelity to their institutions and magnanimity 
in the support of their religion, promises to suffer for them, and advises thein to 
go home, and attend to the cultivation of the ground. They followed his advice, 
and now after a great drouth, a great and unexpected rain filled them with hope 
that God had interposed for them and Petronius would be successful. Petronius 
was surprised to see how evidently God took care of the Jews. 

6. The Deliverance. — Petronius wrote all these particulars to Caius, and 
told him God, who was their governor, had shown His power most evidently on 
their account, and that so as left no room to doubt. King Agrippa lived now at 
Rome and was a special favorite with Caius. Pursuing a strategy similar to that 
of Queen Esther with Ashuerus, and as dangerous to his own life, he got Caius 
to give up the setting up of his statue in the temple at Jerusalem. Then Caius 
wrote to Petronius commending him for assembling his army and then consulting 
him, and told him to let the statue stand if already set up, and if not set up to 
desist and attend to his other business. This he granted out of favor to Agrippa 
Herod. After sending this letter Caius received the one sent to him by 
Petronius, and was so exasperated he wrote to Petronius threatening to make 
him an example to all ages, that none may dare disobey their emperor. But 
before Petronius received this letter he received the news of the death of Caius.* 

7. Claudius, Agrippa, and Roman Governors. — (A. M. 4045-4058. A. D. 
41-54.) Caius Caligula Caesar was slain A. M. 4045 (A. D. 41), and Claudius 
Cgesar became Roman emperor. * Claudius adds Idumea, Judea, and Samaria 
to the dominion of Agrippa, so now the kingdom of Herod the Great, or first, is 
again united under the scepter of the grandson, Herod Agrippa, son of Aristo- 
bulus, and Herod, his brother, was king of Colchis. Agrippa secured from 
Claudius the restoration of the former rights and privileges of the Jews in 
Alexandria, Judea, and throughout the Roman empire. ^ He did much for the 
Jews, but like all the Herod s, he could worship Jehovah in Jerusalem and the 
Roman emperor in any other place. At Csesarea he accepted the homage of a 
deity, but soon died confessing his folly. ^ After this his kingdom was ruled by 
Roman governors, but the disposing and appointing of the high priests was 
committed to his brother, Herod, king of Colchis, and afterward to his son, 
Agrippa.*^ The first governor after Agrippa was Cuspius Fadus;^ after him 
were Alexander, Cumenus, Felix, Festus, Albinus, and Florus. A. M. 4058, or 
A. D. 54, Claudius Caesar was poisoned and Nero became emperor. Nero was 
succeeded A. M. 4073, A. D. 69 by Yespasian, who destroyed Jerusalem A. M. 
4074 A. D. 70. (Continued in chap. 107.) 



(3) Joseph. Ant. 18:8, §§2-9. (4) Joseph. Ant. 19:1, 14, 15, and chap. 3. (5) Joseph. Ant. 
19:5. Wrs. 2:11. (6) Joseph. Ant. 19:6-8: Acts 12:1, 2, 20-23. (7) Joseph. Aut. 20:10, 1, chap. 
1:2, 3, chap. 18:8, 11, chap. 9:1, 4, 6, 7. (8) Joseph. Ant. chap. 19:9, 2. 



Period Sixteenth. A, M. 4033, or A. B. 29. 
Apostolic Mission. A. M. 4033^4104, or A. D. 29-100. 
June 6th, Pentecost. {Acts I.) 

CHAPTER C. 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD COME IN POWER TO THE JEWS. (Continued 

from Chap. 98. ) 

1. People Congregated for the Pentecost. — The Pentecost, or feast of 
weeks, draws near,, and the Jews, proselytes, and pious gentiles begin to crowd 
Jerusalem by thousands and tens of thousands. Josephus says the gifts from 
Babylonia were accompanied by ten thousands to guard them from the 
Parthians, ^ and he computes the purified Jews and proselytes who eat the 
Passover at about three million. ^ These came from all parts ot the world where 
Jews and Israelites had been dispersed for from five hundred to seven hundred 
years. There theyhad witnessed for the true God, His laws, writings,, and 
institutions, and still kept up communication when possible with Jerusalem, 
their holy city, and watched for the coming of their Messiah. Four Passovers, 
three Pentecosts, and three feasts of tabernacles, and other minor feasts have 
been celebrated since John the Baptist began proclaiming the kingdom of God 
at hand and testified the Son of God had come. Christ Himself had cast the 
traffickers out of the temple, taught the people, and wrought miracles in it. 
These wondrous eventshad been reported to the dispersed in all parts of the 
world by the returning worshipers from Jerusalem, and now we find devout and 
pious men out of all nations, and speaking all languages, sojourning in Jerusalem 
and waiting for the setting up of the kingdom of God. These will make 
most competent missionaries to carry back to their native lands the richest boon 
of God to the nations. All things are now ready for the kingdom of God te> 
come in power. And such are the preparations Jehovah has been making for it 
by the training up of the seed of Abraham and their dispersion among all nations. 

2. State of the Public Mind. — The events of the last Passover must 
have blasted the glowing expectations of many, and the report of His resurrec- 
tion must have astonished every pious, desponding soul who heard of it. The 
empty sepulchre, the story of the guards, and the testimony of those who saw 
Him must have perplexed many thoughtful minds. But all are zealous of the 
law, and if they can they will attend the Pentecost; and many from a great 
distance will remain from the Passover till the Pentecost, and attend the daily 
worship in the temple during the interval. Christ no more appears in the 
temple ; no more is He followed through Judea by the crowds ; and the chief 
priests and their coadjutors will feel themselves secure in their extortions on the 
pious worshipers, while three millions of half-shekels, in addition to brokers' 
fees and purchases of offerings, will support their covetousness. 



(9) Joseph. Ant. 18:9, 1. (1) Wrs. 6:9, 3, 2:14, 3. 



416 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

3. The First Congregation of Disciples. — Besides their daily attendance 
in the temple, the eleven apostles held prayer meetings during the preceding 
nine or ten days in an upper room — perhaps the one in which they ate the Pass- 
over. Other disciples, men and v^omen, attended with them in these prayer 
meetings. We are not told whether all who witnessed Christ's resurrection, 
including the tive hundred brethren who saw Him at the same time (I. Cor. 15:6), 
and the sisters who may have exceeded their number, ever met together before 
this Pentecost; but when Matthias was chosen to take the place of Judas, the 
number was one hundred and twenty. The fate of Judas was public, and the field 
bought with his money was known to all the dwellers in and about Jerusalem, 
and, as the psalmist of Israel foretold, his office must be filled by another. Peter 
proposed the measure to the brethren, and they appointed two of those who had 
always accompanied Jesus, saw His works, heard His teachings, and witnessed 
His resurrection ; then they prayed the Lord to show which one of them should 
take part with the apostles in their ministry and apostleship, then gave their lots, 
and Matthias was chosen and numbered with the eleven. And now they waited 
for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. 

4. Descent of the Holy Spirit. — Acts 2. — The count for the fiftieth com- 
menced the morrow after the Sabbath of the Passover ; then seven weeks, or 
forty-nine days, brought the seventh Sabbath on the seventh day of the week; 
this seventh day ended with the setting sun, and the first day began ; when the 
sun arose on the first day the morrow of the Pentecost was fully come. This was 
the Pentecost sun, or morrow sun. The company of congregated disciples, when 
last mentioned, numbered one hundred and twenty. Whether any more of the 
disciples attended their meeting before this Pentecost morning, we are not told, 
but at least all of the one hundred and twenty were with one accord in one place, 
where multitudes could collect. Suddenly there came a sound out of Heaven, as 
of a violent blast, and it filled all the house where they were assembled. And 
there appeared to them cloven tono^ues, or disparted flames, of fire, and sat on 
each of them. And they were all tilled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak 
fluently in diff'erent languages as the Spirit gave them utterance. The genuineness 
of these gifts in different languages was soon tested, for there were pious men 
from all parts of the known world present, who spoke the different languages 
and dialects of all the countries where they had been born and raised ; and when 
this wonder was noised abroad the multitude collected to see this new wonder. 

5. Witnesses to the Fact. — Here were present some born and raised among 
the Parthians, Medes, and Elamites or Persians, away east of the Tigris, and 
others in Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates ; some born and raised 
in Palestine, Syria, and all those countries between the Black sea and the Med- 
iterranean to the Bosphorus ; others from Africa, south of the Mediterranean, as 
Libya, Cyrene, and Egypt ; others were from Rome and the islands of the sea, as 
Crete and Cyprus, and others were from Arabia and adjoining countries. Some 
of these were born and raised in these countries and knew no language but that 
of their native countries, where their forefathers had sojourned from one to seven 
hundred years ; others were gentiles of these different countries, who had aban- 
doned the Polytheism of their fathers and embraced the religion of the Jews 
sojourning among them. Such were the vast preparations made for the interme- 
diate age of the kingdom of God ; and now all things are ready ! Come to the 
marriage. (Luke 14:15-24; Matt. 22:2-10.) 

6. A Time of Wonders. — This was an age of wonders ; and apparently they 
were disconnected : Zachariah's vision and dumbness; the shepherds at Bethlehem; 
Simeon and Anna in the temple ; the testimony of the Magi from the east ; the 
boy amidst the rabbi asking and answering questions ; the preaching of John in 
the wilderness; the baptism of Christ, descent of the Spirit, voice out of Heaven, 
and John's testimony ; the whole ministry of Christ ; the crucifixion, resurrection, 



CHAPTEKC. : SECTIONS VII. -IX. 417 

and ascension were startling events ending in disappointment. And now! here 
are a set of Galileeans without education discoursing most fluently on the wonderful 
works of God to these multitudes in their own native languages, in a plain and 
easy manner ! The multitude were confounded ! What do all these wonders 
mean? 

7. Prophecy Yerified. — Some, not understanding these different languages, 
or knowing these to be disciples of Jesus Christ (who was said to be risen from 
the dead), and fearing for themselves, tried to turn this wonder into ridicule, say- 
ing: These men are very full of sweet wine! I suppose these persons saying 
this were priests, scribes, or Jews of Jerusalem. Peter, with the eleven apostles, 
stood up and addressed them in their own native language, while the other 
disciples discoursed to the foreigners in their own native languages the same 
Peter and the apostles were preaching. Peter told them : This is what one of 
their old prophets foretold : I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh, and your 
sons and daughters shall prophecy ; your young men shall see visions ; your old 
men shall dream dreams ; and, indeed, upon My servants and handmaids I will 
pour out of My Spirit in those days and they shall prophecy. And I will show 
signs in Heaven above and wonders on the earth beneath ; blood, and fire, and 
vapor of smoke. The sun shall be tun ed into darkness and the moon into blood 
before the great and notable day of the Jehovah come ; and it shall be, that who- 
soever shall call on the name of the Jehovah shall be saved. First comes the day 
of extraordinary blessings, and whoever during these days of grace calls on the 
name of Jehovah shall be saved ; then come the days of wrath, when the unre- 
formed shall be shut up and destroyed ! Let not the days of grace pass unim- 
proved. 

8. Christ Preached. — Having fixed their attention on this prophecy, he 
then introduces the evidence that Jesus of Nazareth was sent of God ; but they 
had rejected the evidence, and by the hands of their wicked rulers had crucified 
and slain Him. This suffering and death of Christ was predetermined of God 
and revealed beforehand by the prophets. David sung the death and resurrection 
and exaltation of Christ in the Sixteenth Psalm ; for it is evident it cannot refer 
to David, whose sepulchre was there to be seen. But it is true of Jesus of Naz- 
areth, and Peter and the eleven standing with him are witnesses to them of His 
resurrection ; and so is this wonderful bestowment of the Holy Spirit, which they 
now witnessed with their own eyes and ears. This is what the Father promised 
Him, and being exalted to the right hand of God, He has received it and bestowed 
it on His disciples. David predicted this ascension and enthronement of Christ 
and the subjugation of His enemies. Now, therefore, let all the house of Israel 
know assuredly that God has made Him, this Jesus whom they had crucified, 
both Lord, or Jehovah, and Christ. 

9. Exhortation to Keformation. — The evidence was irresistible ; they stood 
condemned as a nation for murdering their own Messiah, or suffering their rulers 
to do it ; and now. He being exalted to almighty power and universal authority, 
what could they expect but to be cut off, as Moses said, David foretold and Joel 
predicted ? They were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the 
apostles: Men! Brethren! What shall we do? — to escape the terrible wrath 
hanging over their nation. Peter answered : Repent and be baptized, every one 
of you, upon the name of Jesus Christ, into the remission of sins. Then they 
would have remission of their national sin, and also of their individual sins, 
without offering any more sacrifices. Not only should their sins be remitted, or 
pardoned, but also they should receive this gift of the Holy Spirit ; for so the 
prophet promised it to their sons and daughters, and to all those afar off, or, to 
all flesh, as many as the Jehovah, their God, should call. The Gospel was about 
to go after the dispersed of Israel and to all nations, and whoever believes and is 

-27 



418 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

baptized shall be saved. Baptized into the remission of sins, thej are pardoned 
upon repentance and confession without offering any sacrifice required by the law.* 

10. JSTuMBER AND Chakaoter OF THE DisciPLES. — With man J other works did 
the apostles bear witness to the Messiahship of Jesus of Xazareth, and earnestl}^ 
warned and exhorted them to save themselves from that perverse generation, or 
nation, of Jews, and from the awful wrath hanging over them. As many as 
received, or believed, their words complied with the invitation and were baptized. 
On this first day of the week, and of the kingdom of God in power, about three 
thousand individuals were added to the assembly of disciples. We cannot deter- 
mine whether all these were new converts to Jesus ol Nazareth as their true 
Messiah, or many of them had been desponding disciples, whose hopes were now 
revived and their faith confirmed. Nor can we tell whether the assembly on this 
morning was composed of the one hundred and twenty only, or whether the 
whole five hundred brethren who witnessed the fact of Christ's resurrection on 
one occasion, were present, and tlie faithful women ; if the prophecy of Joel was 
verified on the daughters, some sisters must have been present. After this we 
may safely reckon the assembly, congregation, or church of the disciples numbered 
three thousand, and the Lord added daily the saved to the assembly, congrega- 
tion, or church. These were constantly attending on the teachings of the apostles, 
and learning what Christ taught them about the kingdom of God, and about being 
received up where Christ is when they die, and whatever else the Holy Spirit 
revealed. One important work was to teach the disciples to understand the 
sacred writings of the Jews. They fellowshiped one another in joint participation 
of every good thing among them, and in breaking of bread and prayers. Fear 
came upon every individual on account of the crucifixion of the Messiah, and by 
the apostles' hands were many signs and wonders wrought showing the power of 
Christ to be with them. 

11. Peace and Favok. — The worshipers come up to Jerusalem would be 
quartered down in clans according to their countries and languages; notwith- 
standing tliis, all the believers in Christ met together and had all things in 
common. Those having possessions and goods sold them and dis^ided the pro- 
ceeds among all, without distinction, according as everyone needed. They still 
remained zealous for the law, and, with one accord, attended daily on the temple 
service, so the priests and rulers had no occasion to find fault with them. Enter- 
tained in one house after another where they broke bread together, they partook 
of food with gladness and singleness of heart and praising God, and the mass of 
the people favored them as they had gladly listened to Christ before. Whether 
the mass of the people believed Jesus of J^azareth to be their Messiah or not, they 
believed Him to be a great prophet sent of God, and knew He was crucified with- 
out a crime, and now the apostles performing miracles in His name, gave them 
hopes for the success of His cause, but they feared their rulers and the Romans. 

12. Jerusalem Suitable for the Occasion. — Jerusalem was most suitably 
calculated for this event. It was a cit}^ for the Jews and proselytes throughout 
the whole world, and was enriched by their contributions and offerings. The 
houses were opened for their entertainment, tents could be pitched around the 
city, and their market furnished everything necessary for the pious worshipers, 
from a sin offering to a free-will offering. Washing the clothes and bathing the 
flesh in water, as the law required, was a common rite practiced by thousands 
who come from the countries around, where they were continually coming in con- 
tact with impurities ;4 and the city was abundantly supplied with water for every 
purpose. ^ It was now June, and the weather dry. Camping out and traveling 
about were delightful, and fires were not needed to warm by, as at the Passover. 
After these first disciples Were well instructed, they could return to their native 
lands and report in their sjnagogues what they had learned in Jerusalem. 



(*) Heb. 9:22. 10:4. 14; I. John, 1:9. 2:1, 2. (4) John 11:55. (5) Durbiu's Trav., Vol. I., 
p. 280, and Robinson. 



CHAPTER CI. 



PERSECUTION BY THE RULERS OF THE JEWS. A. M. 4034-4036. 

A. D 30-32.— Acts 3, 6:1-7. 

1. Success Excites Opposition. — The progressive increase of the assemblies 
of the disciples continued without interruption for some time. As the disciples 
observed all the Jewish rites in the temple and at feasts and obeyed the laws, 
and met in the temple or in their respective synagogues every Sabbath, or sev- 
enth day, they were regarded as only another sect of the Jews, called Nazarenes. ^ 
The first day of the week was their peculiar day. In it the Lord arose ; on it He 
visited them ; in it the Holy Spirit was given and the new creation commenced, 
and it is properly called the Lord's Day. '^ But this increase and prosperity made 
the priests and rulers fear the people would all become disciples and punish them 
for the crucifixion of Jesus. The east gate of the temple was made of Corinthian 
brass and was of superior workmanship, and was called the Beautiful Gate. At 
this gate was placed a beggar, over forty years of age, who. never walked, but 
had been born a cripple, and this position caused him to be known to everyone. 
About three o'clock in the afternoon one day, the regular time for prayer and the 
evening sacrifice, Peter and John entered the temple by this gate and the lame man 
asked a contribution. Peter told him he had no money, but, taking him by the 
hand, bid him, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, to rise up and walk. The 
man was immediately cured and jumped up, and stood, and walked, and entered 
the temple, walking and jumping and praising God. All the people recognized 
him and were filled with astonishment at the fact which they witnessed for them- 
selves. 

2. The Apostles Show Facts. — -The man still held to Peter and John, 
while the people run together around them in Solomon's porch, portico, or hall, 
greatly wondering. Peter and John embraced the opportunity to preach the 
resurrection and enjoin repentance. (Acts 4:2.) Peter's words are recorded, 
and, I suppose, they both taught the same things, but to different parts of the 
multitude. Peter disclaimed all power and piety in themselves as causing it, but 
the God of their ancestors glorified His servant Jesus, whom they delivered to 
be crucified ; and when Pilate decided to release Him, they denied the Holy and 
Just One that deliverance and His Messiahship, and demanded that murderer to 
be released to them, and thus they secured the murder of the Prince of Life ; but 
God raised Him from the dead, and the apostles were witnesses to these facts. 
And by faith in this name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, that man whom they 
saw and knew was made strong, and that faith which is by means of Him, 
has given this man, in presence of all, this perfect soundness. Peter paliates the 
enormity of the crime on account of their ignorance, and because it was deter- 
mined of God and announced by all His prophets that the Messiah should suffer. 
Then he admonishes them to repent and turn to Jesus Christ, that their sins 
might be blotted out, in order that times of refreshing might come from the pres- 
ence of the Jehovah and that He may again send Jesus Christ, who, before He 
was rejected, was appointed for the Jews especially. But, indeed, He will not 



(6) Acts 24:5. (7) Rev. 1:10. 



420 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

return soon, for the Heavens mast receive Him until the times of the restoration 
of all things, which times God has spoken of by the mouth of all His holy 
prophets from the beginning. 

3. Cites Prophecies and Shows the Position of the Jews. — Peter cites 
Moses' prediction of the Messiah and His threatening on those rejecting Him : 
They shall be utterly destroyed from among the people. He asserts that Samuel 
and all the prophets foretold of these days. He shows them their high and 
Heavenly prerogatives to bless all the nations of the earth, and hence the neces- 
sity of them becoming models of holiness and obedience. Having raised His 
servant, Jesus, from the dead, God honored them above all other people in 
sending Him to them first, by His word and Spirit, to bless them in turning 
every one of them from his iniquities, thus making them proper examples to the 
nations. Many of those who heard the word, beUeved ; and the number of the 
men increased on this occasion till it became about five thousand, besides the 
women. This number, with the three thousand on the day of Pentecost, and the 
daily additions of the saved, and the women, must have made the company of 
disciples about ten thousand ; but, as many of them were from the different coun- 
tries and returned home again, the number in the assemblies at Jerusalem cannot 
be determined. 

4. Apostles Apprehended. — The rulers not only feared the consequences 
of this increase of Nazarenes, but, being Sadducees also, this resurrection of 
Jesus tore up their doctrines by the roots and gave the victory to the Pharisees, 
and their story about His body being stolen was so notoriously false that they 
never mention it. . Why did they not maintain the story they put in the mouths 
of the guard ? So, while Peter and John were speaking to the people in the 
temple, a lot of the priests, the captain of the temple, and other Sadducees, 
being indignant at their doctrine, come upon them, and, seizing them, put them 
in prison that evening. Next morning a great council was held of the rulers, 
elders, scribes, Caiaphas the high priest, and Annas, father-in-law to Caiaphas. 
Annas was once high priest, and when deposed by the E-oman governor, he so 
managed as to get some of his own family appointed, and thus retained the dig- 
nity, in the estimation of the Jews, for years. ^ Also, in this council were John 
and Alexander and other relations of the high priest, who came from other places, 
perhaps Egypt, as Josephus mentions persons of those names from Alexandria, 
who were of great note at Jerusalem. This council placed Peter and John in 
their midst, and asked by what power or name they performed this miracle. 

5. Apostles' Defence. — The Savior had forbid flis disciples to prepare any 
speeches for such occasions, but promised the Holy Spirit would speak in them. 
Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, answered boldly, that by the name of Jesus 
Christ, the Nazarene, whom they crucified and God raised from the dead, did 
that man stand before them whole. This Jesus was the predicted stone which 
they, as builders, rejected, but had now become head of the corner, or chief stone 
in the corner of the temple of Jehovah. There was no salvation for Jew or gen- 
tile in any other person, and in no other name under Heaven given among men, 
but in the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, could they be saved. Perceiving 
the unpolished boldness of both Peter and John, their lack of college literature 
and courtly training, they recognized them to be followers of Jesus. But there 
stood the healed man, and every person knew him. The miracle was notorious 
and known to all persons in Jerusalem, and they could not deny it. So, ordering 
all out of the council, they decided to prevent the spread of such miracles among 
the Jews of other places by severe threatenings and stern commands to not 
speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But the two apostles informed the 
council that their obligations to obey God were superior and supreme, and they 



(9) Joseph. 20:9. 1. 



CHAPTER CI. : SECTIONS VI. -IX. 421 

must speak the things they both saw and heard. So the cocincil threatened 
them more, but had to let them go on account of the people, who glorified God 
for the miracle. 

6. Peace and Prosperity. — Being dismissed, Peter and John went to tlieir 
own company and reported the proceedings. And then all of them praised God 
as creator of Heaven and earth, applied the language of the Second Psalm to the 
conspiracy against Christ and His cause, prayed for more boldness to speak the 
word, and more demonstration of power and compassion, through the name of 
Jesus. When they had prayed, the place of their assembling was shaken; and 
being replenished with the Holy Spirit, they spoke the word of God with bold- 
ness. As yet the disciples were perfectly united in love, in principle, and in 
practice; and everything was done as if one soul animated them all. They had 
all things in common, and if there was any want, those having lands, or houses, 
sold them, and deposited the proceeds with the apostles, and distribution was 
made according to each ones need ; so none lacked the necessaries of life. With 
great power the apostles gave the testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and great favor was upon them all. The kingdom of God was now 
inherited by legitimate citizens, its laws were obeyed, and the happy result 
followed, showing what will be the condition of the world, when the kingdom of 
God is consummated. But, as Christ foretold, we may expect to soon find tares 
among the wheat. 

7. First Hypocrits Punished. A. M. 4034. A. D. 30. — Among those 
who sold their lands was a Levite, born in Cyprus, named Joseph Barnabas, 
who sold his and laid the money at the apostles' feet. But one Ananias and 
his wife, Sapphira, sold their possession and laid part of the price at the apos- 
tles' feet, pretending that was the whole amount. This showed they did not 
believe in the omniscience of the Holy Spirit, but thought they could act the 
hypocrit in His presence. Peter interrogated them openly about the matter, 
and they told a square lie and stood to it. He informed them that their posses- 
sion was their own, and so was the price received, and they were not required to 
give it to the assembly; so they lied without having any occasion or excuse. 
Worse yet — they had lied to God, and not to man. It was premeditated and coun- 
seled between them, and they had to die for a warning to others. They both 
expired and were buried ; and great fear came upon all the assembly, or con- 
gregation, and upon all who heard about these things. So aspirants dared not 
seek prominence by hypocrisy, and loafers feared to join them for the purpose 
of sponging a living. 

8. Success and Persecution. A. M. 4035. A. D. 31. — Many signs and 
wonders continued to be wrought among the people by the apostles, without regard 
to the threats of the council. Along the streets they laid the sick on beds and 
pallets, to receive Peter's shadow upon them as he passed. Multitudes from other 
cities around came together to Jerusalem, bringing sick persons and those vexed 
with unclean spirits, and they were healed, and the people honored them. One 
day, as if animated by one soul, the disciples were all, or many of them, con- 
gregated in that spacious part of the temple called Solomon's porch, and no others, 
who did not believe Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah, dared to unite with 
them ; but true believers were the more added to the Lord. Then the high 
priest rose up and all those with him, the sect of the Sadducees, and, filled with 
indignation, they apprehended the apostles and committed them to prison. But 
an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors by night, and, having brought them 
out, said : Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this 
life. Hearing this, they went into the temple at early dawn and taught. But 
the angel shut up the prison again and left the keepers undisturbedly watching. 

9. Apostles Before the Council Again. A. M. 4036. A. D. 32. — In the 
morning the high priest and his party, the Sadducees, met and called the council 
together (the same Sanhedrim that condemned Jesus), and all the eldership, or 



422 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

senate, of the children of Israel — a full council — and sent to the prison to have 
the apostles brought. The officers came and found the prison guarded all right, 
but found no prisoners ; so they returned and reported the facts. The Sanhedrim 
were confounded ; for they doubted to what result this new wonder might grow, 
and what influence ii would have on the people. But some one informed them 
their prisoners were in the temple teaching the people. The captain of the temple, 
with the officers, went and brought them, but did them no violence for fear the 
people would stone them. The people were on the side of the apostles, as the}^ 
had been in favor of Christ. Being placed before the senate, the high priest 
charged them with disobedience to the highest tribunal in Israel and with filling 
Jerusalem with their teachings, intending to bring the rulers to judgment and 
punishment for the murder of Jesus of Nazareth. The apostles answer: We 
ought to obey God rather than men ; God is superior to any authority in Israel, 
and they claim to speak and act under His authority. The God of their fathers 
raised up Jesus, whom the rulers slew and hung on wood as accursed, or devoted, 
and had exalted Him to His right hand as a Prince and Savior to grant repentance 
to Israel and forgiveness of sins, or to grant forgiveness of sins to Israel upon 
the repenting of them, without sacrificing. The apostles were witnesses of these 
things, and so, also, was the Holy Spirit, which God had given to all who obeyed 
Him, as well as to the apostles. 

10. Number and Character of the Disciples. — When they heard them- 
selves charged with the murder of the divine King of Israel, who now held their 
present and eternal destiny in His hands, and saw their authority defied, they 
were convulsed with rage and took counsel to slay them. But a Pharisee, named 
Gamaliel, an honorable teacher of the law, advised them to go slow, lest they 
might happen to fight against God. He judged if this counsel, or work, was of 
God they could not overthrow it, but if it was of men it would come to naught. 
He cites the cases of Thudas and Judas. They took his advice, and after 
scourging the apostles and forbidding them to speak in the name of Jesus, they 
let them go. But they feared the people more than they feared to fight against 
God, and they could bring no accusation against them before the people that the 
people did not know to be false. The high priest and his coadjutors were 
atheists in fact. But their former murder of Christ, and now of the apostles, 
would most likely have caused the people to have stoned them to death or 
impeached them to the Romans. They feared the people. 

11. Sanhedrim Vanquished. — Another reason may have governed the 
Sanhedrim after their furious rage had subsided. The people out of other 
countries than Judea had been admirers of Jesus of Nazareth, who had been 
stolen from them in the night and fastened on the cross before they knew it, and 
perhaps had expired. The multitude that rejected Christ was of the high priest's 
party. The accusation nailed on the cross was The King of the Jews, which was 
no crime in the eyes of the great mass of the Jews. The people had often 
witnessed the malignant attacks of the priests, rulers, and rabbi, and their signal 
defeats. Now His resurrection, witnessed by the apostles and others, and 
confirmed by the gifts of the Holy Spirit to teach and work miracles as J-esus did, 
revived their hopes and caused them to form attachments to these apostles. Now 
these apostles are apprehended for witnessing to these truths and proving their 
mission by incontrovertible evidence, and without a crime laid to their charge. 
Thus, the wicked, diabolical character of this Senate was well known in Judea, 
Galilee, Perea, and all other countries, and their officers feared the people, 
especially when assembled at the feasts. So the Sanhedrim may have feared the 
people would abandon Jerusalem and the temple as a den of robbers and 
murderers, and leave them in poverty. But they appear to have feared the 
influence of the apostles, which was already too great to be controlled by them, 
and that the people would avenge the blood of Jesus Christ upon their guilty heads. 
The Sanhedrim was now vanquished by the apostles and it never attacked them. 



CHAPTER 01.: SECTIONS Xli. -XIV. 423 

12. G-osPEL Triumphant in Jerusalem. A. M. 4036. A. D. 32. — The 
apostles went from the Sanhedrim rejoicing, not in their deliverance, but that 
they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ's sake. Every day they 
were in the temple and in the houses, continually teaching and preaching the 
glad tidings of Jesus Christ. Now the kingdom of God has come in power, and 
the apostles teach and preach in Jerusalem, the royal city, when and where they 
please. Is this what Daniel calls confirming the covenant with many?i He 
shall confirm the covenant with many for one week — the new covenant — ^ and 
in the midst of the week He will cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease, or to 
be finished, or perfected. If so, Townsend and other chronologists are correct 
in placing this defeat of the Sanhedrim in the year A. M. 4036 (A. D. 32). 
Seven years has Jesus Christ been in establishing the new covenant with many 
in Jerusalem, but not with the whole nation as represented by their Senate, 
Sanhedrim, or Supreme Court. In the city of God and in the temple of Jehovah 
the apostles of the Messiah can celebrate the Lord's Supper and drink the new 
covenant in Christ's blood. ^ But while the city and temple stand, the old 
covenant rites and institutions will claim the preeminence and be imposed on the 
disciples, and hence the next great event in this prophecy of Daniel is the 
destruction of the city and temple. 

13. The Seven Appointed. — No formal organizations appear to have been 
made among the disciples at the first, but being Jews they strictly attended in 
their temple and synagogues, observed Jewish institutior^s, and obeyed Jewish 
laws and customs. When congregated by themselves, everyone having a gift 
used it, and everyone having property shared it with the rest. Mutual edification, 
mutual accomodation, and mutual enjoyment characterize all their assemblies. 
Unlimited confidence was placed in the apostles, and all business was regulated 
by their orders, and all contributions entrusted to their disposal. Now, as the 
apostles were constantly engaged in teaching, preaching, and working miracles, 
it was not possible they could distribute donations to so many thousands, but 
must have set others to do that. Now, some of the Greek Jew widows were 
overlooked in the daily distribution. Prejudice had excluded the Samaritan 
Pentateuch, so the Hebrew Bible and the Greek translation of it were all the 
sacred writings among these Jews, and the people were distinguished by the 
Bible they used. The Hebrews were mostly natives of Judea and adjoining 
countries, and the Greeks were mostly foreigners. To obviate the evil the 
apostles advised the appointment of seven suitable persons, whom they would 
appoint over this business. The multitudes acquiesced cheerfully, and chose 
seven men of good report and full of the Holy Spirit, and set them before the 
apostles, who, by prayer and the imposition of hands, appointed these seven over 
this special business. This was their special business, and any other thing they 
did must be in subordination to it. But this appointment did not prohibit them 
to use any other gifts they had for doing other things. 

14. Priests Obedient to the Faith. — The word of God increased and 
spread; the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem, and a great company of 
the priests were obedient to the faith, or to the teachings and commands of Jesus 
Christ. The Sanhedrim, which was composed of high priest, chief priests, scribes 
and rabbi, and elders, having been vanquished, the subordinate priests in 
large numbers now show their conviction of the truth. In the days of Christ 
the Pharisees resolved to put everyone out of the synagogue who confessed Jesus 
of Nazareth to be the Messiah;^ but this decision appears to have been limited 
in extent and of short duration, for a little after the present occasion Saul found 
them in the synagogues, and beat them and punished them, and compelled them 
to blaspheme. ^ In these synagogues, after the reading of the Scripture lesson, 
both Christ and the apostles embraced the opportunity to preach the gospel of 
the kingdom of God. ^ 

(4) John 9:22. (5) Acts 26:11. (6) Acts 13:15-43. (1) Dan. 9:23-27. (2) Jer. 31:31-34. Heb. 
8:6-13. (3) I. Cor. 11:25. 



Preparatory Age Closed^ and the Intermediate Age^ Begun with the 
Preaching of .John Baptist, Fully Set Up. A. M. 4037 o/- 4038. A. D. 33 or 34. 

CHAPTER CII. 



PERSECUTION BY JEWISH ROMAN CITIZENS. A. M. 4037-4044. 

A. D. 33-40.— Acts 6:8-15. 7-9:1-32. 

1. False Charge Against Stephen. — The Jewish power, no longer able to 
withstand the apostles, some Greek Jews, who were Roman citizens and pro- 
tected against the people by the Roman laws and by the Roman president of 
Syria and procurators of Judea, undertook to persecute the disciples. Thus, 
where Jewish power falls, the Roman power is invoked against the kingdom of 
God. One of the seven appointed to manage the funds for the brethren was a 
Greek Jew, full of grace and power, and in addition to serving tables, he did 
great wonders and signs among the people and preached the Gospel boldly, and, 
most likely, in the synagogues of the Greek Jews. Certain of these synagogues 
encountered Stephen in dispute, but were not able to resist the wisdom and spirit 
with which he spoke, so they bribed men to charge him with treason in blas- 
pheming Moses and Jehovah. Under this false charge they stirred up the people 
and elders and scribes, and coming upon him, they seized and brought him to 
the council and set up false witnesses against him. They accused him of contin- 
ually speaking blasphemous words against that holy place and the law, of saying 
that Jesus of Nazareth would destroy Jerusalem and the temple and change the 
customs delivered by Moses. The council looked intently on him, but, instead 
of guilt and fear depicted in his countenance, his face was bright and composed 
as an angePs. 

2. Stephen's Discourse. — The hight priest, pretending to desire justice, 
asked him: Are these things so? Instead of confessing or denying, Stephen 
commences an historical speech about their ancestors and institutions. What 
application he intended to make, I do not know, unless to show the temple of 
Solomon had been destroyed for the sins of the nation and the people led into 
captivity, and it might be so again. This was charged against him. But he 
appears to have been interrupted, and then he charges them with stubbornness 
and impiety, always resisting the Holy Spirit as their fathers did. Their fathers 
slew the prophets who predicted the coming of the Just One, and they betrayed 
and murdered Him. They received the law as the ordinances of angels, but did 
not keep it. Hearing this, they were enraged and gnashed their teetli against 
him. 

3. The First Martyr. — Full of the Holy Spirit, Stephen looked up stead- 
fastly into Heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right 
hand of God, and exclaimed: Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of 
Man standing on the right hand of God! They gave a yell like demons, stopped 
their ears as if they could not bear such blasphemy, and simultaneously rushing 
upon him like furies, cast him out of the city and stoned him while calling aloud : 
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And kneeling down, he cried with a loud voice: 



GflAJPTER cn. : SECTIONS IV. -vi. 425 

Lord, lay not this sin to their charge ! While saying this, he fell asleep ; but 
he did not die, for his soul did not go to sheol, or hades, but to Jesus, who, as 
he just saw, had come to take him home to glory, as He promised the apostles. 
(John 14:2, 3.) Stephen was the first disciple who lost his life for Christ's sake, 
and Jesus came visibly to receive him to the heavenly mansions in the Father's 
house. So, all the rest may depend on the same reception. The enemies might 
see that Stephen was their friend when he prayed for them. 

4. Persecution Disperses the Church. — When the false witnesses run upon 
Stephen to stone him they left their mantles at the feet of a young rabbin, named 
Saul, who approved of the murder as in accordance with the law, though no sen- 
tence had been passed upon him. He that killeth you will think he doeth God 
some service. On this same day a great persecution arose against the assembly 
of the disciples at Jerusalem, in which Saul distinguished himself Nevertheless, 
pious men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. 
But Saul laid waste the assembly at Jerusalem, and entered house after house, 
dragging men and women into prison, beat them in every synagogue, and perse- 
cuted them into foreign cities. So, the whole congregation at Jerusalem, except 
the apostles, were scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria. 
But Saul, in all his rage, dare not touch the apostles for fear of the people, or on 
account of some divine protection thrown around them. 

5. Disciples Prepared for Missionary Work. — Acts 8. — The disciples at 
Jerusalem had now enjoyed the constant teachings of the apostles and the rich 
endowments of the Holy Spirit for about four or five years, and by this time 
thousands of them ought to be qualified for missionating in other places. The 
apostles were commanded to preach the Gospel to every creature and disciple all 
nations, beginning at Jerusalem. They were to be witnesses for Christ in Jeru- 
salem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. But since the defeat of the 
Sanhedrim, the disciples enjoyed such happiness among themselves that they neg- 
lected all other places. Now the Lord sent Saul to disperse them on different 
missions; to center all the hopes of the Sandedrim in Saul himself, and then, by 
his conversion, to convince them or leave them without excuse; then they would 
have been ftivored with every kind of evidence. So, those dispersed went every- 
where, preaching the word to the Jews only. Some of them traveled as far as 
Phenice, Cyprus, and Antioch. Some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, 
and preached to the Greeks at Antioch with success. Some places, as Damascus, 
had disciples who had returned from Jerusalem after the feast of Pentecost, but 
they do not appear to have formed any societies separate from the synagogues. 

6. Samaritans Receive the Gospel. — Acts 8:5-25. — Philip, who was 
another of the seven appointed to serve tables, went down to the city of Samaria 
and preached Christ to them, and the multitude, with one accord, gave heed to 
what he said as soon as they heard him and saw the signs which he wrought. 
Demons were cast out crying with loud voices, and many palsied and lame were 
healed, and great joy was in that city. Here was a sorcerer who, by his magic 
art, deceived the people', and all, both great and small, believed him to be the 
great power of God; but now they left him and were baptized into Jesus Christ, 
both men and women. Simon, the magician, examined the miracles wrought by 
Philip, and was convinced they were genuine and no magic tricks; so he, too, 
professed faith in Christ and was baptized, and stuck to Philip, witnessing his 
miracles with astonishment. The apostles, who still withstood the storm of per- 
secution at Jerusalem, hearing of Philip's success in Samaria, sent Peter and 
John, who prayed for them that they, too, might receive the Holy Spirit, and 
laying their hands on them, the gifts of the Holy Spirit were bestowed upon 
them, also. This evangelist was not the Apostle Philip, and communication of 
the gifts of the Spirit was a prerogative of the apostles alone. When Simon saw 
this prerogative of the apostles he offered to purchase it, intending to make a 



426 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVfiLOl»ED. 



specalation by bestowing Philip's powers upon others for money. Peter rebuked 
his covetous disposition and exhorted him to repentance and prayer for forgive- 
ness. This power was the gift of God and must be used for the advancement of 
His kingdom without price. Thus, the magicians were defeated under the gospel 
as thej^ had been under the law by Moses in Egypt. Then the apostles preached 
the word in many villages of the Samaritans and testified to the facts of the 
gospel, and then returned to Jerusalem. We are not told anything about any 
church organization, or of any other provision for the care and nourishment of 
the disciples than that of the Holy Spirit. But silence is not evidence. 

7. The Ethiopian Eunuch. — Acts 8:26-32. — Philip was directed to go south 
by an angel, to the road to Gaza, then in ruins. Here he came in contact with 
an Ethiopian eunuch, treasurer to the queen of that country. He was either a 
Jew or proselyte, had been worshiping at Jerusalem, and had purchased a manu- 
script containing the prophecies of Isaiah, in which he was reading the fifty-third 
chapter. He asked Philip to expound it to him, and Philip showed its fulfill- 
ment in Jesus of Nazareth, and taught the eunuch the glad tidings of the king- 
dom of God. As he was' a pious Jew, or proselyte, and believed in the Messiah, 
the only question was, did he believe Jesus of Nazareth to be the Christ, the Son 
of God? This fact he professed to believe, and was baptized. As they came up 
out of the water the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and the eunuch saw 
him no more, but he went on his way rejoicing, and is said to be the first who 
preached the gospel in that country. But I believe the gospel was first carried 
into all parts of the world by believing Jews and proselytes who attended the 
feast of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was first given ; but history has not com- 
memorated their names nor labors. Philip was first found after this at Azotus, 
and traveling north, he preached in all the cities on his route till he came to 
Csesarea, where, I suppose, he stopped and continued to preach. ^ The labors of 
the other evangelists are not recorded, except of those at Antioch. But this is 
sufiicient to show how the kingdom of God was developed. 

8. Saul Commissioned to Damascus. — Acts 9:1-31. 22:4-21. 26:9-20. — 
Thus, by persecution Saul was sending out missionaries in every direction around 
Jerusalem. Their success vexed him and he continually breathed out threaten- 
ings and slaugliter against the disciples ; he was mad against them and deter- 
mined to follow them. He obtained a commission to the synagogues of 
Damascus, about one hundred and twenty-two miles northeast of Jerusalem, 
to bind and bring men and women, who were disciples, to Jerusalem. One of 
the privileges granted to the Jews by Alexander and his successors, and by the 
Romans, also, was to live according to their own laws ; hence the authority of 
the high priest in the synagogues of Damascus, and yet he had no authority 
over the Samaritans in Samaria. At this time Yitellius was president of Syria, 
and very favorable to the Jews. After this he sent Pilate to Rome to answer 
charges before Tiberius. He deposed Caiaphas from the high priesthood and 
appointed Jonathan to that office.''' Tiberius died before Pilate arrived, and 
Caius became emperoi-. Most probably Saul went to Damascus about the time 
E[erod Antipas went to war with Aretes, king of Arabia,^ the war prevented his 
immediate return and he went into Arabia. On his return he found Damascus 
in possession of Aretes, who had destroyed Herod's army. Tiberius ordered 
Vitellius to make war on Aretes, but died before it was accomplished. Saul 
being a Roman citizen made him the more obnoxious to the governor under 
Aretes, and he tried to apprehend Saul, but the disciples let him down over the 
wall in the night, so he escaped and returned to Jerusalem after an absence of 
about three years. 

9. Saul Converted on the Road. — Acts 9:1-9. — As Saul came near to 
Damascus, about noon, a light from Heaven, above the brightness of the 



sun, 



(5) Acts 21:8. (7) Joseph. Ant. 18:4. 2, 3. (8) 18:5. 1, 3. 



OflAfTER Oil.: SECTIONS X.-XtJ. 42Y 

flashed around him and prostrated him to the ground, and he lieard a voice 
speaking in the Hebrew language, saying: Saul! Saul! Why persecutest thou 
Me? It is hard to kick against the goads ! He answered: Who art Thou, Lord? 
The voice said : I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom thou persecutest ! He answered : 
What shall I do, Lord? The Lord said: Arise and go into the city, and there it 
shall be told thee what thou shalt do. The men with him fell also, but arose and 
stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no man ; what the voice said they 
did not hear, or, being Greek Jews, did not understand. The Lord bid him stand 
up, for this visitation was not to punish, but to appoint him for a minister and 
witness of these things and what more may be shown him; and he should be 
delivered from the gentiles, or nations, to whom he may be sent as an apostle to 
open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power 
of Satan unto God ; that they may obtain forgiveness of sins and an inheritance 
among the sanctitied by faith in Jesus Christ. 

10. Baptized at Damascus. — Acts 9:10-19. — Saul arose and opened his 
eyes but could see no man, for the brilliancy of that glory had made him blind ; 
but his companions led him by the hand into Damascus ; and he was three days 
without sight, and. did neither eat nor drink. But he prayed, and saw in a vision 
a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hands on him to recover his 
sight. Now, Ananias was a pious man according to the law, and was well spoken 
of by all the Jews there, and he was a disciple of Jesus Christ. The Lord told 
Ananias in a vision where he should find Saul and what he was doing and what he 
had seen. Ananias objected, and stated what he had heard from many of the 
evils Saul had done at Jerusalem, and of his commission to Damascus. But the 
Lord bid him go, for Saul of Tarsus was a chosen vessel to bear His name before 
the nations and kings and the children of Israel, and must suffer great things for 
Christ's sake. Ananias went, and, putting his hands on him, said : Brother Saul, 
the Lord, even Jesus, who appeared to thee in the way as thou earnest, has sent 
me that thou mayest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Imme- 
diately as scales fell from his eyes and he received sight forthwith and looked 
upon Ananias, who added : The God of our fathers has appointed thee to know 
His will, and to see the Just One, and to hear a voice out of His mouth ; for thou 
shalt be a witness for Him to all men of what thou hast seen and didst hear. 
Now, why tarriest thou ? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, call- 
ing on His name. He arose, was baptized, and having taken food he was 
strengthened. 

11. Hope of the Sanhedrim Blasted. — Acts 9:19-22. — Saul was some days 
with the disciples in Damascus, and straightway he preached in the synagogues 
that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, the Son of God. All that heard him were 
astonished, and said : Is not this he who destroyed in Jerusalem those calling on 
this name, and came here that he might take them bound to the chief priests ? 
The disciples were rejoiced that the Lord Himself had interposed, in the presence 
of Saul's posse of sheriffs, and converted the most learned of the Jewish rabbi, 
and the boldest and most inveterate persecutor of the believers. The Sanhedrim 
feared for themselves, but Saul feared not for anything; and now all their hopes 
for the suppression of the Nazarenes were at an end, and their rage is now turned 
against Saul. Commissioned by Jesus Christ, who appeared to him, Saul waits 
not for any human ordination, but went into Arabia, where were many Jews and 
proselytes, and preached the Gospel, but with what success we are not told. 

12. Saul Preaches and is Persecuted. — Acts 9:23-30. — Recruited in 
strength, Saul returned to Damascus and confounded the Jews there, proving 
from the Scriptures that this Jesus was their predicted Messiah. But instead of 
receiving the truth, they took counsel to kill him, and as Saul was a Roman 
citizen, and Aretes had defeated Herod, and Tiberius had ordered Yitellius to 
make war on Aretes, the Jews easily persuaded the governor to guard the gates 
day and night to apprehend him. But Saul knew it, and the disciples let him 



428 I'HE fillNGbOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

down over the wall in the night, and he returned to Jerusalem. But the disciples 
feared him, the war having prevented certain news of his conversion, till Barnabas 
brought him to the apostles and related the whole history of the facts. Then he 
accompanied them out and in, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus ; 
he disputed with those of the Greek Jews whom he had aided in stoning Stephen, 
and they undertook to kill him. Then the brethren brought him down to 
Caesarea and sent him to Tarsus in Cilicia, his native city. 

13. Peter Missionating. — Acts 9:31-43. — When Saul weni; to Damascus 
many of the disciples returned to Jerusalem, and the apostles missionated through 
Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, and by prayer and the imposition of hands the 
Holy Spirit was bestowed upon the believers throughout these regions. As Peter 
passed through all these coasts he came down to the saints at Lydda, where he 
healed Eneas, who had kept his bed eight years, and all that dwelt in Lydda and 
Saron saw him and turned to the Lord. In Joppa a sister disciple, named Tabitha, 
or Dorcas, who made cloths and garments and gave them to the poor, died ; 
and, having washed and dressed her for the tomb, they sent to Lydda for Peter. 
Peter came and kneeled down and prayed, and, turning to the corpse, said : 
Tabitha, arise ! She opened her eyes and sat up, and Peter gave her his hand 
and raised her up and presented her to the saints and widows. This became 
known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. Peter remained 
in Joppa many days with one Simon Tanner. 

14. The Gospel Triumphant Again at Jerusalem. A. M. 4042-4044. A. 
D. 38-40. — [Now all the assemblies of the disciples had peace throughout all 
Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, being built up, and walking in the fear of the Lord 
and by the aid and comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied. The king- 
dom of God has gained another victory over these wicked spirits occupying pre- 
eminent positions in the heavenlies, or heavenly places or privileges. (Eph. 6: 12.) 
Saul, with his Greek coadjutors, protected by his Roman citizenship, undertook 
to put down the Nazarenes at Jerusalem, while the Sanhedrim stood back from 
apprehending persons and preferring charges, and acted only as judges obligated 
to decide cases coming before them. The assembly at Jerusalem was the only 
distinct society of the disciples known ; having dispersed these, Saul started to 
extradite those in the synagogues in foreign countries ; now these Nazarenes have 
societies throughout all Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. Then the apostles stood 
alone, or without other teachers in Jerusalem ; now we find the disciples coming 
in and going out of Jerusalem, while the apostles travel abroad imparting the 
gifts of the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus, the Christ. These Nazarene socie- 
ties are pious and joyful ; and here is Saul himself advocating this doctrine he 
had determined to destroy. About this time Pilate was dismissed from the gov- 
ernment of Judea and Caiaphas was deposed from the ofiice of high priest. 



I 



The Intermediate Age of the Kingdom of God has now entirely Superseded 
the Preparatory Age. 

CHAPTER CHI- 



GENTILES BECOME FELLOW HEIRS AND JOINT PARTAKERS WITH 

THE JEWS THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. A. M. 4044-4:053. 

A. D. 40-49. Eph. 3:5, 6: Acts 10-15. 



'5 



1. Gentiles Tukn to Jehovah. — Hitherto admission into the kingdom of 
God under the Gospel dispensation has been restricted to those who were circum- 
cised, Jews, Israelites, proselytes, Samaritans, and perhaps some Arabians and 
Idumeans. Some of the disciples dispersed from Jerusalem were men of Cyprus 
and Cjrene, and perhaps proselytes, who, coming to Antioch, preached to the. 
Greeks, and the power of the Lord was with them and a great number believed 
and turned to the Lord ; but it is not said of them, as of the Samaritans, that they 
were baptized ; and if they were not Greek Jews or proselytes, they may have 
concluded to sustain the same relation to the disciples that pious gentiles did to 
the Jews. It is not plausible that the Jewish disciples, with their notions of the 
kingdom, would receive any uncircumcised gentile into fellowship. But the gen- 
tiles must be discipled according to the apostolic commission, and we might 
suppose the rich endowments of the Holy Spirit were sufficient to direct the 
apostles. So it was to direct Saul of Tarsus ; but the Jewish believers must have 
some strong tangible evidence that silences objection and commands obedience. 
The Lord managed this affair Himself, and gentiles entered the kingdom without 
becoming circumcised. (Acts 10, 11.) 

2. The Angel Does a Part. — We left Philip at Ceesarea, and here we find 
a centurion of the Italian band, named Cornelius. He was a just and pious man 
who feared God, and so did all his household, and he gave many alms to the 
people, prayed always, and was of good report among all the Jews ; but was not 
circumcised nor in the kingdom. One day while fasting, and at about three 
o'clock in the afternoon while praying in his house, an angel of God, in bright cloth- 
ing, came in and stood before him. He was distinctly visible to Cornelius, and 
said : Cornelius ! Fixing his eyes upon the angel Cornelius feared, but spoke 
and said: What is it, Lord? The angel said : Thy prayers are heard, and thine 
alms are come up for a memorial before God, and now send men to Joppa, and 
call for Simon Stone who is lodged with Simon Tanner by the seaside, and when 
he comes he shall speak unto thee. Here the angel ended his part of the busi- 
ness and departed. 

3. Cornelius Does His Part. — Cornelius called two of his household ser- 
vants and a pious soldier of those who waited on him, and having told them all 
things sent them to Joppa. On the next morning they traveled south, to Joppa, 
where they arrived some time in the afternoon ; and having inquired for the 
house of Simon Burseus (as if they were sure there was such a man's house 
there), and found it. They stood before the gate and called, and asked if Simon 
Peter lodged there. Thus ends the second part. 



430 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

4. Peter's Yision. — While these men were on their journey Peter went on 
the top of the house to pray, about noon, while dinner was preparing. He 
became very hungry, and while in this feeling fell into a" trance. The heavens 
opened and a great sheet, knotted together by the four corners, and full of all 
kinds of animals forbiden by the law of Moses, was let down right before hungry 
Peter, and a voice said: Arise Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said : Not so. 
Lord; for I never eat anything common or unclean. The voice replied: What 
God has cleaned call not unclean. This was done three times and then all was 
taken up into Heaven again, and no explanation was given. So ends the third 
part. 

5. The Spirit Speaks. — While Peter was doubting and reasoning about the 
meaning of this vision, the Spirit said to him: Behold, three men seek thee ! 
Arise and go with them, doubting nothing, because I have sent them. Peter 
went down and said to them : I am he whom ye seek. What is the cause for 
which ye are here? They delivered their message. Peter began to understand 
his vision and invited them in and lodged them. But unless Peter told his 
vision and the orders of the Spirit, I don't know how Simon Tanner and the rest 
of the household relished these unclean gentiles. So ends the fourth part of the 
lesson. 

6. Peter Goes With Them. — Next morning Peter returned with the 
messengers, and had the precaution to take certain brethren, six at least, for 
witnesses to all that transpired ; and the next day they entered Caesarea. Now 
Cornelius was expecting them, and called together his kinsmen and near friends 

• to hear all things that are commanded of God. As Peter was coming in, 
Cornelius attempted to reverence him, but Peter prevented it, claiming to be 
nothing but a man. When Peter saw his audience of gentiles, he referred to 
the Jews' exclusive customs as known to the gentiles, but informs them that "God 
had taught him to regard all men as fit to be treated with hospitality and 
benevolence, and therefore he had come as soon as possible, and now asks the 
cause. Then Cornelius rehearses the whole matter. So ends the fifth part. 

7. The Holy Spirit Given to Gentiles. — Peter now discovers that divine 
favors were not restricted to the Jews and God was no respecter of persons. Peter 
rehearses the facts of the Gospel which were known to Cornelius, testifies to 
Christ's resurrection, informs them that Christ was appointed by God to judge of 
the living and the dead, and to Him all the Jewish prophets bore witness that 
through His name everyone believing in Him shall have remission of sins without 
any sacrifices or ofi'erings. While Peter was speaking these words the Holy 
Spirit fell on all who heard the Word, as it had on the disciples on the day of 
Pentecost, and with like effect. The circumcised brethren who came with Peter 
were astonished to witness the gifts of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon the 
gentiles, for they heard them speaking with tongues and magnifying God. Thus 
ends the sixth part of the lesson. 

8. Peter is Convinced and Opens to the Gentiles. — Then said Peter: 
Can anyone forbid the water, that these should not be baptized, who have 
received the Holy Spirit as well as we? And he commanded them to be 
baptized in the name of the Lord. When this was done they entreated him to 
remain certain days. Thus, Peter has opened the kingdom of God to the 
gentiles and they enter on the same terms as the Jews — by faith in Jesus Christ 
and obedience to Him — and receive the same inheritance — eternal life. (Matt. 
20:1-16.) The apostles and brethren throughout Judea heard that the gentiles 
also had received the Word of God, and when Peter went up to Jerusalem those of 
the circumcision contended with him for entering the house of the uncircumcised 
and eating with them. But Peter rehearsed the history of the whole matter and 
concluded: I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John indeed 
baptized in water, but ye shall be baptized in the Holy Spirit. If, therefore, 



CHAPTER cm. : SECTIONS IX. -XI. 431 

God gave them, having believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the life gift as to 
us, who then was I that I could withstand God? When they heard these things 
they held their peace and glorified God, saying : So, then, to the gentiles, also, 
God granted repentance into life. The gentiles can now enter the kingdom of 
God without first becoming proselytes to the Jews, and the kingdom of God has 
commenced direct offensive war upon the red dragon, 

9. C'LAUDirs AND Agrippa Sovereigns. A. M. 4045. A. D. 41. — By this 
time, Philip having died, Agrippa has become king of his uncle's tetrarchate; 
Herod Antipas has been banished by Caius Csesar, and Galilee and Perea have 
been added to Agrippa's domain. Caius Csesar has made the attempt to have 
his statue placed in the temple and has been slain. Claudius now becomes the 
Roman emperor, and soon restores to the Jews those rights and privileges 
infringed on by Caius ; also, he adds Idumea, Judea, and Samaria to Agrippa's 
kingdom, and gives Colchis to his brother, Herod. Thus, the central territory 
of the Gospel societies is now ruled by Herod Agrippa, grandson of Herod the 
First. He is king of the wicked Spirits in the heavenlies, and Claudius rules 
the seventh head of the red dragon. (See chap. 99.) 

10. Gospel at Antiooh. — Acts 11:19-30. — The success of the Gospel at 
Antioch, which was first preached by disciples driven out of Jerusalem by Saul's 
persecutions, reached the ears of the assembly at Jerusalem, and they sent 
Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he 
rejoiced and exhorted all to cleave to the Lord with a determined mind ; and a 
great number were added to the Lord. He was a good man and full of the Holy 
Spirit. This Antioch had been the royal city of the Selucedea, and had many 
Jews and proselytes in it ; and now multitudes of the Jews, proselytes, and gen- 
tiles have embraced the Gospel of the kingdom. Having explored this field of 
labor, Barnabas went to Tarsus to seek Saul, and brought him to Antioch. When 
Saul returned from Damascus he had an ardent desire to persuade his brethren 
at Jerusalem ; for he thought the part he took in the murder of the witness, 
Stephen, would induce them to regard his testimony. He persecuted out of zeal 
for the law given through Moses ; but they persecuted out of hatred to holiness 
and fear of losing power and wealth. While praying in the temple he fell into a 
trance and saw the Lord, who said : Make haste and go forth quickly out of Jeru- 
salem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning Me. Depart, for I will 
send thee far hence to the gentiles. (Acts 22:17-21.) So he did not resist the 
brethren when they sent him to Tarsus, his native city ; now he comes to Anti- 
och, about two hundred and sixty-five miles north of Jerusalem. 

11. Believers Called Christians. A. M. 4046. A. D. 32. — Barnabas 
and Saul continued a whole year in Antioch, met with the assembly of disciples, 
instructed a great multitude, and here the disciples received the very appropriate 
name of Christians. The Jews called them the sect of the Nazarenes ; they 
called themselves disciples, believers, brethren, saints ; but here they receive 
the royal name of their Savior and Teacher. In those days came prophets from 
Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them, named Agabus, stood up in the assembly 
and signified by the Spirit that a great dearth should be over the whole land, 
which is the one in the reign of Claudius spoken of by Josephus. And the dis- 
ciples here decided to send relief, according to each one's ability, to their brethren 
in Judea. And they sent this help by the hands of Barnabas and Saul to the 
elders of the churches in Judea. Thus, as the first fruits of the Gospel, gentiles 
were relieving the wants of the Jews. Here we first meet with prophets and 
elders. It is plausible that the Saul persecution forced the Jewish believers out 
of the synagogues and necessitated them to form organized congregations of their 
own. The persons appointed in Jerusalem to receive and distribute donations 
wore the seven. They are never called deacons, but the verb designating their 
service may be Englishised to deaconize — to deaconize tables. But here the con- 
tributions are sent to the elders. The term, elder, means an old man, but also 



432 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

designates an officer in the Jewish nation and also in the synagogue ; its use here 
shows the disciples in Judea had formed themselves into societies, or congrega- 
tions, under the care of elders. 

12. Source of Instruction and State of the Jews. — As Matthew is said 
to have written his account of the Gospel before he commenced his apostolic per- 
egrinations, it must have been writen before this time ; and this would serve 
instead of the apostles, as a source for the information of teachers. We also 
iind prophets, as Agabus, possessing more than natural abilities. The power of 
the Sanhedrim appears much broken by the conversion of Saul and the iniringe- 
ment on Jewish rights by Caius Csesar. Also their rich donations and income 
from other countries were much reduced, and fifty thousand Jews had been 
slaughtered in Babylon, and the rest took refuge in the two fortified cities, 
Neerda and Nisibis. * The influence of Agrippa with Claudius recovered^ their 
rights and protection from their neighbors.^ 

13. Agrippa' s Persecution. A. M. 4047-8. A. D. 43-4. — Acts 12. — 
Agrippa undertook to oppress certain of the church and slew James Ben-Zebedee 
with the sword. The officer conducting James to execution being converted to 
Christianity by the behavior of this apostle, was executed with him. ^ Seeing this 
gratified the Jews, he proceeded to take Peter, but as it was Passover times, he 
imprisoned him, intending after the feast was over to execute him publicly. 
Determined that escape should be impossible, he delivered Peter to sixteen sol- 
diers and had him bound with two chains on his hands to two of them. Thus 
was Peter secured and guarded in the prison; but the church made earnest 
prayer for him. The night before his intended execution Peter was lying asleep 
between the two soldiers to whom he was chained, and the keepers before the 
door were guarding the prison. An angel of the Lord stood by him, while a 
light shined in the prison, and, smiting Peter on the side and raising him up, 
said: Kise up quickly; and the chains fell from his hands. The angel said: 
Gird thyself, bind on thy sandals, cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. 
Peter did so, but thought it was only vision. They passed the first and second 
guard and come to the iron gate, which, of its own accord, opened out into the 
city; then, having passed through one street, the angel suddenly departed from 
Peter. 

14. Agrippa Defeated but not Converted. — Now, completely awakened, 
Peter realized the Lord's deliverance and went to the house of Mary, mother of 
John Mark, and found many praying. He knocked at the gate and Khoda come 
to see who was there, and recognizing Peter's voice she bounded back and told 
them. They told her she was crazy, but she stuck to it. Then they said it was 
his angel ; but the knocking continued, and, opening the door, they were aston- 
ished to see Peter. Peter motioned silence, related the whole matter, bid them 
tell James Ben-Alpheus and the brethren, and then went to another place where 
the soldiers could not find him. In the morning the soldiers were in great com- 
motion about Peter, and Herod sought hitn in vain, examined the keepers, com- 
manded them to be put to death, and determined to not believe in the divine 
interposition, left Judea and went to Caesarea, forty -nine miles northwest from 
Jerusalem ; there he received Divine honors and soon met a terrible death. 

15. Antioch a Missionary Center. A. M. 4049. A. D. 45. — Acts 13. 14. 
— Still the word of God spread abroad and multiplied believers. Barnabus and 
Saul left Jerusalem, taking with them John Mark, and returned to Antioch, having 
performed the service of carrj^ing the donations for the poor brethren in Judea. 
The church at Antioch was well supplied with teachers and prophets, and some 
of them were men of distinction in the world ; and while they were ministering 
and fasting the Holy Spirit said : Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the 
work to which I have called them. Then, having fasted and prayed and laid 



(4) Joseph. Ant. 18:9. 9. (5) 19:5. (6) Euseb. 2:9. 



CHAPTER cm. : SECTIONS XVI. -XVIII. 433 

their bands on them, the church sent them away. Thus, a city of the gentiles 
becomes a center and source of missionary operations. The Holy Spirit instead 
of the high priest ; teachers, and prophets, instead of the Sanhedrim; ordain and 
send the missionaries. The new covenant has now been confirmed with many 
Jews, the gentiles have been brought into it, and gentile cities, as well as Jeru- 
salem, have now become sources of life and light to the world. 

16. Mission to the Gentiles. — In this missionary tour Sergeus Faulus, 
the Roman proconsul of Cyprus, was converted from Polytheism to Christianity ; 
and after this Saul's name is changed to Paul, but for what reason is not stated. 
Where they found synagogues they commenced their work in them after the 
reading of the law and the prophets. In this tour we discover the good influence 
these synagogues had on the gentiles in preparing them for entering the kingdom 
of God. Their manner of preaching to the Jews was historical, and then show- 
ing the fulfillment of their scriptures in the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth, 
and testifying to His works, sufferings, and resurrection; and then they wound 
up with exhortation and fearful warnings. Be it known to you, therefore, men 
and brethren, that forgiveness of sins through this Man is announced to you by 
Him;" all that believe are justified from all things from which justification by the 
law was impossible. For some sins the law provided no atonement; but in 
Christ all sins are pardoned, except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. They 
warned the Jews thus : Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is 
spoken by the prophets : Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish ! for I 
work a work in your days ; a work which ye will not believe though one should 
fully declare it to you. They see a work before their eyes which they would not 
believe on any amount of testimony, and yet they perish through stubborness. 

17. Disposition to Hear and Hostility. — Sometimes the audience 
requested to hear the same words on the next Sabbath, and many Jews and 
proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas and were persuaded to continue in the 
grace of God. Sometimes on the next Sabbath almost the whole city would 
collect to hear the word of God, and then the unbelieving Jews, filled with envy 
and indignation, opposed the apostles, contradicting and blaspheming. Then 
Paul and Barnabas tells them it was necessary the word of God be first off'ered 
to them, but as they rejected it and judged themselves unworthy of eternal life, 
they would turn to the gentiles, for so the Lord commanded, saying : I have 
set thee for a light to the gentiles, and salvation to the ends of the earth. Then 
the gentiles rejoiced and glorified the word of God, and the pious of them 
believed and obtained eternal life, as well as the pious Jews. Then the word of 
the Lord would spread abroad throughout that region, and then the hostile Jews 
would show the danger to Polytheism, as well as to Judaism, in the success of 
the gospel, and thus stir up the chief men, whose wives were zealous Jews or 
Polytheists, and have Paul and Barnabas expelled. But the word was sown in 
those places, and the new disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit, 
and these were often a great multitude of both Jews and gentiles. 

18. Natural Influence of Miracles. — Where there were no synagogues, 
the apostles embraced any favorable circumstance to introduce the gospel, and 
when they wrought miracles the natural tendency of the gentile was to worship 
them as gods, and sometimes the apostles had difficulty to prevent this homage. 
But the malignant Jews would follow them there, and by some means or other 
stir up the Polytheists against them. Once they stoned Paul and hauled him out 
of the city for dead, and the disciples gathered around him, but he arose and 
walked into the city and stayed till ready to leave. Then they returned to those 
cities where they had been expelled, and confirmed the disciples and exhorted 
them to continue in the faith, and apprised them of the fact that through much 
tribulation they must enter the kingdom of God, for all the world was against it. 

—28 



434 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Also, they organized the disciples into churches, appointed elders in every one, 
and commended them with prayer and fasting to the Lord in whom they had 
believed. 

19. Dispute About Cikcumcision and the Law. — They returned to Antioch 
after about three years' absence, and having collected the church which had 
•commended them to the grace of God for the work which they had accomplished, 
they reported how great things God had wrought with them and that He had 
opened the door of faith to the gentiles. They remained in Antioch a long time 
with the disciples. While here, certain men came down from Judea and taught 
the brethren that the gentile believers could not be saved unless they were 
circumcised after the custom of Moses. (Gal. 5:3.) Paul and Barnabas disputed 
and argned against them, but the mass cannot appreciate argument and must 
have dictations from acknowledged authority; so the church decided that Paul 
and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the 
apostles and elders about this question. Sent forward by the church, they passed 
through Phenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the gentiles, and 
caused great joy to all the brethren. 

20. Council at Jerusalem. A. M. 4053. A. D. 49. — Acts 15. — Having 
come to Jerusalem, these messengers were gladly received by the church, the 
apostles, and elders, and they reported how great things God had wrought with 
them. But some of the believing Pharisees arose and said it was necessary to 
circumcise them and command them to keep the law of Moses — not some part of 
the law. So the apostles and elders assembled to consider the matter. No 
doubt but Paul argued against them as ably as in his epistles to the Romans, 
Gallatians, and Hebrews, for there was much discussion on the subject. The 
priests and Jews could not give up their wish to have the nations subjected to 
them, and Jerusalem and the temple aggrandized by their tribute and offerings ; 
while Paul and Barnabas sought liberty for all saints to serve God everywhere 
in spirit and in truth (John 4:23), with perfect freedom. In this discussion Peter 
cited the case of Cornelius; Barnabas and Paul narrated the great signs and 
wonders wrought among the gentiles by them ; Peter asserts God made no 
difference between the Jews and gentiles, but purified the hearts of both by 
means of faith, and calls circumcision and the law a yoke upon the neck which 
neither they nor their fathers were able to bear. They were certainly such to 
the Jews when in a state of dispersion. 

21. The Decision. — James Ben-Alpheus cites prophecies respecting the 
restoration of David's throne and the nations called by the name of Jehovah, 
and refers to the foreknowledge of God. His decision was, that believing gentiles 
be not troubled about these things, but that they be admonished to abstain from 
pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and things strangled, and from blood. 
As to Moses of old time, he was preached every Sabbath in every city, being 
read in the synagogues ; or, as to Moses, from old time till the present, he has 
been preached in the synagogues every Sabbath. Then the whole assembly 
resolved to send two select men of their number to Antioch with Barnabas and 
Paul, and send with them a letter, as follows : 

The Apostles, Elders^ and Brethren to the Brethren from among the Gentiles throughout Antioch^ 
and Syria, and Cilicia — Greeting, etc. : 

They disown those troublesome teachers and their teaching; recognize and 
commend Barnabas and Paul as beloved and faithful to Jesus Christ; send Judas- 
Barsabas and Silas to tell them by word of mouth the same as was written in 
the letter. It seemed good to them and to the Holy Spirit to lay upon the 
believing gentiles no more burdens than these necessary things: That they 
abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and 
from fornication. If they did this they would do well. Farewell. 



CHAPTER CIV.: SECTIONS I. -11. 435 

This decision left the Jews just where they were in relation to circumcision 
and the law. It freed the gentile believers from all the laws of Moses ;f but 
inoral, mental, and physical laws are laws of creation, and are binding on every 
intelligent creature ; and where no positive precept is given, Christian duty must 
be determined by these inherent laws."^ 

22. Paul and Barnabas Continue at Antioch. — Being dismissed, Paul and 
Barnabas returned to Antioch, and assembling the multitude of disciples, deliv- 
ered the epistle. Having read it, the disciples rejoiced for the consolation. Judas 
and Silas being prophets, exhorted the brethren with many words aiid confirmed 
them, and after they had remained awhile they were dismissed with peace from 
the brethren to the apostles, but Silas chose to remain. Paul and Barnabas 
continued in Antioch, teaching and preaching the glad tidings of the word of the 
Lord ; many others, also, were doing the same. 



CHAPTER Ciy. 



MISSIONS OF PAUL AND SILAS. A. M. 4054-4062. A. D. 50-58. 

Acts 15:36-41. 21:1-14. 

1. Barnabas and Paul Separate. — Teachers being plenty at Antioch, Paul 
proposed to Barnabas a visit to all the churches where they had preached the 
Gospel, but, differing about their helpers, they separated. Barnabas took John- 
Mark and sailed to Cyrus, his native place; so he is dropped by Luke, who 
follows his narrative of Paul. Henceforward we have no more inspired history 
of the development of the kingdom of God, the rest of the Acts being no more 
than a memoir of Paul's missions. Hereafter we must be guided by prophetic 
programmes and by analogies and inferences. Paul took Silas, and, being com- 
mended to the grace of God by the brethren, went through Syria and Cilicia 
confirming the churches. At Derbe, or Lystra, he took Timothy into the com- 
pany of his helpers, and, though contrary to his own teaching, he circumcised 
him, so that the Jews might not object to receiving him, for all that region knew 
his father was a Greek, though his mother was a Jewess. As they journeyed 
through the cities they delivered to the churches, to keep, the decrees of the 
apostles and elders in Jerusalem. As the Jews and proselytes regarded Jeru- 
salem as the Royal City of the kingdom of God, so they regarded the church in 
Jerusalem and every decree and teacher coming from there as of the highest 
Divine authority. Paul denies the superiority of any other apostle, or the right 
of the church at Jerusalem to legislate for any other church, but he submits to 
this preference at present for the good of the cause, and in his epistles he refutes 
its validity. ^ The churches in his missionary field were established in the faith 
and increased in number daily. 

2. Paul in Philippi. — Acts 16:7-40. — Forbidden by the Holy Spirit to 
missionate any more at present in Asia, and invited, in a vision, to Europe, they 
immediately went into Macedonia and stopped in Philippi, which was a chief 



(t) Jer. 31:81-34; Heb. 8:7-12;. Heb. 10:16, 17; Rom. 14:15; I. Cor. 8:12, 13; Philip. 4:8, 9. 
See Law in the index, and chap. 26, §§ 4-7, and chap. 24, § 11. (*) Gal. 4:21. 5:3, 4. Col. 2:10, 16. 
(8) Gal 1:16-24. 2:1-14. 



436 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

city and a colony. Here Paul found no synagogue, but simply a place of prayer 
and conversation by the river, and in it Paul found some praying women and 
instructed them. Of these, Lydia of Thyatira and her household became disci- 
ples and offered them lodging. While frequenting this place of prayer, a 
Pj^thonees, who was kept by her owners for making money by her divinations, 
followed Paul and Silas, commending them to the people as the servants of the 
Most High God, who announced to them the way of salvation. All men knew 
her and her avocation, and would suppose Paul and Silas to belong to the same 
craft, so they let her alone till the attention of the people was sutficiently drawn 
to them, then Paul, in the name of Jesus Christ, dispossessed the Python demon, 
and thus proved the superiority of Christ to demons and that they were not in 
confederation. Her masters, out of revenge and fear for their wicked gains, 
stirred up a persecution against them as troublesome Jews, and had them 
scourged and imprisoned. Paul and Silas sung praises in the prison and were 
heard by the prisoners ; the prison was shaken open and all chains and fasten- 
ings were broken loose ; the jailor was about to kill himself, but was saved by 
Paul assuring him the prisoners had not escaped. The jailor and his household 
became disciples. In the morning the magistrates sent to dismiss the prisoners. 
Paul, who never guarded himself from persecution by his Poman citizenship, 
now uses it to make their innocence manifest and their power to avenge their 
wrongs incontrovertible. Here Paul established a church, which above all other 
churches, aided him in his missions.^ 

3. In Thessalonica and Berea. — Acts 17:1-14. — In Thessalonica Paul com- 
menced his labors in a synagogue and preached from the Jewish Scriptures. 
Some Jews, a great multitude of pious Greeks, and chief women believed, and 
joined the disciples. As usual, the unbelieving Jews stirred up a persecution, 
charging Paul with treason against the Poman government in setting up Jesus as 
a king instead of Csesar. Then the brethren sent Paul and Silas by night to 
Berea, where they again entered a synagogue and found a nobler class of Jews, 
who examined the Scriptures to determine the truth of what was preached. 
Many of them believed, and not a few honorable men and women. But the 
unbelieving Jews of Thessalonica followed and got up a persecution, and then the 
brethren sent Paul by sea to Athens, but Silas and Timothy remained. 

4. Paul in Athens. A. M. 4055. A. D. 51. — Acts 17:15-34. — Having 
sent word for Silas and Timothy by those who brought him, he waited at Athens, 
the scienced mistress of the world. Seeing the city full of idols, Paul's spirit 
grew warm as he reasoned in the synagogues with the Jews and pious persons, 
and in the market, or place of public gatherings, daily with those he met — such 
as the philosophers of the different schools, or colleges. These philosophers 
accused him of introducing a new god and goddess — Jesus and the Resurrection. 
The Athenians and sojourners there were always in quest of something new, so 
they conducted Paul to Mar's hill, where the supreme judges of Athens were 
accustomed to assemble, and requested him to explain this new doctrine. Paul, 
always master of the situation, had seen an altar inscribed, "To an unknown 
God." This was a public acknowledgment of ignorance and a pretention to 
extreme piety. After complimenting them for their extreme devotion, Paul pro- 
poses to make this God known to them — the God they worshiped in ignorance of 
His attributes. He presents facts about Jehovah which their own philosophers 
and poets attributed to the Deity, and shows their inconsistency in representing 
the Divinity by material images stationed in temples. Then introducing the 
Gospel, he tells them: The former times of this ignorance God overlooked and 
permitted, but now He calls all men everywhere to repent, and He has appointed 
a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by the man He has 
appointed, and has given assurance of this fact to all, by raising Him from the 



(9) Phil. 4:15. 



CHAPTER CIV.: SECTIONS V.-VII. 43f 

dead. Some ridiculed the idea of the resurrection and others prornised to hear 
him again. This gives us a specimen of apostolic preaching to atheistic and Poly- 
theistic philosophers and of its reception by them. But some of the hearers 
believed, and joined themselves to the disciples. 

5. Paul at Corinth. — Acts 18:1-22. — Paul would not waste time in Athens 
talking to self-important skeptics, and so departed to Corinth in Acliia. Here we 
learn Paul was a tent-maker and worked at this business for support while engaged 
in preaching the Gospel. Here he met Christian Jews from Rome, where no 
apostles had yet been. (Rom. 1:11-13.) Paul worked at his trade, and on the 
Sabbaths reasoned in the synagogues, persuading Jews and Greeks. After Silas 
and Timothy came to him he pressed the truth upon the Jews till they opposed 
and blasphemed ; then he shook his garments and abandoned them to their own 
destruction and turned and labored for the gentiles. A very few believed, and 
the case was discouraging ; but, in a vision the Lord told Paul to persevere boldly 
and he should be protected, and the Lord had many people there. The Jews 
brought Paul before the court for persuading men to worship God contrary to the 
law. But the proconsul of Achia refused to hear them and drove them away. 
The Jews dare not molest Paul before the proconsul, because he was a Roman 
citizen ; but they beat the ruler of the synagogue before the judgment seat for 
believing, and Galeo paid no attention to it. Paul remained many days and estab- 
lished a large church at Corinth. Then he turns back to Antioch, stops at Ephesus 
and reasons in the synagogue with the Jews, and salutes the church in Csesarea. 
During this journey Paul wrote an epistle to the Galatians, two to the Thessa- 
lonians, and one to Titus, which have been preserved, and show his teachings and 
reasonings. 

6. Nero, Felix, and Agrippa, Rulers. A. M. 4059. A. D. 55. — Claudius 
has been poisoned and Nero has become emperor of Rome. Fadus, Alexander, 
and Cumenus have been procurators of Agrippa's kingdom, and now Felix fills 
that office. Herod, king of Chalcio, is dead and his kingdom given to Agrippa, 
son of Agrippa. Afterward this Agrippa is moved from Chalcio and receives the 
tetrarcates of Philip and Lysanins, Batania, Trachenitis, and Gaulanitis. A 
tumult in the temple cost the Jews ten thousand or twenty thousand lives, and 
some villages were destroyed ; the robbers begin to head parties in murdering and 
robbing. 2 

7. Paul Commences His Third Missionary Tour. A. M. 4059. A. D. 
55. — Acts 18:23-28. — After some time spent in Antioch, Paul entered on his third 
missionary tour, of three years, and passing through Gallatia, Phrigia, and the 
upper countries, strengthening them, he came to Ephesus, as he promised. In 
the intervening time an Alexandrian Jew, named Apollos, well versed in the 
Scriptures, eloquent, and instructed in the way of the Lord, had come to Ephesus, 
and being fervent in spirit he spoke and taught correctly the things concerning 
the Lord Jesus, knowing only the baptism of John. Aquila and Priscilla, who 
had accompanied Paul from Corinth in his last tour, heard him speaking boldly 
in the synagogue, took him home with them and instructed him thoroughly. 
When he departed to Corinth they recommended him by letter to the disciples 
there, and when he had come to Corinth he powerfully confuted the Jews in 
public, showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ, or Messiah. Not 
only did John's disciples preach, as Apollos, but some of them had baptized 
disciples into John's name without teaching them anything about the Holy Spirit. 
Paul found some of these at Ephesus, and instructed them in John's teachings ; 
then they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus, and Paul, having laid 
his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke with tongues 
and prophecied. ^ 



(2) Joseph. Ant, 20:7, 1; 20:8, 1, 2, 4-11; Wrs.2:12, 1, 8; 2:13. 2-7. (3) Acts 19:1-7. 



438 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

8. Paul in Asia Minor. A. M. 4060-1. A. D. 56-7.— For three months 
Paul preached the things concerning the kingdom of God in the synagogue in Eph- 
esus ; but when some unbelieving Jews spoke evil of the way of eternal life, before 
the multitude, he separated the disciples and preached daily in the school of one 
Tyrannus for two years. So, all who dwelt in Asia Minor, both Jews and Greeks, 
heard the word of the Lord. God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul, 
equal to those done by any other of the apostles. Seven sons of one Sceva, a 
Jewish chief priest, undertook to cast out a demon, saying : We adjure you by 
the Jesus whom Paul preaches. But the demon answered: Jesus I know, and 
Paul I know, but who are ye? The demoniac jumped on them and licked them 
till they iied out of the house naked and wounded. This was known to all Jews 
and Greeks in Ephesus, and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus 
was magnified. Many practicing curious arts brought their books and burned 
them before all — to the value of fifty thousand pieces of silver, above eighty-three 
thousand dollars ; so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. The power 
and success of the kingdom of God was conceded by the tumult raised by Deme- 
trius and the men of his trade, because by Paul's preaching against Polytheism 
almost all Asia Minor had turned from idolatry and no more bought their silver 
shrines, or temples containing images of the goddess. 

9. Paul at Troas. A. M. 4061 A. D. 57.— Acts 20:1-16.— After the 
tumult, Paul collected the brethren, embraced them, and departed into Mace- 
donia, having sent Timoth)' and Erasmus before the tumult. Having gone 
through Macedonia and Greece, and the Jews having laid a plot to kill him, he 
sailed back to Troas, where he stayed seven daj^s. On the first day of the week 
(the Lord's day or disciples' day), as the seventh was the Sabbath of the Jews, 
having come together there to break bread, or celebrate the Lord's supper, Paul 
preached till' midnight, and Eutychus, having been killed by a fall out of a win- 
dow, was restored to life by Paul. Then they partook of the Lord's supper and 
talked till the break of day, and then Paul departed to Miletus. 

10. Paul's Charge to Elders of the Church at Ephesus. A. M. 4062. 
A. D. 58. — From Miletus Paul sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the 
church and rehearsed his labors with them, stated his present feelings and antici- 
pations of the future; but unmoved, he persevered to finish his course with joy 
and testify the good news of the grace of God. Now he felt sure the disciples in 
his missionary tours would see his face no more ; but as he had declared the whole 
counsel of God, he was clear of the blood of all who heard him. He warns them 
to be faithful and to feed the church of God, which He had purchased with His 
own blood, and of which the Holy Spirit had made them overseers ; for after 
Paul's departure they would be attacked by grievous wolves and party leaders. 
He tells them to remember his faithful and indefatigable warnings for three years 
by night and day, and also his example in labor and self-denial. Then he com- 
mended them to God and the word of His grace, who is able to build up and 
give inheritance among all the sanctified. Then he kneeled down and prayed 
with them and parted in sorrow. 

11. Paul Returned to Jerusalem. — Acts 21:1-17. — Leaving Ephesus, they 
sailed to Tyre, where they tarried seven days with the disciples, who, on their 
departure, accompanied them with wives and children ; and all knelt down on 
the beach and prayed. The whole journey was a scene of sorrowful embracing 
and mournful separations. At Csesarea they lodged with Philip, the evangelist, 
whose four daughters were prophetesses. Here Agabus foretold that Paul would be 
be bound at Jerusalem by means of the Jews and be delivered to the gentiles. Then 
the brethren besought him not to go up to Jerusalem ; but Paul answered : What 
mean ye to weep and to break my heart ? for I am ready to be not only bound, but 
also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they said : The will 
of the Lord be done. When Paul and his company arrived at Jerusalem the 
brethren received them gladly. During this tour Paul wrote the first and second 
epistles to the Corinthians, and the first to Timothy, and the one to the Komans. 



CHAPTER Cy. 



PAUL A PEISONER. A. M. 4062-4066. A. D. 58-62.— Acts 21: (18-40)-28. 

1. Paul and James at Jerusalem. — Acts 21:18-26. — Paul has once more 
arrived at Jerusalem, where he once, out of zeal for the law of Moses, persecuted 
the followers of Jesus, the Nazarene, and compelled some of them to blaspheme 
His name. Now he is anxious to show his countrymen their error, supposing 
they were actuated by the same motive ; and if he can not reform them and save 
the city and temple from destruction, he is willing to seal his testimony with his 
blood. Paul went to visit James Ben-Alpheus the only apostle now at Jerusalem, 
and all the elders of the church at Jerusalem were present. Having embraced 
them, he recounted particularly what things God had wrought among the gentiles 
through his ministry. When they heard this they glorified the Lord, and said: 
Thou seest, brother, how many myriads of Jews believe, but are all zealous of 
the law. These having heard by unbelieving Jews that Paul taught the dispersed 
Jews to forsake Moses and not circumcise their children, nor follow the customs 
enjoined in the law, would most certainly collect to know the truth of the matter 
when they heard Paul had come to Jerusalem. To prevent this concourse, Paul, 
by the advice of James and the elders, went into the temple to observe the 
rites of purification with four other men about to terminate their vow of Nazarite, 
to show the multitude that these reports were false and he himself kept the law. 
Though Paul taught the gentiles their Christian liberty and that circumcision was 
of no account in justification, yet he never taught the Jews to neglect circum- 
cision, or any other Jewish rite ; and never gave the Jews a pretext to prefer a 
charge against him. He did not go farther than Peter had done in the case of 
Cornelius, which had been justified by the apostles and brethren ; he treated 
them as brethren in Christ Jesus. 

2. Paul Apprehended. — Acts 21:27-40. — These rites of purification were 
about completed, when some of these lying Jews, who had followed Paul 
around in Asia Minor, observed him in the temple, and cried out : Men of Israel, 
help ! This is the man that teaches all, everywhere, against this people, the law, 
and this place, and has brought Greeks into the temple, and has polluted this 
holy place. This roused up the whole city and they ran together; and siezing 
Paul, dragged him out of the temple and shut the doors ; and beating him, tried 
to kill him. But the Roman chief captain being informed of the uproar, ran 
with his Roman soldiers and rescued Paul, and bound him with two chains, sup- 
posing him to be one of the robbers who infested the country and raised mobs. 
Finding it impossible to ascertain any facts in the case there, he commanded 
Paul to be taken into the castle ; but the mob followed, yelling out : Away with 
him ! When come upon the high steps Paul asked and abtained permission to 
address the crowd. 

3. Paul's Speeches. — Acts 22. 23:1-10. — Paul commences : Men, brethren, 
and fathers, hear my defence I now make to you. He spoke in the language of 
Jerusalem, that all might understand, and all kept silence. Then he gave an 
account of his native place, of his education under Gamaliel in Jerusalem, his 
persecution of the Christians, his commission to Damascus, his conversion to 



440 TflE il^INGDOM Ot GOD DEVELOlPED. 

Christianity, and his Di\^ine commission to the gentiles, or nations. This last 
sentence set them in a perfect uproar, and they yelled out: Away with such an 
one from the earth; it is not fit he should live ! and they became frantic with 
rage. So the captain commanded Paul to be brought into the castle and scourged 
till he would confess his fault ; but finding Paul was a Roman citizen, he relin- 
quished the examination and feared punishment for binding him. Then he 
assembled the Sanhedrim to try Paul, but was obligated by Roman law to protect 
him. Ananias was high priest and president of the council and was not any bet- 
ter than Caiaphas. The council was composed of Sadducees and Pharisees, and 
Paul divided it by avowing his belief in the resurrection. A contention arose 
between the two parties, and Paul was in danger of being pulled to pieces ; the 
captain ordered and the soldiers took Paul from them by force and brought him 
back into the castle. 

4. Paul Sent to the Governor at C^sarea. — Acts 23:11-35. 24:1-23. — 
In the night the Lord told Paul to be of good courage, for as he had fully 
testified for Him at Jerusalem, the royal city of the kingdom of God, so should 
he testify also at Rome, the royal city of the red dragon. A plot was laid to 
have Paul brought again before the council, and a band of desperadoes had 
bound themselves by an oath to rush upon the guard and kill Paul. This plot 
being certified to the captain, who must protect every Roman citizen, he had 
Paul safely guarded and conveyed by night to the Roman governor, Felix, in 
Csesarea. After five days the high priest and elders came to Caesarea, having a 
Roman orator to manage their case against Paul. Paul answered for himself, 
refuted all their charges, and told Felix they had not brought witnesses. Felix, 
now understanding the nature of the case, and not wishing to get into any 
trouble with the Jews, put them ofi* till Lysias, the chief captain, would come 
down, and promised to inquire into the matter then. After this Paul was 
guarded but had full liberty, and any of his acquaintances could visit him and 
supply his wants. 

5. Discourse to Felix. — Acts 24:24-27. — Felix and his wife, Drusilla, 
one of the Herod family who had abandoned her husband for Felix, sent for 
Paul to discourse concerning this faith in Christ. Paul reasoned of righteousness, 
temperance, and the coming judgment. Felix trembles, while his Jewish wife 
was never moved. What made Felix tremble ? Not the judgment coming on 
the Jewish nation, for he was not a Jew. Not the judgment coming on Rome 
and other nations, for he would be safe in his grave before that time. It must 
have been that coming judgment, when all secret thoughts, words, and actions 
shall be manifested, and every person receive according to his works. Felix was 
not converted, and on resigning his ofiice did Paul the injustice to leave him in 
bonds, or as under trial, just to obtain the favor of the Jews. 

6. Paul Appeals to C^sar. A. M. 4064. A. D. 60.— Acts 25:1-12.— 
When Festus came into the ofiice of Felix, the high priest and chief priests of 
the Jews tried to have him bring Paul to Jerusalem for trial, designing to kill 
him on the road ; but Festus told them they must try him where he was. After 
ten days they came to Caesarea to accuse Paul before the new governor, but Paul 
defeats them again. Festus, desiring favor with the Jews, proposed to Paul to 
go up to Jerusalem and be judged before him there. Paul answered : To the 
Jews I have done no wrong, as, also, thou very well knowest. If I am an 
offender and have done anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die ; but if 
not, no man, or governor, can give me up to them to be assassinated on the road. 
I appeal to Caesar. After some conference with the Jewish council, in which I 
suppose he promised them that Paul should not trouble them any more, he 
addressed Paul : Thou hast appealed to Caesar ; to Caesar shalt thou go. 

7. Yotage to Rome. — Acts 25:13-27. 26. 27. 28:1-15. — Agrippa, great 
grandson to Herod the Great, or the first, with his wife came to salute Festus, 
and learnino: of Paul's case, desired to hear him. Paul testifies and reasons 



CHAPTER CV.: SECTIONS VlII.-lX. 441 

before Agrippa till the king professed himself almost persuaded to be a 
Christian. Paul's doctrine was repentance to God and faith in Jesus Christ, and 
forgiveness of sins upon repentance of them. Festus, who was a heathen, 
supposed Paul had become crazy by much learning, or hard study. Both 
Agrippa and Festus acknowledged Paul clear of any crime. But Paul must 
witness for Christ in the palace at Rome ; so Paul and his company and some 
other prisoners were committed to a centurion named Julius, of the Augustan 
band, to be conveyed to Rome, about A. M. 4064 (A. D. 60). This was a perilous 
voyage and afforded an opportunity for Paul to exhibit the Christian magnanimity 
and obtain the conversion of all on board. An angel of the Lord visited and 
encouraged Paul in time of the greatest discouragement. Paul healed the sick 
on the island where they were shipwrecked. The brethren at Rome came and 
met Paul and his company, and this made them feel at home in a foreign land. 
The Gospel had got there before them and made brethren to meet them, and 
Paul gave thanks to God and took courage when he saw them. 

8. Conference with the Jews at Rome. — Acts 28: 16-29. — When they came 
to Rome the centurian delivered the prisoners to the commander of the camp; 
but Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with the soldier that guarded him. 
After three days Paul called together the chief men of the Jews and stated his 
case, closing his statement thus : For on account of the hope of Israel I am 
compassed with this chain. They had received no letters from Judea concerning 
him, and none of the brethren from there had spoken any harm of him ; but they 
desired to hear what he thought, for that sect of the Nazarenes was opposed 
everywhere. So, on a day appointed they came to him to his lodgings in great 
numbers. To these Jews Paul expounded and fully testified the kingdom of God 
and persuaded them of the things concerning Jesus, from morning till night, both 
from the law of Moses and the prophets. Some believed the things spoken, and 
some believed not. Disagreeing among themselves, Paul quoted to them the 
prophecy of Isaiah about their blindness, stubbornness, impenitence, and incura- 
bleness, and added : Be it known to you, therefore, that to the gentiles the salvation 
of God is sent, and they will hear it. They departed and had great reasoning 
among themselves. 

9. Two Years at Rome. A. M. 4064-6. A. D. 60-2.— Acts 28:30, 31. ~ 
Paul remained two whole years in Rome, in his own rented house, and gladly 
received all that came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the 
things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, and no one hindered 
him. Here he wrote a letter to the Ephesians, one to the Philipians, one to the 
Colossians, one to Philemon, and one to the Hebrews. Here Luke stopped his 
narrative of Paul. After two years Paul. was released and revisited the churches 
of his planting and Jerusalem, wrote his Second Epistle to Timothy, and is reck- 
oned to have planted the Gospel in Spain, France, and British islands, and finally 
was beheaded at Rome by order of Nero. 



CHAPTER CVI. 



MANNER AND MEANS OF PROPAGATING AND PRESERVING THE 

GOSPEL. 

1. Account of the Apostles and Evangelists. — We have now finished 
Luke's history of the Acts of the Apostles and the setting up of the kingdom of 
God under the Gospel dispensation. However, it gives no more than a specimen 
of the planting of the churches in Paul's missions and of his labors. The terri- 
tory embraced in it is a part of Judea, Samaria, Galilee, Phenicia, Syria, some 
districts of Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, and their borders, and Cyprus and 
Crete. Of Paul's ministry till mobbed and taken prisoner at Jerusalem and taken 
to Rome we have some account ; but of the other apostles we have but little or no 
account. James Ben-Zebedee was killed with the sword by Herod Agrippa. 
James Ben-Alpheus remained at Jerusalem till martyred by the Jews, A. M. 
4067 (A. D. 63). He is mentioned in all of Paul's visits to Jerusalem ; appears to 
have had tiie oversight of the church there; has left a short letter, addressed to 
the dispersed of the twelve tribes, written about A. M. 4062 (A. D. 58). Of Jude 
Ben-Alpheus we have a very short letter addressed to those sanctified by God 
the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ ; but nothing more is said. Peter is 
frequently mentioned' by Luke and Paul, and appears to have traveled through 
Judea, Samaria, West Galilee, and north to Antioch. He has left two epistles, 
the first, written about A. D. 64, addressed to the dispersed strangers in Pontus, 
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bythynia, districts of Asia Minor ; the second, 
written about A. D. 65, addressed to brethren of the same faith. He is said to 
have been crucified at Rome in the persecution under Nero. John was at Jerusa- 
lem when Paul received the right hand of fellowship from him, Peter, and James. 
He and Peter imparted the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the Samaritans, but he is 
no more mentioned by Luke or Paul. He has left Revelations, written about 
A. M. 4100 (A. D. 96); three short epistles, written about A. D. 68 or 69, and a 
history of the Gospel, written about A. M. 4101 (A. D. 97). He returned from the 
Island of Patmosand died in Ephesus. Matthew is not mentioned after the gifts 
of the Holy Spirit on the Pentecost ; he has left the earliest written history of the 
Gospel (A. D. 37 to A. D. 64). Of the rest of the apostles we have no men- 
tion in the sacred history after the Holy Spirit was given, nor have any of their 
letters been preserved. The evangelist Mark is mentioned in the Acts and in 
some of Paul's epistles. He wrote a history of the Gospel about A. D. 60 to 63. 
Luke wrote a history of the Gospel about A. D. 60, and what we have of the 
Acts of the Apostles A. D. 63. This is all we have of the events attending the 
setting up of the kingdom of God. 

2. Gospel Propagated at First. — During the ministry of John the Baptist 
and of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Jews and proselytes from all parts of the world 
attended some of the feasts at Jerusalem with gifts and ofi'erings. These foreigners 
heard of John and Christ ; multitudes of them heard Christ's teachings, witnessed 
His miracles in the temple, followed Him through the city, and at the last joined 
in His triumphant entry into the city and temple as the Anointed Son of David 



CHAPTER CVI. : SECTIONS III. -VI. 443 

and King of Israel ; these knew He had been crucified and heard of His resurrec- 
tion. Returning to their homes far and near, thej would report in their families, 
communities, and synagogues what they had seen and heard in Jerusalem, and 
a very natural result was discovered on that Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was 
bestowed on the disciples. There were pious Jews and proselytes from all nations 
in the known world sojourning at Jerusalem, who witnessed for themselves that 
glorious event. As these were devout, or pious, they would believe and become 
disciples, and so would many who came to the Passover and tarried at Jerusalem 
for the Pentecost. Many of these received the Holy Spirit and would return 
home, carrying the Gospel into the synagogues, from which they would never 
think of separating. We found this the case at Damascus. This same result 
was repeated more or less every feast in every year till the persecution by Saul. 

3. Peeseocjtion Sent Teachers. — Persecution comes and sends teachers, 
prophets, and evangelists after these, where Saul's power could not reach — as to 
Samaria and Antioch. Then, as persecution subsided and the brethren returned 
to Jerusalem, the apostles must follow and transmit the gifts of the Holy Spirit, 
as Peter and John did at Samaria. By these gifts the disciples were confirmed 
and provided with teachers. Then the uncircumcised gentiles who frequented 
these synagogues would believe, as at Antioch, in Pisidia, and after Peter 
opened the door for Cornelius, these would be baptized in the name of the Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit, without being circumcised and coming under the yoke of 
the law, the high priest, and Sanhedrim at Jerusalem. Then the impious Jews 
of the synagogue would persecute the believers and compel them to leave the 
synagogue or renounce Jesus Christ, and those loving relations more than Jesus 
could not be His disciples. Thus, the Christians were driven out of the syna- 
gogues and compelled to form church organizations of their own, as at Ephesus. 

4. Gospel Preceded the Apostles Often. — Thus it was where we have the 
history, and we infer it was about the same in those cases not fully related. 
When Paul wrote his first epistle to the Pomans there was a noted church there, 
but not any apostle had visited them, and Paul desired to see them and com- 
municate some spiritual gifts for their edification and establishment.^ The 
apostle must visit all countries and witness for Christ, in conjunction with the 
Holy Spirit, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Ireneus, A. D. 
170, says the Gospel was preached throughout the whole world, to the extreme 
parts of the earth, by the apostles and their disciples. ^ The apostles testified to 
what they saw and heard of Jesus Christ, then the Holy Spirit bestowing His 
gifts on those receiving the imposition of hands from the apostles in the name of 
Jesus, witnessed for Him by enabling them to do and teach as Christ did. 

5. Importance of Jews and Their Institutions. — The importance of the 
Jews, synagogues, and sacred Scriptures in setting up the kingdom of God can 
not be fully appreciated. By these, Polytheists were brought to a knowledge of 
the true God, and to see the folly of idolatry. These synagogues furnished the 
starting points for the Gospel, with but few Exceptions, and they were scattered 
over the whole world, or in every nation. The old covenant Scriptures had 
been translated, for over three hundred years, into the Greek language, which 
was understood by the learned in all parts of the known world, and these furnished 
the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers with their subjects, facts, and 
predictions for their discourses. To these were added the truths of Christianity, 
then the gifts of the Holy Spirit accompanying the imposition of the apostles' 
hands, proved the whole to be the work of Jehovah, and that Christian congre- 
gation, or society, to be a province, or village, of the kingdom of God. 

6. Countries Where Christian Churches Were Organized. — When Paul 
was converted from his error and mad folly and had returned to Jerusalem, he 
found the apostles, who had withstood his persecution, all gone but James and 

(4) Rom. 1:10-13. (5) Horn., Vol. I., p. 131. 



444: THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Peter, and Peter was missionating through Jiidea, Samaria and Galilee. In this 
manner were all the churches in North Africa, or Lybbia, Cyreneca, and Egypt, 
originated, also those in Ethiopia, Arabia, Babylonia, Mesopotamia, Persia, 
Media, Parthia, and Armenia. In all these places were Jews and synagogues. 
Every year messengers took up to Jerusalem gifts and offerings, and returned 
with their testimony to what they saw and heard. 

7. Districts Occupied by Different Apostles. — Though Paul claims to 
have labored more than any apostle and to possess as many gifts, yet, as they 
were all directed by the same Holy Spirit and engaged in the same work, we may 
safely take his history as a sample of all their labors and sufferings. Though we 
have no historical record of their lives and labors, yet tradition has transmitted 
some little account of their labors. The Gospel was preached in Idumea, Syria, 
and Mesopotamia, by Jude ; in Egypt, Mamorica, Mauritania, and other parts of 
Africa, by Mark, the evangelist, Simon Zelotus, and Jude; in Ethiopia, by the 
eunuch and Mathias; in Pontus, Galatia, and the neighboring parts of Asia 
Minor, where were the seven churches, by John; in Parthia, by Matthew; in 
Sythia, by Philip and Andrew; in the north and west parts of Asia, by Bartho- 
lomew; in Persia, by Simon Zelotus and Jude; in Media, Carmania, etc., by 
Thomas ; from Jerusalem and round about to Illiricum, by Paul, ^ who also pub- 
lished it in Spain, France, Britain, and Italy. '^ Mark and the eunuch were not 
apostles and could not impart the gifts of the Spirit. We know the Gospel had 
reached Italy and a noted church was at Pome when Paul wrote his epistle to it, 
and yet it had not been visited by an apostle nor any gifts imparted by the 
imposition of hands. 

8. Traditionary Communications. — Before the Scriptures were completed 
and copies multiplied, the way of transmitting and perpetuating the truth in the 
Christian churches was by tradition. Paul writes to Timothy: The things thou 
hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men 
who shall be able to teach others. ^ Hold fast the form of sound words which 
thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. ^ When men 
lived one hundred years, tradition was a very good way to transmit knowledge 
to future generations; but when men become short-lived, and innovations and 
party leaders abound, it becomes very unsafe. But the precaution shown in Paul 
to Timothy was the best, and rendered the communication as safe and satisfactory 
as could be made. 

9. Apostles and Apostolic Men. — While the apostles lived and were acces- 
sible to churches by messengers or epistles, or both, application for truth on any 
subject would naturally be to them. Next to them in authority, or importance, 
as witnesses to the truth, would be apostolic men, or those taught and approved 
by them. Some objected to Paul's apostolic authority, or competence, to decide 
a controversy, because not one of the twelve, though he possessed all the gifts 
and prerogatives they did. ^ When the apostolic writings, and those approved by 
them, were completed, aut enticated, and multiplied, all appeals must be to them 
in reference to the facts and principles of the Gospel. But these writings, being 
addressed to individual churches and persons, some time must transpire before 
they could be collected, examined, authenticated, and multiplied. Even copies 
of the Jewish Scriptures were not numerous. Thus, the necessity of reliable wit- 
nesses to the Gospel truths is inevitable. New teachers, with new facts and 
principles, and new teachers from the apostles or from apostolic churches, must 
prove their mission by letters or known witnesses, or the churches receiving them 
must send trusty messengers to the primative sources and inquire into the com- 
mission and teachings of such teachers, evangelists, or prophets. ^ Apollos 
received letters of commendation from Aquila and Priscilla to the church at 



(6) Jones, PR. 96, 97. (7) Town. N. T., pp. 381-6. (8) II. Tim. 2:2. (9) Idm. 1:13. (1) II. Cor. 
10:8, 11:5. 12:12. 13:3; I. Cor. 9:1, 2. (2) Acts 15:1, 3, 24. 



CHAPTER CVI. : SECTIONS X. -XIII. 445 

Corinth,^ and Paul speaks of such letters ; * and the church at Antioch sent mes- 
sengers with Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, and the council at Jerusalem sent 
messengers and an epistle to the churches in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. ^ John 
writes to the messengers, or angels, of the seven churches in Asia Minor, ^ 

10. Apostolic centers and StrocEssoRS. — As churches multiplied it would 
be necessary that the original witnesses be distributed among them. The 
apostles must necessarily travel about to impart the gifts of the Holy Spirit in 
the churches for their confirmation, but still they might have centers of action. 
We find James Een-Alpheus at Jerusalem; Paul retraced his travels and 
exercised a watch- care over them, while he also missionated on new ground. 
The church at Corinth wrote to him about some matters, and he answered by 
letter. '^ Where access to an apostle was not practicable, or was impossible, then 
their approved scholars would come next in requisition. JSfow, if the apostles 
approved of any of their scholars in the presence of competent witnesses, as 
Paul did Timothy, and at the same time delivered in charge an abstract of facts 
and principles,^ such persons might be regarded as the most authentic witnesses 
to the facts and teachings of the Gospel, and also of the Jewish Scriptures. 
Then these might repeat the same ordination of others, and in the same way, 
and so on till the Scriptures were completed and copies distributed to all the 
churches. 

11. The Scriptures Supreme Authority. — When the Scriptures, in whole 
or in part, are authenticated and accessible to all, then the ultimate appeal must 
be to them, and the most important and responsible work in the churches is their 
translation into the commonly spoken language of the members. The supreme 
authority is the Scriptures in the original language, and anyone who is competent 
may, without the least impiety, sit in judgment on the teaching and practice of 
any deacon, bishop, or translator, and reject their authority when wrong. No 
position or office can authorize anyone to impose a falsehood, to alter or annul a 
law, or to originate any institution in the kingdom of God. God alone is the 
Father; Jesus Christ alone is the Teacher and Leader ;^ and all the authority any 
person has by virtue of any office is to make known the truth and obey the 
laws. But before the Scriptures were compiled and accessible to all, true and 
wise Christians must have adhered to the best authenticated witnesses, when 
false teachers labored to become leaders of parties. 

12. Officers in Churches. — Now we find the apostles ordained elders in 
every church. Paul left Titus in Crete to finish up the work and ordain elders 
in every church, i Paul sent for the elders of the church at Ephesus, and said 
the Holy Spirit had made them overseers, or bishops, and tells them to feed the 
church of God purchased with His own blood. ^ Feeding is the w.ork of a 
minister, or deacon. Timothy was left at Ephesus, ^ and Paul gives Him the 
qualifications for overseers and ministers, or bishops and deacons. John directs 
his seven letters to the messengers, or angels, of the seven churches, and one of 
them was the messenger of the church at Ephesus. ^ 

13. Names, or Titles, of Officers, or Servants. — The term elder literally 
means an old man, but as a technicality it designates a civil, and also a 
synagogue officer, among the Jews. In their dispersions the synagogue was both 
church and courthouse, where they transacted both civil and religious business. 
If the term officer is consistent with the spirit of Gospel service, we may say the 
term elder designates an officer in the Christian churches ; but it is a generic term, 
including bishops and deacons. We never read of elders and bishops, nor elders 
and deacons, but we do read of bishops and deacons, or overseers and ministers. ^ 
The apostles appointed the seven in Jerusalem to minister, or deaconize, for 



(3) 18:26, 27. (4) II. Cor. 3:1. (5) Acts 15:2, 22, 23. (6) Rev. 1:11. (7) I. Cor. 7:1. (8) II. 
Tim. 2:2. 1:13, 14. (9) Matt. 23:8-10. (1) Tit. 1:5. (2) Acts 20:17-28. (3) I. Tim. 1:3. 3:1-15. 
(4) Rev. 1:11. (5) Phil. 1:1. 



446 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

tables and manage the funds for the poor; but the church at Antioch sent their 
contributions for the poor brethren there to the elders. Paul said the Holy Spirit 
made the elders overseers, or bishops, of the church, but he bids them feed the 
flock, which is to minister, or deaconize, to their wants. In the qualifications 
for bishops that for teaching is required, but those using well the office of deacon 
acquire a good degree and boldness — literally freespokeness — in the faith, such 
freedom of speech as is acquired by practice. If Peter styles himself an elder, 
Paul calls himself a deacon, or minister. The seven appointed at Jerusalem are 
never called deacons, though the verb expressing their business might be 
rendered deaconize tables. There are no qualifications for serving tables, or 
handling money, in Paul's directions to Timothy, and some of Paul's best 
helpers are called deacons, or ministers. ^ 

14. Character of Ruling. — Overseers must work, but if they cannot do 
the work themselves they must have helpers, who may be called deacons, or 
ministers. These helpers, or deacons, may be teachers, prophets, evangelists, 
or persons possessing whatever gift is needed for the work ; they may help the 
bishops manage the flock, and we may call all of them elders. Some elders may 
rule well and have no other gift, and others, having different gifts, may labor in 
word and teaching; but those having no gift for ruling and managing should not 
be called bishops, overseers, nor pastors. 

15. Character of Ruling. — Elders can not rule imperiously as a master, 
or conqueror, over God's heritage, but by example, advice, and instruction.*^ 
They are not rabbi whose word is authority, but must show such to be Christ's 
teaching or command. Their word is not superior to evidence, and can not 
originate doctrine or obligation — Christ alone is the Teacher. They can not be 
fathers, governing and disposing of children according to their pleasure and 
notion, but only show what is the will of the Heavenly Father, in which all 
must acquiesce. They can not be leaders, whom the flock are obligated to 
follow, support, or enrich, but must show the way to follow Christ, the only 
Leader. In connection and cooperation with the brethren, they must observe and 
enforce the laws of the kinsfdom. This is always enjoined on the church, or 
congregation, and not on the elders. Paul sets them an example of self-support, 
and Peter forbids them to take the charge for sake of. the pay. The highest 
officers in a church are the most devoted servants.^ All things are yours — Paul, 
Apollos, and Peter — and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's. ^ They are obeyed 
because they watch for the souls of their flocks, ^ but not for their office, or 
position. But subjection to magistrates is enjoined, because of their office i^ 
appointed ministers of God. 

16. Power in the Churches Themselves. — Churches do not act by the 
authority of the elders, but by the evidence they produce showing Christ so 
commanded, or taught. The apostles did not direct their epistles to the elders, 
but to the churches, the beloved of God, called saints, sanctified in Christ Jesus ; 
those calling upon His name and faithful in Christ Jesus, and once the bishops 
and deacons are connected, or specified, in the address. ^ But still, as we have 
said, an apostle, or apostolic man, would be desirable and even necessary in 
every church, or within access, for witnesses to the truths of the gospel ; and the 
importance would naturally give them a preeminence among the elders and 
brethren. 

17. Authority Attached to Officers and then Assumed by Them, — 
Now, as churches increased and apostolic men became few, not more than one 
such could be obtained to a church, city, or district of country; and before the 
Scriptures became accessible to every church, a superior authority might be 
accorded to those according to the importance of their testimony to the facts and 



(6) Eph, 6:21; Col. 1:7, 23. 25. 4:7; I. Thes. 3:2; I. Cor. 3:5. (7) I. Pet 5:1-3. (8) Matt. 
20:26,27. (9) I. Cor. 3:21-23. (1) Heb. 13:17. (2) Rom. 13:1-6; Tit. 3:1; I. Pet. 2:13. (3)Phil.l:l. 



I! 



CHAPTER CVI. : SECTIONS XVIII. -XX. 447 



principles transmitted from the apostles through them. After the Scriptures had 
become accessible to all churches, the successors of these witnesses might imagine 
and claim authority by virtue of the position occupied, instead of having it 
imposed on them on account of the importance, abilities, and labors. 

18. Angel, or Messenger. — Angel literally means messenger, or one sent 
with a message ; apostle means one sent, and messengers are sometimes called 
apostles of the churches because sent by them. If one sent carries a message, 
he is both the messenger and apostle of that church, ^ or person sending. We 
have no evidence that the term angel, or messenger, was used as a technicality to 
designate any class of officers in the churches, and we do know churches sent 
messengers, and so did the apostles. These persons would be persons of impor- 
tance and fidelity in the church, and might be bishops, or deacons, or brethren 
appointed for the occasion. Though John directed his letters to the messengers, 
yet he addressed the churches directly. Evangelists were missionaries and might 
be endowed with any gifts of the Spirit ; and so might the elder, or brother, or 
sister. 

19. Different Gifts to Different Persons. — Eph. 4:8-12; I. Cor. 
12:28-30. — The gifts conferred on believers by the endowments of the Spirit 
were apostles sent by Christ, prophets developing in extemporary discourses the 
Divine wisdom, arrangements, mysteries, and harmony. When anyone spoke 
by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit his words were authority ; but when he 
spoke by a natural gift, others must judge whether his words were in accordance 
with received teachings. ^ The teacher was the next in importance. His busi- 
ness was to impart knowledge which might be communicated to him directly if 
he was also a prophet, or learned from the Scriptures, the apostles, or apostolic 
men. Then comes the worker of miracles, having strong faith that he was 
authorized to do so and that Christ would establish his word and perform the act. 
Next comes the gift of healing by use of means, as anointing with oil, and 
prayer, but not by miracle. Then comes the helpers, assisting in managing and 
working. They might discern the spirit animating the prophets and actuating 
the workers of miracles, and show whether they were true or false ; they might 
talk to those members not understanding the language or dialect of the pastor or 
congregation, and might interpret the discourses and letters of foreigners. Many, 
or all these gifts, might be possessed by one person, as the apostles;^ or they 
might be distributed among many. But all must use their gifts for edifying and 
perfecting the churches,''' and everything must be done decently and in order 
under the supervision of the elders. ^ These supernatural gifts will cease when 
the kingdom of God is fully established ; but faith, hope, and love must be pos- 
sessed by every diciple in and through all ages, and should be coveted above all 
other gifts. ^ 

20. The Kingdom of God Comes with Power Upon the Nations. — Thus 
organized, the kingdom of God had already made its power felt, not only among 
the Jews, but also among Polytheists. Christ and His disciples had cast out 
demons, defeated magicians, inflicted punishment on sorcerers, and dispossessed 
the Pythonese of the red dragon, and Demetrius said Paul had turned all Asia 
Minor from worshiping manufactured gods, and called them no gods. Now 
(A. M. 4068, A. D. 64), Nero Csesar institutes the first Polytheistic persecution, and 
we may call it the first pitched battle of the red dragon with Michael. Michael 
was the aggressor, as we have just seen, and many Polytheists have renounced 
the religion of their fathers and entered the kingdom of God. The Old Serpent 
had used the wicked spirits of the Jews occupying heavenly places and privileges 
to defeat the Gospel in its infancy ; but their power was so limited, and now 
broken by his self destroying policy, they cannot follow the Christians nor much 



(4) Rom. 16:7; II. Cor. 8:23; Phil. 2:25. 4:10. (5) 1. Cor. 14:29. 12:10. (6) Idm. 14:18 (7) 
Idm. 12:4-12. 14:26, 40 (8) Acts 20:17, 28. (9) 1. Cor. 12:31. 13. 



448 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. DEVELOPED. 

more harrass them. The Old Serpent is not only the Adversary, Satan, but also 
the Diabolos, Traducer, Slanderer ; so in his red dragon development he first lied 
and slandered the Christians, and then murdered them. 

21. First Battle Between Michael and the Dragon. A. M. 4068. A. D. 
64.— Nero was a reckless savage brute, who set Rome on fire and watched the 
conflagration with fiendish delight, singing the burning of Troy. Discovering he 
was suspected he charged it on the Christians, whose influence was more feared 
and hated by Polytheists than the religion of the Jews. The heathen historian 
says: Some persons were apprehended who confessed themselves Christians, and 
by their confessions a great multitude were discovered and seized and were con- 
demned, not so much for burning Home as for being the enemies of all mankind. 
This historian calls Christianity a detestable superstition, and considers they 
deserved the most exemplary punishment, but says : This resulted in producing 
public commisseration, because the opinion was, they were not sacrificed to the 
rigor of the laws, but to the cruelty of a jealous tyrant. They died in torments, 
and these were embittered by insult and derision. Some were crucified ; others 
were covered with skins of wild beasts and torn to pieces by dogs ; others were 
covered with wax and other combustible matter, and, supported by a sharp stick 
under the chin, were set on fire to illuminate the scenery. The gardens of Nero 
were furnished for the occasion, and the melancholy scene was attended with the 
games of the circus. How far and wide this persecution extended we are not 
told ; but one of Cyric's inscriptions found in Spain shows that the Gospel had 
penetrated that country and aff'orded martyrs. In this persecution Paul was 
beheaded and Peter crucified at Pome. As the Jewish war broke out the next 
year, and Nero killed himself in four years, it is probable this persecution did not 
last long. 1 



CHAPTER CYII. 



JEWISH POWER BROKEN AND ROMAN POWER WITHSTOOD. 
A. M. 4074-4100. A. D. 70-96. (Continued from Chap. 99.) 

1. Transition from the Law to the Gospel. — The transition from the law 
to the Gospel was gradual. If John's baptism into the remission of sins had 
been carried out in practice, the disciples had never again ofl'ered sin or trespass 
offerings; but no one appears to have thought of it; but, also, Paul circumcised 
Timothy while he taught its inutility in justification. He also observed the rites 
of the law, and told the Jews at Rome he had done nothing contrary to the cus- 
toms of the fathers ; and yet he taught the termination of sacrifices in the death 
of Christ. Myriads of the Jews believed, but continued zealous for the law, and 
were unwilling to give up their fond hope of ruling the nations and enjoying the 
homage and wealth of the kingdoms. Had all the Jews believed in Jesus Christ 
and peacefully extended their privileges to the irentiles on the terms of the Gospel, 
their supremacy had soon been achieved, and Jerusalem would have become the 
mistress of the world. 



(1) Jones, pp. 94-5; Mlnr., Vol. L, pp. 65, 66; Gbn., Vol. I., p. 186. 



CHAPTER evil. : SECTIONS II. -V. 449 

2. The Most Offensive Point in the Gospel. — The point in the Gospel 
most offensive to the Jews was the extending of the privileges of the kingdom 
of God to the gentiles without bringing them under the authority of the Sanhe- 
drim and obligating them to obey the law, support the temple service, and thus 
enrich Jerusalem and the priests and rulers. The Romans had conquered them ; 
their numbers were decreasing by mobs, riots, and revolts ; all the pious gentiles 
were joining the Cliristians, and the hope of increasing their strength by prose- 
lytes was thus cut off, and the fears of Caiaphas were about to be realized. Their 
hostility to the Gospel was instigated by covetousness and lust for power and 
plunder. They did not love God, nor Christ, nor Moses, but they had that 
superstitious reverence for antiquity that originated the deifying of ancestors, 
kings, and heroes, and the priests, rulers, and rabbi used it to increase and per- 
petuate their power and the robbery of the pious Jews and gentiles. They had 
no delight in holiness, truth, and righteousness. This infatuation for customs, 
rendered venerable by age and sacred associations and unparalleled heroism, made 
many of them reckless desperadoes, who despised death and provoked the destruc- 
tion of their city and temple. 

3. Jews' Advantage to Yex Gentile Christians. — The Jews had a great 
advantage to annoy and vex Christian churches not well informed on these points. 
They could say in truth : The Jehovah spoke by Moses ; Jerusalem is the city of 
the Living God, and the temple is His house ; great and glorious are the promises 
to the Jews ; all these laws and rites are Divine ; Christ and all the apostles were 
Jews, and obeyed these laws and performed these rites ; these sacred Scriptures 
are the words of God and His testimony to the facts, and the Christians could 
not contradict them. Paul might show that believing gentiles were the seed of 
Abraham by constitution according to that promise : In thee and in thy seed shall 
all families of the earth be blessed. No covenant, oath, or promise was made 
with seeds, or included all the offspring of Abraham, nor is more than one seed 
mentioned in any one of them;^ and if all were cut off but Jesus Christ, and 
then all nations blessed in or through Him, the promise to Abraham and his seed 
and to David and his son would be fulfilled. Ishmael, the Keturites, and Esau 
were not included in the adoption ; Jehovah proffered to cut off all Israel in the 
wilderness and fulfill His covenants in Moses ; the ten tribes were cut off, or cast 
out of the adoption, and the Jews were wasted by the Babylonish captivity, and 
only a remnant returned. So, now all may be destroyed but the believing rem- 
nant, and yet all nations be blessed in Abraham through Jesus Christ. 

4. Necessity for the Destruction of Jerusalem. — However Paul's reason- 
ing may appear to us, not everyone wished to receive it, and the believing Jews 
desired the supremacy of their nation, and venerated the Divine institutions of 
their fathers, and their influence at Jerusalem was so great that messengers had 
to be sent to Jerusalem to the apostles on the subject, and in Galatia some gentile 
believers had been induced to receive circumcision and come under the law. ^ 
While Christian Jews were thus laboring out of zeal for their nation and institu- 
tions, the unbelieving Jews, out of covetousness and lust for power, insisted on 
bringing the Christianized gentiles under their Sanhedrim. This controversy did 
not terminate with the decision of the Holy Spirit, apostles, elders, and brethren 
in Jerusalem, but continued still ; hence, there appears a necessity for the destruc- 
tion of the holy city and temple, the termination of the Jewish rites, and the 
overthrow of their national power. According to their covenant at Sinai, their 
doom was sealed ! They had killed the greatest of the prophets sent to them, 
and the best authenticated ; so they must be cut off, as Moses had foretold they 
would be. 4 

5. The Sin of the Rulers Returned tJpoN Their Own Heads. — The total 
disregard for truth, order, and justice manifested by the high priest, the chief 



(2) Gal. 3:16, 26-29. (3) Gal. 1:6. 5:1-4. 6:12. (4) Dent. 18:15-19. 
-29 



450 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

priests, rabbi, and rulers in opposition to Christ and His disciples was faithfully 
copied by the people and infused into the whole priesthood, and returned upon 
their own heads, as we shall see in their speeches and efforts to pacify the multi- 
tude and save their city, temple, rites, and offices. All the truly pious Jews had 
become Christians, and thus the light of the nation was gone and the salt extracted, 
and they had left the country before the great catastrophe took place. ^ When 
Felix was governor of the country (A. M. 4063, A. D. 59), it swarmed with 
robbers and insurgents, and Jerusalem became a prey to false prophets exciting 
seditions and revolts. The sicarii, with concealed daggers, crowded into the cities 
and villages, committing most horrible murders, and, mixing with the crowds in 
the temple, stabbed their victims without detection. The high priest, Jonathan, 
was assassinated by these. The rulers and chief priests hired these assassins to 
murder those obnoxious to them. ^ How many Christian Jews fell by their hands, 
or whether any of them did, we cannot tell, having no information ; but they 
would tend to drive the Christians out of the whole country and prevent them 
from attending the feasts or entering the temple. Such assassins could be hired 
to rush upon the guards and kill Paul, and the high priest would pay them. 

6. Desperate Characters and Conditions. — When Festus assumed the 
government, A. M. 4064 (A. D. 60), he found the ex-high priests and principal 
men of the multitude were in a state of civil war. The high priests holding the 
office for a short time till deposed and others obtained their place, made the 
ex-high priests very numerous, and they seized the tithes by violence, and the 
lower priests died of want. Soon after Paul's departure for Kome, Festus died, 
and Albinus was appointed to fill his place; but before he arrived, Ananias, the 
high priest, convened the Sanhedrim and condemned the apostle, James Ben- 
Alpheus, and some others to be stoned. But James was thrown from an eminence 
of the temple and then dispatched with a club, while praying for his adversaries. ' 
Albinus proved to be a rapacious governor, and for money released the Sicarii 
that had been apprehended. Thus, the country was again filled with robbers. 
The violence of the ex-high priests and other principal men continued, and 
plunder and disorder increased. After two years Florus took the room of 
Albinus, and was rapacious, cruel, and oppressive, and for large sums of money 
compromised with the banditti. Thus, no bounds were set to the people's 
miseries. No longer able to bear these exactions and devestations, the unhappy 
Jews were under the necessity of leaving and flying away, hoping to dwell more 
safely anywhere else in the world among foreigners. ^ Thus, the Christian Jews 
observing the signs and obeying the warnings given by Christ, may all have left 
these territories before the war with the Romans commenced. 

7. Driven to Madness. — By his rapacious and wicked government, Florus 
goaded the Jews into open rebellion, that brought on the war that devastated 
their country and dispersed the nation. The high priest, chief priests, scribes, 
rabbi, and rulers had chosen Caesar for their king, but their Polytheistic king 
sends them governors more and more rapacious and destructive ; their messages 
to the presidents of Syria were of no avail, their appeals to Ceesar were decided 
against them, and the people were goaded to madness and openly rebelled 
against the Roman empire. These priests and rulers instigated the multitude to 
require the release of Barrabas, the murderer, and the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, 
the King of the Jews, and now their country is overrun with murderers and 
robbers, released and encouraged by the successors of Pilate. And now, before 
the exasperated and crazy multitude, the priests brinsj out the holy vessels, holy 
garments, and instruments of music, and fall down and beg them to preserve 
these, and not provoke the Romans to destroy the priests, rulers, and people, 
and carry off these sacred treasures. The high priests, with plenty of dust on 



(5) Joseph. Ant., 20:11; 1. (6) 8:5, 8, 10. (7) Euseb., bk. 2, chap. 23; Joseph. Ant. 20:9, 1. 
(8) Joseph. Ant. 20:11; 1. 



CHAPTER CVII.: SECTIONS VIII. -X. 451 

their heads and their bosoms covered with torn garments, besought every one of 
the eminent men by name, and the multitude in common, to not betray their 
country to those desirous of having it laid waste. ^ Herod Agrippa, son of 
Agrippa, made them a wise and able speech, but to no purpose. ^ 

8. The Eesult. A. M. 4074. A. D. TO. — The war was inevitable and 
soon commenced, and the scenes of desperation, cruelty, misery, and horror, as 
related by Josephus, can not be exceeded in kind and degree. If I were writing 
the development of sin and its consequences, I would try to present a picture of 
the scene. When the righteous are separated from the wicked, to what wretched 
conditions will the wicked reduce themselves! And what will become of the 
conservatives among them ? The lake of fire and brimstone, if taken literally, 
would be a desirable retreat from such society. At this period the Jews were a 
worse people than the prophets described their ancestors to be at the time of the 
captivity to Babylon ; and they now suffer a sorer destruction. Then a remnant 
was preserved, who returned and restored their temple worship and rebuilt 
their city. Now a remnant, believing in Jesus Christ and observing His 
warnings, emigrated in time to Pella, in the dominions of Agrippa, and so 
escaped the final destruction of the city. ^ They had a revelation given to men 
of approved piety before the war began, commanding them to go. ^ 

9. Predictions Verified. — The Jews had rejected that Prophet,^ and are 
cut oiF as Moses warned them. Now is verified the prophecy of Daniel respecting 
the coming and cutting off of the Messiah and the overspreading of the abom- 
ination that made desolation, ^ for through the villages and over the whole land, 
the Roman ensign spread desolation. In Galilee, Samaria, Syria, Idumea, and 
Egypt, and some other places, 1,500,000 Jews are estimated to have perished. 
Many of those perishing in Jerusalem had collected out of other places to keep 
the feast, and were zealous Jews and bitter enemies to the Gospel. But Christ 
warned His disciples to flee to the mountains when they witnessed the preceding 
signs, and not enter the city. ^ The Savior's predictions of the signs, attendant 
circumstances, and total destruction of the city and temple, and dire calamities 
of the people were literally fulfilled. The disciples recorded the predictions 
before the events took place, and an unbelieving Jew wrote the history after they 
occurred. 

10. Triumph of Polytheism. — This was another great triumph for atheism 
and Polytheism. Under this seventh headship, the Red Dragon has a second 
time destroyed the temple of Jehovah, laid His city in ruins, and carried off His 
sacred vessels and furniture. Nebuchadnezzar placed the sacred vessels and fur- 
niture of the temple in the house of his god, but the Roman prince, who the 
Jews took for their king when they rejected their own Messiah, has respected no 
god and exalted himself above every god, and has devoted these trophies to 
adorn his own triumph and glorify his own power and skill in war, and then 
deposited them in the temple of peace at Rome. "^ The Old Serpent had stirred 
up his wicked spirits, who occupied heavenly places and privileges, against the 
Jehovah and His anointed, and then led them on by the same immoral princi- 
ples to their own destruction and to furnish a triumph to the Red Dragon. The 
dragon might now dream of final success had he not felt the power of Michael, 
the great prince for Israel, and found his angels had not loved the present life so 
much as to save it by incurring the second death. By firm reliance on the blood 
of Jesus for eternal life, and by a strict adherence to the word of their testimony, 
the Michael army had gained the first battle with Polytheism under Nero, and 
were still encroaching on its dominions. 



(9) Joseph. Wrs 2:15; 4. (1) 2:16; 4, 5. (2) Joseph. Wrs. 2:20; 1. (3) Joseph. Ant. 
20:11, 1; Euseb p. 86. (4) Acts 3:22, 23; Deut. 18:15, 18, 19. (5) Dan. 9:27. (6) Matt. 24:16-28. 
(7) Chap. 134, §8. 



452 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

11. The Second Battle Between Michael and the Dragon. — The Ked 
Dragon makes another stand by Domitian Csesar, A. M. 4099 (A. D. 95). Ves- 
pasian had raised a violent persecution against the Jews to destroy all of the 
royal family of David, that not one of the royal stock should remain. This 
would include many of the believing Jews, but we have not the particulars of the 
persecution. ^ Domitian exercised his cruelty against many and slew no small 
number of noble and illustrious men, and vast numbers of honorable men were 
exiled and their property confiscated. In this persecution the Apostle John was 
banished to the island of Patmos, where he received the revelations. Among the 
martyrs was a Roman consul. Flavins Clemens, and his wife and niece were ban- 
ished. Paul had carried the Gospel into Caesar's household, and a cup-bearer 
and a concubine of Nero's were converted through him, and persons in high 
office continued to follow Christ, notwithstanding these imperial persecutions, 
and became martyrs for Christ. Domitian also ordered the relations of Christ to 
be sought. Some were found, but, being poor laborers, he dismissed them in 
contempt. The extent and particulars of this persecution can not now be ascer- 
tained, but Domitian himself soon suppressed the persecution and recalled the 
exiles. ^ He was killed in his palace A. M. 4100 (A. D. 96). The charge against 
the Christians was atheism, because they refused to worship the heathen gods. 
Nerva becomes emperor and pardoned all imprisoned for treason, called home 
the banished, restored sequestered estates, punished informers, redressed griev- 
ances, and forbade the persecution of Jews and Christians.* 



The Revelations to John, A. M. 4099. 
Divine Programmes, A. D. 95. 



CHAPTER CYIII. 



{Scene I^irst.) 

CHARACTERS, THREATENINGS, EXFIORTATIOJSS, COMMENDA- 
TIONS, AND REWARDS. 

1. Programme Given. — Before we attempt to trace the history of the king- 
dom of God by means of secular historians, let us see what inspiration has done 
to guide us. AH the teachings of the Old Testament induce us to look for the 
most glorious triumphs of the kingdom, after long and sore calamities. The 
Jews thought these calamities were past when the Messiah first appeared, but 
Jesus taught His disciples that the temple would be destroyed and Jerusalem 
laid low by the adversary till the predicted time of the nations be fulfilled. 
Before closing the system of inspired records the Savior gave to the apostles a 
revelation of the future history of the kingdom from that time down to its con- 
summation. All power, or authority, in the universe was given to Christ,^ and 
He uses it. No revolution in the civil and ecclesiastical world can occur without 

(8) Euseb., p. 99: see chap. 75, § 8. (9) Euseb., pp. 101-3; Gibn., Vol. I.,p 188. (4) Jones, p. 
114. (1) Chap. 97, § 17. 



CHAPTER Cvill.: SECTIONS It.-lV. 453 

His permission, and the adversary cannot persecute or prevail against His cause 
without His authority. He is Head over all things to the church, ^ and holds 
the keys of sheol and of death. ^ To the Apostle John He gave programmes of 
the development of the kingdom of God and of its antagonisms ; He gave them 
for the instruction of His servants ; He is a competent Teacher and His pro- 
grammes can be understood by His genuine and intelligent disciples. 

2. Position in Programme to Daniel. — The old prophets often foretold of 
dire calamities and represented glorious events, but no date to determine when 
nor how they would take place was given till Daniel gave events in consecutive 
order, and dates from which to calculate their occurrence. The prophecies of 
Daniel had been fulfilled so conspicuously that adversaries in the second century 
could reject their Divine authorship in no other way than by asserting that thej 
were written after the events took place. Now, according to Daniel's outlines of 
the future, it was evident that the consummated age of the kingdom was about 
two thousand years in the future when the Messiah was cut off, and the character 
and condition of the kingdom during that period was but very dimly outlined. 
The fourth great monarchy, whose future history was sparcelj sketched, was now 
in power ; the Christ had come and been cut off; the Levitical institution was 
abolished, or ended, for the time ; Jerusalem was destroyed, the Jews were dis- 
persed, Christians persecuted, and the apostle was banished to the isle of 
Patmos for the word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ. 

3. Condition and Desire of Christ's Disciples. — How the pious disciples 
of Jesus Christ desired to know the character and condition of the kingdom 
while these adversaries described by Daniel were in power, and to know when 
the glorious triumphs of the saints would be achieved, Jerusalem be regenerated 
and become the mistress of the world and the daughter of Heaven. Everything 
conspired against the hope. Infidelity might have exclaimed : The covenants, 
oaths, and promises of Jehovah have failed, and Satan, under the Red Dragon 
development, has triumphed ! Not a nation or province under Heaven acknowl- 
edges Jehovah to be the God. Not a temple under the sun resounds with His 
praise, nor altar smokes with sacrifices to Him; nor cloud of incense ascends 

'out of any censer; nor priest ofiiciates before Him. But, look at the mighty 
Roman empire, with its thousands of gods, magnificent temples, hundreds of 
thousands of richly robed priests, loaded altars, smoking censers, and millions ot 
princely worshipers, and all other nations worshiping false deities. What can 
the poor Nazarene accomplish? Without a senate, without an army, without a 
central organization, and without a revenue ; and the last apostle banished to the 
barren island of Patmos. 

4. Revelation First. Revelation Given to John. — On the Lord's day,* 
and on the isle of Patmos, was the revelations of Jesus Christ, given to Him by 
the Father, made known to John by an angel, to apprise His devoted servants of 
things about to come to pass, which had then commenced and would continue to 
be developed till the consummation of the kingdom of God. This was not a 
dream, nor trance ; but, under the powerful influence of the Holy Spirit, John 
was enabled to hear and see distinctly everything revealed, and then to testify it 
to the Christians. When he received thia revelation he was filled with ecstacy, 
and boasts of the great and distinguished honors received in Christ, and the 
assurance of His second advent and triumph. The Father, the Is, the Was, 
and the Coming; the Seven Spirits, or Holy Spirit; Jesus Christ, the First 
Born from the dead; the Faithful Witness to divine things; the Prince of the 
kings of the earth, Who loved and washed us from our sins in His blood, and 
made us kings and priests unto God, the Father ; unto Him be the glory and the 
dominion into the ages of ages. Grace and peace from these Three, into Whose 
name every Christian is baptized, to the seven churches in Asia Minor. Behold, 



(2) Eph. 1:21-23; Phil. 2:9-11. (3) Rev. 1:18. 



454 THE ffiNGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

He cometh with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they who pierced 
Him ! and all tribes of the earth shall wail because of Him. Thus were Chris- 
tians cheered up to hope and labor in midst of the persecutions. 

5. Designed to be Understood. — Blessed is he that readeth and they that 
hear the words of this prophecy, and keep, or retain in memory the things 
therein written, for the time they describe is near — even now commenced. Such 
persons are blessed, not because the prophecy can not be understood, and so of 
no use till after fulfilled ; but because it can be understood, and the commence- 
ment of the time is at hand. This prophecy was given to show the Christians 
beforehand the things shortly beginning to come to pass, and can be understood 
by those of them who have become acquainted with the development of the 
kingdom of God. Christ is a competent teacher, and knows how to adapt His 
teaching to His disciples' habits of thinking. It is not the naturalist, philosopher, 
statesman, nor historian, nor yet the man determined to go to Heaven when he 
dies, that is qualified to understand this prophecy, but the servant of Christ who 
has the hope of Israel before his eyes, the kingdom of God engraved upon his 
heart, and prays : Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. 
These will interpret the figures according to their knowledge of the Bible, and 
apply them to things promised, predicted, threatened, and expected. 

6. Christ Competent to Conquer and Govern. — John's attention was 
arrested by a voice as of a trumpet, commanding him to write in a book what he 
saw and what he should see afterward, and send it to the seven churches in Asia 
Minor. Turning about he saw a most glorious person, such as neither the 
Roman empire nor any other power on earth ever produced, and declaring 
Himself the Eternal Living One. Though once He died for His people. He now 
lives forevermore, and holds the keys of sheol and of death. He lived before 
empires and adversaries, and will continue to live, act, and govern when all of 
them are destroyed. Having destroyed the prince of death. He holds death and 
hades in subjection to the interests of His kingdom ; and none can go in or oiit 
without His leave. So His people have nothing to fear from princely powers, 
nor death, nor sheol. John had seen Christ transfigured on the mountains, and 
recognizes Him now on the island. 

7. He Keeps a Supervision of His Churches While Extending and 
CoNSiTMMATiNG His KiNGDOM. — This most glorious Person kept around Him 
memorials of His individual churches, and in His right hand not a scepter, nor 
sword, but memorials of their messengers. His churches are never forgotten by 
Him, nor independent of Him. These seven churches had no common head on 
earth, or central power. Christ alone was their head and center; to Him alone 
were they accountable, and their messengers were His servants and individually 
responsible to Him and at His disposal. These churches, being independent of 
each other, might be in different conditions and of different characters, and 
might receive different treatment at His hands. These letters were not designed 
for these alone, but everyone having ears to hear is commanded to hear what the 
Spirit said to these churches. He is no respecter of persons, and what He 
promises, or threatens, them will be the portion of all like them. We may 
regard these seven churches fair samples of all the churches in the Roman 
empire, or elswhere, at that time; and though some were threatened, all were 
acknowledged by Him. But the proportion of good and bad we can "not infer 
from them. The majority of all the churches might be like the best of these 
seven, or they might be like the worst, or like the medium. According to Paul's 
epistle to the Corinthians, they had then as much disorder and unchristian 
conduct as the worst of these ;^ but most of the churches addressed by him were 
of the best grade. Satan had sowed tares, but they could be rooted out without 
endangering the wheat, for their character was evident. 



(4) I. Cor. 5:12. 3:4. 6:7. 11:17-22. 12:20, 21. 



CHAPTER cviii. : SECTIONS vm. -XI. 455 

EEVELATIONS SECOND AND THIRD. 

8. Christ's Prerogatives. — Christ addresses them as : 1. The Sovereign 
that constantly takes cognizance of them, and holds their messengers in His hands 
and at His disposal. 2. The First and the Last, who was dead, but now lives 
forevermore. 3. Having the two-edged sword going out of His mouth to 
execute His orders of vengeance. 4. The Son of God, whose eyes are as a 
flame of fire, or quiver of beams, and feet of burnished brass; who searches 
the reins and heart, and rewards every man according to his works. 5. Has 
the seven Spirits of God and seven stars ; has the bestowment of the gifts of the 
Holy Spirit in the seven churches, as if there was a Holy Spirit in each one of 
them ; and has the commissioning, qualifying, and disposing of their seven 
messengers. 6. He is the Holy, the True, and has the key, or government, 
of David in the kingdom of God, and opens and shuts the way of access, and 
none can alter what He does. 7. He is the faithful and the true Witness that 
testified the truth of God to man on earth; the beginning of the creation of God, 
or Head of all creation. Thus, He is every way competent to watch, purify, 
uphold, perfect, reward, and succeed ; hence the Roman empire, Polytheism, 
hypocrisy, and anti-Christ must fall in due time. 

9. Character of Churches. — The character given to these churches is oi 
some good, and of others bad. The bad are those : 1. Let go their first love ; 
either their first object of love, or their first ardor of love for Divine things. 
2. Kept some in membership who taught like Balaam, to seduce the disciples to 
eat things sacrificed to" idols, and comniit fornication at idolatrous festivals, and 
yet not renounce Jesus Christ. One of these, pretending to be a prophetess, an 
impious woman like Jezebel, practiced adultery and refused to reform when 
reproved ; and was thus introducing Polytheism and its filthy rites into fellowship 
with Christianity. Other members were retained in some churches who held the 
teachings of the Nicolaitans, and knew the depths of Satan, which was the same 
taught by Jezebel — to eat idolatrous sacrifices, gratify fieshly lusts, or animal 
propensities, and thus escape persecution. 3. Some had the name and appear- 
ance of active living Christians and fiourishing churches, and yet they were in 
reality dead, and had not fulfilled the works and designs for which churches were 
organized. Churches are designed to be the foundation and pillars of the truth, ^ 
the light of the world, and the salt of the earth. ^ 4. Some exhibited an 
unconcerned and indifferent character — were neither cold nor hot — boasting of 
excellencies, and yet in a pitiable condition and unconscious of it. While at 
ease and rich in wealth, and perhaps gifts of the Spirit, they were destitute of 
faith, hope, and love ; were poor, blind, and naked, and in a wretched condition 
in respect to their spiritual character. 

10. Threatenings. — 1. To remove their candlesticks, or memorials, and 
thus leave them with the world, and not answer their prayers nor support them 
under afiiictions and oppressions. 2. To fight against them with the sharp two- 
edged sword proceeding out of His mouth, or cut them down with sore and 
terrible judgments. 3. To cast them into great tribulations and kill their disciples 
and unfaithful members with death. 4. He will come upon apostate churches 
unawares and inflict His judgments without warning. 5. He will cast them off 
as abominable and loathsome. 

11. Commendations. — 1. Acknowledged toil, patience, and suffering for 
Christ's sake. 2. Abhorrence of evil men, testing hypocrits, and hating the deeds 
of the Nicholaitans. 3. Acknowledging works, tribulations, patience, poverty, 
persecutions, and revilings endured. 4. Holding Christ's name under persecu- 
tion, and keeping His word where great wickedness abounded. 5. The few worthy 
members in unworthy churches shall be rewarded. 



(5) I. Tim. 3:15. (6) Matt. 5:13-16. 



456 tHE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

12. Exhortations. — 1. E-epent and do thy first work, or, do the work they 
did at first, and do it as thej did at first. 2. Fear not sore trials that will come, 
but be faithful unto death. 3. Whatever good still remains hold fast till Christ 
comes, and be watchful and strengthen every weak Christian grace, and every 
weak pious member. 4. Remember how and what has been received and heard; 
keep it and reform. 5. Hold fast to the true Christian character. 6. Secure 
from Christ the genuine Christian character, the true riches, the true knowledge 
and graces, and open to Christ when He knocks, or, resist not the promptings of 
the Holy Spirit. 

13. Rewards. — 1. Christ will keep the faithful churches in the sore trials 
coming to try all the churches. 2. The individual who overcomes temptation, 
evil, and trials — though his church be condemned — shall eat of the tree of life 
that grows in the garden of God; shall not be hurt by the second death; shall 
eat the hidden manna ;'^ receive a white stone with a new name known to no one 
but to the Giver and receiver — a confidential memorial of friendship with Christ 
that cannot be counterfeited nor mistaken; he shall rule the nations with an iron 
sceptre, or irresistible power ;^ he will receive the morning star for a gem of 
honor ; will walk with Christ in white robes of triumph and honor; his name shall 
not be blotted out of the Book of Life ; he will be acknowledged by Christ before 
the Father and the holy angels ; he shall be as a permanent pillar in God's 
temple, bearing the name of Jehovah, the New Jerusalem, Christ's new name — 
Jehovah, our Righteousness, ^ or King of kings and Lord of lords ; and he shall 
sit down with Christ in His throne. 

14. Design of These Letters. — All these things were designed for everyone 
having ears to hear, though addressed to one of these seven churches, and were 
designed to prepare them for the persecutions (here called hours of trial) com- 
ing on all the churches in the Roman empire, and perhaps elsewhere. John 
returned from exile and no doubt visited these churches — for he died at Ephesus — 
and rectitied what was wrong. The next persecution would cause the hypocrits 
to abandon the faithful churches ; those churches refusing to reform would be 
blotted out of the kingdom, while their individual members standing the fires of 
persecution and conquering in Christ Jesus would receive these promised rewards. 
Thus, the Christian churches were prepared for the fearful persecutions in the 
Roman empire, the Persian monarchy, and elsewhere, and so overcome the wrath 
of the Red Dragon. What will be the termination of these persecutions will be 
shown in the following exhibitions. So ends the first revelation. 



(7) Ps. 25:12, 14. (8) Rev. 20:4; Dan. 7:18, 27. (9) Jer. 23:6. 33:16. 



CHAPTER CIX. 



{Soene Second. First Programme.) 

THE OUTWARD PROGRESSIVE CHARACTER AND CONDITION OF 

THE KINGDOM OF GOD.— Rev. 4. 

1. The Present Royal City and Throne is jn Heaven. — John is now called 
up into Heaven by the same voice that first accosted hira, to be shown things 
that must come to pass after the things already brought to view in the letters to 
the seven churches. In them the predominant design was to prepare the churches 
tor a series of persecutions ; now, John must see that contest and what follows. 
Having ascended, he was shown the glory, power, wisdom, holiness, and vigilance 
of the throne of the kingdom now constituted on earth among the nations. 
Though Jerusalem is laid in ruins and the earthly palace of Jehovah is destroyed, 
the kingdom has a royal city, a kingly palace, and a glorious throne. In wide 
expanded Heaven a throne had been placed ; on it sat One that cannot be 
described, so pure and glorious ; the bright space for the throne was bounded by 
a magnificent circle of the most beautiful rainbow hues, and the royal hall was 
the boundless sky. No Persian nor Roman court ever equaled this court and 
throne, and it eclipsed Solomon's grandeur. The floor, or pavement, was like a 
sea of crystal glass. Surrounding or encircling this throne were twenty-four 
thrones, occupied by twenty-four elders robed in white, with crowns of gold upon 
their heads. These were not all Jews, but were redeemed out of all nations ; 
they were also priests and singers, having censers and harps of gold, and surpassed 
the chief priests of the twenty-four orders arranged by David. These were out 
of all nations, and bear the title given to the overseers and ministers of the Chris- 
tian churches. The throne itself sent forth voices, lightnings, and thunders, and 
needed no guards, but overawed all foes and dispersed all enemies. Before the 
throne were seven lamps burning, according to the number of the seven churches, 
representing the Divine light in the kingdom given by the gifts and revelations of 
the Holy Spirit, here called the seven spirits of God. Within the rainbow circle 
and near the throne were four living creatures, like a lion, a calf, a man in the 
face, and like an eagle flying ; each one had six wings, were all eyes, could see 
everything in every direction. Night and day they cry. Holy, Holy, Holy, Jeho- 
vah God, the Almighty ! the Was, the Is, and the Coming. These also were 
redeemed out of the nations — the Sons of Oil who cannot be silenced — and repre- 
sent the aggressive, or missionary, forces in the kingdom of God. These Sons 
of Oil have the boldness and courage of the lion, the patience and endurance of 
the ox, the intelligence and eloquence of the man, and the penetration, swiftness, 
and force of the eagle ; they are filled with the Holy Spirit, watch in every direc- 
tion, and see everything of friend or foe, and they are particularly interested in 
the Sealed Book and future development of the kingdom of God. They oppose 
Polytheism in every time and place and in all its developments, and constantly 
preach Jehovah to be the only God, the Almighty, the Eternal, and Thrice Holy 
God. The laboring missionary force of the kingdom stands nearer the throne than 
the stationary overseers and ministers, and though the same persons may occupy 
both stations and do the work of both, they represent diflerent stations and labors. 



458 THE KINGDOM O^ GOB DEVELOPED. 

2. Triumph oyer Polytheism Recognized or Represented. — Now, when 
these missionary or aggressive forces foresaw or achieved victories, and gave glory 
and honor and thanksgiving to Him on the throne, the stationary, gold-crowned, 
white-robed eldership fell down before Him and worshiped Him, and cast their 
crowns at His feet, as His gift and at His disposal. Thus, they both teach nations 
at home and abroad that all their salvation, acceptance, supernatural powers, and 
excellence of character are the gifts of Jehovah, and ought to be used in His 
service. Then all the redeemed out of the nations shout : Thou alone art worthy, 
O Jehovah, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, for Thou didst 
create all things, and because of Thy will they are and were created. Thus, 
John was shown the complete triumph of the kingdom of God over Polytheism, 
which had destroyed the temple, laid the holy city in ruins, dispersed the Jews, 
and persecuted the Christians ; the kingdom has filled up its thinned ranks with 
volunteers from the ranks of the enemy. The Christian Jew saw he had a king- 
dom that could not be moved, a throne that could not be approached by enemies, 
a royal city that could not be surrounded, and a temple nowhere equaled in glory, 
though Jerusalem was desolated and the temple destroyed ; and the believing 
gentile, having renounced his splendid and licentious Polytheism for the self- 
denying and persecuted Christianity, saw he .was heir to an immortal glory and a 
crown or diadem of victory that never fades. 

3. Condition and Desire of Christ's Disciples. — Rev. 5. — These symbolic 
characters, representing the managers and laborers in the kingdom to be more 
highly honored and adorned than the kings and priests of Polytheism, show 
Jehovah to be acknowledged on the earth as the Almighty, Eternal, and Most 
Holy God, by the highest and wealthiest ranks of the nations. Such glorious 
success was calculated to induce anticipations of the happy future predicted by 
the old prophets, and ardent desires to know the future history of the kingdom. 
This history is written inside and outside of a book which is in the right hand of 
Him occupying the throne. What is written on the outside we are not told, but 
it could be read by all around the throne, and may be the covenants, oaths, 
promises, and predictions of the Old Testament. But the inside ! Who can 
read, for it is a sealed book! What does John wish to know? or any other 
servant of Christ, having the Hope of Israel engraved on his soul? Is it the 
final destiny of the kingdom? No. This has been revealed already. It will 
break in pieces all antagonistic powers and endure forever. The saints shall 
take the dominion under the whole heaven. Is it the fate of the Roman empire ? 
No. Daniel had foretold this. Is it changes in kingdoms and fate of enemies? 
These are not sealed but spread out on the pages of history, and the statesman 
acquainted with the past can foresee the future destiny of any nation and the fate 
of those opposing the cause of God. The divisions and changes of the Roman 
empire and its end, the fate of the Jews, Jerusalem, and the temple, have all 
been predicted and recorded in the Scriptures. Is it the minute internal state of 
the Roman empire unnoticed by former predictions, famins, and troubles, while 
unidentified and professedly hostile to Christianity? No. John cares for none 
of these things; all nations have had such vicissitudes, and why should Rome 
escape? Christ's servants expect these things, but their treasures are laid up 
above, and they are pilgrims and sojourners without any permanent abode or 
citizenship among the nations. But the kingdom of God; what of it? While 
Jerusalem is laid waste, and the people of Jehovah dispersed without any glori- 
ous city or holy temple for universal central gatherings, shall their synagogues 
or churches be pure and holy places, where all are brethren, having a mutual love 
and care for one another? Can every wandering pilgrim find a welcome home 
and safe protection wherever he finds a Christian church or brother? Can he 
always have fellowship in the truths, laws, and teachings of Jesus Christ? If 
persecuted without, shall all bearing the Christian name find mutual comfort and 
]oy within ? Paul tells of a great apostacy and the development of a wicked, or 



CHAPTER ClX.: SECTIONS IV. -V. 459 

impious, power, called the Man of Sin, enthroned in the very temple of God, 
claiming to be God, and showing by his titles and acts that he had usurped the 
prerogatives of God ; but how he arises, what more he does, and to what extent 
he succeeds, are sealed facts. John and Paul had seen, censured, and excluded 
apostates and schismatics, but they had mostly witnessed and enjoyed holiness 
and happiness in the churches. What will be the character and condition of the 
kingdom when Polytheism is dethroned ? Satan will sow tares, and oifenses, or 
entrappings, will come, but to what extent ? The wicked Caiaphas was enthroned 
in the temple at Jerusalem, while the synagogues in Galilee, without any mir- 
aculous interposition, were open to Christ and His disciples. And while the Man 
of Sin usurpes the government in some central place, what will be the character 
and condition of the kingdom throughout all its provinces ? Paul's account of 
the Man of Sin might represent a usurping conqueror, like Antiochus, obtaining 
position by invasion and force ; but when, how, or what this power would be was 
hidden knowledge. The kingdom of God is the object of first importance to the 
believer, and everything he sees and hears will be contemplated trom this stand- 
point ; everything must be for, or against it. The theme of this sealed book 
must be the development of this kingdom. The student of this book must be 
the servant of Christ,^ and the subject must be the churches.^ 

4. Christ Obtains Authority to Instruct His Servants in Sealed Knowl- 
edge. — Conjecture as we may about the contents of this book, no prophet on 
earth, no spirit in sheol, nor angel in Heaven, was able to communicate the intel- 
ligence sealed in that book. John wept, and so would I. John's anguish was 
relieved by one of the royal elders informing him that the Lion of the tribe of 
Judah, and Root of David, had prevailed to break the seals and exhibit the con- 
tents. Then John looked, and discovered a Lamb inside the rainbow circle, and 
inside the ring of thrones of the the white-robed and gold-crowned elders, and 
inside the space guarded by the four living excellencies. The Lamb was stand- 
ing, but appeared to have been slain for a sacrifice ; and it had seven horns and 
seven eyes. Christians can easily determine who is represented by this symbol. 
The Savior, as a sacrifice, is next to the One, Only, Living, and True God, who 
had been sacrificed for the sins of His people, and now had all power in Heaven, 
earth, and sheol given to Him by the Father, and, having obtained the gifts of 
the Holy Spirit, He bestowed them superabundantly on all His disciples, and 
every one of the seven churches had received these gifts. It' the term, seven, 
designates division of power or spirit, I have not yet discovered the meaning. I 
understand it to be a definite term used for an indefinite, or for any number and 
degree necessary — -perfect or unlimited power and intelligence. But it may 
allude to the government of Christ over, and the gifts and operations of the 
Spirit in, the seven churches. This representative character came and took the 
sealed book out of the right hand of Him on the throne. The Savior once said : 
Of that day and hour knoweth no man, nor angel, nor the Son, but the Father 
only. But now, the Father having given this revelation to Jesus Christ, the Son 
can now make it known to His servants, and open the sealed book. 

5. The Extent and Glory of the True God and of Jesus Christ. — When 
the Lamb took the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders 
prostrated themselves in homage before the Lamb ; and they had harps of gold 
and gold bowls full of incense. The incense offered by the twenty-four priestly 
elders represent the united prayers of all the saints in organized churches, going 
up to God in the name of Christ Jesus ; showing persecution had not silenced, 
dispersed, nor destroyed them. These harps show they sung praises without 
restraint, and looked into the future with joyful hope. Their song shows their 
theme was redeeming love, and it was always a new song. Under the former 
dispensations, the saints sung of obtaining reconciliation with God by sacrifices 



(1) Rev. 1;1. (2) 22:16. Chap. 119, § 12. 



460 'The kingdom of god iDfiVELOPED. 

of cattle, sheep, goats, and birds; but the great victory over Polytheism was not 
achieved while they sung that old song. Polytheism spread all over the world, 
and that old song was forgotten by all nations but Israel. Now saints out of all 
nations sing this new song : Thou art worthy to take the book and to open its 
seals, for Thou wast slain and didst redeem us to God by Thy blood out of every 
tribe, tongue, people, and nation. Other voices added : Thou didst make them 
unto our God, kings and priests, and they shall reign over the earth. And 
when Christ returns the voices will sing : They do reign over the earth. These 
last voices were from the angels, who are the spirits often sent to earth to min- 
ister to the heirs of salvation, and they are represented as around the throne and 
innumerable. 

6. John saw many angels around the throne, but outside the four zoa and 
the elders, and heard their voices, and estimates them by myriads of myriads 
and thousands of thousands. The angels also shout : Worthy is the Lamb that 
has been slain, to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and 
honor, and glory, and blessing. Then John heard one universal shout from 
every creature in the universe — in Heaven, in every part and place in the earth, 
and sea, and under the earth, saying : Unto Him sitting on the throne and to the 
Lamb, the blessing, and the honor, and the power, and the glory into the eyes 
of ages. The four zoa responded : Amen ! and the twenty-four elders fell down 
and worshiped. Here the kingdom is represented as triumphant over Polythe- 
ism in every part of the earth, or Roman empire — in the cities and countries, 
in the valleys and on the hills, in the mines, quarries, and caves ; in the ships, 
boats, and in the islands ; in the rivers, lakes, and deserts, and in every place is 
Jehovah and the Redeemer acknowledged and praised. This was prophetic, and 
contrasted with that present time when Christians were persecuted and John was 
banished to Patmos for preaching the One Only Living and True God, and tes- 
tifying the only salvation through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Thus, John, 
just from the scenes of persecution, might have imagined the conflict over, and 
all Polytheists converted to Jehovah, and all Jews believing in Jesus Christ. (For 
the historical verification of this song, see chap. 126, §§ 12, 13.) This scene cor- 
responds with Paul's account of the JS^ew Jerusalem. (See Heb. 12:22-24, 28.) 

7. Picture First. — Rev. 6. — Christ's servants, with John at their head, thus 
reassured of the approximating triumphs of the Gospel over heathen idolatry and 
Jewish hostility, are now prepared to look at the contents of the sealed book. 
Both the missionary or aggressive force and the overseeing and ministering sta- 
tionary and protecting forces are deeply interested in its intelligence. When the 
first seal was broken one of the zoa exclaimed with a voice of thunder : Come 
and see ! It was a picture — a horse, denoting a moving force and energy under 
the control of intelligence. A horse by itself is not so formidable or dangerous 
as many other animals, but under a brave and skillful rider becomes a power and 
energy hard to be resisted. White, denoting purity and honor, like light, and 
white robes. A rider, the guiding intelligence ; not a commander bearing a 
sword as the insignia of ofiice, but an archer, or hunter, with a bow, representing 
individual personal enterprise and exertion. The fighting men are conspicuous, 
but no officer is seen. A diadem, or wreath, was presented to him, acknowledg- 
ing his power and valor; and he went on conquering and seeking more of the 
enemy and conquering them. So we read the picture. 

8. ExPLA^NATioN. — The kingdom of God goes forth into the world with a 
power and energy that is felt. It is pure, gentle, meek, loving, forgiving, honor- 
able, holy, and soul-elevating in its force and infiuence, as the New Testament 
history, teachings, and exhortations show. Christ is the only acknowledged 
leader ; no Peters, no Pauls, no apostles, but Christ is all and in all : All are 
yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's. When persecuted in Jerusalem 
they went everywhere preaching the Gospel. Though Apollos knew the bap- 
tism of John only, he preached it boldly. Priscilla and Aquila instructed him 



CHAPTER CIX.: SECTIONS IX. -XI. 461 

without orders. The Gospel got to Damascus, Rome, Samaria, and Antioch 
before the apostles knew it. No commanders, but all laborers. The word of 
God, the Holy Spirit, the testimony of Jesus Christ, prayer, and the genuine 
Christian character were their sharp arrows and strong bows. No compromise 
with sin, falsehood, or pollution ; their light shone, the people saw the good 
fruits, glorified God, believed in Christ, entered the kingdom, became preachers 
and examples to others, and captives converted the conquerors. The first part of 
this period has been verified in the history of Christ and His apostles and disci- 
ples, which we have passed over ; but how long it will continue we have to dis- 
cover from the page of history. (See chap. 125,"^ and whole Period 17.) 

9. Picture Second. — The second seal was broken, and the second zoa Calls 
attention. This, too, was a picture of a horse and rider. There is a oneness 
about these pictures: a horse and rider is common to four of them. This mov- 
ing force is of a fiery-red color, like the Red Dragon, indicating anger, vengeance, 
fiery spirits, asperities, and coercion. The guiding intelligence was commis- 
sioned by some power not exhibited to take peace from the earth and to cause, or 
teach, mutual slaughter, and was given a great sword, indicating a leader or com- 
mander. His moral character is not given and is doubtful. Such a picture of 
the Roman empire, or any other government, was no sealed record, for every 
nation has had many bloody pages in its history. But that the kingdom of God 
constitutionally restricted to those regenerated by the Holy Spirit, redeemed with 
the blood of Jesus Christ, actuated by love to God and to mankind and seeking 
the happiness of friends and foes, should ever become such a picture of conten- 
tion, vengeance, and slaughter, was a thought that would never have entered the 
mind of John or any other follower of Jesus Christ, or of any philosopher or 
statesman that ever studied the constitution and laws of the kingdom of God. 
Christ told John and all the apostles that Satan would sow tares among the 
wheat, and that offences would come ; but who in John's day would have thought 
of such a picture as this! So unlike the kingdom of peace, but just like the 
kingdoms of this world. (For the history, see chap. 130, };ind the whole Period 
18, especially chaps. 130, 135, § 6.) 

10. Picture Third. — The third seal is open ; the third zoa calls atten- 
tion and something worse yet appears : A black horse represents the moving 
power and energy. This is a perfect contrast in character to the first horse ; it is 
impure, inexorable, despotic, and dishonorable. The character is black as ink. 
The guiding intelligence carries a yoke, the unmistakable emblem of bondage. 
His moral character is not given, and, therefore, is doubtful and must be learned 
from history. This black tyranny and servile bondage is evidently the conse- 
quences of the preceding contention and slaughter. Some one, or more of the 
leaders has conquered his rivals and is bringing all under his yoke ; and those 
who will not submit will be reduced to povery, abject slavery, or death, while his 
supporters posses luxuries. In another part of the Revelations we read of a 
power that would not suffer anyone to buy or sell without a mark he imposed. 
These things the servants of Christ can endure while they have the bread of life, 
the oil of joy, and the soul-cheering and soul-animating graces of the Spirit. 

11. The Sons of Oil will Live. — While this inexorable despotism was 
exhibited in the picture, a voice from the midst of the four aggressive forces of the 
kingdom was heard limiting these despotic encroachments on the heirs of the 
kingdom. This voice said : Hard times, about one quart of wheat for about 
fifteen cents, and about three quarts of barley for the same amount, and the oil 
and wine hurt thou not. Without the Scriptures themselves, or versions, para- 
phrases, comments, or discourses on them, Christianity would soon expire, and 
though it may require hard labor and self-denial, these Sons of Oil in their mis- 
sionary rambles will supply, in some way or other, enough to keep Christianity 



(*) Chap. 125, §§ 9-15. 126, §§ 7, 9. 127, §§ 1, 2. 133. 117, § 2. 



462 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

from expiring ; a day's labor will supply a day's food. But the inwrought traits 
of Christian character, and the joyous hope of eternal life and final triumph, with 
the comforting, sanctifying, animating, and enlightening influences of the Holy 
Spirit, this despotism may not touch, injure, nor destroy. Christians can still 
get Divine knowledge by diligence and hard labor; can make their Christian 
graces shine in society, and enjoy peace in Christ while suffering persecution. 
Bread strengthens the heart, oil makes the face shine, and wine makes cheerful. 
Such a picture of nations is developed in every history, and never was sealed from 
the eyes of statemen or historians. That a tyrannical, despotic king might per- 
secute the pious and faithful, the history of the kings of Israel and Judah had 
shown ; but that the moving force and guiding intelligence in the kingdom of 
God should ever present such a picture, was something never dreamed of by an 
apostle. (For the history, see Period 19, and chaps. 145. 146:4. 152:6.) 

12. Picture Fourth. — The fourth seal opens ; the fourth zoa calls attention 
to the picture. What is it ? A yellow-green horse, or a pale-green and pale- 
yellow blended, as in a sprout changing from the pale germ to the green leaf. 
The name of the rider was just Death, but himself was too tiorrible to be described; 
and right behind, with yawning mouth, like an. opened sepulchre, followed rapa- 
cious hades, always devouring, and still gaping for more. This moving power 
and energy is so diseased by corruption and debauchery of every species that it 
is all over just tingy-yello wish-greenish paleness. The guiding intelligence is 
neither king, nor general, nor bandit, but an indescribable monster, without any 
particular weapon, who destroyed the people in every way, and rapacious hades 
swallowed them up so no account could be taken of them. Among other ways, 
he killed with weapons of war, by starvation, by savage wild beasts of the earth, 
and by a complicated torturing machinery called death, which was as complicated 
and varied in its objects and designs as he was in his expedients. They both were 
well named, death ; and he murdered over the fourth part of the earth, or empire. 
I don't know that I can find anything in the history of nations to equal this 
picture; but it belongs to the preceding pictures, and is a further development 
of the same institution. The history of nations furnishes some horrible pictures, 
and I don't know that we could call such a picture in the history of the Roman 
empire a sealed page ; but who in Heaven, earth, or sheol, but Omniscience Him- 
self, could have thought, in John's day, that the kingdom of God would ever 
present such a picture on the page of history? What next? Is this the man of 
sin fully developed? (For the history, see Period 20, and chaps. 153. 158:1. 
171:2. 174:5.) 

13. Picture Fifth. — The fifth seal opens ; but no voice from the four zoa 
says: Come and see. The last picture struck Heaven dumb, and the aggressive 
force of the kingdom is silent, as if all their hope was gone. All around the 
throne were silent. John looked at the picture and saw the result of the three 
previous pictures : The saints have suffered terribh^ ; but now appears a time 
when hope brightens, and the martyrs talk of vengeance on these three horses 
and riders. Here is a picture of an altar of incense, which is elevated ; and 
down around it were the individuals slain for the word of God and for the testi- 
mony, or witness-bearing which they had ; and they cried with loud voices, which 
their enemies could hear: Until how long, O Jehovah ! the Holy and True, dost 
Thou not judge and avenge our blood on those that dwell on the earth, or empire? 
This inquiry implies that the Sons of Oil have had good reason to think the time 
for their deliverance had come ; but, being disappointed, and seeing the overthrow 
that threatened their enemies pass away, they exclaim : Till when shall our case 
be deferred? Though not avenged, they rested from persecution, received royal 
rewards in presence of their enemies, and exhibited to the world their true char- 
acter, which contrasted with and condemned the scandalous character of their 
enemies. But the work of persecution is not done, and after a little time of rest 



CHAPTER OIX.: SECTIONS XIV. -XVII. 463 

their fellow-servants and brethren, having fulfilled their witness-bearing, shall be 
killed in like manner. (For history, see whole Period 21, and especially chaps. 
159, 161, 170.) 

14. The Man of Sin Developed. — It is now evident that in the last three 
horses and riders we have been viewing the development of the man of sin spoken 
of by Paul ; for we find all this force, energj^, and intelligence was engaged in 
persecuting and slaughtering the children of the kingdom ; and now these 
hare been calling for vengeance on them. So adroitly and imperceptibly had he 
slipped into the kingdom of God and enthroned himself in the very palace of 
Jehovah, that it is impossible to give a history of the development of the king- 
dom without developing this Wicked One.* As the white horse disappears from 
the scene, the red horse glides into his place ; then the red disappears, leaving 
the black in his place ; then the black is imperceptibly superseded by the yellowish- 
greenish-pale horse. All this time the legitimate children of the kingdom have 
been suftering, not from Polytheists or atheists, but from Monotheists professing 
to believe Jesus Christ to have been sent by the Living and True God ; and they 
have been slaughtered by them. The white horse has not died, but only disap- 
peared from prominent positions ; and when we see him again he may be backed 
by a rider wearing a robe dipped in blood and slaughtering these usurpers with 
the twice sharpened sword out of his mouth ; and perhaps for this vengeance the 
martyrs have been just now calling. 

15. His Evident Condition and Destiny. — The fact that a very wicked one 
should enthrone himself in the palace of God and usurp Divine prerogatives was 
known to Paul and taught to the churches ; but his development, character, extent 
of power, and manner of destruction were in a sealed document. But something 
has evidently befallen him ; for when the fifth seal was opened we find the mar- 
tyrs had expected his overthrow, and without concealment or fear inquire openly 
with loud voices : To when shall it be deferred ? and a time of security and rest 
had come, when they might put on white robes and exhibit the truth and genuine 
Christian character in safety. This rest is tor a little while ; then must more 
suffer as witnesses for the word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ ; then will 
come a day of vengeance on all anti-Christian usurpations of power. (For history, 
see chap. 154.) 

16. The Sixth Picture. — The sixth seal is broken and the leaf turned over; 
and there is exhibited the picture of an earthquake heaving every mountain and 
island out of their places ; the sun was black as hair sackcloth, the moon looked 
like blood, the stars of Heaven were represented as in the act of falling, the blue 
sky of hope was parted and rolling up both ways from the middle, leaving the 
beyond future dark and impenetrable. All persons are represented as frightened, 
running, hiding in caves and among rocks, and calling on the mountains and hills 
to fall on them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb, exclaiming : For the 
great day of his wrath is come ! and who is able to stand? A consciousness of 
guilt drives them, like our first parents, from God with the momentary and foolish 
notion of hiding from Him. But Job said : Though He slay me, yet will I trust 
Him. 

17. Connection and Explanation of the Picture. — This seal exhibits the 
final overthrow of all the enemies of the kingdom of God who profess to acknowl- 
edge Jehovah to be the only true God, and Jesus of IS'azareth to be His only 
begotten Son and Lord of all; or regard Him, Jesus, as only an apostle of God. 
This picture connects this sealed information with the opened history of former 
prophecies, exhibits the same revolutions and commotions they do, which termi- 
nate this age and bring in the second advent of Christ and consummation of the 
kingdom.* First comes the great revolution that removes powers and provinces, 



(*) See chaps. 139, § 5. 154. 175:7. (*) Matt. 24:14, 29, 30; Mark 13:24-26; Luke 21:25, 26. 



464: THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

and turns all into confusion and anarchy. Then the source of light and knowl- 
edge is all black darkness, and sends no rays of hope and comfort through that 
black darkness ; and all the reflectors of that wisdom and statesmanship and skill 
show nothing but bloody vapor all around. All false luminaries in church and 
state fall in showers and are extinguished. Real stars never fall. Then the blue 
sky of hope parts and rolls away, leaving nothing but the impenetrable dark 
future. Now, all is dark and all lost to those hypocrits who domineered over 
the kingdom of God, and all avowed opposers of his cause; and their wailings 
are heard in every direction. (Chap. 17i:8.) 

18. Plain History. — Let us drop the picture entirely and look at its teach- 
ings. Everything shall be revolutionized, and Christ's enemies frightened and 
vanquished; and they are of the great and small, of the rich and poor, of the 
bond and free. All great and small luminaries of society : theologians, philoso- 
phers, historians, and statestnen ; all sources of confidence : rulers, governments, 
commanders, and armies; all sources of investment: banks, insurances, deeds, 
mortgages, stocks, mutual aid societies, etc. ; all guides, waymarks, dependencies, 
false hopes, false religions, and all societies will be thrown into chaos ; and here 
the picture leaves them. Here an interlude is presented, and John's attention is 
drawn from the throne to a scene on earth, where the servants of the Living God 
were sealed. After this scene of sealing was completed he turns his attention 
to the throne again. 

19. A Throng Gathered Around the Throne. — (Rev. 7:9-17.) — After this 
sealing was finished and reported, John turned again to the throne and beheld 
a numberless multitude come out of every nation, tribe, people, and language, 
standing before the throne and before the Lamb, with the book having the sixth 
picture open. They were clothed in white robes, and palm branches in their 
hands, and shouted with loud voices : The salvation, or deliverance, unto our 
God who sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb. These came out of the great 
tribulation exhibited in second, third, fourth, and sixth seals, and had washed 
their robes in the blood of the Lamb, opening the seals, and their robes were 
very white. Relying on the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ for the salva- 
tion of themselves and the triuuiphs of the kingdom, they persisted in faith and 
obedience, rci^jardless of suffering and death. Therefore are they triumphantly 
before the throne of God, and uninterruptedly serve Him day and night in His 
temple now restored on earth ; and He that sitteth on the throne shall tabernacle 
over them. They shall hunger no more nor thirst any more, for the Lamb that 
is in the midst of the throne shall tend them and shall lead them to fountains of 
waters of life, or living waters, and God shall wipe away every tear from their 
eyes. 

20. The Consummation of the Kingdom. — Now, as this is about the same 
promised to the Jews on their final restoration,* it must represent the joint 
inheritance after the revolutions and devastations of the sixth seal. We cannot 
admit that this represents the condition of disembodied spirits in Heaven ; for 
the object of these revelations is not to show what is in Heaven, but what is about 
to come to pass in relation to the churches :^ and this programme is to show what 
comes to pass after the letters to the churches have been sent to them^ to prepare 
them for coming events. This palm-bearing, white-robed innumerable multitude 
represents the triumphant consummation of the kingdom of God upon the clos- 
ing scenes of the sixth seal. No more suffering nor sorrow shall ever stain their 
white robes ! No more anti-Christian usurpation in the kingdom will suppress 
their triumphing shouts ! No more shall the temple-services be suspended on 
earth, nor its walls be leveled to the ground. The salvation to our God, who 
sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb, will roll over the whole world, and the 
ministering angels will join in the homage to God, saying : The blessing, and 



(*) Rev. 21:3, 4; chap. 70. (5) Rev. 1:6; 22:16. (6) 4:1. 



CHAPTER CIX.: SECTIONS XXI. -XXIII. 465 

the glory, and the wisdom, and the thanksgiving, and the honor, and the power, 
and the strength unto our God into the ages of ages. Amen ! In short, the 
whole consummation of the kingdom of God is the wisdom and work of God. 
The angels see it now and understand the mystery, and give all the glory 
unto Him.* 

21. Picture Seventh. — The seventh seal is broken. What the picture was 
we are not told. All Heaven was silent. But it must be the consummation of 
the whole scheme symbolized in the seals ; perhaps the resurrection to judgment, 
the judgment itself, and the new Heavens and the earth. Silence denotes aston- 
ishment by either disappointment or by sudden and unexpected realization. 
Disappointment is impossible after the events under the sixth seal. The resur- 
rection to judgment, the judgment itself, the new Heaven and new earth, were 
the consummation of the believers' hopes, and here they may be pictured and 
contemplated in silent admiration. It was not necessary to describe the picture 
of these things, for they had been clearly taught, predicted, hoped for, and 
would be more fully revealed in these revelations to John. Paul heard words 
in heaven which were not lawful to be uttered on earth ; '' and perhaps it was not 
lawful to reveal to men on earth, in the present age, what will be the condition 
and situation of things after or during these events. Perhaps the picture could 
not be described so that we in this age could understand it aright. I have found 
every programme complete in itself, and so I regard the programme of the seals. 
Thus, we have a complete outline of the development of the kingdom of God 
rom the first advent of Christ till He delivers it to the Father. ^ 

22. The Interlude. — Rev. 7:1-8. — The sealing of the servants of the 
Living God was not exhibited in the picture of the sixth seal, nor w^as it per- 
formed around or before the throne, but on the earth, and may not belong to the 
seals.* It was an interlude, which drew John's attention away from the throne 
while the triumphant throng were collecting around it. If this sealing belongs 
to the time of the sixth seal it is yet in the future, and these sealed ones are the 
last of the two witnesses, who, after being slain, arise and triumph over their 
enemies ; but we shall look for them as we explore the pages of history. John 
turned from the terrible picture under the sixth seal and cast a glance down upon 
the earth, and his attention was arrested by what caught his eyes. He saw four 
angels, or messengers, holding back four winds of the earth, that none should 
blow upon the earth, nor sea, nor on any tree; yet they had a commission to 
hurt both the earth and the sea, or the whole world and all in them. Another 
angel ascending into view from the rising sun, having the seal of the Living God, 
cried with a loud voice, that every person could hear and take warning, to the 
four angels : Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we seal the ser- 
vants of our God upon their foreheads. A most conspicuous mark. 

23. The Number and Object. — The report made of those sealed mention 
those of Israel only, of whom one hundred and forty-four thousand were sealed. 
Every tribe furnished twelve thousand servants of the Living God. Joseph has 
two tribes represented, and Dan is not recognized. These winds represent 
sweeping judgments of God on all the known world, or the Roman empire and 
surrounding nations so far as Christianity had extended, and upon their most 
conspicuous men. But these devastations, such as hurricanes make, must be 
restrained till the true servants of the Living God be conspicuously marked, so 
they can be quickly and certainly distinguished. What this mark is we are not 
told, but the true conspicuous mark of Christ's servants is the genuine Christian 
character. Who this angel and his associates are, we are not told ; but, if they 
are significant, we must look out for them on the page of history, and if the four 
devastating angels are emblematic, we must become acquainted with them as we 

(*) Rev. 21:3, 4; chap. 70. (7) II. Cor. 12:1-4. (8) Rev. 21. 22. 20:5-15. (*) But., see chap. 
'-30 



4:66 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

pass along. This sealing may be for three purposes : first, that they ma}^ be 
recognized and not liurt, as in Ezekial's vision ; or, second, that they may recog- 
nize each other and meet for mutual instruction, encouragement, and comfort ; 
or, third, being dispersed abroad during the usurpations of the Man of Sin, they 
may not be lost when the time comes of regathering into the fold at the close of 
the sixth seal. The promises are to individuals in the seven churches who over- 
come, though the churches themselves be censured, chastised, or rejected ; and 
the sealing may refer to such as an encouragement to fidelity. The sealing mes- 
senger comes from the east, as if there the necessity was first discovered. But 
where is the standpoint of observation? Is it the isle of Patmos, the seven 
churches, or in Jerusalem ? 

24. Why Are They Israelites. — If sealing is for protection, why are none 
mentioned but Israelites? Were not all believers equally protected ? Or did 
John's concern for Israel cause him to notice them only ? But, if the object was 
to perpetuate them through all persecutions, and enable them to recognize each 
other for mutual help, and to be recognized at time of ingathering, then we are 
taught that the servants of the Living God out of the stock of Israel shall be dis- 
persed among the gentile churches, and with them be preserved through all 
impending revolutions, and safely regathered after the end of the devastations of 
the sixth seal. Jehovah promised to sift Israel among all nations, but not 
one grain should be lost. There is something apposite in placing this special 
view of believing Jews here. We have not recognized the Jew in any preceding 
revelation, and yet to them belonged the Sonship, covenants, oaths, and prom- 
ises, while the nations come in as fellow-heirs and joint partakers, and they can 
not be disinherited nor superseded. They formed the first Christian churches, 
furnished the first martyrs, and myriads of them in Judea and Galilee believed. 
The Savior, apostles, and writers of the Scriptures were Jews. The chief corner- 
stone and the whole foundation of the kingdom is Jewish. They shall be pre- 
served and become again the first in the kingdom, though they may not be 
distinguished in its mighty movements, nor found in congregated bodies, nor 
their prerogatives recognized. Their history had been delineated by their former 
prophets, and needed but little notice in John's revelations. The believing Jews 
were merged into Christianity with believing gentiles, where all are one, and 
none distinguished by nationalities, positions, or relations. In a future pro- 
gramme we shall see Christ, with one hundred and forty-four thousand having 
the Father's name on their foreheads, but without any nationality. The Lamb 
has an army of martyrs one hundred and forty-four thousand strong. The first 
were of Israel exclusively, but it was kept full by volunteer recruits out of all 
nations, Israel included. The precise object of this sealing, and for what period 
of time, I will not undertake to determine ; but will notice on the page of history 
what protection from sweeping judgments of God, avowed and genuine, Chris- 
tianity secured to professed Christians,"^ (See chap. 131.) 



(*) Chap. 114, §§ 1, 2. 126, § 13. 131:2, 3. 174, § 9. 



CHAPTER ex. 



{Soene Third. Programme Second.) 
JUDGMENTS SENT ON THE EARTH, OR EMPIRE.— Rev. 8. 

1. The Anti-Christian State of the Earth, or Some Empire, and Impend- 
ing Judgments. — The Man of Sin has begun to develop himself in the kingdom 
of God, so that it has lost much of its distinguishing white horse characteristic, 
and persecuted witnesses, and they have called for deliverance. John has been 
shown impending devastations restrained till the servants of the Living God were 
sealed. This having been accomplished, the winds of destruction may no longer 
be delayed. As this revelation was designed for John, he had seen the introduc- 
tion and was prepared to inspect the programme. 

2. A New Scene: Prayers of the Sons of Oil are Offered. — John now 
observes seven angels; and their place was before God, to receive His orders and 
convey His messages, like Gabriel to Daniel. To these were given seven trum- 
pets to arouse the nations, or to call the attention of the sealed ones to what was 
about to transpire. We here learn the position and purpose of the golden altar. 
It was in front of the throne, and was for burning incense on. There was no 
altar for trespass, sin, or burnt-oifering ; for the Lamb of God, by once offering 
Himself, has perfected forever all who believe in Jesus. But the saints still offer 
prayers, which are acceptable to Him, and are attended to at the right time in 
preference to any other business ; and this is represented by the golden altar 
before the throne. The elders keep these representative incense in bowls, or 
deep dishes, showing they keep the case of the churches always around the 
throne. But here is a special case, and a special angel stands at this altar, and 
has, also, a golden censer; to him was given much incense (by whom it is not 
stated), that he should give them upon the golden altar to the prayers of all the 
saints, not only to those in regular organized churches having elders, but to those, 
also, in exile and those missionating among heathen and hypocrits, and especially 
the Sons of Oil. And the smoke of the incense for the prayers of all the saints 
ascended out of the angel's hand before God. Thus, in addition to the prayers 
of the churches, which the elders kept constantly before the throne, the united 
prayers of all the saints for a special object ascended as incense out of a censer that 
was movable and used on divers occasions and in different places. The object of 
these special prayers was obtained, or granted, and in answer, fire from off the 
altar where incense were regularly burned was added to the fire in the censer till 
it was full, and the whole contents were emptied into the earth, or some empire. 

3. What was Sent on the EaiSth in Answer to Prayer. — The answer to 
these common and special prayers united produced confusion in counsels and 
plans ; many discordant and contradictory voices were heard ; then threatening 
utterances and displays of vengeance, and finally an earthquake, or great revolu- 
tions followed ; these were succeeded by great catastrophes announced by seven 
trumpets. The saints prayed for the persecuting and oppressing power to be 
broken, but God will not only break, but also destroy them. As this Man of Sin 



468 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

professed to be a Christian, and under this garb got into power, he must be in 
confederacy with some civil government furnishing him with the physical power 
to force obedience. Confusion, discords, and rebellions weaken empires and 
tempt invasions from without and revolutions within. The seven angels prepare 
to sound, and the civil government in confederacy with the man of sin will 
ultimately be destroyed. 

4. The First Trumpet. — The first trumpet is sounded to arouse to action, 
or call attention to some great events, and to notify the sealed ones to be prepared 
and on the guard. Christians should observe the signs of the times. There was 
hail and fire mingled with blood ; and they were cast upon the earth, and the 
third part of the trees and all green grass were burnt up. Foreign invasions 
make roads of desolation, as hail batters down and tracks through grain fields or 
forests ; fire consumes what is battered down, and repeated invasions and defences 
consume what first invasions broke and mutilated ; blood denotes the effects of 
the storm on animals, and in burning broken-down timber the grass is dried and 
then burnt. Take the figure as a whole, it presents the horrors of a desolating 
invasion. One-third destroyed is a large proportion. But one-third of the earth, 
which is implied, may mean one-third of the nation or empire, and these trumpets 
destroy three thirds of something. Trees may denote the men in rank and power, 
who would be destroyed or overthrown if one-third of the empire was destroyed. 
Not often are all of the lower classes destroyed by invading armies ; but the 
armies composed of these, and the growing prospects and resources of nations 
may be compared to the growing vegetation. The prospects and resources 
destroyed, the army and one-third of the statesmen and nobles cut off, would leave 
the empire or nation in a hopeless condition. (For history, see chap. 134, §§ 1-6.) 

5. The Second Trumpet. — The second trumpet sounds, and an active volcano 
is tumbled into the sea, and the third part of the sea became blood, the third 
part of the water animals died, and the third part of the shipping was destroyed. 
Taken as a whole, this denotes another devastating invasion, though the tumbling 
of the mountain suggests the idea of an earthquake or some kind of a revolution 
or rebellion. Third part of the sea may denote another third part of the nation 
or empire ; the sea animals may denote the inhabitants of the sea coasts and 
islands, and the ships naturally denote the fleet, but may comprehend the mer- 
chandise of the sea. If the Roman empire is intended, the first appositely 
represents European Rome, and the second represents African and sea coast and 
island Rome. The Roman empire may be in league with the Man of Sin, and 
now suffering his judgments. (Chap. 134:7-10.) 

6. The Third Trumpet. — The third trumpet arouses the Sons of Oil to 
witness a burning star, or meteor, fall from Heaven upon the third part of the 
rivers and fountains of the waters. If this is different territory from the other 
two, it makes up a whole nation, or empire, or community, and may be Asiatic 
Rome. It was named Wormwood, and made the waters bitter, and many of the 
men died of the waters because they were made bitter. The most apposite inter- 
pretation is: An illustrious and conspicuous luminary of the kingdom of God 
fell into the civil government, or embroiled it, without losing any of its ecclesias- 
tical importance, and embittered and poisoned a third or large portion of the 
fountains and streams of political life and prosperity, so that many of the men 
of national importance, or all of them in the last third of that empire, died polit- 
ically by that ecclesiastical influence, and so weakened the nation, or empire, that 
it could not resist outside pressure. This cannot represent the spiritual death of 
Christians, for it came in answer to the prayers of the saints, and shows the 
judgments on their enemies, and tends to their relief or mitigation of their suffer- 
ing. (For history, see chaps. 135. 137:9.) 

7. The Fourth Trumpet. — The fourth trumpet sounds attention, and the 
third part of all sources of heavenly light, or of national or political comfort, 



OHAP'ifiR cJt. t si:ctioi^s tnt-ilL. 46^ 

prosperity, and hope, were cut off from the nation or empire, or all these sources 
in the last third part. Whatever is the superior source of hope, prosperity, enjoy- 
ment, and protection, or illuminating and vivifying influence was eclipsed ; the 
same was the condition of the secondary source, and the third or inferior sources 
were also obscured, and for a time all was dark, cheerless, and hopeless. Among 
the Jews the religious element was the sun of the nation, the political element was 
the moon, or secondary source of stability and success, and their notional zeal and 
combined interests were the twinkling stars of prosperity and future greatness ; 
but what will be the sun and shield of the subject of this trumpet must be deter- 
mined from the page of history. (For history, see chap. 137.) 

8. The Fifth Trumpet. — Rev. 9. — The judgments of the last three of the 
seven trumpets appear to be peculiary severe or lasting upon the inhabitants of 
the earth, or citizens of the empire, for they are accompanied by three woes,* 
which are announced by a messenger in midst the clear sky. Then the fifth 
trumpet is sounded, and John saw a star, not remarkable for magnitude or bril- 
liancy, falling from Heaven to earth, which received the key of the bottomless pit. 
In olden times a pit, or well, was used for a prison ; and if this was covered and 
locked so none could give aid, escape out of it would be hopeless. This pit 
appears to have imprisoned smoke, which, when let loose, filled, the atmosphere 
and darkened the sun. The sun was all right, but its light was mystified by the 
smoke. As the sun is to the earth, so are the Scriptures to the kingdom of God. 
And while the churches receive and practice their teachings, they breathe a pure, 
spiritual atmosphere, see the truth clearly, and act uprightly and sincerely — they 
walk in clear sunshine. But when churches begin to speculate about something 
beyond their comprehension, misinterpret and mystify Scripture to get something 
out of them that never was put in them, then the source of light to the churches 
becomes darkened ; the one is continually running against the other, and confu- 
sion and contention ensue. The schools of Polytheistic phylosophy might very 
appositely be called unfathomable pits of dark, confused vapor and wild specula- 
tion. The star, angel, or messenger, of any church introducing these specula- 
tions into their teachings, might well be represented as opening this pit. The 
teachings of Christ and His apostles had closed and locked the bottomless pit of 
science ;''' but it appears something of this kind of speculation is to be introduced 
by some leader, in some of the churches. (See chap. 133. 139:1-9. 141:4-15. 
144:1-5. 

9. The Consequences. — The sequel shows that this vapor was pernicious to 
the churches and hid from their view a formidable scourge that came upon them 
unexpectedly. Out of the smoke emerged the locusts of the desert, armed with 
the sting of the scorpion ; but, unlike the locusts, they must not hurt the grass, 
nor trees, nor any green thing, but only the men not having the seal of God upon 
their foreheads. Here we see one object of the sealing of the servants of the 
Living God was to protect them from a destroyer. Their mission is not to kill 
or exterminate these unsealed men, or destroy their nation or empire, but to tor- 
ment them about one hundred and fifty years. In those days these unsealed men 
will seek death, or national extinction, but shall not overtake it. Thus we see 
the four winds have been let loose. The description of these locusts indicate 
cavelry, which are strong, swift, and irresistible ; and they left their tormenting 
power and influence behind them — or exercised it for one hundred and fifty years 
after their conquests. Their leader, or head man, or king, is the angel, or mes- 
senger, of the bottomless pit. His Hebrew name is Abaddon and his Greek 
name is Apolyon ; and both translated into English, is destroyer. When the 
Greeks and Romans subjugated countries, they improved them ; but this scourge 
destroys wherever it goes. Those persons not hurt by them are those whose 
Christian character is evident — marked in the forehead. The woe is not 
described, so we must learn it from history. (See chaps. 141, 144.) 

' {*) Chap. 144. 149, §§3, 5. 166, § 8. (7) I. Tim. 6:20, 21. 1:4-7; I. Cor. 1 :19-22. 2:5,6; Col. 2:8. 



470 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

10. The Sixth Trumpet. — The sixt trumpet awakens the nations, or calls 
the attention of the Sons of Oil to another scourge and another woe. A voice 
out of the four horns of the golden altar before the throne, where the prayers of 
the saints are continually offered, commanded the sixth angel to loose the four 
angels, or messengers, bound or restrained on the Euphrates, who were, or had 
been destined to destroy the third part of man unsealed, or the last third part of 
the Roman empire, for nearly one hundred and fifty years. These destroyers 
are represented by armies of horsemen innumerable, or two hundred million — 
a prodigious swarm. The horses and riders present a terrible mode of destruc- 
tion. The moving force is represented by horses having lion heads, belching 
forth fire, smoke, and brimstone, which destroyed the third part of men ; their 
tails are like serpents heads, and with them also they hurt. They destroy all 
before them and torment all behind them. The guiding intelligence has the 
appearance of terrible destruction, and are represented by fire, purple, and brim- 
stone. But these horrible devastations produced no reformation on the rem- 
nant of the unsealed men, or on the remaining citizens, after their nation or empire 
had been destroyed. We have now got three-thirds of some whole body, nation, or 
empire entirely destroyed : One-third burnt up, another third turned into blood, 
and another third of the men destroyed or killed. The picture of the religion of 
these victims of destruction is as horrid as their destruction is horrible. They wor- 
shiped demons and images, committed murder, sorcery, fornication, and theft. 
But, though the nation, or empire, be destroyed, yet two-thirds of all the 
unsealed men, or citizens, remain unreformed. (For the history, see chap. 144, 
§§ 1-5, and chaps. 148, 149.) 



I 



CHAPTER CXI. 



{Scene Fourth. An Interlude.) 

EVENTS SYKCHROOTZING WITH SOME OF THE TRUMPETS AND 

CONNECTED WITH THEM.— Rev. 10. 

1. Angel, Book, and Thunders. — Deferred hope maketh the heart sick, and 
the servants of Christ are ready to ask, when shall these things end and our hope 
be realized ? John appears to be now upon the earth, and saw a most glorious and 
powerful angel descend out of Heaven. This reminded John that the Christian 
churches constitute the kingdom of God, and that all their intelligence, power, 
and glory come down out of Heaven, and all their helpers and ministering 
spirits are the angels of God. This angel had a small opened book in his hand, 
and anyone having eyes could read it if he wished, for it was not sealed. He 
set his right foot upon the sea, and his left upon the land ; thus showing his gov- 
ernment of the whole world and his unmoved purposes, whether nations were in 
commotion or firmly established. In a lion-like voice that all must have heard, 
he called, or attracted attention. Then seven voices, like pealing thunders, spoke 
something that John was not permitted to write. Now, these revelations were 
given to let Christ's servants know the things about to transpire. But how can 
they know this uttered by the thunders unless John writes it ? Well, this may 
be something delineated by former prophets, and can be easily discovered when 



CHAPTER CXI.: SECTIONS 11. -III. 471 

attention is called to it. Or, it may be so clearly characteristic of the times that 
the Man of Sin would understand it and turn it to his own account, unless pre- 
vented by miraculous interposition. It is something remarkable in history, and 
as obvious to the Sons of Oil as the clap of thunder ; but its connection with the 
trumpets and influence in the development of the kingdom of God can easily be 
discovered when attention is called to it. We will hear these thunders as we 
examine the history of these trumpets. (For history, see chaps. 148, 150.) 

2. When These Mysteries End. — Still standing on the solid land and bois- 
terous sea, and controlling both under his feet, this mighty angel swore the most 
lawful, earnest, and solemn oath that time should no longer be given to the 
nation^ for repentance. But, in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when 
he is about to sound, also is the mystery of God finished, as He had declared to 
His servants, the prophets. What is this mystery, the glad tidings of which 
formed the burden of the former prophecies, and, perhaps, written in the little 
book? (See the Hope of Israel, chap. 70 — The restoration of Jerusalem and 
the Jews, and the consummation of the kingdom of God.) This gives us a fixed 
point from which we may calculate by the signs of the times the approximate end 
of this age. The same voice from Heaven that forbid John to record the words 
of the thunders, now commands him to go to the angel and receive the little 
opened book. John did so. The angel told him to eat it up, or digest its con- 
tents. The acquisition of the knowledge contained in it was very desirable and 
the result pleasant, but the detailed events were very bitter to the soul. After he 
eat and digested the book, both the voice and the angel told John that he must 
again prophecy upon many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings. If this book 
contained former prophecies, after digesting it John would be better prepared to 
give a fuller programme on the same subjects, and illustrative of them, and if 
we view his prophecies in reference to their subjects, both will be better under- 
stood. Whatever figures are used, or have been used, must be understood as 
representing these characters and communities as they have relation to the 
development of the kingdom of God. 

3. Measuring Necessary. — Rev. 11. — In all these revelations we have had 
but few exhibitions of the servants and witnesses of Jesus Christ. They have 
been sealed, persecuted, and have twice triumphed. Like history, prophecy 
notices the changes produced by vices and their attending calamities, while the 
life and condition of the pious are but seldom brought to view. Now, before the 
events under the sixth trumpet are wound up, and the second woe passed, we 
have a view of the kingdom, symbolized by its temple or royal palace on earth. 
This fourth scene is exhibited on the earth. Everything in the kingdom of God 
must be measured — the temple, the altar, and the worshipers — for changes will 
be made to such an extent that we cannot be sure of anything till we see it meas- 
ured by the divine standard. The kingdom was after the divine pattern, its 
ordinances were of divine institution, its laws were of divine legislation, and its 
citizens of divine character. But Satan sowed tares among the wheat, and the 
result is that everything has been altered or defaced till its original form, loca- 
tion, and uses cannot be determined from present appearances. Even the inmost 
and most sacred parts, as the altar, or way of reconciliation and acceptance with 
God, has been altered, and the fact that persons worship around the altar and 
profess their faith in Jesus Christ and dependence on Him alone for salvation is 
not evidence that they are born of God. As for the outer court, or external rites 
and privileges and those observing, them, measure them not. You might as well 
try to find a needle in a haystack as to find anything divine about them. The 
outer court and holy city, or outer privileges and controlling power of the 
churches, will be possessed and trodden by the unclean nations en masse for 
twelve hundred and sixty years, and, perhaps, the very holy city — Jerusalem 
itself. The measuring rod is the word of God, or scriptures of truth, and every- 
thing has been so altered, defaced and deformed, that it must be measured and 



472 THE KINGDOM OF GOi) DEVELorED. 

modified anew. A church boasting of succession from the apostles is no evidence 
of its purity or divine model, nor of the divine origin of its principles, rites, and 
practices. All must be measured and reformed according to the Scriptures. (For 
history of, see chap. 131.) 

4. The Sons of Oil Prophecy. — Christ will still preserve a sufficient number 
of witnesses, as He did during the corriiptions of Israel, who, by their testimo- 
nies will keep the lamps of truth and purity burning in the churches, or in some 
of them, till they finish their testimony. The two candlesticks may designate 
both the Jews and Christians."^' These are Jehovah's Sons of Oil, who kept the 
lamps of truth aglow when kings and priests, anointed with consecrated oil, 
proved unfaithful in Israel. The oil is generated in themselves by the word and 
spirit of God, and, without authority from kings, priests, or elders, they pour 
this oil into the lamps of the churches; and they are bold reformers and faithful 
witnesses as in dsijs of old. On account of princes' and prelates' hostility to the 
truth, they shall spend their lives in affliction; shall prophecy in sackcloth twelve 
hundred and sixty years, and when they have finished their witness-bearing they 
will be killed by a wild beast from the bottomless pit. But their prayers are 
powerful; and when they say to God, we can do no more till Thy judgments 
come, then fire, and war, and famine, and plagues of every kind shall destroy 
those nations and churches which have resisted and hated them, just as if fire 
issued out of their mouths and destroyed their enemies ;8 and thus a two-edged 
sword out of Christ's mouth will slay His adversaries. When the fifth seal is 
opened, they put ofi" their sackcloth and robe themselves in white and rest awhile 
from persecution ; but their witness-bearing is still detested by the venerators of 
the beast, or of his image, and they will be killed. The wild beast out of the 
bottomless pit will make war upon them and finally overcome them, or exter- 
minate them in his nation, or empire. Kings and priests will refuse burial to 
them, but will keep their mangled bodies exposed as a warning to others who 
might be disposed to resist despotic mandates. In advocating the truth, and 
liberty to believe and obey it, they tormented the admirers of concentrated civil 
and ecclesiastical power, who are the recognized citizens of corrupted Christian, 
or monotheistic, empires, and the recognized inheritors of the earth. Christ's 
witnesses are pilgrims and strangers in these nations and do not yet inherit the 
earth, and all usurpers of Christ's prerogatives fear and hate them. 

5. Death and Resurrection of Witnesses.— In those places called great 
and holy, or in the empire city of the wild beast — which may be Constantinople 
or Jerusalem, while Rome is Babylon — where Christ was literally crucified by 
the Jews, or figuratively crucified again by Christians, called holy, but should be 
called Sodom and Egypt, and in the most conspicuous place of church and state, 
like the public square, were the dead bodies of these witnesses for truth and free- 
dom kept exposed for the taunts and mirth of all grades of civil and ecclesiastical 
despots. These provinces and prelates will congratulate one another in festivities 
and reciprocal presents over the death of these tormentors, supposing it to be 
forever. But this triumph of the Man of Sin and his civil coadjutors will be 
short. Another revolution will suddenly and unexpectedly shake the empire,, 
and in three and a half years these advocates of truth and freedom in the kingdom 
of God will be resurrectionized in presence of their enemies, by the spirit, or 
wind, from God, or by an invisible or enexpected agent. Their exulting enemies 
were aff'righted and panic stricken ; but they have heavenly protection, security, 
and enjoyment. Then shall follow immediately a great revolution throughout 
the empire of that wild beast, and then shall fiall the tenth part of that great 
city, the royal metropolis of his empire, and in its fall will be slain seven 
thousand names of men, or men with titles, or men of rank, whose names are 



(*) See chap. 131, § 2. (8) Chaps. 146, 152, 159, 161, 170. 



CHAPTER CXI.: SECTIONS VI. -VII. 473 

registered. If so many leaders fell, what was the carnage among the mass of 
citizens or soldiers ? The rest of the city, or citizens of the empire, became fright- 
ened and gave glory the God of Heaven ; they reformed from worshiping the 
demons and idols, and from the crimes of murder, sorcery, thefts, and adultery. 
This reformation they refused to make when the horsemen from the Euphrates 
killed the third part of the men. This revolution fills up the second woe and 
sixth trumpet, which, like the sixth seal, ends in the destruction of the Man of Sin 
and the triumph of the saints. When the Son of Man comes, shall He find the 
faith on the earth? All tribes shall wail because of Him. After the second woe 
closes the third woe follows quickly. 

6. The Seventh Trumpet. — John's position is again in Heaven. The seventh 
trumpet is now sounded ; the time given the nations to reform and turn to the 
Jehovah and His anointed ended when the seventh angel began to sound ; when 
the sound rolled away, throughout all Heaven resounded the triumphant shout : 
The kingdoms of this world have become our Lord's and His anointed' s ; He 
shall reign into the ages of ages. The twenty-four gold-crowned and white-robed 
elders, rising out of their thrones, fall on their faces and worship God, saying : 
We give Thee thanks, O Jehovah, the God Almighty ! the Is ! the Was ! the 
Coming ! because Thou hast taken Thy great power and reigned. The nations 
had been wroth about the two prophets ; God's wrath came in the winding up of the 
events under the sixth trumpet, when these witnesses arose again and destroyed 
the power and government of those adversaries ; the time for the dead, that they 
should be judged, had come, though more than one thousand years may pass 
before it be finished ; the time to reward God's servants, the prophets, the saints, 
and those who fear and reverence His name, the small and the great, and the 
time to destroy those who destroy the earth. These events are those promised 
by the holy prophets of old, and show the defeat of the opposing powers and the 
consummation of the kingdom of God. 

7. Temple Opened. — The temple of God in Heaven was now opened, though 
the temple on earth may not yet be restored to Jerusalem ; there was seen tbe 
Ark, which we had supposed lost in the great revolutions on earth ; in the Ark 
was seen God's covenant with Israel, all safely preserved in the temple in Heaven. 
Israel's covenant made in the wilderness is all safe and in force, and Israel suffer- 
ing its curses ; but the one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed Israelites can 
claim its blessings, and take the promised land from the nations and the impeni- 
tent Jews. The gentiles shall no longer tread down Jerusalem nor occupy her 
holy temple; and Amos said: All the sinners of my people shall be cut off. ' The 
temple of God is still in Heaven, and the royal city of the kingdom — New Jeru- 
salem — has not yet descended to earth ; but here is another revolution and invasion 
that will prepare the way for the descent of the holy city. There were voices and 
lightnings, and thunders, and earthquakes, and great hail. The Lord is not 
dilatory about His promises, but was long-suffering with the nations, as He had 
been with Israel. But their time is now fulfilled, and the saints must govern the 
whole world, and their enemies will be destroyed by mutual invasions and great 
internal revolutions, with all their attending evils. The wrath of God and of the 
Lamb has now come, as shown in the sixth seal. The mysteries foretold by the 
old prophets have now been verified, as the angel on the earth and waters testified; 
the nations have been overthrown ; Jerusalem is about to be regenerated and 
restored to her royal position on earth and in the kingdom. 



CHAPTER CXII. 



{Scene Fifth. Frogramme Third.) 

POLYTHEISTIC ANTAG0:NISM TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

Kev. 12. 

1. How TO BE Understood. — The next exhibition shows, in consecutive order, 
the antagonisms to the kingdom of God, which will enable the servants of Christ 
to locate, arrange, and connect all the other symbohc representations. This 
antagonism is of old, and has fm'nished a continuous cord of the hostilities of 
Satan to the development of the kingdom of God, and though not symbolized in 
Daniel, acted through his empires as heads and horns. The burden of this exhibi- 
tion IS the contest between Michael and the dragon and the disappearance of the 
woman ; all other incidents noticed are designed to identify the actors and enable 
us to understand the scene. In this respect it resembles the prophecies of Daniel, 
where the future history of the Jews, the persecution by Antiochus, the tinal state 
of the Jews, the character and acts of two little horns are the main objects ; but 
the preceding characters are given to identify the actors and subjects. Daniel's 
monsters commence with Nebuchadnezzar, whose history was in the past. The 
revelations to John were to instruct him in things about to come to pass, but some 
future developments were parts of systems then developing, and had been devel- 
ing in the past. So here, especially the antagonism to the kingdom of God, 
which at this time was as hostile as a fiery serpent and as conspicuous as an object 
in the blue sky, was Polytheism, the old antagonist. What we have already seen 
historically developed is now emblematically portrayed to connect past history 
with revelations of the future, and so enable us to identify the actors and under- 
stand the subject. This exhibition of adversaries in consecutive order is introduced 
by the well-known symbol of the kingdom of God, and if the term, kingdom, 
sounds too masculine for the symbol, we can substitute the term, church. (See 
chap. 123.) 

2. The Woman. — John's position is now on the earth, and, looking up to 
the blue sky, he saw two objects — a woman and a fire-red dragon, or serpent. 
Seeing these emblems, the servant of Christ and student of the Bible is carried 
back to the Garden of Eden, where man learned he had an invisible adversary, 
who was first made known to him through the serpent. Hence, the serpent 
became the apposite representative of Satan and his visible antagonism. There 
the woman was deceived and hostility was establised between her seed and the 
serpent, with the promise that her seed should bruise the serpent's head. Here 
the woman is clothed with the sun, which symbolizes a great truth : That all the 
light or knowledge of holiness and happiness radiated upon the world was 
through the church o? kingdom of God, while Jesus Christ was the source of life 
and light. The moon, or inferior light, was her footstool, as all earthly science 
is of minor importance ; and only when illuminated by revealed truth, and the 
people prepared for it, is it conducive to moral elevation and happiness. A 
crown of twelve stars adorned her head, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. 



CHAPTER CXII.: SECTIONS III.-V. 475 

The sun, moon, and stars, were the most elevated gods of Polytheism ; but here 
the kingdom of God uses them for clothing, footstools, and memorials, while 
Jehovah alone is recognized her superior. Such subordinate uses of these most 
elevated gods would appear sacrilegious to Polytheists, and excite the rage of 
the fire-red dragon ; and in such contemptous manner did the Jews and Chris- 
tians treat the gods of the nations, and aroused the fiery vengeance of the idola- 
trous priesthood. (See §§ 14, 15.) 

3. The Red Dragon. — The Great Red Serpent had seven crowned heads and 
ten horns not crowned ; and his tail drew, or dragged, the third part of the stars 
of Heaven, and did cast them to the earth. The serpent being worshipped by 
more than half of the nations, fitly represents the Polytheistic development of 
Satan's policy, in which atheism, also, is intimately associated. The fire-red 
color denotes the vengeful persecuting spirit of the system, and is fully verified 
in history. The body of the serpent represents the priesthoods and people ; the 
heads represent the civil powers, or national combinations, against the kingdom 
of God ; the crowns show where the chief power and policy was lodged ; the 
horns represent the minor states, or powers, though independent, yet united in 
the one chief design. The first head was Egypt. ^ The second was the inter 
Egypt-Assyrian combinations; on this were six horns, which, with allies, enslaved 
Israel and were conquered by Israel, and once, or more times, they combined 
to extirpate Israel and extinguish the name. ^ The third head was the Assyrian 
empire. ^ The fourth was the Chaldean. * The fifth was the Medes and Persians, 
having two horns. ^ The sixth was the Macedonian, which, historically repre- 
sented, had four horns; but as antagonistic to the kingdom of God, had but two: 
Egypt and Syria. ^ The seventh head was the Roman empire. "^ His tail drew 
the third part of the stars of Heaven, and he cast them into the earth. These 
stars represent the Jews, of whom one-third, or a large portion, were always fol- 
lowing idolatry, and were finally lost or emerged in the nations. (Chap. 
107:6-10.) 

4. Theatre op Action. — The term. Heaven, primarily designates the blue 
sky above us ; and when figuratively used may denote anything conspicuously 
displayed or that can not be hid. In the second place it designates the blessed 
abode of perfection ; and figuratively used denotes places, privileges, and condi- 
tions resembling or related to those in that glorious, holy, and happy place. 
Now, as John was on the earth and saw these symbols in the sky, we must cer- 
tainly regard these things as conspicuous events ; and whatever is cast into the 
earth is certainly hurled into obscurity. The triumphant song of Michael's forces 
represent the dragon as cast down from the presence of God, where he had 
accused the brethren day and night; therefore, we may understand heavenly 
places, conditions, and privileges. And, when the stars are said to be cast into 
the earth, it denotes persons cast out of these heavenly places, conditions, rela- 
tions, and privileges. In the first sense we shall use the phrase, conspicuous 
Heaven, and in the the second sense we shall use the phrase, ecclesiastical 
Heaven. But an incontestable fact is. Polytheism was the antagonism to the 
kingdom of God, as vengeful as a fiery serpent, and as conspicuous as any object 
up in the blue sky. 

5. Herod Watching. — To the woman was promised the honor of producing 
the seed that should bruise the serpent's head and rule the nations with an iron 
scepter, 8 or an all-powerful government. This Christ, or Anointed, is the seed 
of the woman and Son of the church of God. The Old Serpent, called Satan and 
Diabolos, impeached Jehovah with falsehood and want of benevolence to man, 
and tempted the woman to prefer animal gratification and unlimited knowledge, 
to obedience to God and the supremacy of the spirit over the animal. The time 



(1) Chap. 17-22. (2)33-5. (3)52-4. (4)60,61. (5)63-7. (6)72-7. (7)81,82,107. (8) Gen. 
3:15; Ps. 2:7-9. 



476 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

arrived for the birth of that Son of the woman, and the Old Serpent in his 
Polytheistic developeinent is ready to devour her Child. The time and place of 
His birth were conspicuous, and so was the mother; they were predicted by the 
prophets and expected by the people, and Herod was watchino^ the throne of 
David. When the Magi from the east inquired where He was and announced the 
appearance of His star in the east, Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with 
him. Thus, this whole occurrence was in the conspicuous Heaven. But Mary 
was in the ecclesiastical Heaven, also, and so was the Red Dragon, and 
demanded of the rabbi where Christ should be born, and ordered the Magi to 
find the Child and bring him word. Herod was an Edomite, but, being circum- 
cised, had all the privileges of a Jewish king. He was placed in power by the 
Roman senate, confirmed in it by Augustus, the Roman emperor, and sustained 
by the R-oraan power. He rebuilt the temple and sacrificed to Jehovan ; he built 
a theatre and amphitheatre and celebrated the games in honor of Caesar; and 
one of the three sects that appear in the New Testament was called by his name, 
and could worship Jehovah in Jerusalem and Csesar in Rome. 

6. Son Born, Pkotected, and Woman Hid. — The Son is born and snatched 
from the jaws of the dragon into the 'protection of Heaven, or of the throne of 
God, and no longer is He Mary's child; but, to us a child is born, unto us a Son 
is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulders,^ and now He is the 
child of the church, and, having gone through the conspicuous Heaven to the 
throne, disappears from the scene. The term is, Male Child, that shall rule the 
nations, and not seed. This Son is not that seed of the woman warred against 
by the dragon. That seed was not protected from the devouring jaws of the 
dragon, but were devoured by him for over two hundred years after John's day; 
they have not yet ruled the nations with an iron sceptre, and when they do rule 
the nations it will be as Christ's deputies, just as they will judge the world ; and 
this pious seed had been produced in every age before, and has been in every age 
since. This Male Child was snatched up to the throne of God ; but the seed are 
persecuted on the earth while the woman is nourished in the wilderness. Jesus 
Christ is the Male Child of the church, the Prince of the kingdom of God ; He 
rules the nations with an iron or strong sceptre, and has dashed many of them 
to pieces and will destroy more. No other child can be intended ; and in Him 
all the characteristics are verified. The woman disappears from the scene in the 
conspicuous Heaven to flee into the wilderness. The dragon could not touch her 
when the child was born and snatched awaj^, for Michael assailed him, and there 
was war in the conspicuous Heaven. Before we enter upon this war let us see 
when the dragon hurled these stars into the earth. (See chap. 82.) 

7. Third of the Stars. — I do not know whether the serpent glided along 
the sky and every third star followed him, or whether he hooked his tail around 
groups and cast them down ; if he did the latter, it denotes persecution ; if the 
former, it denotes apostacy or hypocrisy. Both are historical truths repeated in 
every age of the kingdom, as we have often seen ; but this action appears to rep- 
resent events near the birth of this Man Child. In reducing Judea into a Roman 
province and in establishing Herod's djnasty, multitudes of prominent persons 
were slaughtered. Herod murdered two high priests and all the Sanhedrim but 
two ; the Romans killed one high priest and kept another at Rome till he died, 
and Archelaus killed thousands of Jews who opposed his appointment over them. ^ 
But Polytheism attracted a large portion of the Jews in every age, ^ and now one 
of the three conspicuous sects, and the only sects mentioned in sacred history, 
was named after the Herods, and the Herods and Roman governors ruled the 
Jews. After the murder of Hyrcanus and Aristobulus the high priests were not 
appointed according to the law, but were appointed and deposed according to the 
will of the Herods and of the Roman governors. Thus, the civil and ecclesias- 
tical heads of the nation were the deputies of Polytheism, and at least one-third 

(9) Isa. 9:6. (1) Chaps. 80. 99. (2) 57-79. 



CHAPTER CXII. : SECTIONS VIII. -X. 477 

of these stars were combined against Christ and His disciples. The chief priests, 
scribes, and rulers, excepting a very few, acquiesced in the decisions of Caiaphas 
and other following high priests who led them in the persecutions of the Chris- 
tians. One Herod tried to kill Christ; another beheaded John the Baptist, 
mocked Christ and sent Him back to the Roman governor, who was instigated by 
the fear of Csesar to crucify Him ; another Herod killed the apostle James and 
tried to do the same to Peter. The high and the chief priests rejected Christ and 
chose Caesar for their king. I cannot tell what proportion of the nation these 
Herodians and those appointed by them and the Romans constituted, they were 
at least one- third of the stars of the nation. 

8. These were Hurled into Obscurity. — When these rejectors of Christ 
declared they had no king but Csesar, they fell from their conspicuous position in 
the development of the kingdom of God into the Roman state and condition 
under the Csesars. ^ If Jehovah had recognized this act of the chief priests as 
the act of the whole people, none of them would have been permitted to enjoy 
the heavenly position and privileges under the Gospel. When the fire and sword 
of Polytheism destroyed their holy city and dispersed the nation, the Herodians 
were lost in the Roman empire and disappear from the history of the kingdom 
of God. Sadducees and Pharisees still exist ; but the Herodians who could 
acquiesce in Polytheism and profess the religion of Jehovah are lost in obscurity. 
And of the Jewish nation, which occupied the most conspicuous place among the 
nations in the history of the development of the kingdom of God, fully one-third 
were slaughtered by Polytheists when Jerusalem was destroyed.* 

9. Michael Attacks the Dragon. — Michael is a representative character in 
opposition to the Red Dragon, and here denoted the divine force and energy of 
the Gospel, both external and internal, and his angels denote individual Chris- 
tians, and especially the martyrs. Christ Himself made the attack on Polytheism 
when He cast out those demons feared and worshiped by the nations, and He taught 
that they belonged to Satan. ^ By death Christ destroyed him having the power 
ot death, who is the Diabolos, and freed those who through fear of death were 
all their lives subject to bondage, ^ and made them faithful witnesses and unyield- 
ing in the conflict. Christ foretold the triumph of His religion over Polytheism 
and its author. The Prince of this world cometh and has nothing in Me. Now 
shall the Prince of this world be cast out ; and I, if lifted up on the cross, will 
draw all men unto Me. "^ I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven. ^ This 
last saying was in view of the fact that the demons were subject to the apostles 
through Christ's name. The war thus begun by Christ was openly carried on by 
His disciples, ^ and the fall of Polytheism will be as conspicuous. Paul says the 
worship of idols was the worship of demons, and acts of persecution by Polyth- 
eists are called acts of the Diabolos. ^ To cast out demons was to cast out Satan ; 
so to cast down demon worship, or Polytheism, is casting down the demons and 
Satan, too. (Chap. 125:9.) 

10. No Compromise with Polytheism. — Satan tried to establish his Red 
Dragon Polytheism in some of the Christian churches, but Christ threatened 
Jezabel and her disciples with death. ^ The council at Jerusalem forbid eating 
idol sacrifices,^ and Paul pronounces it impossible to partake of the Lord's table 
and of the table of demons. ^ Paul describes the opposition to the kingdom to 
be principalities, powers, kosmachrats of darkness, and wicked spirits in the 
heavenlies^ — legislative bodies, executive powers, or small and dependent gov- 
ernments, and great empires — and priesthoods, philosophers of Polytheism, and 
wicked spirits occupying heavenly positions and privileges, as the Jews did — and 
exhorts to take the whole armor of God, the shield of faith, the breastplate of 



(3) Eph 6:12. 1:3. (4) Chap. 107 (5) Matt. 12:22-7. (6) Heb. 2:14, 15. (7) John 14:30. 
12:31-3. (8)-Luke 10:17, 18. (9) I. Cor., 10:19-2L (1) Rev. 2:10. (2) Rev. 2:14,20, 22, 23. 
(3) Acts 15:20, 29. (4) I. Cor.. 10:19-21. (5) Eph. 6:10-18. 



478 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

righteousness, the hehnet of salvation, or hope of salvation, the sword of the 
Spirit, or word of God, the girdle of truth, be shod with the Gospel of peace, 
make every preparation to stand, pray always, and stand, having lamps trimmed 
and lights burning. ^ 

11. Polytheism Cast Down. — Michael fought, and his angels or messen- 
gers fought ; the dragon fought, and his angels or messengers fought, but pre- 
vailed not, and even their place in the conspicuous heaven was not any more to 
be found. That great dragon was cast out of heaven into the earth, and his 
angels were cast out with him, and he no longer continued to be conspicuously 
enthroned as the chief adversary to the kingdom of God. He may carry on his 
hostility on earth and in obscurity. Speaking according to the Hebrew idiom, 
this dragon is the Old Serpent, known by the names of Satan and Diabolos, who 
has deceived the whole world. Speaking according to our idiom, the dragon 
represents the Old Serpent, which deceived our first parents, and personates a 
Satanic development of power and policy. Persecutions visibly perpetrated by 
Polytheism are attributed to the Diabolos. The dragon angels are the priests, 
princes, and people who support Polytheism, observe its rites, and exhibit its 
moral character. We have witnessed two battles resulting in victory on the side 
of Michael,''' and we are assured of final success and a triumphant shout.^ From 
this triumphant shout we learn that Polytheism traduces the character of Chris- 
tians and slanders them day and night before God and man, as Satan or Diabolos 
did Job and Joshua. ^ In the first persecution Xero accused the Christians with 
his own crimes ; and we may expect, then, in the future persecution, to be 
accused of bad motives, wicked actions, and base crimes, as Satan and Job's 
friends did that holy patriarch. ^ 

12. The Yictoky. — This victory was regarded in the kingdom of God as 
one of its greatest achievements, and was publicly celebrated. The}^ shouted, 
"Now is come the deliverance, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, 
and the authority of His anointed ; for the accuser is expelled from the presence 
of our God, and his emissaries on earth, or in civil and ecclesiastical govern- 
ments, are cast down from all conspicuous places of honor and trust, and their 
accusations are no more respected in courts. We may expect to find a corre- 
sponding triumph in the churches when Polytheism is subverted and monotheism 
obtains the dominion. ^ We now find how the Christians fight and how they will 
conquer at last. Their hopes are all founded on complete reconciliation with 
God, unmerited favors, sure victory, perfect sanctification, and certain resurrec- 
tion to life, secured by the sufi'erings and death of Jesus Christ ; and they 
believed and taught the word of God, bore witness to its truths by word and 
example, even into death. They could not be induced by fear or favor to give 
up their witness bearing ; for they loved not their lives in comparison with the 
hope set before them, not even when entering upon cruel deaths. They will 
endure suffering and death in any form and degree rather than apostatize from 
Christ. Let the martyrs and saints in glory rejoice with those on earth, for Poly- 
theism is cast down from its high and honored position and throne of power, and 
Christ's servants can now sojourn in the nation or empire, or nations or empires, 
and serve Him in safety. But woe to the inhabitants of the earth, or the recog- 
nized citizens of nations or empires, whose hope and heaven is in the earth and 
the honors and riches of governments; for the Diabolos will convulse and 
destroy them. He knows his reign over all nations in his Red Dragon develop- 
ment is very short ; the Michael host will follow up their conquests till Polythe- 
ism is banished from its obscure retreats, and he is full of wrath. The Diabolos 
is an invisible agent, and so are his actions, and his agency is discovered only by 
the results ; but the dragon is a visible development, animated and controlled by 



(6) Rev. 2:10. (7) Chap. 106, §§ 21, 22; 107, § 12. {*) Chap. 126, 128, 139, § 9; 137, §8; 172, 
§ 1-3. (8) Job 1:9-11; 2:4-6; Zech. 3:1, 2; (9) Job 22:5-11. (1) Chap. 126. 



CHAPTER CXII.: SECTIONS XIII. -XV. 4:79 

Satan. He will incite discord and contention without being discovered ; so here 
the figure is dropped, and a plain fact is stated. So, on the downfall of Polythe- 
ism, we may expect to read of convulsions, invasions, and subversions of 
nations, governments, and empires. If this scene is restricted to the Roman 
empire, which is very plausible, after Polytheism is subverted in it, then it will 
be distracted and destroyed by the hidden agency of the devil in his own 
character. 

13. Flood After the Woman. — It appears, when the woman left the scene 
in the sky, she did not go immediately into the wilderness, but tarried on the 
earth till the dragon was dethroned and cast down. Having failed in devouring 
her Son, he now persecutes her in obscurity wherever he has the power ; but 
facilities were given her to escape to her place in the unfrequented wilderness. 
Then he poured out a flood, or river, to sweep her away and never more be found. 
This flood may denote invasions of Polytheists, or false philosophy and teach- 
ings of Polytheism, calculated to unsettle her faith and sweep her into the ocean 
of uncertainty. Here he was again disappointed, for the river was swallowed up 
by divisions, or fractures in the earth, empire, or theater of action. ^ Then the 
woman made good her escape into the wilderness, where only she can be nour- 
ished for twelve hundred and sixty years. 

14. The Woman in the Wilderness. — The wilderness is a place where 
prelates and princes, priests and nobles cannot find any person and seldom go 
while peasants and hunters find anything and live in comfort and security. 
There, churches might be nourished and become flourishing without kings and 
prelates knowing anything about them. Hence, the wilderness denotes 
obscurity to ecclesiastical and civil despots. There the woman fled. She did 
not flee there at first, or the dragon could not have persecuted her after his fall. 
She did not take all her family, or the dragon could not have persecuted her 
seed. The faithful churches could not have all migrated at once, or the dragon 
would have noticed it and followed them. This emigration must have been imper- 
ceptible and at difl'erent times. But what will become of her when the twelve hun- 
dred and sixty years expire? Will she come out triumphant ?'^ Or will her retreat 
be discovered and she be cut off? Being disappointed, he was in a rage about the 
woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the 
commandments of God and have the testimony, or witness-bearing, of Jesus 
Christ. Here we have a distinction made ; and only that remnant of her seed, 
which are witnesses and obedient to Jesus Christ, are subjected to persecution. 

15. What the Woman Kepresents. — What did this woman represent? Did 
she symbolize the whole church, or kingdom of God, as portrayed in the seals 
and in the unmeasured city and outer court of the temple, and the unsealed men 
under the trumpets? Or, did she symbolize what might be called the true 
church of Christ, such as was represented in the first seal, the two witnesses, 
the inner court and altar, and the sealed ones under the trumpets ? A remnant 
of her seed kept the commandments of God and had the testimony of Jesus 
Christ, and his witness-bearing. The two witnesses, or Sons of Oil, were of her 
faithful seed, and so she cannot represent the wild beasts that caused them to 
wear sackcloth and put them to death. The church portrayed in the second, 
third, and fourth seals never were in a wilderness or place of concealment. She 
must necessarily represent the true church, or churches, recognized by Christ as 
His own — pure or reforming, as he required of the seven churches addressed by 
John. She does not represent the harlot of Babylon, but the new Jerusalem. 
This true church was the mother of the Prince of the iron scepter ; that mother 
was the Jewish church, which contained most impious ministers and people, and 
were necessary for the design of the preparatory age. Was that the true church 
of God? It was. They inherited the adoption by the blood of Abraham in their 



(2) Chap. 128. (*) Chap. 161. 



480 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

veins, by the will of the fleshly rites of circumcision and the law, and by the will 
of Man ; or, of a Master who purchased Him, or had Him born and raised in His 
house. They were children of the kingdom; by flesh, blood, and property, rela- 
tion to Abraham. They were under the law of Moses, and subject to its rewards 
and penalties ; and while they accepted the one and submitted to the other, they 
were legitimate heirs, let the consequences be what they might. But there were 
two classes of them, and always had been — the pious and the impious. Zaclia- 
riah, Mary, Simeon, Anna, and others, looked for redemption in Israel, and 
waited in painful anxiety for the Messiah; and Caiaphas and others rejected 
and crucified Him. Christ selected out the pious, and with them and the pious 
of other nations He constituted anew the kingdom of God, and constitutionally 
excluded the impious Jew and gentile. Such, now, is the true Christian church, 
or the true church of Christ; all the impious of all nations are constitutionally 
excluded, but are used by the King in the development of the kingdom. Satan 
may, will, and has sowed tares, and put the children of the Wicked One in this 
kingdom, but they are not legitimate children, and at the end of this age they 
shall be gathered out, and all unregenerated persons shall be excluded in fact. 
Every church that recognizes the impious as legitimate members is a false church, 
or harlot, and much more are those churches whose organizations, creeds, min- 
istry, and people are impious, false and anti-Christian. As tares will grow in the 
kingdom, and the Man of Sin will enthrone himself in the palace, or temple, of 
God, we must comprehend them in the terms church and kingdom, but we will 
adopt the phrases, true church and true cliurches. The Greek word translated 
church, literally means an assembly. Christ promised to be in the midst of two 
or three congregated in His name. One may be a witness for Christ, but cannot 
be a church. Two met in His name, is a church of Christ ; three is a larger one; 
three hundred is larger still ; and three thousand is larger, but may not be any 
better. It was the true church of God that produced the Prince of the iron 
scepter, and it was the true church of Christ, constituted out of the true members 
of the true church of God, that went into the wilderness for twelve hundred and 
sixty years. How far a church may be in error in principle and practice and 
still be acknowledged by Christ, may be inferred from the epistles to the seven 
churches in Asia Minor; but I will not determine. All in error must reform. 
Truth and obedience are of God ; falsehood and disobedience are of Satan. (For 
history, see chap. 126 and its continuations.) 



CHAPTER CXIII. 



{Scene Sixth. Programme Fourth.) 

MONOTHEISTIC ANTAGONISM TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

Rev. 13. 

1. Successor to the Dragon. — John's position now is upon the sea shore. 
Here he saw a wild beast ascending up out of the sea, having seven heads^ and 
ten horns. ^ On the horns were crowns, and on the heads was a name of blas- 
phemy, or a blasphemous name. ^ This beast was like a leopard, having the feet 
of a bear and the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him his own power and 
throne and great authority. The dragon's throne was in the heaven, or sky, and 
the beast, seated in it, became the conspicuous antagonist to the kingdom of God ; 
and, as he received the dragon's power and authority, it was understood the 
beast would finish up the dragon's work, which was to persecute the woman 
where discovered and wage war with her faithful seed. "^ If the dragon symbol- 
ized Polytheism, and it was dethroned, then this wild beast must be a mono- 
theist and must symbolize the monotheistic antagonism to the kingdom of God ; 
and while this power is in the heads, the horns cannot wear the crowns. But, 
here the crowns are on the horns ; which shows the time of its greatest hostility 
will be when the power is in the horns. This monotheistic antagonism has all 
the vigor and courage of the Chaldean lion, the alacrity and varied policy, or 
character, of the Greek leopard, and all the despotic, crushing weight and firm- 
ness of the persian bear. What are the head and horns of this beast we must 
not learn from history. (See chaps. 129, 151:6, 7.) 

2. Wounded Head and Yeneration. — At the time of his full development 
and the crowns were on the horns, one of its heads had been killed''^ and restored 
to life.f That a head should be killed, or passed away, is not mysterious ; but 
that it should be restored to life, is a mystery. This was a remarkable animal, 
and there was a wondering in the whole earth about him ; there was a mystery 
about it. That the monotheism of the Jews should supersede the Polytheism of 
Rome and all other nations, in the government of the world, was a mystery to all 
but the servants of Christ. Gibbon says : Our curiosity is naturally prompted to 
inquire by what means the Christian faith obtained so remarkable a victory over 
the established religions of the earth. ^ The people of this whole world wor- 
shiped the dragon and retained and readopted the rites of Polytheism, which 
acquiesced and gave its influence, wealth, and power to monotheism. They 
exclaimed : Who is like unto the beast ? Who can make war with him ? Poly- 
theism having delegated its throne, power and authority to monotheism in public 
view, worked secretly to coalesce without losing its vital influence. Thus, this 
wild beast had no rival nor competitor. If Christianity will not coalesce with 
paganism, Polytheism will put on the garb of monotheism and make a mighty 
power to crush the true church and slay the witnesses. What use to resist ! 
None can oppose him ; no power to deliver out of his hands. (Chap. 133, §1.) 



(4) For Heads see 1st and 2d, chap 129, §§ 1, 2. (3) 188:2. 143:1-6. (4) 141:15. (5) 144:7, 8. 
(6) 144:4. 5. 149:4, 7, 8 (7) 150:6. 168. (5) Chap. 151, § 6. (6) Chap. 129:4. 151:7. (7) Chap, 
128.5,146. (*) Chap 134, § 10. (f) 142:3, 4. (3) Gbn.,' Vol. I., p. 158, chap. 15. 

~~ol 



482 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

3. Blasphemous Titles and Speeches. — Every head or headship wore a 
blasphemous title or titles ; this may be an impious or presumptioas title, which 
we must learn from history. A speaking organ, not natural, was given to this 
wild beast, and it uttered great things and blasphemies.* And power was given 
to it by some agent of Satan to practice, or do something, for one thousand tw6 
hundred and sixty years, which is the same length of time, and may be the same 
period, given to the nations to tread the holy city and occupy the outer court of 
the temple; the same length of time for the woman to be nourished in the wilder- 
ness, and the witnesses to wear sackcloth. This wild beast appears to be a suit- 
able coadjutor for the Man of Sin enthroned in the temple of God, and he opened 
his speaking organ with the voice and boldness of the lion for blasphemy against 
God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and those who tabernacle in 
Heaven. Ascribing Christ's miracles to Satan, was sinning against the Holy 
Spirit; and to stigmatize those having the Father's name on their foreheads, 
or openly professing the truth and exhibiting the genuine image of God in their 
lives, is blaspheming God ; and stigmatizing and anathematizing true churches 
and their genuine members, is malicious blasphemy against them.* It was given 
him, perhaps by ecclesiastical prelates or councils, as the high priest and council 
delivered Christ to the Roman governor — history will show — to make war with 
the saints and to overcome them. Authorit}^ was given to him over every tribe, 
and people, and tongue, and nation where the saints sojourned and the kingdom 
of God extended ; so the true churches can not escape his power unless they 
can hide in the wilderness. All those not registered in the Lamb's book of life 
will worship or reverence him. From the foundation of the world all salvation 
has been secured by the suffering and death of Christ, and not one of His fol- 
lowers will be forgotten, for all their names are registered ; but those not follow- 
ing Christ will worship this beast and twin brother to the Man of Sin. But, pow- 
erful as he is, and worshiped as he may be, he shall be destroyed by the sword 
and captivity according to that law. What a man sows, the same he shall reap. 
Let every one take notice to hear this. Here is the age that will try the faith 
and patience of the saints and show their wisdom as well as piety ; they do not 
take the sword nor lead captivities, and they shall not be exterminated by sword 
or captivity. But the beast did both and shall perish by both. (For history, see 
chaps. 133, § 1. 134, § 10. 136. 149. 151, §§ 5-9.) 

4. The Two-Horned Wild Beast. — John saw another wild beast ascending 
out of the earth. The sea is mostly in commotion, and the earth at rest ; hence, 
a beast out of the sea designates power suddenly rising out of revolutions and 
convulsions ; and one out of the earth designates one gradually and quietly 
grown into importance.^ This beast has two horns, ^ not very dangerous — about 
like the horns on a lamb. His power was divided, but did not look dangerous ; 
but he had the dragon's voice, and exercised all the power of the first beast. 
So he had the dragon's voice, power, and throne. He exercised all the power 
of the first beast in his presence, and not secretly, and must have been a mono- 
theist. He did not need a show of horns, for he used the dragon's voice in addi- 
tion to the dragon's power delegated to the first beast. He makes the earth, or 
monotheistic empire, and all that dwell therein, to worship the first beast, whose 
death-stroke by the sword was healed, pretending great veneration for him. 

This shows the second beast came into power after the first received the 
death-blow ; so both acted together through the one thousand two hundred and 
sixty years. He performs great signs in the presence of the first beast, and 
makes fire come down from Heaven in the sight of men, or his enemies, as Elijah 
did, and thus deceived them to believe him to be a prophet. What is true of a 
part may be said of a whole ; thus, man is said to be mortal and immortal. This 



(*) Chap. 129, § 4. 151:7, 8. (4) Dowl. p. 304-6, Edict of Fred 11.; Jones, p. 194, Edict of 
T'oo.l-.in« I, chap. 151, § 8 (9) Ohaps, .188:2-8. 149:1,2. 172:5. 117:5. (1) Ch^ps. 139. 140. 
i!4^.l 2. . • , •. ..--.., 



CHAPTER CXIII. : SECTION V. 483 

beast performed these wonders, though one horn might approve and the other 
reject them. He makes no pretentions to government himself, but orders the 
citizens of the monotheistic empire to make an image of the first beast ; and it 
was in his power to })ut breath into that image, and make it give imperial edicts, 
and kill those monotheists who did not worship it. ^ He did not want the power 
himself to inflict vengeance, but he causeth all — the small and the great, the rich, 
and the poor, the free and the bound — to receive a mark on their right hand or 
on their forehead, and causeth that no one should be able to transact any business 
in the government but those having the mark, the name of the beast, or the 
number of his name, or the figures corresponding to the letters in his name. 
This number is six hundred and sixty-six, and is the number in the name of some 
man ; and now let the man of science make it out. Thus, in Hebrew, Rvyymth — 
a man of Kome : R. 200, Y. 6, Y. 10, Y. 10, M. 40, TH. 400=666. In Greek, 
Lateinos — a man of Latium, Rome, or Latin empire : L. 30, A. 1, T. 300, E. 5, 
I. 10, K 50, O. 70, S. 200=666. 

Thus, we see the first head of this monotheistic antagonism was the Roman, 
or Latin, empire, and the first development of this beast was with the first head 
and was the genuine beast, and what was created by orders of the second beast 
was only an image of the genuine. ISTow, in Daniel, a wild beast designates a 
self-controlled, absolute, political power, with the ecclesiastical and religious influ- 
ence in subjection ; and such was pagan Rome. When Polytheism is cast down 
and monotheism takes its throne, then we have a monotheistic wild beast on the 
conspicuous throne. Now, if the ecclesiastical power, or influence, should 
become a wild beast and subvert and subjugate the political power, then we might 
have an image of the first development of the monotheistic beast animated and 
controlled by the second development, or the ecclesiastical wild beast. 

5. Relation and Dueation. — These two wild beasts belong to the mono- 
theistic antagonism to the kingdom of God, while they have the throne, power, 
authority, and voice of the dragon, given to them by Satan himself. It matters 
but little to the saints which beast animates and controls ; it is hostility to Christ 
by both. I suspect all the blasphemous titles and speeches to be the work of 
this false prophet, who I suspect to be the Man of Sin fully developed. Their 
power will be broken when the fifth seal opens, but they will continue till the 
judgment sits. ^ (For history, see chap. 129, and continuations.) 



(5) Chaps. 138. 139;5. 143:1, 2. 151:2, 3, 6. (6) Chap. 115, §9 



CHAPTER CXIY. 



{Scene Seventh. Programme Fifth. ) 

CHRIST RECOVERING HIS HOLY MOUNTAIN BY THE MARTYRS' 
GOSPEL AND THE HARVESTS.— Rev. 14. 

1. The Lamb on Mt. Zion. — John is now on the earth where he can have 
full view of skj and earth ; and here he is shown an outline sketch of the 
destruction of this monotheistic antagonism. The Lamb stands on Mt. Zion 
with an army of faithfuls. The term "Lamb" is a peculiarity of the Apostle 
John's writings, and he learned it from John the Baptist. The name or picture 
of Mt. Zion will always arrest the attention of the servants of Jesus Christ. The 
saints take pleasure in her stones : Her very dust to them is dear, '^ and when 
they hear of Christ occupying it with an army of one hundred and forty-four 
thousand pure and openly avowed followers, they think that the set time to favor 
her has come. Amidst all the corruptions, revolutions, persecutions, and 
devastations Christ has maintained His one hundred and forty-four thousand 
sealed followers, who are still pure, bold, and uncompromising as in the conflict 
with the dragon. And now He is about to recover His holy mountain, with all 
its institutions and prerogatives. Before the four winds preceding the trumpets 
were let loose He sealed one hundred and forty-four thousand Israelites for His 
first army against the dragon, and now He appears on His own mountain with 
His full army of one hundred and forty-four thousand, without any national 
distinctions, and commences war with the beasts. This programme is well 
located in these revelations. Contemplating these formidable adversaries, the 
saints might well be dejected and have nothing to say when the fifth seal opened 
and needed something to revive their hopes. 

2. The Song in Heaven that None But Martyrs Could Sing on Earth. — 
The kingdom of God extends from earth to Heaven ; and up there for the present 
is the royal city. There are the spirits of just men made perfect ; there are 
recorded the names of the first-born who form the churches on earth ; and there 
are innumerable angels to keep up communication between earth and heaven.^ 
These angels rejoice over converted sinners.^ How much more do they and 
redeemed spirits rejoice in the victories of the kingdom and the fidelity of mar- 
tyrs I^ Christ appears in His judgments; but then He uses enemies to destroy 
enemies ; but when He appears with His own army they are martyrs. They 
overcame the dragon by the blood of the Lamb, the word of God, and the 
witness-bearing of Jesus Christ ; and by the same means they will overcome the 
beasts. Then they were led on by Michael, the great prince of Israel ;2 now 
they are commanded by the slaughtered Lamb. Then the question was who is 
God? Now it is, how are we reconciled to Him and accepted by Him? This 
sight filled all Heaven with joy, and a voice out of Heaven, as loud as many 
waters and as the rolling thunder, drew John's attention to the throne, which he 
could also view from his position. This was the voices of harps and singers, 



(7) Ps. 102:13-15. (8) Heb. 12:22-24. (9) Luke 15:7, 10. (1) 1. Cor. 16:13; Phil. 1:27. 4:1. 
(2) Dan. 12:1. (3) Ps. 25:15. 



CHAPTER CXlV.: SECTIONS in. -V. 485 

and they sung a new song before the thi^ne and before the zoa and elders, or 
between the throne and the zoa and the elders. But no one on earth conld learn 
that song but the one hundred and forty-four thousand redeemed virgin followers 
of the Lamb. These were redeemed from among men — a first or choice fruit 
unto God and the Lamb. They have followed the Lamb through all these per- 
secutions, sufferings, and trials, and they are true and faithful. The secret of 
the Jehovah is with them and the knowledge of His holy covenant. ^ These are 
Christ's martyrs, witnesses, sealed ones, Sons of Oil, and they can learn and 
sing, in the flames of persecution, this new song of new victories over this new 
antagonism under the name of monotheism. None others can learn, understand, 
or sing this song while the beasts are in power and the saints are suffering every 
species of cruelty and death. (See chap. 155, § 1, 2, and chaps. 159, 161, 170.) 

3. The Missionary Angel. — Next, John saw an angel flying in mid Heaven, 
where every person could see him, having everlasting glad tidings to proclaim to 
those dwelling on the earth, or empire, and to every nation and tribe and tongue 
and people. This must be the universal missionary angel or messenger. His 
message is not confined to those on the earth, but is extended to every other person. 
This must take place under the fifth seal, after the power of the beasts is broken 
and when the Sons of Oil put on robes and rest from persecution (formerly such 
doctrine had to be preached in private), for he appeared conspicuously and spoke 
loudly, and every person could see and hear him. He preached in the monothe- 
istic empire and in the remote and obscure regions of Polytheism. The conspic- 
uous characteristics of his preaching may be learned from the specinien given: 
Fear God and give Him glory; the hour, or time, of His judgment is come; and 
worship Him that made the Heaven and the earth and the sea and the fountains 
of waters. This is in direct opposition to what the people had been publicly 
taught ; they had been compelled to worship the beast and his image and the false 
prophet, and they worshiped demons and idols and repented not, though con- 
demned in obscure places by the witnesses. We are not told that he preached 
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth ; but he preached directly against the 
dragon, the beast and his image, and the false prophet, and this is everlasting 
glad tidings : it never will be reversed nor put down by any revolution nor usurpa- 
tion. (See chap. 170.) 

4. The Investigating Angel. — Now follows another angel as conspicuously 
as the first, saying: Fallen is Babylon, that great city; for of the wine of the 
wrath of her fornication has she given all nations to drink. Babylon is the antag- 
onist to Jerusalem and represents the royal city of the Man of Sin, and compre- 
hends his whole system and territory — just as Jerusalem represents the kingdom 
of God. Her pollutions of Christ's teachings and laws and institutions had 
extended to all nations, and the vengeance will follow into every place. Now, 
we know from preceding prophecies that the Latin empire was the head of the 
monotheistic wild beast, and the throne given to him by the dragon was Rome, 
which may be also the seat of the Man of Sin. (See chaps. 165. 171.) 

5. Wrath Denounced on Worshipers of Beast and Image. — Now follows a 
third angel as conspicuously as the first, and with as loud a voice, saying: If 
anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark upon his forehead 
or upon his hand — open or secret venerators — even he shall drink of the wrath 
of God, mixed unmixed, or made up out of the genuine simples, in the cup of 
His indignation ; and he shall be tormented in fire and brimstone in the presence 
of the holy angels and in presence of the Lamb. When the beast and false 
prophet are taken alive and cast into the lake of fire, their worshipers will be 
judged while living and cast in with them, and the smoke of their torment ascends 
into the ages of ages, and they have no rest day or night. This may be the beast 
out of the bottomless pit, the last development of the first beast. (See chap. 171.) 



486 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

6. Patience of the Saints. — Here we now see the necessity and happy fruits 
of the patience of the saints; they waited long and suffered intensely, but now 
they are comforted and their adversaries tormented. A voice out of Heaven said 
to John, and perhaps none else lieard it : Write, that it may be preserved on 
record till that time, Blessed the dead that die in the Lord henceforth ; yea, saith 
the Spirit, that they may rest from their toils, but their works follow them. 
Though they may die and go to their rest, their works for the advancement of the 
kingdom of God shall not be destroyed, as in former time, but shall be perfected 
by some one following in their labors; they shall glide into rest in Heaven and 
their works will follow on to perfection. Tlie saints dying in the Lord before this 
time will be rewarded as fully as those after it, but their works were often destroyed 
by the adversary. Translations of the Scriptures and efforts at reformation shall 
be carried on to completion. 

7. Grain Harvest. — Now John looked up and saw a white cloud, and on it 
sat conspicuously the rich and successful king of reapers, in human form, with a 
sharp sickle in hand, surveying a harvest field, and he appeared to be awaiting 
orders. This denotes wealth, power, and position, well prepared for a premedi- 
tated slaughter. An angel came out of the temple, which is yet in Heaven, and 
with a loud voice that all could hear, bid king reaper to thrust in his sickle and 
reap, for the harvest of the earth, or empire, is dried and the hour for thy reaping 
is come. This devastating power has been restrained by the prayers on the golden 
altar of those hoping for reformation ; but these prayers having ceased to be laid 
on the altar, a messenger out of the temple removes the restraint, and the judg- 
ments of God destroy the impenitent. The gold-crowned reaper sent his vast 
military preparations, and the work was done. (See chaps. 174, § 2. 176, § 1.) 

8. Grape Harvest. — Another angel, not so observable as king reaper, came 
out of the temple, which is yet in Heaven, having a sharp sickle, also. This 
denotes a hidden power or influence from the kingdom, or out of the teachings 
of the Scriptures, that musters the nations without their knowledge and produces 
unexpected results; or perhaps some power, maybe the returned Jews, having a cor- 
rect knowledge of the predictions and signs of the times and coming unexpectedly 
into power, prepares to vindicate the cause of the saints. The servants of Christ 
will discover this avenger by their knowledge of prophecy. He was followed by 
another angel out of the altar, and having the authority over the altar, where the 
prayers of the saints ascended as incense before God. Perhaps the martyrs 
around the altar in the fifth seal had renewed their cry for vengeance : and the 
officiating angel answers, the time is come, and goes forth and gives the order. 
Those versed in prophecy and watching the signs of the times may be denoted 
by this angel ; they assure the first angel that the last, or grape, harvest is ripe. 
Perhaps the first angel represents the resurrection of the witnesses, and the second 
denotes the earthquake or revolution attending their rise. Perhaps they synchro- 
nize, but represent different actors. This second angel called aloud, that all could 
hear : Send thy sharp sickle, gather the clusters of the earth, or empire, for her 
grapes are fully ripe. This vengeance came in answer to the prayers of the saints 
on the golden altar. The angel cast his sickle into the earth, or monotheistic 
empire, and gathered the fruit of the vine of the earth, or empire, and cast them 
into the great winepress of the wrath of God; and the winepress was trodden 
without the city; whether Babylon, or the great city called Sodom and Egypt, 
we are not told. The blood out of the winepress flowed two hundred miles, 
and so deep was the stream that the bridles of the cavalry dipped in it. What 
was the effect of this terrible slaughter we are not told ; but it ends this programme 
and belongs to future events. (See chap. 174, § 3.) 



CHAPTER CXV. 



{Scene Eighth. Programme Fifth.) 

JUDGMENTS ON THE WORSHIPERS OF THE BEAST AND HIS 

IMAGE.— Rev. 15, 16. 

1. A Song of Yictory. — John's position is now in Heaven. In the next 
place John is shown the successive means by which these beasts are brought to 
these destructive ends, and by this exhibition Christ's servants are prepared for 
the events. This is represented by seven angels inflicting ^the seven last plagues. 
Before this scene opens John saw those faithfuls, who had endured the fearful 
persecution of the beasts and false prophet and had obtained the victory over 
them by being faithful into death, enjoying a triumph. They were standing upon 
a most splendid pavement, like a sea of glass streaked or flaked with fire, and 
they had harps of God, or Divine harps, or har{3S given to them by God. These 
were not praying for vengeance nor complaining of delay, as in the fifth seal; 
but they were anticipating the speedy triumph of the kingdom, because the last 
judgments were manifest, or in sight. They blended tlie hope of Israel with the 
salvation of the nations and sung the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb, 
saying: Great and wonderful are Thy works, Jehovah, the God, the Almighty; 
righteous and true are Thy ways. Thou King of nations. Who will not fear Thee, 
Jehovah, and glorify Thy name? For Thou only art holy; for all nations shall 
come and worship before Thee, because Thy judgments are manifested. These 
judgments were then manifested to the Sons of Oil, and when inflicted they will 
be understood by the nations. This song embraces the message of the missionary 
angel, and undoubtedly synchronizes with it, and shows the hope of the saints to 
realize the glorious promises to Israel. Not only the victory over the Man of Sin, 
but also the conversion of all the nations was anticipated. Perhaps this is part 
of the song which none on earth could learn but the one hundred and forty-four 
thousand martyrs ; it is sung again in Heaven, and as these seven last plagues are 
inflicted, and the missionary angel preaches, the whole earth will learn and sing 
this song of victory. (See chap. 170.) 

2. The Seven Angels, or Messengers. — ^^John looked; and behold the tab- 
ernacle — temple — of witnesses (Acts 7:44), yet in Heaven, was opened, showing 
that some of the covenanted promises to Israel were about to be fulfilled. The 
seven angels, having the seven last plagues to teach the nations as Moses taught 
the Egyptians, came out of the temple just opened, showing that these plagues 
originated in the teachings and influences of the kingdom of God, and on its 
account and according to its programmes they were sent on the earth, or nations. 
These ministers of wrath were holy, peaceful priests ; they belonged to a wealthy 
kingdom, for they were clothed in pure bright linen, girt about the breasts with 
golden girdles, and they were commissioned from the throne with golden bowls 
full of the wrath of God. These bowls were given to them by one of the four 
zoa, that represent the aggressive or missionary force of the kingdom, which 
shows that reformation was hopeless, and that these judgments, and the flight of 



4S8 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVET.Ol'ED. 

the missionary angel, synchronize and are connected in operation and result. As 
God's wrath is inflicted and breaks up the way, the kingdom advances and mes- 
sengers preach the Gospel (Chap. 167). Then was the temple in Heaven filled 
with smoke out of the glory of God and out of His power, and no one was able 
to enter the temple till the seven plagues were inflicted. Though the power of 
the adversary was broken and the Gospel going forth with power, vet the light 
of God's word and the manifestation of His power have raised such inquiry and 
disputation about the truth that Divine worship could not be restored in its purity 
and original simplicity till these plagues be fulfilled. Tiiis shows a reformation 
advancing, but not perfected, and no reformer is able to enter the temple and 
restore the pure apostolic worship till after these last judgments. 

3. First Vial, or Bowl. — Rev. 16. — A loud voice out of the temple, per- 
haps of the angel that cried to the harvest messengers, said to the seven angels : 
Go and pour the seven bowls of God's wrath into the earth. This voice came 
out of the temple, and not out of the throne, and shows that the two witnesses 
clothed ill sackcloth have prayed for these plagues; for reformation without them 
was impossible. The first angel stepped forth to the opening in the sky and 
poured out his bowl into the earth, or monotheistic dominions, or empire of the 
beast, and an evil and grievous sore came upon the men having the mark of the 
beast and worshiped his image. Why did they at this time worship the image ? 
Was the beast himself in the bottomless pit?^ and did his image, animated and 
controlled by the false prophet, rule the monotheistic earth ? They have the 
mark of the first beast imposed on them bv the second beast, but they worshiped 
the image — none else were hurt by it. This sore did not kill, but was an evil and 
grievous trouhle that vexed and fretted, and they could not prevent nor cure it 
It might be something that threatened their venerated image, and as it came from 
Heaven and out of the temple in answer to the prayers of the Sons of Oil, it is 
something favorable to tfuth and freedom. The angel may have poured out a 
spirit of inquiry and an independence in judging, which produced schisms. Schism 
is an evil and grievous sore upon all worshipers of concentrated power. (See 
chaps. 155, 156.) 

4. Second Yial. — The second angel stepped forth and poured his bowl into 
the sea, and it became blood, as of a dead man, and every living breath or indi- 
vidual died in the sea. Now, if the sea represents nations in motion, we may 
suppose the sore inflicted by the first vial created agitation, and the second brought 
them into collision and mutual bloodshed, which terminated in rival powers, 
religious divisions, and partial, attempted, or pretended reformations, that 
exhausted the vital power, influence, and wealth of the monotheistic antagonism. 
This great confederation, or consolidation, of the beast and false prophet being 
broken into fragments without any common head, these fragments might now be 
turned to exhausting one another, and in all these revolutions the witnesses would 
find shelter in one or the other fragment, and an opportunity to disseminate the 
truth. (See chap. 157.) 

5. Third Yial. — The third angel now steps forth and pours out his bowl 
into the rivers and fountains of the waters that run into the sea, and they become 
blood ; thus no hopes of the sea being restored by fresh water and living animals 
out of them. The inhabitants of these great and small tributaries did not die, 
but had to drink blood, which was a sore judgment upon them. The angel of the 
waters pronounced this visitation just, for they had shed or poured out the blood 
of the saints. What was the moving cause of this bloody issue I cannot deter- 
mine from the programme, and must wait for history to develop ; perhaps self- 
preservation. If these rivers and fountains denote the dismembered fragments 
of the beast empire, they did not lose their vitality in this bloody conflict, and 
though they might not restore life and health to the empire, they continued in 



(6) Cbap. 149, iind continuations. 



OHAt*tER CXV. : SECTIONS VI. -IX. 489 

Wealth and power. The angel of the waters said : Kighteous art Thou, O Lord, 
who art, and who was, the Holy, because Thou didst adjudge these things; for they 
poured out the blood of Thy saints and prophets, and Thou givest them blood to 
drink, for they are worthy: and a voice out of the altar said : Yea, Jehovah, the 
God, the Ahnighty; true and righteous are Thy judgments. Thus, Heaven and 
earth acknowledged these judgments to be merited. (See chap. 162.) 

6. Fourth Yial. — The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and 
it was given unto it to scorch the men with fire ; and the men were scorched 
with great scorching, and they blasphemed the name of God who had power over 
these seven plagues, and they repented not to give Him glory. They did not 
confess their corruptions and perversions of His word, laws, and institutions, and 
give Him glory for the truth, and holy teaching, and rites, but persevered in 
their former course. The sun is regarded as the source of heat as well as light, 
and here the figure is founded on its power to scorch. A natural result of uni- 
versal wars is a scorching tyraimy of some one of the powers becoming superior 
to all of the others. This scorching seems to be confined to the men of eminence 
who had formed a part or the whole of the beast empire, and the false prophet 
representatives. They worshiped the concentration of power, and now some 
concentration of power scorches them ; but they do not reform, but blasphemed 
God for not preventing this severe subjugation. (See chap. 163.) 

7. Fifth Vial. — The fifth angel poured out his bowl upon the throne, or 
thrones, of the beast, and his kingdom was filled with darkness; and they 
gnawed their tongues with pain and blasphemed the God of Heaven because of 
their pains and sores, and repented not of their works. Throne designates the 
center and source of legislative policy and power of executive purposes. When 
this becomes dark, confused, and powerless, the consequences are felt throughout 
the dominions. The image of the first beast is animated and controlled by the 
second beast, and however wide apart their thrones may be in space, they are 
but one in purpose; and when their power and policy is defeated, frustrated, 
overthrown, or severely threatened, the present is to them intolerable and the 
future is all darkness. We know the first head of the monotheistic wild beast 
was the Latin empire, and its throne was in Rome; but this antagonism may 
have grown in body while it multiplied in heads, and may have many thrones, 
which are all represented as one. (See chaps. 164, 165, 166, §§ 9, 10, chap. 176, 
§§ 1, 2.) 

8. Sixth Yial. — The sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river, 
the Euphrates. The water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings who 
are from the rising sun might be prepared, for some purpose. In former ages 
large rivers formed barriers against invasions. Improved facilities for crossing 
them might be denoted here; but the name of the river reminds us of the sixth 
trumpet, and if these four angels, let loose on the Euphrates, formed a govern- 
ment, it might most appropiately be figuratively designated by the Euphrates, 
and the drying up of the river would appositely represent the gradual decay and 
consumption of that power. This intervening power may have separated the 
east and west and prevented invasions either way ; but, when dried up, invasions 
from the east appear inevitable and a great battle must ensue-^perhaps the oft 
predicted battle of Armageddon. (For history, see chaps. 166, 176, § 1.) 

9. Three Frog Spirits. — John now observed three unclean spirits, like 
frogs, going forth to all the nations on the earth, to muster them and gather them 
for the great and last battle with the kingdom of God. It appears that dragon, 
beast, and false prophet had all lost their power, and these unclean, or anti-Chris- 
tian, agents, out of their mouths, or generated by their teachings and influence. 
were laboring throughout the whole world to reinstate them in universal 
dominion. John did not see these demon spirits coming out of the mouths 
of these progenitors, but he saw them going on their mission ; they had been 



490 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

working in secret. They are spirits, and are not ^een, but their presence may 
be detected by tlieir work. We are now acquainted with the religion of these 
demons. The dragon spirit says, there is no God or there is a god for every- 
thing, and there is no divine revelation. The false prophets say, there is, one 
God, and a revelation from Him, but both are superseded by the prophet. The 
beast spirit says, I am supreme on earth, and have a divine right to submission 
and obedience from all ; there is one God and a divine revelation, and I am a 
divine ruler. These demons may quarrel among themselves about prerogatives, 
but alwaj^s combine their forces against the kingdom of God. Politically devel- 
oped, the beast having ascended the throne of the Caesars, and the false prophet 
animating his image, most likely, have monopolized all monarchies ; and then 
the dragon demon must unite with republicanism ; but they will intrigue and 
work in all governments, and combine against Jesus Christ. The Euphrates 
power being exhausted, these frog demons will collect armies out of all nations, 
from east to west, into a place in Judea called, in the Hebrew language, Arma- 
geddon, or the field of Megiddon. (See chaps. 172, 176:4-8.) 

10. Christ's Warning. — Here Christ interposes a warning to His people to 
be ready for His advent: Behold, I come as a thief; blessed is he that watches 
and keeps his garments, that he walk not naked and they see his shame. The 
day of the Lord will come as a snare sprung upon the world ; but Christ's ser- 
vants are not left in darkness, that it should overtake them as a thief in the 
night.'' When these frog demons are mustering the nations to this battle, we 
may expect Christ's second advent to take place. ^ Take care and not be in any 
of these armies collected by these frog spirits. Here the armies of the whole 
world are congregated in Armageddon, till we are shown the end of the hostile 
governments themselves. (See chap. 117.) 

11. Seventh Yial. — JMow the seventh angel steps forth and pours his golden 
bowl of wrath down into the air. A loud voice, that all could hear, from the 
temple in Heaven and from the throne of God, said: It is done! The new 
announcement of the disposition of the nations to John from the throne of God, 
and the predictions of the old prophets preserved and studied in the temple, both 
united in pronouncing the work finished, and now the saints take the dominion 
under the whole heavens. Then followed voices, lightnings, thundering, and 
the greatest earthquake that ever happened since man was created upon the 
earth; and great hail that smashed everything it struck. The greatest revolu- 
tions, with their attending circumstances, that ever took place. All governments 
are revolutionized, their capitals and great cities are laid in ruins, and their 
power, influence, and commerce are destroyed. Great Babylon, or the one called 
Sodom and Egypt, with her corrupt religion and anti-Christian power, will first 
be divided into three parts — dragon, beast, and false prophet; and then will great 
Babylon receive the wine of the fierceness of God's wrath. The island and 
mountain government will have disappeared, and foreign invasion from outside 
the beast's dominion will destroy all civil and religious corruptions. Still, the 
men destroyed will not repent, but will blaspheme God on account of this inva- 
sion ; it will be exceedingly great. Here the exhibition closes, to show and iden- 
tify the subject of this great destruction. These events come under the sixth seal 
(chap. 109, §§ 16-18), and synchonize with the seventh trumpet. (Chap. Ill, 
§§ 6, 7.) 



(7) Luke 21:35. 1. Thes. 5:1-5. (8) Chap. 121. 



CHAPTER CXYI. 



{Programme Seventh. Scene Ninth.) 

AN APOSTATE CHURCH AND HER EMPIRE AND DESTRUCTION. 

Rev. 17. 

1. The Harlot. — Now comes one of the seven angels, having finished his 
part in the previous scene, and spoke to John, saying: Come, I will show thee 
the judgment of the great harlot, or harlots, that sitteth on the many waters, 
with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and they who 
inhabit the earth, the legitimate citizens of her empire, were made drunk with 
the wine of her fornication. A harlot is the figure common in the Scriptures to 
represent an apostatized Christian church, or churches, and this woman must 
symbolize an apostatized Christian church. The Jews were accused with com- 
mitting fornication with idolatry, but this church does it with the kings of the 
earth. That is, she sustained a relation to them which a Christian church should 
not sustain to any civil government. Every Christian church should be an 
untrammeled, independent witness for Christ ; it should not call any man master, 
and it should never be called mistress. The inhabitants of the earth, or recog- 
nized citizens of the empire, are intoxicated with the crime of her fornication. 
The teachings and examples given by her in this unlawful alliance have deprived 
them of common sense and plunged them into brutish practices, as if they were 
drunken with wine. She represents a very popular church, or churches, for she 
is enthroned on many waters, or is supported by many people, multitudes, 
nations, and tongues. This represents a powerful, extensive, and wealthy 
church connected with civil government, or kings of the earth. 

2. Hee Empire. — Now John and the angel descend out of Heaven: and the 
angel bears John (still in the spirit) away into the wilderness — far from Jerusa- 
lem. Here John saw a woman sitting upon a wild beast, which represents a 
rapacious moving force. This was a decorated animal, a fancy colored beast — all 
over labeled with blasphemous titles : persons, places, and things were labled 
saint and holy, till the terms became disgraced and a reproach. The beast had 
seven heads and two horns, but no titles nor crowns on either one or the other. 
It had the features of the first beast, but its character and condition somewhat 
altered ; it may be an image of the first, fixed up to suit the harlot's fancy and 
purpose. We have been told that she is a harlot seated upon many waters, 
and these waters designate great varieties and multitudes of subjects. Hence, 
this beast represents their confederation or consolidation into one moving power. 
This power did once exist in fact, but at this time had no existence in fact, having 
got into a bottomless pit and being kept there by force and influence ; but it will 
ascend in spite of its hopeless situation and all efforts to keep it there, and will 
again exist in fact. (See chaps. 143. 158. 174:1,2.) 

3. Seven Heads. — The heads represent two things : First, seven moun- 
tains, where the woman's throne is ; and second, seven headships, kings, or dynas- 
ties, exercising their power and skill in her support, while she rides the bacK and 
guides the breast. Of these headships five were fallen and one was in position. 



492 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

When John saw her in a drunken spree the seventli had not come, and when he 
does come, will have but a short time. Then this image beast comes under the 
headship of the real beast, revived and come out of his hopeless prison in spite 
of all restraints. To this resuscitated wild beast, the ten horns, with one consent, 
give over their power for a short time. This is the beast that kills the wit- 
nesses and then goes into perdition. 

4. The Ten Horns. — The ten horns represent ten divisions of the third 
beast's empire that had not attained to the position and power of crowned heads, 
or independent sovereignties, without the false prophet, when Jolm saw the 
beast, but they did receive royal authority for a very short time, with, or under, 
the empire afterward. These will give tlieir power for a short time to the 
restored beast, till the words of God shall be finished in his perdition after the 
battle in Armageddon. These horns and (kai) the beast will hate the harlot, and 
make her desolate and naked, shall eat her flesh, and utterly burn her with lire. 
They will strip this apostate church of her riches and adornments, pick her bones, 
or deprive her of subsistence, and then destroy every vestige of her. God puts 
it in their hearts to give their power to the beast, till they fultiU God's purpose 
on the harlot. (See chaps. 158:1. 174:1, 2.) 

5. Character of the Harlot. — The woman was clothed in royal purple 
and scarlet, and decorated with gold, precious stones, and pearls, and held a gold 
cup in her hand, and made a splendid appearance. This represents an imposingly 
grand, influential, and wealthy church, and we have seen she was powerful and 
extensive. But she was a filthy brute. That gold cup in her hand was full of 
abominations and the uncleanliness of her fornication. The teachings and exam- 
ples she offered to th^ nations to imbibe were pernicious falsehoods and loath- 
some immoralities. The characteristics of this church were not concealed, but 
manifested to the world as conspicuously as if written upon her forehead: Mys- 
tery, Babylon the Great, The Mother, or Chief of Harlots and of the Abomina- 
tions of the Earth. John discovered she was drunk with the blood of the saints 
and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus, and when he saw her he wondered 
with great astonishment. Imposing grandeur combined with shameless debauch- 
eries and insatiable cruelty. She must be related to the false prophet. We are 
told that this woman represents that great city which has kingship over the 
kings of the earth. That city, in John's day, was Rome. But the city must be 
taken as the head for the whole body, to represent the whole apostate religion 
and churches under its control and influence. (See chaps. 153. 156:1. 158:1. 
171. 174:5. 

6. The Resuscitated Beast, or Eighth Head. — When the beast out of the 
bottomless pit is resuscitated and the harlot destroyed those recognized citizens 
of the monotheistic world, whose names are not registered in the Lamb's book 
of life kept from the foundation of the world, shall wonder after the beast and 
pronounce his empire divine and eternal, and denounce death upon those 
rejecting his authority. But Christ's witnesses will not be astonished nor moved, 
thougli slaughtered by him. They know his time is short and destruction sure, 
as announced by the prophets of old. These combined powers — beast, horns, 
and false prophet — shall make war with the Lamb on the field of Megiddon ; but 
the Lamb will overcome them, for He is the Lord of lords and King of kings, 
and they that are with Him are called and chosen and faithful. His one hundred 
and fortv-four thousand will accompany Him through death to victory. (See 
chaps. 150:6. 158:5. 168. 174:1-3. 

7. Warning to the Pious. — Rev. 18. — Having seen this great apostate 
church and its confederates, John is now shown the judgments to be inflicted on 
her. Another angel descended out of Heaven, having great authority, and the 
earth was lightened with his glory. No power on earth could withstand him or 
reverse his orders. He proclaimed, with a loud voice that all could hear, the 



CHAPTER OXVI. : SECTIONS VIII. -X. 493 

destruction of this apostate church and city because of her bad influence and 
conduct with kings. There appears to have been some truly pious persons in 
her communion, or in her territories about to be visited with the wrath of God. 
And another voice out of Heaven said, "Come forth out of her, my people, that 
ye have no fellowship with her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues ; for 
her sins have accumulated to Heaven and God has remembered her iniquity." 
Thus, the Christian Jews were warned out of Jerusalem before it was laid in 
ruins and the nation destroyed. The overthrow, her relation to all classes of 
mankind, and how they regarded her are particularly mentioned. She had pos- 
sessed and enjoyed everything, and now she must lose and suffer everything. 
Her overthrow was sudden and unexpected by all but the saints ; lamented 
bitterly by her traffickers and royal coadjutors, but none could give her any help. 
Those destroying her power may desire to reserve her churches and church 
property for themselves, while others may set all on flre, and cause the lamenta- 
tion. But, they are comparing her condition in the time of her power with her 
ruined condition when completed. The destruction is complete and forever. All 
nations were deceived by her false teachings and false miracles ; and the blood 
of prophets and of saints and all other murders was found in her. (See 
chap. 171.) 

8. The Saints Rejoice over Her Destruction. — Rev. 19:1-10. — Rejoice 
over her, O Heaven, ye saints, apostles, and prophets ! for God has judged your 
cause upon her. After these things transpired on earth, or among the citizens 
of civil governments, a loud voice of a great multitude in Heaven, or among the 
true saints, was heard, saying: "Praise ye Jehovah ! The salvation, the glory, 
the honor, and the power to our God. True and righteous are His judgments ! 
He judged the great harlot that corrupted the earth with her fornication, and He 
avenged the blood of His servants at her hand." A second time they said: 
Praise ye Jehovah ! And her smoke rose up forever and ever, or into the 
ages of ages. The twenty-four elders and four zoa fell down and worshiped 
God on the throne saying, amen. Praise ye Jehovah ! And a voice out of the 
throne said: Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, the 
small and the great. 

9. The True Church Appears. — Another voice of a great multitude as of 
many waters and mighty thunders, shouted: Praise Jehovah! for the Jehovah, 
the God Almighty, reigneth. Let us rejoice, and exult, and give the glory to 
Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come and His wife has prepared herself. 
It w^as given to her to be clothed in fine linen, pure and bright. The fine linen 
•denotes the righteousness of the saints. This indicates the consummation of the 
kingdom of God at the end of this age, when the tares are gathered out of it. 
The bride of the Lamb is New Jerusalem come down out of Heaven ; ^ and the 
pure and bright fine linen denotes the character of her citizens after the tares are 
gathered out. Babylon is now destroyed and Jerusalem comes now into power, 
as all the old prophets foretold. And the angel guide remarked to John : Write, 
Blessed they who have been called into the marriage supper of the Lamb.* 
And he added : These are the true words of God. These §§ 8 and 9 synchronize 
with chapter 119, §§ 2-6 ; and the utter destruction of Babylon must take place 
about the time of the battle of Armageddon. When the enemies of the beast 
and the ten horns are congregated at Megiddon to meet the kings of the east 
their kingdoms may be revolutionized and Rome burnt. 

10. John's Gratitude. — Rejoiced at this glorious consummation, John 
thoughtlessly fell down before the angel's feet to worship him. But the angel 
forbid it and told him to worship God. Anti-Christ may claim homage, and 
order it to be given to the image of the beast ; but the angels of God and 



(5) Rev. 21:9, 10. (*) Chap. 119:2. 



494 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

servants of Jesus Christ refuse it, and direct all to worship God. The angels 
are associated with the saints in the kingdom of God (Heb. 12:22); and this one 
said to John : I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren that have 
the witness-bearing of Jesus Christ ; for the witness-bearing of Jesus is the 
spirit of prophecy. This spirit always speaks truth, and when His programmes 
are fuliilled we have sure evidence that the system, programme, and messenger 
are from the Father and the Son. 



CHAPTER CXYI 



(Scene Tenth.) 

BATTLE GOT UP Wl THE FROGS.— Rev. 19:11-21. (Continued from 

Chapter 115, §§ 9, 10.) 

1. The Fkogs' Armies. — Having seen the fate of Rome and her apostate 
church, let us go east to Jerusalem and look toward Armageddon and view the 
army collected out of the whole world by the frog demons. There we will find 
the beast and false prophet making war with the Lamb about the same time their 
own royal cities are destroyed. In Megiddon we left these armies to see the 
harlot and her doom, and now we will follow that army into the battle of that 
great day of God Almighty. 

2. The White Horse Army. — Having returned from the wilderness, John 
occupied an high point for observation, and he saw the blue sky opened. And 
he saw a white horse, like the one pictured in the first seal, denoting a pure and 
righteous force in motion. This force was under a guiding intelligence, or rider, 
called Faithful and True ; and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His 
eyes were like a flame of fire sending forth quivers of beams, and not anything 
could escape his sight. Upon his head were many diadems, denoting many 
victories and rule over many nations. He had a written name that none but 
himself understood or comprehended. He wore a robe dipped in blood, denot- 
ing he had been in battles and shed much blood. And the name under which 
he was known was the Word of God. Out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp 
sword, and with it he smites the nations, denoting his absolute power to destroy 
when he so determines, which is always in righteousness. He gives the word, 
and famine, disease, and mutual slaughter destroy his enemies. He rules the 
nations with a rod of iron, or an iron sceptre, an irresistible government. This 
is the Man Child caught up into the throne of God ; but now He is descending 
to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. His followers do not use the 
sword, but He alone''' treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God 
Almighty. The angel out of the temple, with his sharp sickle, may gather the 
clusters of the earth and cast them into the winepress; ^ but Christ Himself will 
mash the grapes and press out the blood. The armies of Heaven, composed 
wholly of the truly pious, follow Him wherever He breaks open the way. They 
are clothed in the genuine Christian character, and guide the moving power and 
energy of the kingdom, here represented by pure white horses, as in the first 



(7) Isa. 63 ;3. (8) Rev. 14:18-20. 



CHAPTER CXVII. : SECTIONS III.-. V 495 

seal. Then the holy force and intelligence of the kingdom of Grod went forth 
crowned with success, conquering and to conquer ; now they follow after an 
almighty leader to final triumph. Upon His thigh and on His garment He has 
a title conspicuously written : King of kings and Lord of lords. Christ's inter- 
position and government of the nations for the advancement of His church 
becomes evident to the saints and perhaps to the whole world. All power in 
Heaven and on earth was given to Christ, and He is the head over all to the 
church. He commissioned His followers to disciple the world, but He reserved 
the revolutionizing and government of the nations to Himself. Now His gov- 
ernment and His followers missionating have become conspicuous to all.* Christ 
has, in our day, been breaking open the nations by the sword of nations, and 
the missionaries have followed with the gospel. 

3. Great Carnage Evident. — Then John saw an angel standing in the sun, 
where all could see him ; and he exclaimed with a loud voice that all could hear, 
to all the birds that fly in mid Heaven — which may denote that class which follow 
arniies for gain and plunder, but may be literal : Come and gather yourselves 
together unto the great supper of God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, chief 
captains, mighty men, of horses and horsemen, and flesh of all, both free and 
bond, small and great. This shows that a prodigious carnage was inevitable ; for 
every army was determined on exterminating the others. This may be the grape 
harvest. 

4. Battle and Yigtory. — Next, John saw the beast and the kings of the 
earth, or empire, and their armies congregate to make war with the white horse 
army and its leader. Whatever designs they had on one another, they were 
united against the king on the white horse ; none of them would submit to him. 
The dragon may wish to recover his supremacy in the west, and may have brought 
his Pagan array from the east; the beast has determined to keep his supremacy, 
and the false prophet may prefer the image ; but they were all determined the 
saints should not have the dominion under the whole Heaven, which the old 
prophets said they would take. Political wars have broken open the dominions 
of these antagonists to the kingdom of God, and the missionaries have followed 
with the Gospel and translated Scriptures. The conflict is not described, but the 
result is given. The beast and false prophet are church members, and were cap- 
tured alive and consigned to the final destiny of the Devil and his angels. Judg- 
ment begins at the house of God with the living members, and the tares are 
gathered out of it; perhaps none out of the kingdom are judged during the con- 
summated age. The rest of these vast armies were killed by the sword out of the 
mouth of him on the white horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh ; 
he gave the word, and famine, disease, and mutual slaughter did the work. The 
armies being destroyed, the leaders were captured, judged, and disposed of, 
(See chap. 118, §§ 3-10.) 

5. The Beast and False Prophet in Perdition. — The Savior said the 
Devil would plant his own children in the kingdom of God, but at the end of this 
age the angels would gather them out and cast them into the flre. ^ So here the 
usurpers of the government in His kingdom are judged and cast into the lake of 
fire. At His second advent Christ will judge the living and the dead, ^ and here 
we find these children of the Wicked One taken alive and adjudged to their final 
destiny. The representatives of the beast and false prophet are their leaders in 
the great battle, and they are taken alive, while their subordinates and the armies 
of the dragon fell in the battle, and will not be judged till all the dead are raised 
for judgment. If this is the same battle predicted by Ezekiel — but I think it is 
not — the slaughter will be by every man's sword against his fellow,^ when the 
King of kings gives the word. The old prophets mention the pestilence also. 



(*) Chap 170, and its continuations. (9) Matt. 13:38-42. (1) Acts 1042. II. Tim. 4:1. I. Pet. 
4;5, See chaps, cootaining the vials ancj rise pf powers, and 165-^170, 174, § 7. (2) Ezk. 38:21, 22. 



496 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Thus, the Man of Sin^ will be destroyed out of the temple of God and from off 
the face of the earth forever. But what has become of the Red Dragon ? The 
frog spirit out of his mouth went to the kings in the whole earth and helped to 
gather the vast army which is now slaughtered. The dragon was not an usurper 
in the kingdom of God, and will not meet his judgment when the tares are gath- 
ered and cast into the fire — lake of fire — but will be reserved for the final judg- 
ment — judgment of the dead. 

6. Dragon Imprisoned. — John's next sight was an angel descending out of 
Heaven having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand ; and 
he laid hold on the dragon, which, speaking according to the Hebrew idiom, is 
that Old Serpent, called the Diabolos and Satan, and cast him into the pit 
for one thousand years, and shut and sealed it over him, that he might no more 
deceive the nations till the one thousand years are finished ; after this he, or 
rather Satan, shall be loosed a little time. We have decided that the Red 
Dragon represented the Polytheistic antagonism of Satan. Now, when the devel- 
opments of the kingdom of God are all verified according to the prophetic 
programmes. Polytheism, atheism, and every species of infidelity will not 
deny the existence of Jehovah, assert the existence of more gods, nor dispute 
divine revelation to man till the one hundred years are expired. What has 
become of the three frog demons, we are not told; but these three satanic devel- 
oped antagonisms are defeated, and the evil days to the saints are ended. 



CHAPTER CXYIII. 



{Scene Eleventh.) 

RESURRECTION UNTO LIFE AND JUDGMENT OF THE LIVING. 

Rev. 20. 

1. The Time Foretold. — Go thy vs^ay, Daniel, till the end, for thou shalt 
rest and stand in thy lot in the end of the days. ^ These were the days ot sad 
adversities to the saints which must transpire before the arrival of the glorious 
times foretold by the prophets, secured to Israel by the covenants and confirmed 
by the oaths of Jehovah. In what sense could Daniel stand in his lot at the end 
of those days of calamity any more than while they were progressing, unless by 
the resurrection and restoration unto his position and inheritance in the consum- 
mated age of the kingdom of God 'i But, when will those adverse days be 
ended ? When the wild beast with the little horn shall be destroyed and his 
body given to the flames, and the time comes for the saints to take the dominion 
under the whole heavens.^ But this is, also, the time for the books to be opened 
and the judgment to begin. ^ Now, here we find the days of adversity are ended. 
This same beast and little horn, or false prophet, are taken alive, judged, and 
consigned to their final destiny in the lake of fire and brimstone. The Great Red 
Dragon is bound and securely imprisoned for one thousand years ; then the 
saints take the dominion and reign with Christ during these one thousand years. ''^ 



(3) Chaps. 109, §§ 14, 15. 154. (4) Dan. 12:13. (5) 7:8-14, 24-27. (6j 7:10, 26. (7) Rev 
20:1-4. 



CHAPTER OXVIII. : SECTIONS II. -V. 497 

2. Honor and Piety. — Rev. 20. — John says: And I saw thrones and they, 
the white horse army, sat on them, and judgment was given unto them. Thus, 
Christ promised the apostles that they should sit on twelve thrones, judging the 
tribes of Israel. ^ And Paul says: The saints shall judge the world and angels.^ 
Also, John saw the individuals, beheaded for the testimony, or witness-bearing, 
of Jesus and for the word of God, and who worshiped not the beast, nor his 
image, and received not the mark upon their forehead and on their hand, and 
they lived and reigned one thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not 
till the one thousand years expired. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and 
holy is he that has part in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has 
no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him 
one thousand years. Like the twentj^-four elders around the throne in Heaven, they 
occupy thrones, wear crowns, have harps and golden censers. Like kings, they 
sit on thrones and judge and rule, and, like priests, they shall ofier incense and 
sing on harps. 

3. White Horse Army. — Who are those first mentioned as seated on 
thrones? They are the armies out of Heaven, clothed in pure white linen, riding 
on white horses, and follow their leader wherever he opens the way. ^ They are 
heavenly armies, because born of God, saved by Christ, sanctified by the Holy 
Spirit, educated in the Scriptures, and faithfully witness for the truth. Their 
leader is a man of war, and wears a robe dipped in blood ; when he breaks open 
the way by revolutions and invasions, they follow with the pure force, energy, 
and intelligence of the Gospel, presenting the genuine Christian character ; and 
now, the victory completed, they sit upon thrones. In all other wars the fallen 
heroes do not participate in the triumphs of their cause, but not so in the king- 
dom of God ; all the faithful ones are restored to life and to their inheritance, 
are priests of God, and reign with Christ one thousand years. 

4. An Actual Resurrection. — It is asked: Does this symbolize an actual 
or literal resurrection ? We answer : Why not? These revelations w^ere given 
to instruct and not to deceive. A literal resurrection, glorious inheritance, new 
Heaven, and new earth, have been the animating hopes of the saints in all ages; 
and here an account of great events, transpiring in consecutive order, terminate 
in an exhibition of these hoped for events, how can the servant of Christ under- 
stand them as anything else than the real and literal objects hoped for, unless 
informed to the contrary ? Are all the hopes of Israel, and of the gentiles come 
into the fellowship and joint participation with them, nothing but delusive phan- 
toms flitting before the pious mind to the end of eternity ? If these hopes are 
ever to be realized, why not in the time and order most appositely designated in 
the Scriptures? Why must such time and order as indicated in prophecy be 
rejected as visionary, and then imagine a time in the interminable future and 
invent an order of resurrection and judgment that renders impossible the fulfill- 
ment of covenants, oaths and promises ? Every Christian believes in a resurrec- 
tion, but when they define their ideas, we discover they believe in the resurrection 
of spooks. If there is a resurrection, it must take place in some time, and in some 
order, and in connection with some other events. 

5. When Israel is Restored. — We are promised a resurrection of the just 
when true benevolence will be recompensed. ^ Here, in the right place, we find 
such a resurrection : The evil days are ended and the saints take the dominion 
under the whole heavens — they are rewarded. In showing Daniel what would 
befall his people in the last days, the glorious ambassador traced calamitous 
events dow the eastern channel to the destructien of the last hostile power, and 
said : Then shall Michael, that great prince that stands for the children of 
thy people, stand up, and there shall be an unprecedented time of trouble, and 
all the registered of thy people shall be delivered, and many that sleep in the 



(8j Matt. 19:28. (9) I. Cor. 6:1, 2. (1) Rev. 19:11-14. (2) Luke 14:14. 
-32 



4:98 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

dust shall awake, some to life eternal, and others to shame and everlasting con- 
tempt. 3 Nov7, here in Kevelations, we find these adverse times ended and the 
registered worthies delivered, and here is a resurrection to eternal life ; and after 
one thousand years there is another to shame and everlasting contempt. The 
same truth is set forth in Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dried bones ; the dry 
bones in the valley are to be revived, then the graves are to be opened, and those 
in them are restored to life.* 

6. When the Seventh Trumpet Sounds. — The glorious and mighty angel 
holding the earth and sea in subjugation under his feet, swore the most solemn 
and legitimate oath that the predicted mysteries of God should be finished when 
the seventh angel begins to sound. ^ The trumpet sounds, and the triumphant 
voices in Heaven shout : The kingdoms of the world have become the Lord's and 
His anointed's forever. Then the white robed and gold crowned elders wor- 
shiped God because He had taken His great power and reigned. The nations 
were wroth, God's anger came, and the time of the dead that they should be 
judged, and the time to give reward to His servants the prophets, and the saints, 
and unto those who fear His name — the small and the great ; and the time to 
destroy those who destroy the earth. 6 Just so it is here : The enraged nations 
are overthrown, the saints now take dominion, the judgment has commenced, the 
beast and the false prophet are condemned to the fiery lake, and the saints of the 
Living God are raised and rewarded. 

7. When the Age is Consummated. — Again, this resurrection occurs on 
the destruction of the combined adversaries of Christ and the introduction of the 
consummated age of the kingdom ; and this is just where Paul places it. The 
consummated age is here represented by the New Jerusalem coming down out of 
Heaven ;^ and in the old prophets it is represented by the restoration, triumph, 
and glory of the Jews, Jerusalem, temple, and throne of David. In both 
descriptions the kingdom is represented as cleaned of the tares, the uncircum- 
cised, and the unclean, and entirely freed from pain, sickness, death, and sorrow. 
It is perfectly holy and incorruptible, and consequently cannot be inherited by 
flesh and blood relations to Abraham or any other pious person ; nor can it be 
occupied by deranged and decaying bodies under the bondage of corruption. ^ 
The preaching of John, Christ, and the apostles, had familiarized Christians to 
that doctrine, but it appears none thought on the necessity of a regeneration of 
the body. But Paul assures them that the kingdom can not be enjoyed without 
this change; and those Christians alive at Christ's advent must experience it. ^ 
This change in the living is simultaneous with the resurrection of the dead in 
Christ when the last trumpet sounds. ^ Now, here is introduced that holy and 
incorruptible age ; so the living saints must undergo this regeneration of body, 
but, at the same time the dead in Christ must be raised incorruptible and immor- 
tal, and also sit on thrones. 

8. Two Resurrections. — This resurrection accords with Christ's teachings. 
An hour is coming in which all in their graves shall hear His voice and shall 
come forth: they that have done good into the resurrection of life, and they that 
have done evil into the resurrection of judgment. ^ Christ promises believers in 
Him eternal life, and that they shall not come into judgment. ^ Now, here is a 
resurrection of life, and on those obtaining it the second death has no power ; and 
in one thousand years after we find another resurrection of judgment. And here 
we see the saints raised up in the first and seated on thrones to judge the world, 
and angels, too.* When Christ appears and His kingdom is about to be consum- 
mated. He shall judge the living and the dead. ^ While the angels are gathering 
the tares out of the kingdom Christ will be judging the living; of these the beast 

(3) Dan. 10. 11. 12:1, 2. (4) Ezek. 37:11-14. (5) Rev. 10. (6) Rev. 11:15-19. (7) Rev. 
21:9-27. 22:1-5. (8) John 1:11-13. 3:3, 5. Matt. 3:2, 8-12. Rom. 8:20, 21. Acts 3:19 20:21. (9) 
I. Cor. 15:50-53. (1) I. Thes. 4:13-17. (2) John 5:28, 29. (3) 5:24. (4) I. Cor., 6:1, 2. (5) II. 
Tim., 4:1. 



CHAPTER CXVIII.: SECTIONS IX. -XI. 499 

and the false prophet, or their representative leaders, will be the first installment. 
The true believer, having eternal life, and now being regenerated in body as well 
as in soul, will not come into judgment. This is the resurrection Paul labored 
to obtain. ^ Some are worthy to obtain that age and the resurrection from the 
dead, "^ but all shall obtain the resurrection to judgment without trying ^ — worthy 
or unworthy. 

9. Paul's Order of the Kesurrection. — This accords with Paul's order of 
the resurrection. He says : But everyone in his own order; Christ, the lirst fruits; 
afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. Then cometh the end when He 
delivers up the kingdom to God the Father — after He has put down all rule 
authority and power, which will be after the one thousand years. For He must con- 
tinue to reign till all enemies are put under His feet, and, as the last enemy, death 
shall be destroyed. ^ Paul does not mention at all the resurrection of those out 
of Christ, but does exclude them from the first resurrection by restricting it to 
those who are Christ's. Those out of Christ are included among all enemies put 
under His feet before delivering up the kingdom, and this must be after He has 
come the second time, without sin, into salvation, or deliverance. ^ Here, in 
Revelations, the saints arise at Christ's coming; then Christ reigns one thousand 
years; then Satan excites another rebellion, is defeated and cast into the fire; 
then all the dead are raised and judged, and the wicked are cast into the lake of 
fire; then, having no more use for death and hades, or sheol, they, too, are 
tumbled down into the same final destiny. Then comes the new Heaven, or sky, 
and new earth, or regenerated sky and earth. Then, the work of the kingdom 
being finished, the Son will restore all government to the Father, and will be in 
subjection to the Father and a pattern of obedience to His brethren. 2 

10. Conclusion. — Now, why not understand this exhibition as symbolizing 
the actual resurrection of life ? This is the plain and obvious meaning of the 
text; it occupies the very place in the prophetic programmes that the real resur- 
rection of life should occupy, and the context requires it to be so taken. It is 
expressly called the first resurrection ; is entirely disconnected with the second 
death, which has nothing to do with those reigning with Christ. The antithesis 
is: the rest of the dead and the resurrection to judgment. Kow, all expositions 
within my knowledge, and Scott himself, understand and explain this second 
resurrection, judgment, and second death as designating an actual resurrection, 
judgment, rewards, and punishments. If the last symbolizes the actual, or literal, 
resurrection to judgment, why should not the first symbolize the actual, or literal, 
resurrection of life ?^ 

11. Objections Answered. — It is objected the whole book is enigmatical 
and full of emblems or hieroglyphics, etc. This is true to a great extent, and 
the very scene before us is emblematical ; but what do these emblems teach ? Is 
it some capricious dream, or some established dogma of apostate Rome ? Or is 
it some hoped-for promise, some long-expected event, set forth by such apposite 
representations as instantaneously suggest the subject to a mind ardently desiring 
the object? Reformations and triumphs are common things in the development 
of the kingdom of God, and have been as often followed by apostacies and 
oppressions, till the prophets and righteous men, sighing from the depths of the 
soul, instinctively turn their longing eyes to that final hope. Go thy way, Daniel, 
for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot in the end of the days. In the end of 
these days, and not one thousand years after them; in the very juxtaposition with 
other attending events; in the very order of the resurrection given by Christ and 
the apostles ; there we find it set forth by representations that cannot be misunder- 
stood. But these objectors forget that they, too, interpret emblems in this book as 
designating literal, or actual, events, such as the next resurrection and judgment. 



(6) Phil. 3:10-14. (7) Luke 20:35. (8) Heb. 9:27. (9) I. Cor., 15:23-26. (1) Heb. 9:26. 
(2) Heb. 2:10-18. Rom. 8:29. (*) Chaps. 8, § 7. 87, § 7. 98:9, 13. 



500 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

12. Scott's Objections. — Scott sajs : It is unaccountable that the souls of 
the persons raised should be exclusively mentioned, if the literal resurrection of 
their bodies was meant, etc. This objection shows what influence a translation 
has over the minds of linguists themselves. The meaning of the original word 
is breath, and though so commonly translated soul, oftener designates the breath- 
ing individual. What is designated bj- this word when not used literally must be 
learned from the subject matter or context. Ezekiel never said: The soul that 
sins shall die, but the breath, or individual, that sins shall die. (See the context. ^) 
John says: The breaths of those beheaded, etc.; that is, the persons, or individ- 
uals. The subject, which is their resurrection and reigning, requires us to under- 
stand it so, and so does the context, which calls them part of the dead — ''the rest 
of the dead lived not." His third objection rests on his false notions of the 
millennium, or consummated age of the kingdom of God. His fourth rests on his 
misconception of Heaven and what constitutes the supreme enjoyments of the 
saints — not in white robes, radiant thrones, crowns and harps of gold, but in doing 
the will of God^ and participating in the labors and success of His cause. ^ Bad 
as earth was when Paul was here, it was difficult for him to decide between 
remaining with the churches and departing to Heaven. ^ His fifth objection rests 
on false notions about the ages of the kingdom of God, about Christ's second 
advent, and the resurrection; these notions we cannot stop to controvert here. 
(See chaps. 121, 122, 123.) 



CHAPTER CXIX. 



{Scene Twelfth.) 
THE CONSUMMATED AGE OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD.— Rev. 21, 22. 

1. Order of the Narrative. — In tracing the antagonism, to the final dispo- 
sition of the beast and false prophet and the imprisonment of the Red Dragon,' 
John stopped this narrative to view and call attention to the introduction of the 
consummated age of the kingdom ;» then passing over the one thousand happy 
years which had been more fully described by the old prophets, he resumes his 
narrative and follows the Diabolos till his final destruction. « Though the dragon 
was put into the pit, it was the Devil himself that came out of it — Heaven-daring 
impiety. Then he notices the resurrection to judgment and final destiny of the 
wicked. 1 This brought him to notice what followed that event, whid/was the 
new Heaven and new eartli; then he turns and takes up the reign of the saints 
during the millennium years. 2 In doing this he followed the order of Isaiah: 
Behold, I create new Heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be 
remembered nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice in wliat I create; 
for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and her people a jo> ; and I will rejoice 
in Jerusalem and joy in My people; and the voice of weeping shall no more be 
heard in her, nor the voice of crying, ^ etc. That John's description belongs to 
the time of the millennium is evident from what is said of her: Without are the 



(3) Ezek. 18:4. (4) John A-M, .S4. (5) Phil. 8:8-10. (6) 1:23-25. (7) Rpv. 19:20, 21. 20:1-3. 
(8)20:4-6. (9)20:7-10. (1)20:11-15. (2) Rev. 21:1-8. (3) Isa. 65:17-25. 66:19-24. 



aHAl^TEti CXIX. : SfectlONS II.~V. 501 

dogs, and the sorcerers, and the fornicators, and the murderers, and the idolaters, 
and everyone that loveth and maketh a lie.^ This could not be said of her if 
the wicked had been cast into the burning lake, and the new Heavens and new 
earth had superseded the old ones. Therefore, we shall follow the consecutive 
order of events, instead of the order of the narrative, and we have done the same 
in the order of creation, in the harmony of the prophets, and of the Gospels, 
and in many other cases, f 

2. The Lamb's Wife.*— Key. 21:9-27. 22:1-5.— While John was contem^ 
plating the saints sitting on thrones and reigning with Christ a thousand years, 
one of the angels that poured out the seven last plagues, perhaps the same that 
showed to him the harlot, came to him and said : Come, I will show thee the 
bride, the Lamb's wife. The great multitude exulting over the destruction of 
that harlot city which had usurped the relation and prerogatives of Jerusalem, 
exclaimed : Let us rejoice and exult and give the glory to Him, the Jehovah 
God, for the marriage of the Lamb came and His wife prepared herself; and it 
was given to her that she should be clothed with fine linen, pure and bright, for 
the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. ;{: Now the angel carries John 
away in the spirit — or while still under the inspiration of the spirit — to a great 
and high mountain, and shows him the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of 
Heaven from God. This is the Lamb's wife ; and she is a perfect contrast to the 
purple and scarlet-robed, gold and jewel-ornamented strumpet on the wild beast 
of the wilderness. ^ 

3. New Jerusalem Descends. — John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, 
descending out of Heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 
The Man Child, born to rule the nations with an iron sceptre, has been a long 
time in Heaven, ^ and so has the royal city of His kingdom;' while the Eed 
Dragon that watched to devour Him in infancy, and his delegated successors, ruled 
the earth from the royal Babylon and the Sodom and Egypt cities. But now, 
having destroyed Babylon, cast the beast and false prophet into the fiery lake, 
and secured the dragon in a hopeless prison, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the 
Jews, rules in Jerusalem on earth, over all the nations, just as the old prophets 
foretold. ^ When Jerusalem descended John heard a loud voice out of Heaven, 
that all might have heard, saying : Behold, the tabernacle of God with men; and 
He will tabernacle, or sojourn, with them, and they shall be His peoples, and 
God Himself shall be with them their God ! God will wipe away every tear 
from their eyes, and death shall be no more ; nor shall sorrow, nor crying, nor 
pain, be any more, for the first things are gone. This is just what the old proph- 
ets promised Israel and Jerusalem. (See chap. 70, § 35-45.) 

4. Her Excellencies. — John saw the royal city of the kingdom of God 
safely descended and established on earth and having the glory of God, and not 
the poor sickly splendor of man. It has the names of the twelve tribes of 
Israel inscribed on its twelve gates of solid pearl, and the names of the twelve 
apostles of the Lamb on its twelve foundations, which were adorned with every 
precious stone, thus showing that this triumphant kingdom is the same that had 
been developing in the past ages. Now it has become the most powerful, 
wealthy, and glorious thing ever seen on earth, and holy as Heaven itself. 

5. The light emanating from the throne eclipses the sun and moon and dis- 
pels the darkness of night; the pations shall walk in its light, and the kings of 
the earth bring their glory and honor unto it. In it is a river of living water, 
bright as crystal, flowing out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the 
public square and on the banks of the river the Tree of Life, from which man 
was debarred in Eden, ^ flourishes and bears twelve kinds of fruit, and produces 



(4) Rev. 22:15. (f) Ps. 106. (*) Chap. 116:9. (t) Rev. 19:6-8. (5) Rev. 17:1-6. (6) Rev. 
12:1,2. (7) Heb. 12:22-24. (8) Chap. 70. (9) Gen." 3:24. 



502 THE KINGDOM OF (SOD DEVELOPED. 

a crop every month in the year for the citizens to eat ; the leaves are for medi- 
cine to the nations. Not any unholy thing shall enter the city, and all in it 
openly serve God and the Lamb. How much of this description is to be taken 
literally and how much figuratively we shall not now stop to determine; but 
when pure religion, true science, and perfected arts combine, such a glorious city 
is not impossible, except in the height and walls. Pure, moral character, perfect 
mental powers, incorruptible bodies, and the unbounded blessings of God, can 
produce incredible prodigies even in this sin-cursed world. 

6. Wherever the resurrectionized saints are there must be physical light as 
well as mental and moral, for their bodies will be fashioned like Christ's glorious 
body. 1 The face of Moses shone with an eifalgence that the Israelites could not 
look upon, 2 and the light from Christ's body that struck down Paul was brighter 
than the noonday sun. ^ That trees of life should grow in regenerated Jerusalem 
is just as plausible as that one did grow in Eden. That there should be a dis- 
trict fifteen hundred miles square, occupied solely by those regenerated in soul 
and body, is in strict accordance with the external and physical requirements of 
the law of Moses in respect to the tabernacle, or temple. But that there should 
be a wall all around and fifteen miles high is not plausible. Its security will be 
as great as such a wall could make it, and all persons and property in it will be 
perfectly safe. However, not the walls but the city is said to be that height, 
which may denote constant ascension and descension between it and Heaven. 
Thus, Enoch, Elijah, and Christ ascended to Heaven, and Christ visited His dis- 
ciples, received Stephen at death, and overtook Saul on his journey to Damascus, 
and appeared to John at Patmos. The figurative teachings are obvious. During 
this age everything in the kingdom of God is pure, perfect, and prosperous 
beyond conception. But, to understand this description of new Jerusalem, we 
must collate it with the old prophecies to Jerusalem and the throne of David. 
(See the Hope of Israel, chaps. TO, 120.) 

7. Satanic, or Diabolian, Antagonism. — Rev. 20:7-10. — This glorious 
condition of the kingdom having lasted one thousand years, Satan is let loose 
out of his prison, not in his Red Dragon development, but as a traducer, a slan- 
derer, the Diabolos — like the Satanic antagonism before the deluge. He will go 
forth among the nations outside the Jerusalem boundary, where are yet to be 
found dogs, and sorcerers, and every other excluded character, and gather them 
up to battle; and they will be numerous as the sand of the sea. One thousand 
years of boundless prosperity under the wholesome government of the saints 
will prepare the nations to look upon the past history of wickedness, its miseries, 
and destructions, as fallacious, and dispose them, as prosperity did Israel of old, 
to again try rebellion. Love to Christ and His service will induce the pious to 
go up to the holy city and become immortal, and then, with other saints and 
guides, to ascend to Heaven and missionate through the universe, while aversion 
to Christ and His cause and holiness, will induce others to get as far from the 
holy city as possible. Satan succeeds in deceiving the nations and brings them 
up on all sides to capture the beloved city and destroy the saints. But, when 
they have encircled the saints missionating among the neighboring nations, and 
driven them into the holy boundary (the saints having no weapons of war), and 
had concentrated all their forces for the attack, fire from God came down out of 
Heaven and devoured all of them, and the Devil himself was captured. Then the 
Diabolos, that deceived them till they showed their true character, was cast into 
the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and false prophet are. This is 
the fire prepared for the Devil and his angels, ^ and they shall be tormented day 
and night into the ages of ages. But the holy city remains undisturbed. 

8. The Second Resurrection and Judgment. — Rev. 20:11-15. — After this 
a great white throne appeared and One sitting upon it, before whom appeared to 



(1) Phil. 3:21. (2) Ex. 34:29-35. (3) Acts 26:13. (4) Matt. 25:31, 32, 41. 



OaAP^EE CXii. i SEOTlOiTS ijc.-:^. 503 

flee all living upon earth and in the heavens, or air; or, as He appeared seated 
for judgment, all hope of refuge in earth or sky fled from the living. Stand 
before that throne of judgment they must, and every intervening object must 
vanish ; and all feared the judgment. The dead, small and great, stood before 
that throne ; books were opened ; and another book was opened, which is the 
Book of Life ; and the dead were judged out of, or according to, the things writ- 
ten in the books and according to their works. All the dead were raised, whether 
in the sea or earth, in death or hades — sheol (Christ's people are with him, and 
not in hades), and everyone was judged according to his works. Death and 
hades, or sheol, were shoved back and tumbled down into the lake of fire, which 
is the second death. This death has no power over those participating in the first 
resurrection, but in the second resurrection, if anyone was not found written in 
the Book of Life he was cast into the lake of fire. We find the final destiny of 
the wicked is in the lake of fire and brimstone, and whether we take it literally 
or figuratively, it shows indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish to every- 
one that doeth evil, whether he be Jew or Greek. ^ 

9. The Book of Life. — For what purpose was this Book of Life opened if 
all in Christ were raised in the resurrection of life ? It might be to show the cer- 
tainty that none of Christ's sheep can be overlooked and sentenced with the lost. 
It appears a Book of Life has been kept ever since man's creation ; names have 
been written in it, and names have been blotted out of it. ^ Whether all names 
are registered and then some blotted, or some are registered and then some of 
these blotted out, we are not told. All Christ's faithful ones are registered in it 
and shall be raised up at His coming ;'' sit on thrones, and judge the world; 
have passed from death into life, and shall not come into judgment. But, in all 
the countless rriillions of the human family who never heard of Christ and never 
knew the true God, are there not thousands who would have believed and 
obeyed the truth had they ever known it ? And, though these cannot be called 
Christ's and heirs according to the promise,^ yet shall they not be saved from the 
eternal wrath of God? Jehovah is a God of both justice and mercy, is no 
respecter of persons, and those working righteousness are accepted by Him. ^ 
The servant that knows his Master's will and commits things worthy of stripes, 
shall be beaten with many stripes ; but he not knowing his Master's will and 
commits things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. ^ If there be 
first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according 
to that a man hath not. ^ They sinning without the law shall perish without the 
law, and they sinning under the law shall be condemned by the law ;5 for by the 
deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified, but by the law is the knowledge of 
sin. ^ What then ? All those saved must be saved by free grace. ^ And why not 
save those who would have accepted the Gospel had it been presented to them, 
as well as those having accepted it after much evidence, solicitation, and praying 
for, and who have often disobeyed its precepts? 

10. The Hearer's of the Gospel are Judged Now. — Those who are 
Christ's, according to the Scripture use of that phrase, will come forth into the 
resurrection of life and have nothing to fear from the second death ; while those 
not Christ's, according to the Scripture use of that phrase, shall come forth into 
the resurrection of judgment, and all may fear the second death till some may 
find their names have been written in the Lamb's Book of Life. The Gospel 
puts its receivers in the possession of eternal life so soon as they believe in 
Jesus. They shall not come into judgment at all, but have already passed out of 
death (ek) into life (eis). Their true character and indebtedness to free grace 
must be made known and rewarded, but tried they will not be.* The rejecter of 
the Gospel shall not see life ; but the wrath of God abides on him because he has 

(5) Rom. 2:8, 9, 16. (6) Rev. 3:5. 13:8. 17:8. Phil. 4:3. Ps. 69:28. (7) I. Cor. 15:23. (8) Gal. 
3:29. (9) Acts 10:34. (1) Luke 12:47. (2) II. Cor. 8:12. (3) Rom. 2:13. (4) 3:20. (*) Rom. 
14:12. II. Cor. 5:9, 10. 



504 



THE KINGDOM Ot GOt) DEVELOPED. 



not believed in the only begotten Son of God, and he is judged already.^ But 
what of those who have neither received nor rejected the Gospel for various 
reasons? They must be judged according to their works. ^ Christ came not to 
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. ^ The righteous who obey every 
law of God need not fear the judgment, for God is just and will decide according 
to the laws He has given. But sinners must be saved by grace, and those hav- 
ing access to the gospel had better accept eternal life as a free gift and come 
under the discipline of Jesus Christ. He not for me, is against me. (Matt. 
12:30.) If every one is to be judged according to his works, and rewarded 
according to his works, for what purpose is the system of grace ? The system of 
grace is a system of reformation. God is just and will not pardon any sin with- 
out the dignity of His law is sustained. The anointed Savior has magnified 
the law and made it honorable ; so now God can be just and yet justify, or par- 
don, sinners who repent, or wish, and endeavor to reform and be restored to favor 
with God. But man must have tangible evidence, or assurance, of this pardon 
and justification. God, willing to accommodate His communications with man 
to man's conceptions, modes of thinking, and feelings, confirmed His promises 
with an oath ; and confirms His pardons on the fact of fulfilled conditions of a 
contract, which, in man's way of doing business, gives him a sure right to the 
thing promised. So God instituted sacrifice as the condition of pardon. The 
penitent, complying with the conditions, has the veracity of God pledged for his 
pardon ; and then with the belief and consciousness of restored favor goes on in 
reformation with renewed hope and comfort. Since the Gospel dispensation, 
believers in Christ are baptized into the remission of sin and do not need to ofi*er 
sacrifices, but are pardoned on their repentance and confession. Those who 
believe in Christ and are baptized are saved without any more sacrifice. If they 
fall into any sin they have an advocate with the Father ; and He is both priest 
and the propitiatory sacrifice, and they need no more sacrifice. When they 
repent and confess their sin, God is not only gracious but also ready to forgive; 
and Christ's blood cleanses from all sin without Jewish purifications. So, assured 
of remission and restored favor, they may go on in reformation with assurance of 
success at last. God may have pardoned repenting sinners who did not offbr 
sacrifice, or have not been baptized, but He has not promised to do so. Such 
repenting sinners must trust to the mercy of God, but can not rest on His prom- 
ise. Where no way of pardon is prescribed, or is unknown, the penitent may 
hope in the mercy of God. Thus, David and the adulteress were pardoned; but 
where a way of pardon is provided and well known, but despised, there was no 
mercy under the law. Now the way of pardon for believers is made accessible 
to all by the Son of God. How can any escape wrath who neglect or despise 
the way of salvation? Those who comply with the outward terms of pardon 
but go on in sin are wicked, and their sacrifice, or outward compliance, is an 
abomination to the Lord. There is no free grace for those who do not try to 
reform, and no promise to those who do not comply with the conditions for par- 
don. What allowance will be made for ignorance, prejudice, or force of educa- 
tion I know not, but Christians should grow in grace and the knowledge of the 
Holy, and should teach and obey the truth. There is not any ordinance, rite, or 
condition by which God can be prejudiced in favor of impenitent unbelievers 
and cause Him to respect their persons. An impenitent believer is in open 
rebellion against God. Those who believe in Christ as a teacher, a savior, and 
sovereign, and refuse to reform and refuse to be transformed into the image of 
God, take perdition of choice and damnation by force. The system of grace is a 
system of reformation. Those who understand it and refuse to reform are self- 
condemned, and the wrath of God abides upon them. Those who do not know 



(5) Rom 3:21. (6) John 6:40. 3:16, 36. 5:24. 3:18. 36 
Rev. 2:23 22:12. Luke 12:47. (8) Matt. 9:13. Luke 5:32. 



11:25, 26. (7) Matt. 16:27. Rom. 2;6. 



CHAPTER CXIX.: SECTIONS Xt.-XII. 505 

anything about it, and those neglecting it because of false teaching and incon- 
sistent conduct of professors, must be judged according to their works and be 
rewarded according to the same ; and if saved at last, it will be because of what 
Christ has done for sinners. But they cannot possess that salvation till they do 
receive Him for their teacher, savior, and sovereign. But will any who have neg- 
lected it in this life have an opportunity to receive it in the next state of 
existence? The Scriptures have nowhere promised it. And if any such oppor- 
tunity be given there will any of them receive it? What stronger inducement 
can they have to receive it? Will they have any stronger disposition or induce- 
ment to reform? Will their companions there have a less pernicious influence 
upon them? Can they have any stronger displays of God's wrath inflicted by 
men or by disease? Can they have any stronger exhibitions of God's love — 
giving His only begotten and well beloved S)n? Be not deceived. The 
strongest hope, for those who have the Gospel, of salvation after death is only a 
spider's web. If the Gospel be hid, it is hid to those who perish — lost: 
Those whose minds are blinded by the god of this age, lest the light of the glori- 
ous Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (11. 
Cor. 4:3, 4.) The great object of the kingdom of God is to make the kingdoms 
of this world become the kingdoms of the Jehovah and of His anointed. Sin- 
ners should repent, receive the Gospel, show the true Christian character, witness 
for the truths of God, and propagate the Gospel. Receive eternal life now, live 
it now, live it in the disembodied state, live it after the lirst resurrection, and live 
it in the new Heaven and new earth. The salvation of the believer in Christ is 
now — present salvation — passed out of death into life. Now are we the sons of 
God ; live and never die. Our going to Heaven at death, and our resurrection 
to life, is Christ's business, not ours. He can be trusted. Our business is to 
reform and be transformed into His likeness ; to exhibit the true Christian char- 
acter ; send the Gospel to those who have it not, and make the advancement of 
the kingdom of God the primary object of our lives. Do not act or talk as if 
the Scriptures were so ambiguous a book that it cannot be understood by honest 
intelligent persons. Act worthy of your vocation. (See chap. 94, § 30.) 

11. The New Heaven and New Earth. — Rev. 21:1-5. — John is shown 
the new Heaven and new earth predicted by Isaiah. The first Heaven and earth 
had now passed away, and now the sea is no more. The transition is not shown 
to John but had been described by Peter. The heavens shall pass away with a 
great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth, also, and 
the works that are therein, shall be burnt up. But according to his promise we 
look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. ^ The 
term. Heaven, primarily designates the atmosphere surrounding the earth ; and 
in the plural it embraces everything that appears to be in it. So this conflagra- 
tion may be restricted to the earth and its atmosphere. When the atmosphere 
is on tire and consumed, all things apparently in it will be invisible and appar- 
ently consumed. And when the earth and its atmosphere are regenerated, the 
pure air will give the starry tirmament a new and most glorious appearance. 
The Psalmist, Peter, and Paul use the plural — heavens ^ — which properly desig- 
nates the atmosphere and all that appears in or through it. But this event is so 
far in the future we need not trouble ourselves about it, and more will be learned 
of it during the millennium ; and that consummated age of the kingdom is the 
first event that will change the face and condition of the world. It will be the 
triumph of the kingdom and joy of the saints. 

12. Design of these Revelations. — The Kevelations to John are now finished, 
and John again fell down before the angel to worship him, but was prohibited by 
him. The angel declared himself only a fellow-servant with John, and with his 
brethren, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book, and bid 



(9) II. Pet. 3:10-13. Isa. 65:17. 66:22. (1) Ps. 102:25, 26. Heb. 1:10, 11. Isa. 51:6. 



506 THE KiNQtJOM OF (JOD DEVELOPEt). 

John worship God alone. Then Christ Himself said to John : These words are 
faithful and true, and the Jehovah, God of the spirits of the holy prophets, sent 
His angels to show unto His servants things concerning (epi) the churches, which 
must shortly come to pass, or has now begun to come to pass; the words of the 
prophecy of this book must not be sealed and left till another prophet comes to 
interpret them, but must be left open for Christ's servants to read and understand 
as the events approach and transpire. To neglect the study of this book as 
unintelligible is to impeach the wisdom and competency of Christ as a teacher, 
and to not observe the fullillment of its words is to disobey Him. 

13. The Conclusion. — Behold, I come quickly, or suddenly, and My reward 
is with Me to render to everyone as his work shall be, and blessed is he that keepeth, 
or retains in mind, the words of the prophecy of this book. When the voice 
cries: Behold ! the Bridegroom cometh ! it will be too late to hunt oil for the 
lamps, or to prepare to receive Him; then, he that is unjust and filthy may be 
unjust and filthy still, and he that is holy and righteous may remain so still; for 
reformation and apostacy are at an end. At the close of the Revelations, as at 
the introduction, Christ proclaims Himself the Alpha and Omega, the First and 
the Last, the Beginning and the End, and He said: Blessed are they that do His 
commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life and enter by the 
gates into the city. Without are the dogs, and sorcerers, and fornicators, and 
murderers, and idolaters, and everyone that loveth and maketh a lie. I, Jesus, 
sent My angel to testify unto you these things concerning (epi) the churches — not 
concerning Heaven. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and 
morning star. He is the hope of Israel and the light of the nations. The Spirit 
and the bride say come. And he that heareth, let him say come. And he that 
thirsteth, let him say come. And he that will, let him take of the water of life 
freely. Everyone is forbidden to add to, or take from, this book, under the penalty 
of being prohibited the tree of life and the holy city and of having the plagues 
mentioned in it inflicted upon him. He, testifying these things, sayeth: Yea, I 
come quickly! And John adds: Amen ! Come, Lord Jesus. 

The whole scene closed by the announcement from the throne in Heaven. 
(Rev. 21:5-8.) Then He that sat upon the rainbow throne, said : Behold ! I make 
all things new. And He said unto John: Write; for these words are faithful 
and true. And He added: It is done; I am the Alpha and the Omega, the 
Beginning and the End. I will give unto him that thirsteth of the fountain of the 
water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit these things, and I will be 
to him God, and he shall be to Me a son. But to the fearful and unbelieving — 
distrustful and uncontiding — and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and 
sorcerers, and idolaters, and all the liars, their part is in the lake of tire and 
brimstone, which is the second death. 

The scene closed, and John found himself on the Isle of Patmos. Also, 
that persecution closed ;2 and John returned and visited the churches in Asia 
Minor, or part of them, -and, having written three epistles and an account of the 
introduction of the Gospel, he fell asleep in Christ at Ephesus. ^ 

14. Why did Daniel and John use scenes and symbols in their predictions, 
instead of literal description? While the predictions were in the custody of the 
people of God they were described so everyone could understand them, and 
Daniel explained his symbols so as all could understand and identify the subjects, 
down to the little horns ; but these were left in mystery, and John does not explain 
any. Now, the keeping of these symbols and scenes fell into the hands of these 
antagonists to the kingdom of God, and had they known they were the antago- 
nists predicted, they would have destroyed them. But not wishing to identity 
themselves as the odious characters subjected to defeat and perdition, they could 
find some other way of applying them, and the true people of God could under- 
stand them aright. So they have been preserved for us. 

(2) Chap. 107, § 12. (3) Euseb., p. 116. 



CHAPTER CXX. 



THE HOPE OF ISRAEL. (Continued from chap. 70.) 

1. Christ on the Throne of David. — What says the New Testament about 
the hope of Israel? It opens with the announcement of the conception of the 
Son of God in the family of David, with the assurance He should occupy the throne 
of that ancestor and reign over Israel, and of His kingdom there should be no 
end. 4 His name is Emmanuel (God with us); and His gen eology is traced to 
David, to Abraham, to Adam. ^ He is the Child of Bethlehem to rule Israel, 
and His goings forth have been of old, from everlasting: ^ a light to the nations 
and the glory of Israel ;'^ the Messiah of whom Moses did write — the Son of God 
and the King of Israel;^ of the seed of David according to the Hesh, ^ -^ * 
and the Son of God according to the Holy Spirit. ^ Everywhere the apostles 
maintain that Jesus of Nazaretli is the predicted Son of David, possessing all the 
promises to his throne, the suffering King who bore the sins of His people and 
made complete reconciliation between God and His people ; and Paul asserts Him 
to be the mighty Priest after the order of Melchizedek. ^ His kingdom is called 
the kingdom of Father David. ^ 

2. Promises to the Throne of David Verified in Christ. — All things pre- 
dicted of, and promised to, the throne of David have been fulfilled in Jesus of 
Nazareth, except the deliverance of His people and the triumphs and glory of His 
kingdom and country. His first advent, sufferings, resurrection, and ascension 
have been literally fulfilled; His second advent, without sin, unto salvation, and 
the consummation of His kimgdom will not be a failure. It is not the exagger- 
ated coloring of eastern poetry, but the New Testament positively and expressly 
asserts His second advent. ^ He proclaimed the glad tidings of the kingdom, and 
showed the very character the prophets ascribed to their expected King, and His 
quiet, but successful, reign over Jews and gentiles; He knows His subjects, is 
able to protect them, and will do it. 

3. Zachariah and Paul's Teachings. — The hope of Israel is well and com- 
prehensively expressed by Zacharias when filled with the Holy Spirit. He has 
visited and redeemed His people; raised up a horn of deliverance for us in the 
house of David, as predicted ; saved us from our enemies and from the hand of 
all that hated us; showed mercy to our fathers, and remembered His holy covenant 
and the oath He swore to father Abraham — that, being rescued from our enemies, 
we should serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all 
our days. ^ Christ did not tell His disciples that the restoration of the kingdom 
to Israel was a vain hope ; but the time was God's business, and not theirs. ^ God 
has not cast away His former people, but has reserved a remnant, as the prophets 
predicted, such as existed in Israel in the days of Elijah: the mass was cut off, 



(4) Luke 1:17, 30-35. (5) Matt. 1 Luke3:23-38. (6) Mic, 5:2. Matt. 2:2-6. Luke 2:11. (7) 
Luke 2:25-32. (8) John 1:41, 45,49. (9) Rom. 1:2-5. (1) Heb. 6, 7. Luke 4:17-21. Matt. 12:17-21. 
(2) Matt. 9:10. John 12:12-19. (3) Chap. 121. (4) Luke 4:17-21. Matt. 12:17-21. 11:3-6. John 
10:1-5, 14, 15, 28. Heb. 1:8-12. (5) Luke 1:67-75. 2:38. Matt. 13:16, 17. John 8:56. 



S08 THE KINGDOM OF Got) DEVELOPED. 

as David predicted, that free and untrammeled salvation miglit come to the nations, 
who must partake freel}^ in these blessings, as foretold. This partial blindness 
and obstinac}^ will be removed when the predicted time of the gentiles has fully 
come, and Israel will be restored to his country and relative position in the king- 
dom, as predicted ; for there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, who shall turn 
away ungodliness from Jacob, as this is also covenanted. A Sabbath remains 
for the people of God.'' John saw one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed 
worthies of Israel. ^ Again, John saw beyond the evil days to Daniel and his 
brethren, and witnessed the faithfuls of all nations enthroned with their King till 
the final resurrection, and the complete and final separation of the righteous from 
the wicked. ^ 

4. Character of Citizens. — The character for citizenship required in the 
new covenant is the same predicted by the prophets of the old covenant; and 
that was the character required by the law of Moses, to escape the curses and 
enjoy the blessings to Israel. Paul quotes the new covenant predicted by Jere- 
miah, as the covenant sealed in Christ's blood and securing complete salvation to 
all the heirs of promise. ^ John required confidence in the Messiah and genuine 
repentance, such as flows from regeneration ; promises profuse gifts of the Spirit, 
and threatens destruction to the impious. Christ required the same qualifications 
and denounced the same judgments ; and these are the same foretold by the 
prophets. 2 The taught of God come to Him, know the Shepherd and His voice, 
follow Him, enter at the door, find their enjoyment in the fold, and have eternal 
life. 3 The tares shall be rooted out and burnt, or, as the prophet said : All the 
sinners of my people shall be cut off. ^ While restricted to a national interest, 
blessings in this life were held out as inducements to obedience and were obtained 
according to the law ; but when the kingdom was destined to pilgrimage, adver- 
sity, and perscution, eternal life and rest in Heaven at death were promised. 
These blessings for time were the richest that could be enjoyed on earth by fallen 
man, but at death their happy condition might be reversed. But, under the 
Gospel, the final destiny is fixed when entering the kingdom by faith in Jesus 
Christ ; though he may suffer on earth, yet he has passed out of death into life, ^ 
from under the death sentence into eternal life. 

5. Jerusalem Restored. — Christ predicted great calamities on their com- 
plete dispersion, and Jerusalem should be trodden by the nations till the predicted 
time be fulfilled.^ This implies its predicted restoration. Paul compares 
Jerusalem under the law to the superior Jerusalem, or Jerusalem under the Gos- 
pel, and cites the old prophets in proof of this superiority. This proves that the 
predicted Jerusalem will exist with all its predicted privileges and glories. '^ Now, 
the theme of the prophets was not the third heavens, but the Jerusalem doomed 
to desolation and afterward regenerated. Of this new or superior Jerusalem, 
destined to be the home of Jews and gentiles, Paul says : We have now become 
heirs and are entitled to the enjoyment of its relations and privileges. He also 
warns the Jews of the wrath they will incur if they do not acquiesce in the pre- 
dicted privileges and regulations of this Jerusalem ; and it is the royal city of the 
immovable kingdom which Christians have received.^ 

6. This Superior Jerusalem Descends. — The Jews refused to submit to the 
regeneration of the holy city and the freeedom of her privileges to the nations, 
and were destroyed according to predictions. But is this the last of the predic- 
ted regeneration of Jerusalem ? Has the New Testament dissipated the hope 
which the Old Testament inspired ? Let us peep into the future through the 
Christian's telescope. Him that overcometh I will make a pillar in the temple of 
my God ; I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city 

(6) Acts 1, 6-8. 26:6, 7. (7) Rom. 11:2-5, 7-10. 12, 23-27. Heb. 4:9. (8) Rev. 7:4-8. (9) 
20:4-6. (1) Heb 10:14-25. (2) Matt. 3:5-12. 5:3, 10, 20. 18:3. Mark 10:14, 15. John 3:3-5. 
(3) John 6:4.5. 10:4, 5, 9, 28. (4) Matt. 13:24, 43. Amos 9:7-15. (5) John 5:24. (6) Luke 21:20- 
24. Matt. 24. Mark 13. (7) Gal. 4:21-31. (8) Heb. 12:18-28. Chap. 123. 



CHAPTER CXX.: SECTIONS VII. -X. 509 

of my God — the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of Heaven from my 
God. 9 All right ! The old prophets looked straight and saw correctly. New 
Jerusalem will be here on earth at the right time, with the throne of David in it, 
and the Divine Son of David on the throne ; and Heaven will stay where it is 
and keep the universe in equipoise. Yes, and here she comes ! And I saw the 
holy city. New Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, prepared as a 
bride adorned for her husband. ^ All right ! The Old prophets are all safe ! 
So is the hope of Israel ! ' 

7. Desceiptions Of. — The old prophets gave some literal and some figura- 
tive accounts of regenerated Jerusalem. What says John ? And the angel car- 
ried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the 
holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, having the 
glory of God for her luminary, like to a most precious stone — a jasper stone, 
clear as crystal — having a wall great and high, and twelve gates attended by 
twelve angels, and inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The 
city is a square, with three gates in every side. The wall had twelve foundations, 
bearing the inscriptions of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The superstructure 
of the wall was jasper and the city was pure gold, like pure glass. The founda- 
tion stones of the wall of the city were adorned with precious stones, twelve 
species of the finest and richest gems, comparable to those in the high priest's 
breast-plate. Every gate was one solid pearl, and the street was pure gold as 
transparent glass. No temple in it but the Jehovah God Almighty and the 
Lamb. It has no need of the sun or moon, for the glory of God and of the Lamb 
was the light of it, throwing these luminaries into the shade. All nations shall 
walk by its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it and the 
glory and honor of the nations. The gates shall not be shut by day, and no night 
is there. 

8. Holiness and Happiness Of. — Nothing unclean, abominable, or false 
shall enter; those registered in the Lamb's Book of Life shall enter, but no 
others. A river of living water, clear as crystal, flows out from the throne. The 
middle of the street and the sides of the river are adorned with the trees of life, 
bearing twelve fruits every month in the year, and its leaves are for the healing 
of the nations. No more curse shall be there. The throne of God and of the 
Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him, see His face, and bear His 
name upon their forehead, and they shall reign forever. ^ One apparent dis- 
crepancy with the old prophets is observable, which may easily be reconciled. 
John saw no temple; but the old prophets speak of one, and Ezekiel describes 
one larger than old Jerusalem. The vast concourse of nations cannot be accom- 
modated in one temple, so temple must be added to temple till Jerusalem and 
vicinity become one vast palace of Jehovah, and no one part will have the pre- 
eminence. The Messiah Himself will be the center of admiration and worship. 
If taken literally, the city will be fifteen hundred miles square. Thus, the Hope 
of Israel remains valid. 

9. The Resctrrection. — The resurrection stands forth so conspicuously in 
the New Testament it is unnecessary to cite the passages. John saw the risen 
saints sitting on thrones and reigning with Christ before the final judgment. ^ 
Isaiah predicted the regeneration of this earth and atmosphere, Peter declares it 
an object of hope, and it was exhibited to John. ^ 

10. Gentiles Inherit the Hope. — The gentiles shall partake in all these 
blessings. They shall come from all quarters and recline with Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven, ^ and their reception into it is in accord- 
ance with prophecy.® John saw an innumerable company, out of all nations, in 



(9) Rev. 3:12. (1) Rev. 21:2. (2) Rev. 21:9-27. 22:1-5. (3) 20:1-6. (4) II. Pet. 3:10-13 
Rev. 20:11 21:1-5. (5) Matt. 8:10-12. John 10:16. (6) Mark 11:17. Acts 10, 11. 15:13-17. Rom. 
10:19-21. 11:11, 12, 17, 20. 15:8-12. 



510 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

wliite robes, and palms in their hands, who had suffered for the kingdom, as well 
as the Jews. "^ The nations shall walk in the light of New Jerusalem, and their 
kings shall bring their glory into it. ^ Paul argues their right, from the cove- 
nants made with Abraham, promises to David, and the predictions of the 
prophets. ^ We are equally interested with the Jews in Abraham, David, Christ, 
Jerusalem, and the promised land. We hope to realize their covenanted, sworn, 
promised and predicted blessings, and to be joint heirs with them in Christ. How 
can we attain to these blessings while Jerusalem is trodden down by the adver- 
sary and Israel is dispersed ? Israel was animated at different times with the 
hope of realizing in that age the promises of Moses, while the Christian, being 
notitied that the consummation of the kingdom was about two thousand years in 
the dim future, was animated with the cheering assurance that death augmented 
his life and introduced him into the living paths, fullness of joys, and everlasting 
pleasures in the presence of God and at His right hand." But, the Christian is 
not promised any reward in this age but what comes in the order of cause and 
effect, and he must receive the evil consequence and general calamities, as well 
as the good effects of virtues and common prosperities of the times and seasons, 
and is liable to be hated and persecuted for the truths and teachings of Jesus 
Christ. 



CHAPTER CXXI- 



SECOJND ADVENT. 

1. First Advent. — The people of God have always been pursuing a hope. 
The promise to our first parents was their guiding star through darkness, convul- 
sions, discouragements, and sufferings for many generations. The promised 
land, flowing with earthly and heavenly blessings, next encouraged their fainting 
hearts and raised their drooping spirits, and the promises to David and to David's 
throne upheld them under the most excruciating tortures, united them in their 
widest dispersions, and made them triumphant over superior foes. The prom- 
ised Messiah was the burden of their most ardent longings, most devout petitions, 
and glowing anticipMions. Unexpectedly He appears on the banks of the Jordan. 
Suddenly He enters the temple and asserts His authority by purging out the 
traffickers in holy things. Disciples follow Him in multitudes, daily expecting 
the kingdom of God to appear and the throne of David to eclipse its former 
glory. But, alas! the crucifixion of their King dashed all their hopes to the 
ground. Again He arose, and appeared to a few chosen witnesses, who followed 
Him in bewilderment, fear, and sorrow. At last the burden of their soul vents 
itself in the question : Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? 
But while He talked with them, and they intensely gazed upon Him, He com- 
menced ascending! ascending! and ascending! till a cloud intervened and they 
could see Him no more. But still they gazed, till two shining ones stood beside 
them and said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into Heaven? This 
same Jesus, whom ye have seen go into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as 



(7) Rev. 7:9-17. (8) 21 :3, 4, 6, 7, 24. (9) Rom. 15:8-12. Gal. 3:7-9, 26-29. Rom. 4. (*) Pa. 
16:9, 11. 



CHAPTER CXXI.: SECTIONS II. -V. 511 

ye have seen Him go into Heaven. Then they returned to Jerusalem, fully con- 
vinced that they did not yet understand the prophets. ^ To this second advent we 
are looking witjfi intense desire and glowing hope. 

2. The Second Advent a Settled Fact. — This second advent is not a fana- 
tical notion, but a fixed point in the destiny of the world and in the development 
of the kingdom of God. It is not an isolated fact of inspiration, but is essential 
to the completion of the great work of redemption. The Son of God descended 
once to bear the sins of His people, sustain the dignity of the law of God, and 
set up His kingdom in the world, and He will come again without the load of 
His people's sin and guilt emaciating His body and depressing His spirit, and 
perfect His work of salvation. ^ Before His crucifixion, our Lord linked the fact 
of His second advent with the memorial of His suffering and death : For as 
often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show forth the Lord's death 
till He come ;^ and it is always recurring in the writings of the apostles, ^ and is 
used as a strong incentive to true piety and implicit obedience to Jesus Christ; 
and they expected nothing perfected till that period. No stronger incentive to 
genuine Christianity can exist than a constant hope of the triumphant Redeemer, 
and it should be kept constantly before the eyes of the world. Christ will walk 
again upon our earth. 

3. Mistake of the Jews. — The prophecies respecting the Messiah being in 
detached portions and not designating Him always by the same names and titles, 
and often assigning to Him contradictory conditions, positions, and works, made 
it difficult to determine whether they all belonged to one, or more individuals. 
To reconcile these prophecies the Jews looked for an Elijah, a Jeremiah, a 
Christ ; and that prophet, ^ John Baptist himself, sends to inquire of Christ 
whether He was the only one predicted, or should another be expected to come?^ 
The New Testament teaches that all these contradictory characteristics were veri- 
fied in Christ Jesus. But the Jews, having learned out of the Scriptures that 
the Messiah continued forever a Prince on the throne of David, could not under- 
stand who this Son of Man was that must be lifted up on 'the cross."" They 
applied all that was prosperous and triumphant to the Son of David, and could 
not understand how one claiming to be the Christ should be rejected of the Jews, 
suff'er, and be put to death. The first advent to suffer, and the second to 
triumph, they had not learned. 

4. The Second Advent will be in the Clouds. — The Jews wanted a sign 
from Heaven, and once some of them expected the kingdom of God to make a 
sudden and splendid appearance from Heaven ;8 and when we reflect on the 
prophecies of the Old Testament, we cannot blame them. Daniel describes one 
like the Son of Man, coming in the clouds of Heaven, and receiving from the 
Old of Days an everlasting kingdom. ^ The disciples of Christ, notwithstanding 
all His teachings of present sufferings, anxiously expected this glorious display. 
Christ Himself often referred to this coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of 
Heaven. He told His enemies that they should see the Son of Man, sitting on 
the right hand of Power, and coming in the clouds of Heaven. ^ 

5. Coming in His Kingdom is Not the Second Advent. — The coming in the 
clouds of Heaven has been confounded with another event, and regarded as 
synonymous with the phrase: The Son of Man coming in His kingdom. ^ And 
now, as the latter event was limited to the lifetime of some then present, we have 
no more hope of the Savior treading this earth. This assumption of the identity 
of these two events is wholly gratuitous and contrary to evidence. This 



(1) Acts 1:6-12. (2) Heb. 9:28. (3) I. Cor 11:23-26. (4) II. Thes. 3.5. Heb. 10:37. I. Cor. 
1:7,8. PhiL3:20. I.Thes.l:10. 2:19. LTim.6:14. Phil.l:6,10. II. Tim. 6:8. I.Pet.l:7. II. Pet. 
3:3, 4. I. John 2:28. 3:2. Rev. 1:7. 22:12, 20. (5) Matt. 16:14. John 1:21. (6) Matt 11:2, 3. (7) 
John 12:34. (8) Matt. 12:38. 16:1. Luke 19:11. (9) Dan. 9:7-14. (1) Matt. 24:30. 26:64. Luke 
21:25-27. (2) Matt. 16:28. 



512 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

"Coming in His kingdom" is expressed by Mark : Tlie kingdom of God come 
with power; and b}^ Luke: Till they see the kingdom of God, ^ and must refer 
to the setting up of the kingdom and its first conquests over Jews and gentiles, 
and not to its consummation at the second advent. The other phraseology is 
never changed by any of the evangelists, although used in the same juxtaposition 
with the event called, coming in His kingdom. The coming in the clouds of 
Heaven is a stereotyped phraseology, borrowed from the visions of Daniel and 
accompanied with circumstances seen by him. ^ 

6. The Second Advent will be Conspicuous. — Luke tells us that Christ 
went up in a cloud ; and the shining ones said : He shall so come in like manner 
as ye saw Him go into Heaven. ^ And though other parts of the Scripture rep- 
resent Him coming in the clouds, Luke uses the singular: Then shall they see 
the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ^ The use of the 
singular number does not show any discrepancy between His going and coming, 
but only the peculiarity of the writer. Whatever number of clouds may have 
surrounded His ascension, one became His chariot ; so when He returns with 
clouds, one will be His throne and pavilion. Christ calls this advent in a cloud, 
or in clouds, a sign in Heaven \'' one open and conspicuous, that every one can 
see — as the lightning flash across the heavens. He shall be seen coming with 
power and great glory. All tribes of the earth shall see Him and mourn. It 
will not be an obscure advent, as the first, marked by a star and reported by 
shepherds. Every eye shall see Him and not depend on reporters, nor on fanciful 
expositions of historical events. He shall come in His own glory, more lumi- 
nous than the noon-day sun ;8 in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. 
Zechariah says : The Jehovah my God will come and all the saints with him. ^ 

7. The Times of the Restoration of All Things. — Peter savs : The 
heavens must receive Jesus until the restoration of all things which God had 
spoken by all His holy prophets since the world began, i Here we are expressly 
told that the restoration here spoken of was foretold by the holy prophets, and 
that Christ will remain in Heaven until those times. Xow, the new Heaven and 
new earth was not foretold by all the prophets, but only by Isaiah ;2 and the 
destruction of the wicked foretold by the prophets, is not restoration. What, then, 
is this restoration, and when do the times of it begin to take place ? John tells 
us the angel standing firm on sea and land testified by solemn oath that the mys- 
tery of God declared by the prophets shall be perfected when the seventh angel 
begins to sound the seventh trumpet, and no more time shall be given. ^ The 
trumpet sounds ! The mystery of God declared by the prophets is finished, or 
perfected ! No more time is given. What is this finishing touch ? The king- 
doms of this world have become the Lord's and His Christ's : He shall reign for- 
ever and ever; the temple was opened in Heaven, and there was seen the Ark 
of His covenant all safe and sound, and God reigned in His great power. ^ This 
must be the times for the restoration of all things spoken of by all the holy 
prophets, and it is the mystery of God declared by the prophets. The nations 
had got angry about Christ's two witnesses and had put them to death. God's 
wrath came upon the nations, and there were lightnings, voices, thunderings, 
earthquake, and great hail. It is the time to judge the dead, to reward God's 
servants, prophets, saints, and all that fear His name, the small and the great ; 
and it is the time to destroy those that destroy the earth. * Now Christ must 
have come, for it is His voice the dead hear. Christ judges the living and the 
dead at His appearing and kingdom. The saints come with Christ, are raised at 
His coming, and are rewarded at the resurrection of the just. ^ These must be 
the times of the restoration spoken of by the prophets. The adversaries are 



(3) Mark 9:1. Luke 9:27. (4) Matt. 24:30. 16:27. 25:31. Mark 13:26. 14:62. Luke 9:26 Dan. 
7:13, 14. 18. 27. (5) Acts 1:11. (6) Luke 21:27. (7) Matt. 24:30, 27. (8) Acts 26:13. (9) Zech. 
14:5. (1) Acts 3:21. (2) Isa. 65:17. 66:22. (3) Rev. 11:15-19. (4) Rev. 10:1-7. 11:15-19. (5) 
John 5:25. II. Tim. 4:1. I. Thes. 4:14. Col. 3:4. I. Cor. 15:23. Luke 14:14. 



CHAPTER CXXI. : SECTIONS VIII. -IX. 513 

destroyed, the New Jerusalem comes down out of Heaven, and the saints take 
the kingdom forever and reign with Christ a millennium. But where, in this con- 
secutive history of the trumpets, do we find anything like the millennium till the 
last one sounds? and then the events transpiring under it are events insep- 
erately connected with Christ's presence on earth. Also, the events following the 
millennium bear no resemblance to the scenes described by the seals, trumpets, 
or vials. After the millennium the Devil himself is discomfitted by fire from 
Heaven, and the second death devours all enemies to God.^ Hence, seals, 
trumpets, vials, dragons, beasts, and false prophets must precede that glorious 
period. We have seen the trumpets end in scenes connected with Christ's sec- 
ond advent, and we will examine the other scenes and pictures. 

8. Different Exhibitions of Events in Consecutive Order.- — The burden 
of inspiration is the glorious triumph of the saints, and of the throne of David, 
of Jerusalem, and of the Jews. ''f But this was not realized at the first advent, 
and all prophecies giving events in consecutive order exhibit no prosperous times 
or happy periods to the saints before the advent in the clouds of Heaven with 
power and great glory, when the dead are raised, and the judgment sits. In the 
vision of the four beasts, David saw no happy time till the fourth beast was 
destroyed — his body given to the flames. The Son of Man came in the clouds of 
Heaven, the judgment did sit, and then the saints took and posessed the 
kingdom. ^ 

In the account of the kings of the north and of the south : no triumph for 
Jerusalem and the Jews till Michael stands up and delivers all duly registered, 
and then many of the dead arose, which is an event connected with the second 
advent. ^ 

In the programme of the seals, in Revelations, the sixth exhibits the wailing 
of the nations on seeing one sitting on the throne and fearing the wrath of the 
Lamb. And this corresponds to their mourning on seeing the Son of Man com- 
ing in the clouds of Heaven. Now, it was after the catastrophies exhibited in 
the sixth seal that the happy throng, bearing palm branches, triumphed around 
the throne. ^ 

In the programme of the antagonisms to the kingdom of God, the dragon, 
beast, and false prophet, and their three frog spirits, are given no happy time to 
the saints till Christ appears in the opened heavens on the white horse, followed 
by the armies of Heaven. Then the beast and false prophet are cast into the 
lake of fire, and the dragon is bound and imprisoned, and then the resurrection 
unto life takes place and the saints reign with Christ a millennium. ^ The 
destruction of all these antagonisms takes place when the Lord Jesus Christ shall 
be revealed from Heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know 
not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. ^ 

9. The World in Hostility to Christ at the Second Advent. — All 
accounts represent the second advent as taking place when this world is in 
hostility to Christ. Now, upon the destruction of the anti-Christian powers, the 
saints take the kingdom and dominion over the whole world and possess it for- 
ever and ever, and it shall not be given to others. How could the faith become 
nearly extinct? or all the tribes of the earth wail because of Him after the 
millennium if the saints possessed the dominion forever ?4 

Anti-Christ is to be consumed by the breath of His mouth and be destroyed 
with the brightness of His coming, ^ But how could this be the case if it is 
destroyed one thousand years before He comes. 

At the end of this age the tares, or children of the Wicked One, shall be 
gathered out of the kingdom of God, and then the righteous shall shine in the 
kingdom as the sun in the firmament. ^ How could the faith become nearly 



(6) Rev. 20:1-15. (7) Chap. 70. (8) Dan. 7. (9) Dan. 10:14. 11. 12:1, 2. (l)Rev. 6:12-17. 
1:7. (2)12. 13. 16:13. 14.16. 19:19-21. 20:1-4. (3) II. Thes. 1 :6-10. (4) Luke 18:8. Matt. 24:30. 
Hev. 1:7. Dan. 2:44. 7:18-27. .(5) II. Thes. 2:3-10. Matt. 13:40-42. 
-33 



514 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

extinct after this ? or the day of the Lord overtake them as a thief in the night ? 
Now, the promises to David's throne, to the Jews, Jerusalem, and the gentiles 
united in their blessings, are forever, without any reverse or diminution ; and if 
these promises are fulfilled in the millennium an apostacy after it is impossible. 
While the saints have the dominion wars will cease and weapons will become 
extinct ; Diabolos will break loose from all restraint and persuade the interspersed 
or surrounding wicked to secretly forge arms and vanquish the saints ; but tire 
from Heaven shall destroy them and leave the saints undisputed rulers of the 
earth. ^ Any advent of Christ after the millennium, must be hailed with joy. 
How will He come the second time without sin unto salvation, to those looking 
for Him,''' if the salvation is achieved one thousand years before He comes? 

How could the little horn prevail against the saints till the ancient days did 
sit, and judgment was given to the saints, and the time came they should possess 
the kingdom, and the Son of Man came in the clouds of Heaven, if it and the 
beast were cast into the lake of fire one thousand years before Christ's appearing 
and the judgment? Impossible! The circumstances attendant on His second 
advent determine it to precede the millennium. And as no triumphs await the 
saints before the destruction of the anti-Christian powers, and the restoration of 
all things, so Christ must come about that time and consummate His kingdom. 
And so we find when the armies are concentrating in Armageddon He gives the 
warning: Behold, I come as a thief! Blessed is he that watches and keeps his 
garments that he may not walk naked and they see his shame. ^ 

10. What Resurrection Takes Place Before the Millennium? — When 
Michael stands up to deliver Israel many that sleep in the dust shall awake, but 
to different destinies. ^ The Jews believed in the resurrection of the just and of 
the unjust, 1 but whether both took place at the same, or at diff'erent times, we 
must learn from the apostles. Christ tells us that there is a resurrection unto 
eternal life for the good, and a resurrection of judgment for the evil.^ Paul 
tells us the order : Christ, the first fruits ; then they that are Christ's at His 
coming; then cometh the end, which is the resurrection unto judgment and 
final destiny of the wicked ; and then Christ delivers up the kingdom to the 
Father. ^ Again, he tells us that the dead in Christ shall rise before the living 
saints come into the inheritance of the kingdom, but says nothing about the 
wicked.'* Again, all that sleep in Jesus shall God bring with Him. ^ When 
Christ appears then shall we appear with Him in glory. ^ Go thy way, Daniel, 
for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot in the end of the days'" — the days of 
calamity shown to him as preceding the happy period shown to Isaiah. When 
Christ comes in the clouds of Heaven He shall send His angels to gather His 
elect together from all parts of Heaven. And Paul says : We beseech you, 
brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together 
unto Ilim.^ This gathering, I suppose, will be at Jerusalem. In Revelations 
we have a first resurrection, which is of those who reign with Christ ; and all 
having part in it have nothing to fear from the second death, ^ which follows the 
second resurrection and final judgment. ^ The first resurrection must precede 
the consummated age of the kingdom of God, for being incorruptible and free 
from pain, sorrow, and death, the bodies of the saints as well as their souls must 
be regenerated and freed from mortality and corruption ; and this change in the 
living saints will not precede the resurrection of the saints who are in their 
graves. ^ 

11. Length of the Day of Judgment. — The second death, or final perdi- 
tion, is represented by a lake of fire and brimstone. But we find the beast and 
false prophet were put into it at the beginning of the millennium. ^ And we are 



(6) Rev. 20:7-10. (7) Heb. 9:28. (8) Rev. 16:15. (9) Dan. 12:1-3. (1) Acts 24:15. (2) .John 
5:2S. 29. (3) I. Cor. 15:20. 23, 24 (4) I. Thes. 4:15, 16. (5) 4:14. (6) Col. 3:4. (7) Dan. 12:13. 
(8) Mark 13:26. 27. 1. Thes. 4:15, 17. (9) R^'v. 20:6. (1) 20:11-15. (2) 70, §§ 28, 27, 39. Isa. 51:3, 
11. 65:19,20. II. Thes. 4:15, 17. (3) Rev. 19:20. 



CHAPTER CXXI.: SECTION XII. 515 

told that at the end of this age the tares shall be gathered out of the kingdom 
and be cast into a furnace of fire, where is wailing and gnashing of teeth. * 
Hence one thousand years at least must intervene the perdition of the first and 
last condemned. Again, we are told that Christ will judge the living and the 
dead at His appearing and kingdom, ^ but how long that judgment will continue 
we are not told. We are disposed to limit it to a short period; but when we 
remember every hidden thing must be brought to light, the secrets of men's 
hearts are to be revealed and judged, and every one rewarded according to their 
works, 6 and that the world must be judged by the saints, "^ we must calculate on a 
long period of time. The Jews expected the kingdom of God to be consum- 
mated in a few years, and so fell into grievous errors. Eighteen hundred years 
have rolled away and it is not consummated yet. So we may limit the day of 
judgment so as to preclude the very design of it. During this glorious period 
Christ will make a complete separation between the living righteous and wicked, 
as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats, adjudging the one into the king- 
dom and the other into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels, or the 
second death. ^ And in the second resurrection the same separation will be 
repeated."^ 

12. This Separation I^ecessart. — The children of Adam started out with 
the wide world before them ; but the wicked would not dwell in peace with the 
righteous, and persisted in wickedness and oppression till destruction by the 
flood became a necessity. After the deluge God left the world to its own choice 
and the consequences, but took Abraham and his seed, and servants, and prose- 
lytes, with their seed and servants, and set before them rewards and penalties, 
promises and threatenings. But with all these incentives to peace and holiness 
the impious perverted the whole institution, persecuted the righteous, and had 
to be destroyed. Then Christ set up the intermediate age of the kingdom of 
God, restricting citizenship in it to the truly pious, and assured all that they 
must be truly converted and obey Him. And" though He imposed no physical 
barrier to prevent the unregenerated from intruding, yet he assured them that 
they should be gathered out as tares before the happy and glorious arrived. But 
the unconverted intruded, perverted the government and institutions to suit 
themselves, persecuted the children of the kingdom, and had to be destroyed by 
fearful slaughters and bloody revolutions. Once more: He gathers the children 
of the Wicked One out of His kingdom, subdues all opposition, secures the 
government of the world to the saints exclusively, and absolutely prohibits every 
thing unconverted and unholy from citizenship in His kingdom, but permits the 
unregenerated to dwell on earth under the government of the saints. Notwith- 
standing the superiority of righteousness and holiness, demonstrated before their 
eyes, the impious attempt again to enter the kingdom, seize the government, 
persecute the saints, and dethrone the Son of God. Fire comes down from God 
and destroys them. Then comes the resurrection unto judgment, the final sepa- 
ration of the wicked from the righteous, and the second death. Then all this 
world will be regenerated and wickedness shall no more pollute this earth with 
crime or cruelty. The great work of redemption will be completed, the kingdom 
will be given up to the Father, and the Son Himself will be subject to the Father 
and shall remain the first-born among many brethren. The one great lesson 
learned by the saved is : The necessity of implicit obedience to positive com- 
mands. Taught by six or seven thousand years of sad experience, they will 
know that positive laws and institutions are as important as the laws and consti- 
tutions of creation. 



(4) Matt. 13:37-43. (5) II. Tim. 4:1. (6) Rom. 2:16. Matt. 16:27. I. Cor. 4:5. II. Cor. 
5:10. I. Pet. 1:17. Rev. 22:12. (7) I. Cor. 6:2. (8) Matt. 25:31-46. (*) Chap. 118, §§ 2-10. 



CHAPTER CXXII. 



THE SFIKITUAL BODY. 

1. Terms Defined. — In opening the Scripture at I. Cor., 15:4, we read:: 
There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. Now, by the term spirit,, 
we understand something immaterial, that cannot be detected by our five senses, 
while it may possess moral character and mental faculties; and by the term spir- 
itual, we understand something resembling or pertaining to a spirit. By the term 
nature, we understand creation under its inherent laws and organizations; and by 
the term natural, we understand something in accordance with the constitutions 
and dispositions of creation. So, when we hear of a natural body being changed 
into a spiritual body we think of that body being divested of all its physical 
developments and material organizations and transformed into an intangible 
apparition, or ghost; and hence, most readers of our translation do not believe in 
the resurrection of the human body. Now, the proper Greek word for nature,, 
or physics, is phusis; and for natural, is phusickos; and these terms are never used 
in the Scriptures in a bad sense, or in opposition to spirit or spiritual, but they 
are used to designate the legitimate dispositions and tendencies of creation. ^ The 
word used by Paul in this place is psuchikos (animal, or breath-animated) and 
is from psuche (breath). In James and Jude our translators have rendered it 
sensual,^ and had they so translated here the English reader would have caught 
the true idea of the apostle. The word primarily denotes animal, or breath- 
animated, and is used by inspiration to designate the vicious or viciated propensi- 
ties governing animated creatures. It does not designate the material, or physical, 
organization, but does designate the animating controlling power or influence, and 
this influence stands in direct opposition to the controlling influence of the Holy 
Spirit. James says : This wisdom cometh not from above, but is earthly, animal, 
demoniacal.'^ Here it designates that devilish disposition of envy and strife so 
common to earthly animals. Jude uses it to designate the character of the last- 
day scoffers, who walk after their own impious lusts — these are they who separate 
themselves, animals, having not the spirit.^ 

2. Paul's Use of the Term. — Paul never uses this term (psuchikos) to 
designate material substance, natural constitution, or physical organization ; but 
he does use it .to designate a controlling influence. He says : The animal man 
receives not the things of the Spirit, and he cannot know them, because they are 
spiritually discerned; but He that is spiritual judges all things.^ Now, he does 
not mean that a man physically organized and mentally endowed cannot receive 
and understand the things of the Spirit, or that a man divested of all material 
formation can judge all things. But he does mean that a man naturally endowed 
with body and mind, but in bondage to animal propensities, or fleshly lusts, cannot 
comprehend spiritual things, while one physically organized and naturally endowed, 
and freed from the bondage of animal propensities by the Holy Spirit, can discern 



(5) Rom.l:26,27. Il.Pet, 2:12. Jude 10. Gal. 2:15. Rom. 2:27. Jam.3:7. Gal.4:8. Eph.2:3. 
Roni. 2:14. IT. Pet. 1:4. II. Cor., 11:14. Rom. 11:21, 22. (6) Jam. 3;15. Jude 19. (7j Jam. 
3:15. '8) Jude 19. (9) I.. Cor. 2:14, 15, 



CHAPTER CXXII. : S1E@TI0NS III.-IV. 517 

and comprehend all revealed religion. Here we see Paul does not use the terms 
animal and spiritual in the sense of physical and metaphysical, but in the sense 
of animal and spiritual controlling influences. According to Paul's use of the 
term, an animal body is a body controlled by the propensities, dispositions, or 
lusts common to all breath-animated creatures, buit most conspicuously developed 
by unregenerated men. But a natural body is a material organized body that 
may be controlled and destroyed by animal appetites and propensities, or may be 
governed and elevated by the rational soul. 

3. What is a Spiritual Body? — Spiritual body!' This phrase is not a 
technicality used by inspired writers to designate the resurrectionized body, but 
it is a peculiarty of Paul's, and must be understood according to his use of similar 
terms and phrases. In our translation we read: The carnal (fleshly) mind is 
enmity against God, etc., * ^ '^ they in the flesh cannot please God, * -^ * 
and ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. ^ Now, do any readers of our trans- 
lation understand Paul to teach that the mind of the unregenerated is composed 
of flesh, blood, and bones? Or, that those in the flesh have no spirit? Or, that 
those not in the flesh but in the spirit have no body? I think not. The carnal, 
or fleshly, mind is a mind under the control of the animal propensities; a spirit 
that minds, or pursues, fleshly things. ^ Those not in the flesh, but in the spirit, 
are still in the body, but are governed by the regenerated soul, and have crucified 
the flesh with the affections and lusts. ^ And a spiritual body is a body under 
the control of the spirit, and yet a physical, organized, tangible body. Paul's use 
of terms and phrases furnishes no evidence that the resurrectionized body may 
not be a material body composed of flesh, blood, and bones. 

4. Will the Changes in the Resurrectionized Body Destroy Its Sub- 
stance, OR Its Organization? — 1. "It is sown in corruption and is raised incor- 
ruptible."^ Well, what is corruption but the consequence of derangement ? Now, 
is this derangement, subjugation to vanity, and bondage to corruption ^ a defect 
in creation, or is it a penalty inflicted upon it ? When God created man He pro- 
nounced him and all creation very good. ^ Was God mistaken in His judgment, 
or was it just so ? Paul says : By one man, sin entered into the world, and death 
by sin, and so death passed upon all men. "^ If death, which is the consummation 
of derangement and corruption, is in consequence of the sin of man, and sin is 
of the devil, man's body came from the hand of the Creator without sin and 
derangement, and was incorruptible and immortal; and if man's body, created 
out of matter, or the dust, was incorruptible and immortal before he sinned, cannot 
that same body be restored without destroying its mortality and organization ? 
Its creation was the work of God, whose work is perfect, ^ but its derangement 
is the work of the devil. Now, the Son of God was manifested to destroy the 
works of the devil, ^ and when He destroys this work (or derangement) of the 
devil the human body will be pure, incorruptible, and immortal as it came from 
the hand of God. 2. "It is sown in dishonor, but is raised in glory." Dishonor 
is a consequence of derangement and corruption, and when these are expurgated 
dishonor will give place to glory without destroying the material or framework 
of the body. 3. "It is sown in weakness, but is raised in power." Weakness 
is an eff'ect of corruption, or derangement, and if the cause can be removed 
without destroying the body, so can the effect. 4. "It is sown an animal body, 
but is raised a spiritual body." Here the terms animal and spiritual are antithet- 
ical, as they are in other places, and denote opposite conditions. But we have 
shown these terms as used by Paul designate controlling influences or powers, 
and not material organization, and hence we paraphrase: It is sown under con- 
trol of animal influences, but is raised up under the control of the spirit. Or, 
adopting our translation in James and Jude: "It is sown a sensual body, but it 



(1) Rom. 8:7-9. (2) Gil. 5:16-21. (3) Gal. 5:16-18, 22-26. (4) I. Cor. 15:42-44. (5) Rom. 
8:20, 21. (6) Gen. 1:34. (7) Rom. 5:12. (8) Deut. 32:4; (9) I John, 3:8. 



518 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED- 

is raised a spiritual body." There is a sensual body and there is a spiritual body. 
Was Christ's body a sensual body ? It was a physical organization. If His body 
was not a sensual body, so may the resurrectionized body, and yet be a physical 
organization. But Paul calls what is antithetical to sensual, spiritual; hence, 
Christ's was what Paul calls a spiritual body, and yet it was a natural body. 

5. A Change of Terms, and the Bodies of Adam and Christ Compared. — 
Again, Paul uses the terms earthly and heavenly to designate the same things he 
designated by animal and spiritual. ^ Thus, he reasons: There is an animal body 
and there is a spiritual body; and so it is written, the lirst Adam was made a 
living soul, or breath; the last Adam, a quickening spirit, or a life-giving wind. 
How-be-it, that was not lirst which is spiritual, but that which is animal ; after, 
that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthly; the second man 
is the Lord from Heaven. As is the earthly, such are they also that are earthly; 
and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly; and as we have 
borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 
Here he starts out with the two antithetical terms — animal and spiritual — and 
introduces Adam and Christ. Of Adam it is written, he was created a living 
soul, or living breath; but Christ is a quickening spirit, or life-giving wind. The 
Greek noun for breath, or soul, is psuche, and the adjective, which we translate 
animal, is psucliikos. But the English language does not furnish a proper noun 
and adjective presenting the family likeness that exists between the Greek psuche 
and psuchikos, or living animation; and though first developed, he is the psuchikos, 
or animal. The Greek word for wind, or spirit, is pneuma, and the adjective for 
spiritual is pneumatikos ; and the same family likeness is presented in the English 
noun and adjective, spirit, and spiritual ; Christ is the life-giving pneuma, or wind, 
or spirit ; though last developed, He is the pneumatikos, or spiritual. Paul keeps 
up the two characteristics, animal and spiritual, till he presents them in two 
apposite examples. Adam is the living animal ; Christ is the life-giving spirit. 
Adam exhibits the animal body; Christ exhibits the spiritual body. Adam is 
the first, and animal; Christ is the last, and spiritual. Adam is the earthly; 
Christ is the heavenly. We have borne the image of the animal, and earthly; 
we shall bear the image of the spirtual, and heavenly. Paul's s'ubject is the resur- 
rectionized body. Now, wherein did Christ's body difier from Adam's, or from 
our present bodies? Adam's body was supported by food, both before and after 
the fall; 2 so was Christ's before and after His resurrection. ^ Our bodies are 
susceptible of weariness and suffering, and so was Christ's; He sat on Jacob's 
well and slept in the boat. ^ Under control of His spirit, Christ's body walked 
on the water and upheld Peter; ours, in obedience to the laws of matter, would 
sink, like Peter. Our bodies would faint without food ; Christ fasted forty days 
and nights, and, by miracle, Moses and Elijah did the same. ^ Our bodies are 
without luster; Christ's body surpassed the noonday sun in brightness, ^ and so 
did the face of Moses. ^ Our bodies are chained to the earth, and no effort of our 
spirits can counteract the force of gravitation ; Christ's body ascended without 
wings and passed beyond the region of the air; so did Enoch and Elijah. '' Our 
bodies become so deranged that our spirits cannot govern nor continue to animate 
them, and they suffer corruption; Christ finished His sufferings, stopped the 
machinery of life, and dismissed His spirit before His crucifiers expected — He 
laid down His life, it was not forced from Him — and His body never experienced 
corruption;^ its organization was never deranged nor destroyed. But the great 
dissimilarity is in the controlling influences. Our bodies are so much under 
animal influences that our spirits are enslaved to lusts of the flesh, and after 
regeneration the flesh lusts against the renewed spirit so we cannot do what we 



(1) I. Cor., 15:44-49. (2) Gen. 1:29, 30. 2:16. (3) Acts 10:41. John 21:12-14. Luke 24:43. 
(4) John 4:6. Luke 8:28. (5) Luke 4:2. Ex. 34:28. I. Kings, 19:8. Matt. 14:25-30. (6) Acts 26:13. 
Luke 9:28-31. Ex. 34:29-35. (7) Acts 1:9-11. Gen. 5:24. Heb. 11:5. II. Kings, 2:1, II. (8) John 
19-30. Luke 33:46. Mark 15. 44. John 10:18. Acts 2:27-31. 



CHAPTER CXXII. : SECTIONS VI. -VII. 519 

wish. ^ Before enslaved to sin, Adam yielded to appetite, or social feeling ;i but 
Christ, cut oif from all society, except that of wild beasts in the wilderness, 
and suffering from starvation, cold neglect, and poverty, could not be induced, 
by His professed friend and only companion well versed in the Scriptures, to 
violate a single moral principle to satisfy a most urgent animal want. ^ When 
deserted in the garden and He sweat great drops of blood, no demand nor gratis 
lication of the flesh could induce Him to abandom His work of redemption. 
Though, His soul was sorrowful unto death, yet cold indifference, ingratitude, 
hostility and abuse could not provoke revenge and punishment. His holy spirit 
kept every feeling common to animal nature in strict subjection. We bear the 
earthly image of Adam now, and are subject to animal propensities; but when 
our bodies are regenerated and bear the heavenly image we shall be able to bring 
our whole animal nature into strict subi'ection to all the laws of God. Christ's 
body is the spiritual body, and Adam's the animal; and as we have borne the 
image of the animal, so shall we bear the image of the spiritual. 

6. Flesh and Blood Cannot Inherit the Kingdom of God. ^ — Cannot inherit 
— kleronomesai ; possess by heirship. Kleronomeo, from kleros, an estate ; and 
nemo, to share. Yery true ! John said : Repent ! for the kingdom of God is at 
hand. Think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham for our father. 
God is able to raise up out of these stones children to Abraham ; and now the axe 
is lying at the root of the tree, and every tree that brings not forth good fruit 
is cut down and cast into the fire. ^ And Christ said : Except a man be born of 
water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ^ To those 
who received Him, to them He gave power, or authority, to become the sons of 
God — to them who believed in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the 
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God 6. To inherit the kingdom 
of God is one thing, and to go to Heaven is another. In this age tares may 
grow in the kingdom of God, but Christ will not recognize their heirship, and in 
the end of this age the angels will gather them out and cast them into the fire. '^ 
If Nicodemus did not know this, Zachariah did, and chants : We should serve 
in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. ^ But the prophets 

• describe the consummated age of the kingdom as not only holy and happy, but 
also free from all pain, sickness, death, and weeping, and this necessarily implies 
perfection of body and freedom from decay and corruption. Perfection of body 
is as necessary as perfection of the spirit to fulfill the character of the consum- 
mated age as described by the old prophets. The consummated age of the king- 
dom of God is perfect and incorruptible, and corruption can no more inherit 
incorruption than flesh and blood can inherit the kingdom. Hence, the resur- 
rection of the dead saints and the change of the living saints must precede the 
consummated age of the kingdom to fulfill the predictions of the Old Testament. 
Kow, all this is consistent with the materiality and physical organization of the 
body of Christ, of Elijah, and of Enoch, which ascended into Heaven, and will 
return when the prophetic time is completed. 

7. The Believer's Restjrrectionized Body the Same as Christ's. — The 
apostle's subject is the resurrection of the believer's body, which is a material 
organization, and he argues this resurrection from the fact of Christ's resurrec- 
tion. If the dead rise not, then Christ has not risen. But Christ's resurrection 
is a fact established by living witnesses, ^ and had been preached by Paul, all the 
apostles, and the evangelists. Christ has risen from the dead and become the 
first fruits of them that slept, and accordingly His people shall be raised at His 
coming. Now, if Christ's resurrection is any evidence of our resurrection, there 
must be some likeness between the two resurrectionized bodies. If the one is an 
organized material body, and the other a mere shade or immaterial apparition, 

(9) Rom. 8:5-8. Gal. 5:15-24. (1) I. Tim., 2:14. (2) Matt. 4:1-10. Luke 4:1-12. (3) I. Cor. 
15:50. (4) Matt. 3:2, 9, 10. (5) John 3:3, 5. (6) 1 :11-13. (7) Matt. 13:24-43, 47-50. (8) Luke 
1:67-75. (9) L Cor. 15:3-8. 



520 THE KING-DOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

how does the resurrection of the one prove the resurrection of the other ? Does 
the well known fact that a grain of wheat produces a grain of wheat prove that 
a grain of wheat produces an intangible shade of a grain ? Paul says that every 
species produces its own kind,i and that the same is true of flesh, and all inani- 
mated bodies. 2 Now, Christ's body was flesh, blood, and bones, before His 
death, and it was the same after His resurrection ; ^ and if there is any similarity 
between His resurrection and that of His people, their bodies must be organized 
and tangible, too, and capable of eating and drinking and of sensation. Christ's 
body was once glorious on the mountain before His death, and is so now in 
Heaven. Moses' face became glorious without losing its materiality or natural 
framework, and believers' bodies can be transformed into the likeness of Christ's 
glorious body without losing their physical organization. Elijah dropped his 
mantle to the ground, but his material body was seen by Elisha ascending in a 
whirlwind. Christ did not leave His crucified, buried, and resurrectionized body, 
but, while His disciples were looking at Him, He ascended visibly till immersed 
in a cloud, and thev were assured that this same Jesus should come in like 
manner. But some dreamer will say that their bodies were converted into a 
something while ascending. Will they please to give us the evidence ? Those 
bodies were flesh, blood, and bones, when last tested; if these were sublimated 
while ascending, just give us the evidence. 

8. What Is a Human Body? — A human body is a physical organization, 
and anything without materiality and organization is not a human body. Such 
was not Christ's body, neither is it my body. If we were promised a spiritual 
apparition, we might dream of ghosts coming out of the graves ; but if promised 
the resurrection of the body, then our bodies must be raised, and not a phantom. 
And if this body is no more an animal body, but a spiritual body, it must be 
under the entire control of the moral and intellectual spirit, as was the body of 
Christ. 

9. The Spiritual Body Essential to the Consummated Age of the King- 
dom OF God. — In that age will be unbounded prosperity; all parts of nature will 
put on their richest beauties and shine in full perfection, while peace and plenty 
will surround every path. But such unbounded sources of pleasure and delight 
would destroy anybody under animal control. Under control of the regenerated 
and sanctified spirit, man may be surrounded with all sources of the most exqisite 
animal enjoyment and never violate any law of his creation. Christ had power to 
provide Himself with every comfort, pleasure, and delight, but would not deviate 
from any moral principle to satisfy any animal demands; though tempted in all 
points as we are, yet He sinned not.^ He made wine for the wedding guests and 
fed multitudes to their full satisfaction, yet He never ceased doing the will of His 
Father to suy^ply any want of His body. And so the believer in His spiritual 
body can dwell amidst fruits and flowers and derive the most exquisite sensa- 
tions of pleasure and delight from any surrounding object, and yet never be 
enticed from rectitude nor forget the will nor work of God. My meet is to do 
the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work. ^ Prosperity ruined Solo- 
mon, destroyed Sodom, and has filled the most favored spots of earth with misery 
and woe. But where the body is under the control of the Heaven-born spirit, 
man may safely dwell in Eden, enjoy all the bounties of Paradise, be freed from 
all fear and suifering, and never sin. So did the Savior, having all power to 
command everything good to the taste, delightful to the eye, pleasant to the 
smell, agreeable to the touch, and charming to the ear. The animal man becomes 
a slave to animal gratification, but the spiritual man is master of all creation. 
Having supremacy, the spiritual man serves everyone; having all things, he 
claims nothing; in midst of luxuries, he is temperate in all things; possessing 



(1) I. Cor. 15:36-38. (2) 15:39-41. (3) John 20:25-28. 21:12-14; Luke 24:37-43. (4) Heb. 
4:15. (5) John 4:34. (6) Eph. 4:24. Col. 3:10. 






CHAPTER CXXIir. I SECTION I. 521 

animal dispositions, every feeling is kept in perfect subordination to his spirit, 
which is renewed into the image of God. ^ He is fitted for partnership with 
Christ, companionship with angels, and the government of animals. He is a 
physical, mental, and moral being. He may eat the fruit of the trees of life, 
drink the waters of life, swim in the rivers of life, dwell in green pastures, and 
sleep in the woods. He can sing the songs of Heaven, tell the story of redemp- 
tion, judge the world, govern the wicked, converse with angels, and talk with 
animals. Once a sinner, now a saint. Once a child of the devil, now a child of 
God. Acquainted with sin, acquainted with holiness. A recipient of mercy, a 
dispenser of bounties. An inhabitant of earth, and at home in Heaven. Once 
an heir of death, now a prince of life. Once most loathsome, now an object of 
admiration. Once the most degraded of all creation, now the most exalted and 
glorious of all creatures. Once bound to earth, now he can traverse the universe. 
Once he worshiped the sun, moon, and stars, now he treads them under his 
feet. Once an exile from New Jerusalem, now he makes it his permanent home 
and enjoys all its beauties, riches, and glories. 



CHAPTER CXXIII. 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

1. Grammatico-Historical Meaning of Terms and Phrases. — When a 
writer composes the history of some country, nation, or society, he designates his 
subject by some term or phrase ; and the thing he designates by that term or 
phrase is the grammatico-historical meaning of that term or phrase ; and if he is 
competent to write an account of any subject, he will not use that term or phrase 
to designate any other thing without sufficient intimation in the context. He 
may use them figuratively, as all terms and phrases may be used, but this will 
not alter their primary meaning in the history. In reading Gibbon's Decline and 
Fall of the Roman Empire, no one would understand the phrase, the empire, to 
refer to anything but the Roman empire, unless the subject or context required 
it. By the phrase, the temple, used in our translation, we always understand 
the temple of Jehovah at Jerusalem, unless the subject or context shows it to be 
figuratively used, or to refer to some other temple or palace. The phrase, united 
states, literally designates any states united; and the phrase, united kingdom, 
means any kingdoms united ; but no one would expect the phrase. United States, 
in a history of the world, to designate states of Germany, cantons of Switzer- 
land, provinces of South America, or the Canadas ; nor in a modern history of 
Europe, would anyone understand the phrase, united kingdoms, to designate 
any government but that of Great Britian. 

An author may tell us how he uses terms and phrases ; but, if he does not, 
we may determine what he means by them from his uses of them. If he uses 
them in an unusual sense, or uses new or unknown terms or phrases, he should 
define them and show how he uses them ; but if discoursing about something 
well known, and uses terms and phrases understood by every one, he would 
never think of defining them if using them according to their common accepta- 
tion. We would not expect a lecturer on American history to tell us what he 



522 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

meant by the phrase, United States, or States or Dominion ; nor a writer of 
modern history to tell us what he meant by the phrase, the United Kingdoms ; 
but, if he applied these phrases to any other governments, we would need to be 
apprised of the fact by definitions, drift of discourse, or context. "Scriptures," 
means writings. Is there any need to be told what theologians mean by that term ? 
Temple, means palace ; but in Scriptures it designates the palace of Jehovah in 
Jerusalem. 

2. Now, the New Testament gives the introduction and setting up of an 
institution designated by the phrases, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of 
Heaven. Not any definition is given to these phrases, but they are used as if 
well understood by the Jews, who were expecting the restoration of the kingdom 
of Father David. ^ Therefore, in determining the grammatico-historical meaning 
of these phrases, we must examine their uses. These two phrases are used to 
designate the same institution. John preached : Repent, for the kingdom of 
Heaven is at hand. ^ Matthew says : From that time Jesus began to preach and 
to say. Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand. ^ Mark says : Jesus came 
into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying. The time 
is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand ; repent, ye, and believe the glad 
tidings.^ Matthew says : And as ye go, preach, saying : The kingdom of Heaven 
is at hand. ^ Luke says : And say unto them, the kingdom of God is at hand. ^ 

3. Some plead for special meanings of these phrases in particular places, and, 
thus, teach that they have no grammatico-historical meaning; and this gives wide 
range for whimsical notions and fanciful expositions pernicious to th-e truth. We 
are told that in the parable of the tares and the wheat they mean this world. 
Christ compares the kingdom of Heaven to a wheat-field polluted with tares, and 
says : The field is the world. '^ But Christ says : The good seed are the children, 
or heirs, of the kingdom, and the Son of Man put them there ; and the tares are 
the children, or heirs, of the Wicked One, and the devil puts them there. Now, 
if the kingdom, or field, is the world, then the devil is a creator, and creates the 
wicked, and Christ creates the good. But who creates the bad who become 
good ? God is the Farmer of our bodies and the Father of our spirits, ^ and so 
brings all persons into the word, and the wicked for the day of evil ; but Satan, 
by false teachings, and by prompting to deception and hypocrisy, may overrun 
the churches with his own children or unregenerated persons. Also, it is out of 
the kingdom that the angels will gather the tares, and not out of the world. The 
field represents the kingdom of God in this world during this age ; and, at the 
end of this age (aon), and not at the end of the world (komos), the angels will 
gather the en trappers and workers of iniquity out of the kingdom, but the 
righteous will remain in it and shine like the sun. The command to let the tares 
continue in it, is not absolute, but contingent; and 'where there is no danger of 
rooting the wheat, the tares should be eradicated according to Christ's laws. ^ 

Again, we are told the kingdom of God means a divine influence in the soul. 
Christ said to the Pharisees : The kingdom of God is within you. ^ Christ was 
not talking to an individual about the inward man, but to a collective body — the 
Pharisees, who represented the Jews — about an institution announced to be at 
hand and expected to appear from Heaven ;2 and the phrase, "in us,''^ or "into 
the swine," or "within you," when addressed to a collective body, is equiva- 
lent to the phrase "among you." The kingdom of God was among them, and 
suffered violence;'^ and the publicans and harlots pressed into it. ^ Christ calls 
the Jews the children of the kingdom, ^ but says it should be taken from them 



(1) Luke 1:32, 33. Mark 11:10. (2) Matt. 3:2. (3) 4:12. 17. (4) Mark 1:14, 15. Matt. 13:24, 
41. 16:28. Mark 9:1. Luke 9:27. See i? 10. (5) Matt. 10:7. 8:11. 12. (6) Luke 10:9. 13:28. 29. 
(7) Matt. 13:24-30,36-43. (8) Mai. 2:10. Job 10:8. Ps. 139:13-16. Heb. 12:9. Num. 16:22. 27:16. 
Zech. 12:1. EccL 12:7. Isa. 57:16. (9) Matt. 18:17. I. Cor. 5:13. (1) Luke 17:21. (2) Mark 1:14, 
15. Luke 19:11. (3) John 1:14. Mark 5:12, 13. (4) Matt. 11:12. (5) Luke 16:16. (6) Matt. 8:11, 12. 



CHAPTER CXXIII.: SECTION IV. 523 

and given to believers. "^ But there was no divine influence in their souls (the 
Pharisees) they were vipers, hypocrits, adulterers, and murderers, doomed to 
Gehenna. ^ It* we make exceptions, then Christ asserts that they were pious with 
some exceptions, and that they were impious with some exceptions ; thus. He 
would contradict Himself. The kingdom of God was among them and afterward 
taken from them as a nation. God was their King and Gideon refused to usurp 
that prerogative."^ They asked a king and rejected Jehovah for king.f If God 
was their king, they were His kingdom. (See chap. 34:18. 36:3-5.) 

Another passage is cited to prove an internal kingdom in the soul. For the 
kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the 
Holy Spirit. ^ Well, how does this prove the position ? Can not the great 
object of an external organization be the spiritual culture of the soul?^Paul 
says : The Mosaic institutions stood in meats and drinks and carnal ordinances. ^ 
Does this prove there was no righteousness, peace, or joy in or about them? 
Christ said: The weighty parts of the law were judgment and mercy. ^ If 
Paul's physical characterizing of the Mosaic institutions does not prove them 
divested of spirituality his spiritual characterizing of the kingdom of God does 
not prove it divested of physical organization. The greater part of religious 
worship under the law was ceremonies relating to the flesh, but the greater part 
under the Gospel contributes directly to the moral culture of the soul. The 
passages where these phrases are supposed to refer to Heaven itself refer to the 
consummated age of the kingdom, and are easily reconciled with the grammatico- 
historical meaning of these phrases. Heaven is not the grammatico-historical 
meaning in the New Testament ; nor is there any evidence that the writers do 
refer in any case to it separately from, and independently of, that institution 
which they properly designate. Many things predicted of this kingdom can not 
apply to Heaven, nor to the world, nor to divine influence in the soul, and there 
is not anything said of it that necessarily requires us to suppose any allusion 
to them. 

4. The Grammatico-Historioal Meaning Determined. — In A. M. 4030, 
or A. D. 26, a voice was heard in the wilderness of Judea calling the Jews to 
genuine repentance, assigning this reason: For the kingdom of Heaven is at 
hand. ^ After John the Baptist Was apprehended by Herod, Jesus Himself came 
into Galilee proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God, saying : The 
time is fulfilled ; the kingdom of God is at hand ; repent and believe the glad 
tidings.^ Now, these proclamations show that this kingdom was the subject of 
prophecy and that the time for its appearing was then nearer than at any former 
period. Hence it can not be the third Heaven or Paradise of God, ^ for that was 
just as near and accessible in the days of Enoch^ and of Elijah"^ as at the present 
day; nor could it be any divine influence in the soul, for the saints achieved 
great victories by faith, ^ walked with God, and spoke by the Holy Spirit. ^ At 
that time this institution was not set up but was very near, and would be estab- 
lished in power before some then present would experience death, ^ and it was so 
near when Christ was crucified that He would not again drink the fruit of the 
vine or partake of another passover until it had come. ^ It has external qualifi- 
cations for citizenship as well as internal — must be born of water^ — which can 
not be said of Heaven nor of grace in the heart.* It is constitutionally restricted 
to those born of God -,5 but, historically developed, it has been overrun by the 
children of the devil, who shall be gathered out of it at the end of this age, ^ and 
it shall be consummated in the next age. This can not be said of Heaven, nor of 



(7) 21:33-43. (8) 3;7. 12:24, 84, 39. 33:14-35. (*) Judg. 8:23. (f) I. Sara. 8:7. 12:12. H. 
Chron. 13:8. (9) Rom. 14:17. (1) Heb. 9:10. (2) Matt. 23:23. (3) Matt. 3:2. (4) Mark 1:14. 
(5) II. Cor. 12:2, 4. (6) Gen. 5:24. (7) II. Kin^s 2:10. (8) Heb.l2. (9) H. Pet. 1 :21. (1) Matt. 
16:28. Mark 9:1. Luke 9:27. (2) Luke 22:16, 18. (3) John 3:5, 26. 4:1. Matt. 3:6. Acts 2:38. 8. 
12. 10:47, 48. (4) Luke 23:43. Acts 10:34, 35. (5) John 1:11-13. 3:8, 5. Matt. 18:8. 5:20. (6) 
13:25-30, 37-43,47-49. 



524 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOl»ED. 

grace in the heart. It is small at first but progresses to transcendent greatness."^ 
This can not be said of Heaven. The phrase is used interchangeably with the 
phrase, My Church. ^ 

5. The Jews' Opinion of the Kingdom of God. — The Jews, to whom these 
proclamations were made, considered themselves the heirs of this kingdom, and 
had borne the burden and heat of the day, ^ and they expected all nations to be 
conquered and brought under its laws. To disrespect their prerogative and 
extend tlie kingdom to the nations without bringing them under the yoke of the 
Sanhedrim was a crime of high treason punishable with death, i The teachings 
of John, Christ, and the apostles nowhere contradict their expectation, and all 
their prophets confirm their hope. ^ The great controversy between them and 
Christ and the apostles was, the terms of citizenship, the character of the citizens, 
the means of conquest, and the free extention of its privileges to the nations. 

6. This kingdom passes through two ages, which we will call the interme- 
diate and consummated. These two kingdoms are distinctly recognized in the 
New Testament. If the Gospel preached before the end of this age is for a testi- 
mony unto or against the nations there must be another age in which the prom- 
ises are fulfilled ; and if those having received the miraculous gifts of the Spirit 
in this age demand admittance into the kingdom on account of these gifts, that 
day must belong to another age.* In the parable of the net, ^ which is pro- 
fessedly descriptive of the kingdom of God, we are told that at the end of this 
age the angels will separate the righteous from the wicked, bat are not told what 
becomes of the kingdom. In the parable of the tares in the wheat we are told 
that the tares grow among the wheat in the kingdom, but in the end of this age 
they shall be gathered out, and then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in 
the kingdom of their Father. IS'ow, this pure period is certainly a different and 
later age, and agrees with the Old Testament prophets. Amos says : All the 
sinners of my people shall be cut off. ^ And Zephania says: The remnant of 
Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be 
found in their mouth, for tFiey shall feed and lie down and none shall make them 
afraid. ^ Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews, A. D. 58-64, ^ speaks of some 
professors having tasted, or experienced, the powers of the age about to be,"" 
which must be an age after the one then present. He also contrasts the presen^ 
age with the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.^ 
And so the second advent, with all its subsequents, belongs to another age. 
That the kingdom does not terminate at the second advent is evident, for Paul 
places the delivering up of the kingdom to the Father as the last thing in the 
divine programme,^ and it has no end. 

7. Jewish Use. — The Jews had two phrases in use, which appear in the ISTew 
Testament : The age that is, and the age about to be. By the second they 
meant the triumphant reign of the Messiah, when all the glories and happiness 
predicted of Jerusalem and the throne of David should be realized ; and by the 
first they must have comprehended all the intervening times. They distributed 
the duration of the world into three ages, or aeons, of two thousand years each: 
first, the age before the law; second, the age of the Mosaic dispensation ; third, 
the age of the Messiah. ^ Now, as the Jews had no idea of the intermediate 
state of the kingdom, they comprehended it in the phrase, the age that is. 
Very unfortunately, the two phrases have been translated, this world and the 
world to corae, and hence the false notion that the fate of the kingdom of God 
is identified with, and in subordination to, the fate of this earth. But Christ 



(7) Matt. 4:30-32. 13:31. Luke 13:19-21. (8) Matt. 16:18, 19. (9) Matt. 20:1-16. 21:33-45. 
(1) John 11:47-50. Acts 22:22. (2) Chap. 70. {*) Matt. 24:1-14. 7:21-23. (3) Matt. 13:24-49. 
(4) Amos 9:10. (5) Zeph. 3:8-20. Chap. 70. (6) Horn Vol. I , p. 356, § 4. (7) Heb. 6:5. (8) Tit. 
2:12, 13. (9) I. Cor. 15:24. (2) Bloom. Grk. Test. I. Cor. 10:11. Comp. Comnt. I. Cor. 10:11. 
Town. N. Test., note 68, p. 98. 



CHAPTER CXXIII. : SECTIONS VIII. -X. 525 

teaches that the end of this age is not the end of the kingdom, but that another 
age follows, when the saints alone shall possess it and the children of the Wicked 
One shall be excluded forever. ^ 

8. The Two Ages as Incidentally Shown by John, Christ, and the 
Apostles. — The teachings of John and of Christ represent the kingdom as just 
at hand^ and within the lifetime of some then present. ^ After Christ's ascen- 
sion and the descent of the Holy Spirit the apostles speak of it as having come, 
and themselves and others brought into it.^ But sometimes they represent it as 
in the future, "^ which shows the idea of two ages of the kingdom indelibly 
stamped on their minds, entering into all their conceptions of it, and influencing 
their language about it. In no place do the Scriptures give a description of 
Heaven itself; but the consummated age of the kingdom of God, with its royal 
city — New Jerusalem — has been the burden and shekinah of all prophecy, and 
the intermediate age, or the kingdom without respect to any age, was the burden 
of the teachings of John, Christ, and of the apostles. 

9. The Subject of Predictions. — We have said^ that this kingdom was the 
subject of prophecy. Let us now turn to the old prophets and see what we can 
find about a kingdom of God, and then, perhaps, we can judge how the Jews 
became familiar with the phrase, the kingdom of God. In the writings of Daniel 
we have some extraordinary revelations. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream in which 
he saw an image of empire, but did not understand it until both the dream and 
the interpretation were revealed unto Daniel. ^ In this dream were exhibited five 
empires, or sovereignties, governing the world as far as God's people have been 
scattered ; and the fifth one is set up by the God of Heaven, and is not the result 
of human power or policy. It is a universal and everlasting kingdom ; can not 
have a rival nor a successor; shall not be ruled by any foreign power, nor occu- 
pied by aliens; and it shall break in pieces and even annihilate the former 
empires. It is set up in the time of those kingdoms, or of those represented by 
the feet and toes, and these divisions of the old Homan empire shall be van- 
quished first, and then it will conquer the whole world. All these empires 
existed in some form and extent for many years before they became parts of the 
image of empire, and so this stone may have been cut out of the mountain when 
the family of Abraham was separated from all other nations by covenant, and 
growing long before it began to break the feet of the image. The time here 
spoken of is yet in the future, although the kingdom was organized in the time 
of the apostles. Fear not little flock ! it is your Father's good pleasure to give 
you the kingdom. ^ It had been changing from national to congregational ever 
since the captivity to Babylon — the head of gold.* 

The same teachings were revealed to Daniel in a vision of four monsters. 
The fourth one had ten horns. Three of these horns were eradicated by a little 
cunning, boasting, persecuting horn, or power, which waged war with the saints 
and prevailed against them till the judgment did sit and the beast was destroyed. ^ 
Then, and not till then, did the saints take and possess the universal and ever- 
lasting kingdom. The Son of Man received from the ancient of days dominion, 
and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve 
Him — a universal and everlasting empire. The gates of hades shall not prevail 
against it. ^ 

10. The universal and everlasting kingdom of Daniel's prophecy is the throne 
of David. Daniel was a Jew, having the city of Jerusalem and the Hope of 
Israel engraved on his heart. He knew God had promised universal inheritance 
to Abraham and universal and everlasting empire to David. Jerusalem should 



(3) Chap. 70. (4) Matt. 3:2. Mark 1:14. (5) Mark 9:1. Matt. 12:28. 16:28. 23:3. Luke 9:27. 
(6) Col. 1:12, 13. 4:11. I. Thes. 2:12. Rev. 1:9. Heb. 12:28. Compare verses 18. 22-24. (7) II. Tim. 
4:1, 18. Acts 14:22. 11. Pet. 1:11. Rev. 11:15-19. (8) § 4. (9) Dan. 2:31-45. (1) Luke 12:32. 
(*) Chap. 62, § 1. (2) Dan. 7:1-28. (3) Matt. 16:18. " 



526 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

be the royal city, the glorious center of national concourse, and Jehovah's ever- 
lasting rest. Israel and Judah should be gathered, and all nations should unite 
in their advancement, and the first dominion should come to the daughter of 
Zion. God had confirmed these covenants and promises by oaths. Abraham 
had viewed them in faith, David had sung them on his harp, and Isaiah had been 
intoxicated with the glories while he reveled in the visions of them, and all the 
prophets pointed to them.^ What could Daniel, or what can we understand by 
the fifth kingdom, the reign of the saints, the God of Heaven setting up a king- 
dom for Himself, the Son of Man receiving universal and eternal dominion, but 
what was promised to Abraham, to David, and to Jerusalem ? And, according 
to these promises, Gabriel tells Mary the Lord would give to her Son the throne 
of His father, David, and of His kingdom there should be no end, and He should 
reign over the house of Jacob forever. ^ And so the children sung : Blessed the 
kingdom of Father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord, ® and blessed 
the King of Israel, that cometh in the name of the Lord.*^ Now, His kingdom is 
the kingdom of God. The Son of Man come in His kingdom ; the kingdom of 
God come in power; the kingdom of God be come.f The prophecy of Zachariah^ 
in regard to Jerusalem as the empire city, is quoted by the evangelists as identi- 
fying it with Christ and His kingdom. Fear not, daughter of Zion ! Behold, thy 
King cometh sitting on an ass colt. ^ So, also, Isaiah :i Tell ye the daughter of 
Zion, behold, thy King cometh unto the, etc. ^ And this Isaiah calls her salva- 
tion, and it was a pressage of her future deliverance and triumph. Now, there 
cannot be two universal and everlasting empires, and hence, we see that the fifth 
kingdom of Daniel's prophecies, the kingdom of David, the kingdom of Christ, 
and the kingdom of God, are all one and the same kingdom ; and three things 
are inseparably connected with the kingdom of God: the Jews, Jerusalem, and 
the throne of David ; and the gentiles come in as fellow-heirs and joint partakers 
in the blessings of Abraham. ^ Hence, tlie coming of the Messiah and announce- 
ment of the kingdom of God, would necessarily raise the expectation of the Jews 
for the redemption of Israel and prosperity of Jerusalem. ^ 

11. The Jews' Mistake. — Two ages, or periods, are represented by the old 
prophets — the one, of great adversity, and the other, of great prosperity to the 
people of Jehovah; and the Jews thought the first ended and the second began 
at the first advent of the Messiah, and when that was announced they thought of 
nothing but triumphs and glories. But a little study of Daniel will show that the 
first advent was to be followed by nearly two thousand years of adversity and 
affliction to the people of God. ^ From the commandment to restore and rebuild 
Jerusalem till the Messiah was cut ofi", the Levitical age closed, the great atone- 
ment made, everlasting righteousness, or justification, established, vision and 
prophecy sealed, and the Most Holy anointed, was to be seventy weeks, or four 
hundred and ninety years, and then desolations are determined to the end. But, 
from the beginning of the vision of the ram and he goat till the cleansing of the 
sanctuary, was to be two thousand and three hundred years ;^ and, surely, the 
desolations did not end and the saints did not possess the dominion till then, for 
cleansing the sanctuary would be their first concern on receiving the kingdom. 
Now, if this decree was given A. M. 3546, or B. C. 458, "^^ and the vision began 
A. M. 3670, or B. C. 334,"^" then one hundred and twenty-four years of the decree 
transpired before the twenty-three hundred years began, leaving 490 — 124=366 
to be deducted from twenty- three hundred, which, 2,300 — 366, leaves nineteen 
hundred and thirty-four years of desolations before the sanctuary would be 
cleansed. Commence these dates as we may, a period of adversity of nearly two 
thousand years exists between the first advent and the cleansing of the sanctuary 



(4) Chap. 70. (5) Luke 1 :32, :33. (6) Mark 11 :10. (7) John 12:13. (f) Matt. 13:24. Com- 
pare vrs. 41 and Matt. 16:28 with Mark 9:1 and Luke 9:27. See § 2. (8) Zech. 9:9. (9) John 
12:15. (1) Isa. 62:11. (2) Matt. 21:5. (3) Eph. 3:6. (4) Luke 24:21. Acts 1:6. (5) Dan. 9:24-27. 
(6) 8:1-29. (7) Sup. Chron. table; p. 13. (8) Idm. pp. 14, 15. 



CHAPTER CXXIir. : SECTION XII. 527 

for the pure worship of Jehovah. To these desolations and this restoration the 
Savior alludes when He said : And Jerusalem shall be trodden under foot till 
the time of the gentiles be fulfilled. During this period tares grow among the 
wheat by the strategy of Satan, but at the end of it they shall be rooted out and 
the sanctuary be cleansed. Other prophets foretold the rejection and sufferings 
of Christ and the glories that should follow, ^ but the Jews did not know whether 
these different predictions referred to one or more persons; hence, they expected 
an Elijah, a Jeremiah, the Christ, and That Prophet. ^ It is said^ that the Jews 
expected a Messiah to suffer and another to reign in triumph ; but the apostles 
argued that these prophecies referred to the same person and were fulfilled in 
Jesus of Nazareth. ""= All the prophets predicted calamities to the Jews before 
their most prosperous time, but it was agreeable for them to suppose that all these 
had been fulfilled in their past sufferings. When Daniel foresaw the long period 
of time that must roll away, and the different hostile powers that should rule the 
world before the glowing prophecies of Isaiah would be realized, he fainted, and 
deferred hope made his heart sick;^ but he received that consoling assurance: 
Go thy way, Daniel, for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot in the end of the 
days. ^ Such, also, were the hopes of Israel and the views of Zachariah^ at the 
first advent. 

12. Correct Yiew of Jews. — About four hundred years had rolled away since 
the last prophecy had closed the Old Testament, and the pious Jews sighed for 
the kingdom of God. They read the prophets and see glorious things spoken 
of Zion ; but when and where are they ? Three parts of ^Nebuchadnezzar's image 
of monarchy have passed away and the iron legs have set their feet in Jerusalem 
and desecrated the temple. Pompey entered the Holy of Holies, where none 
but the high priest, after complying with the requirements of the law, would dare 
to enter, and Crassus had robbed the temple.^ Three of Daniel's monsters have 
been trodden down by the fourth ; the Jews have been wasted by terrible slaugh- 
ters ; a cruel Idumean sways his sceptre over the promised land ; the priests have 
been murdered at the altar; the high priest is appointed by the Romans, or by 
Herod ; the house of David has sunk so low in power and poverty as to attract 
no attention. They think they see the pollutions and desolations of Daniel's pre- 
dictions fulfilled, and feel as if all the foretold evils had already fallen upon the 
people of Jehovah, and they long for the kingdom of God, with the Son of David 
on the throne. At length, Zachariah sees a vision in the temple ; but he is struck 
dumb till the forerunner of Christ is born and named ; then, filled with the Holy 
Spirit, he sings what was the hope of Israel, and their understanding of the 
prophets respecting the kingdom of God;^ God has visited and redeemed His 
people; raised up the Deliverer in the house of David, as He had promised; we 
are saved from our enemies and haters, and may now serve Him without fear in 
holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our lives ; the Lord is on 
His way; the people have the knowledge of salvation by the remission of their 
sins; the light has dispelled our darkness and guided us into the way of peace. 
So predicted the prophets of old, and so understood and sung Zachariah in the 
dawning of the kingdom. Simeon calls Christ the Salvation prepared before all 
people, a Light for the nations, and the Glory of Israel. ^ Gabriel said Christ 
would occupy His Father David's throne; reign over the house of Jacob forever; 
His kingdom should not have an end ; He should be great, and be called the Son 
of the Highest.^ The children sung: Blessed the kingdom of Father David that 
Cometh in the name of the Lord. ^ Inspiration in Old and New Testaments views 
and represents the kingdom of God as the throne of David, centered among the 
Jews, but governing all nations.* The old prophets always represent Jerusalem 

(9) Luke 21:24. (1) I. Pet. 1:10-12. (2) Matt. 16:14. John 1:21. (3) Encp. Messiah. (4) Acts 
2:22-36.3:18,22,24.8:32-35 13:16-37.28:23. (5)Dan.8:27. (6)12:9,13. (7)1:67-79. (8)Heb. 
9:7. Joseph. Ant., 14:4; 4. Wrs. 1:8; 8. (9) Luke 1:67-75. (1) Luke 2:25-32. (2) 1:31-33 (3) 
Mark 11:10. John 12:13. (*) § 12. Matt. 5:17. Rev. 21:2-27. 22:1-5. Isa. 54:12, 14. 65:18-21. 
Ezek. 47:12. GaL 4:24-31. Heb. 12:18-28. Gen. 5:24. II. Kings, 2:1, 11. Acts 1:9. 



528 THE EINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPEI). 

as the empire city of this great kingdom, and the New Testament confirms their 
views. Christ did not come to destroy the hope of Israel, founded on the law 
and the prophets, but to establish it. ^ John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, 
descending out of Heaven from God as a bride adorned for her husband, and 
called the bride, the Lamb's wife, ^ and he describes it very much as the old 
prophets describe regenerated Jerusalem. ^ It is not the third Heaven, nor a 
chimera of the brain, but a glorious city- upon earth, such as holiness, science, 
and art can make, to a great extent. New Jerusalem is Old Jerusalem regener- 
ated, and smiling under the new covenant with the riches of all nations poured 
into it, as the old prophets predicted."^ It is the superior Jerusalem, mother of 
all believers, and common to Jews and gentiles. ^ The predictions about her 
will be fulfilled without transferring her name in a mystery to Eome, Mecca, 
Constantinople, or any other place. We now enjoy its government, while it is in 
Heaven with all its records ; but it will descend at the time appointed. ^ Now, 
the spirits of just men made perfect are present with the King in the royal city, 
and there all the citizens of the kingdom are registered — the Lord knows who 
are His; and there is the Son of David, Enoch, Elijah, and perhaps others, soul 
and body; but when it descends, all the saints will visit or dwell in it with soul 
and body reunited. Never mind substituting your Hagars ! When the promised 
time comes, the barren woman shall have more children than the prolific. ^ 

13. Definition. — The kingdom of God is that institution which God has 
ordained to conquer, reform, and govern this world. Christ is the King ; Jeru- 
salem is the royal city, and the nations are its provinces. Its development may 
be divided into four ages — the incipient, from Adam to Moses; the preparatory, 
from Abraham till the apostles; the intermediate, from John the Baptist till 
Christ's second advent, and the consummated; from the second advent till the end, 
when it shall be delivered up to the Father. The term, church, designates that 
development of it, having no coercive power in the intermediate age, the King 
having reserved all coercive and revolutionizing power to Himself, and uses His 
enemies for that purpose."^ After His resurrection Christ continued appearing to 
His disciples, forty days, speaking of things pertaining to the kingdom of God.^ 
What He taught them we are not told ; but certainly, if He contradicted the teach- 
ings of the prophets and the hope of Israel, we shall find it somewhere in the 
writings of the apostles and evangelists. 

14. Character of Citizenship. — The Jews desired the kingdom, and were 
looking with intense anxiety, expecting it to appear very suddenly : and when 
the herald began to' proclaim the glad tidings in the wilderness, they crowded to 
hear him, and eagerly listened to the announcement of the advent of their Mes- 
siah and the setting up of the kingdom of God. But their leaders were offended 
at the terms of citizenship and the free extention of its privileges and blessings 
to the nations. John demanded of them genuine repentence, and fruits proving 
a reformation of life and character, and threatened them with destruction; while 
their inheritance should be given to those regarded hopeless and hard cases. ^ 
The Christians motto is : flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God, 
though during this age such be in it as tares in a wheatfield ; so John and Christ 
preached, and Paul adds: Neither can corruption inherit incorruption.^ In the 
intermediate age, man must be born from above — born of God before he has a 
right to enter the kingdom of God, or enjoy or receive the adoption ;6 and in the 
consummated age, his corrupt body must be regenerated before he can possess 
and enjoy the inheritance which is exempt from sorrow, suffering, and mortality, 
as the old prophets predicted. '^ To the regeneration of the body the wicked 



(4) Matt. 5:17. (5) Rev. 21:2, 9-27. 22:1-5. (6) Isa. 54:12. 14. 65:18-21. Ezek. 47:1-12. (7) 
70. (8) Gal. 4:24-31. (9) Heb. 12:18-28. Rev. 21. 22. (1) II. Tim., 2:19. (2) Gen. 5:24. II. Kings, 
2:1, 11. Matt. 27:52, 53. Acts 1:9-11. (3) Gal. 4:24-31. (*) Chap. 124, § 10. (4) Acts 1:3. (5) 
Matt. 3:7-12. (6) I. Cor. 15:50. 6:9-11. Gal. 5:19-21. Eph. 5:5. Rev. 22:15. (7) chap. 70. 



OHAPTEK OXXIII.: SECTION XIV. ;j29 

might not object, provided they were freed from punishment; but to be regener- 
ated in the soul, they have always refused. The scribes, priests, doctors, law- 
yers, Pharisees, and Sadducees rejected the mission of John -,8 and when they 
saw the common people pressing into his baptism, they persisted in obstinacy 
and would not receive his teaching. ^ 

Next comes the Messiah, introduced by John^ and publicly certified by 
Heaven to be the Son of God and King of Israel;^ and all flock to Him. ^ But 
His proclamation is the same: The time is fulfilled; the kingdom of God is at 
hand; repent, and believe the glad tidings. ^ His testimony was not so easily 
rejected, for He confirmed His mission by signs, wonders, and divers miracles, 
that they could not conceal nor deny. ^ They knew Him to be sent of God,*^ 
though they might not believe Him to be the Christ.'^ He taught them what 
their prophets had taught before respecting this kingdom.^ They must come 
into it as little children — born of God ;^ they must be such in profession and in 
fact, externally and internally, born of water and born of the Spirit. ^ Christ 
shames Nicodemus, that he, a teacher in Israel and expounder of the prophets, 
should be ignorant of this. Zechariah knew it, and chanted : That we might 
serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of 
our life. ^ All the prophets describe it as a peaceful, holy, and happy kingdom, 
which could be secured only by restricting citizenship in it to those truly pious. ^ 
Now, that born of the flesh and blood of Abraham, is indeed his flesh and 
blood, but may not have a single trait of his moral character ; and so are wholy 
unqualified for citizenship in the kingdom, and fellowship with Abraham ; but 
that born of the Spirit is adapted to the '^oly character given by the prophets to 
this kingdom, and is capable of holding communion with such as Abraham was. ^ 

The Savior and the apostles everywhere maintain the holy nature and char- 
acter of the kingdom, and the necessity of faith, repentance, and obedience ; or 
regeneration and sanctification, and the exclusion of all other characters. ^ The 
Savior does indeed show that the children of the Wicked One will be intro- 
duced by the devil during this age, but will gain no citizenship, and can not gain 
an heirship nor inherit it by right or as a patrimony ; and in the harvest ending 
this age, the angels will gather them out and cast them into the fire.^ The 
same truth is taught in the parable of the ten virgins,"^ and of the marriage sup- 
per; some will be destitute of oil, and others without a wedding garment. The 
duties, suflerings, patient endurance, and forgiveness of Christians in this age 
require this new nature, born of God,^ and those without this fountain of oil in 
their soul, and not possessing the character of God's children, and not complying 
with the injunctions of Christ and the apostles, shall be rejected by the King 
upon His second advent. Then will Christ reckon with His servants, and those 
having improved the abilities given to them will be promoted to positions of honor 
and trust, but the unprofitable will be rejected. ^ In the next age the saints shall 
govern the world, ^ and those having proved themselves in this age most faithful 
and competent will be niost promoted in the next. ^ Then will be manifested the 
importance ot legitimate citizenship; for it is better to enter the kingdom of God 
without one eye, one foot, or one hand than having all the members of the body 
and yet be cast into the fires of Gehenna. ^ Then shall every person and thing 
not according to the constitution and requirements of the kingdom be cast into 
the lake of fire and brimstone, which is the second death, ^ and then will Christ 
destroy all that will not have Him to rule over them. ^ 



(8) Matt. 3:7-14. 21:23 32. Luke 7:29. Acts 23:8 (9) Matt. 11:18. 21:31, 32. (1) John 10:2,3. 
1:29-36. (2) Luke 3:22. Matt. 3:16, 17. John 1:49. (3) John 2:26. (4) Mark 1:14, 15. (5) Acts 
2:22. John 15:24 (6) John 3:2. (7) Acts 3:17. 1. Cor. 2:8. (8) 70. (9) Matt. 18:3 John 1:12, 13. 
(l)John3:3,5 (2) Luke 1:74, 75. (3) chap. 70. (4) John 3:6, 7. 8 (5) L Cor 6:9-11. Gal. 5:19-21. 
Rev. 2:1-15. (6) Matt: 13:24-43. (7)25:1-13. (8)22:1-14 (9)18:23-35 6:12-15, L Pet/2:19-20. 
Mnft 5:1, 25. Luke 6:29-37. Heb. 10:34 (I) Matt. 25:14-30. (2) Dan. 7:11-14, 26, 27. (3) Luke 
19:12-27. (4) Mark9:43-50. (5) Rev. 19:20. 21:8. 27.- (6) Luke 19:27. 
-34 / ' 



530 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

15. Paeajbles Descriptive of the Kingdom of God. — When this interme- 
diate age was introduced, and often since, it was as difficult for rich men to enter 
the kingdom of God as to become a disciple of Christ;''' for the enemies confis- 
cated their property and nearest relations cast them off unless they renounced 
Christ. The rise and progress of this kingdom must be gradual from a small 
beginning. The stone grew till it filled the whole earth; the mustard seed became 
a tree, ^ and all the meal was leavened. ^ It does not conquer with carnal weapons 
and warfare, but by suffering and patiently exhibiting the true Christian character, 
and by the word and spirit of Jesus Christ. ^ It does not wage war against nations, 
nor instigate insurrections among them, bat by disseminating light and wholesome 
moral principles it overturns ever^^ system of iniquity and corruption. It forms 
no alliances with the kingdoms and institutions of the world, but pulls down the 
strongholds of Satan established among them. ^ It does not consist in pompous 
shows nor imposing ceremonies and ordinances of the flesh, but in real heavenly 
employment and in the cultivation of heavenly virtues. ^ It has a self-appropri- 
ating power over the person regenerated into its citizenship, causing him to 
sacrifice everything for its possession and advancement. ^ It has an abiding 
influence, bringing all the powers of body and energies of mind into its service, * 
and needs no armies to coerce submission or force revenue; it is the supreme 
object, business, and delight of its citizens. It is not indebted to man for its 
growth and success. You may watch it carefully from the proclamation of its 
truths, and it grows and matures, and you cannot tell how. Persons you never 
expected come in, advance in the Divine life, and throw a hallowed influence 
around them, and you can not tell what broujs^ht them in nor how they grow. ^ It 
takes hold in the most unfavorable places and under the most unfavorable circum- 
stances, grows despite of all disadvantages and opposition, and you can not tell 
how. The secret of success is in the kingdom itself. Proclaim its teachings, 
obey its injunctions, rely on its promises, and it will achieve its own victories. 
When completed, Christ will deliver it up to the Father, with all its citizens fully 
disciplined for future use. The powers of hades can not prevail against it, or 
prevent its triumphant consummation. Its most efficient servants and wisest 
counselors may be cut off by death; its most conspicuous ministers may be seduced 
by the devil; its most prosperous assemblies may be dispersed by persecution; 
its most timorous members may be racked with tortures; its royal city may be 
trodden under foot by enemies, and the area of its palace may be desecrated by 
the mosque of Omar, and after all it will grind all opposition to powder and 
govern the world without a rival. ^ The mosaic age was preparatory to the setting 
up of the kingdom, and the Jews had borne the burden and heat of the day, 
while no other people suffered to advance its cause. The Samaritans embraced it 
at a late period, while the nations did not come into its support till after the 
ascension of Christ. But all received the adoption and privileges of citizens on 
the same terms — by faith in Jesus Christ. "^ The Jews, however, had the rights 
of primogenitors, which would never have been taken from them had they not 
rebelled against the terms of citizenship and the free extension of its privileges 
to the nations. Jerusalem would have remained the holy city and in their 
possession, while the riches of the converted nations would have flowed into it, 
and all the surrounding country would have been filled with villages of rejoicing 
believers. The Jews were heirs of the kingdom; but they murdered the King, 
persecuted the kingdom, rejected its constitution and laws, and so were cut off and 
their land and city given to strangers till the predicted, time of the gentiles be 
fulfilled.^ What God promised He will give; but He may give the same to others 
without promising. The Christian builds on promises ; , others may hope in mercy. 



(7) Matt. 19:22,23 Luke 14:26. 27. (8) Dan. 2:34, 35. Matt. 13:31-33. (9) John 18:^6. II. 
Cor. 10:4. Eph. 6:11-18 Rev. 19:13, 14. (1) Dan. 2:44. I. Tim. 2:1, 2. (2) Rom 14:17, 18. (3) 
Matt. 13:45, 46. (4)13:44. (5) Mark 4:26, 27. (6) Matt 16:18, 19. Dan. 2:44. 7:13, 14, 18, 27. 
(7) 20:1-16. John 1;12, 13 (8) Matt. 21:33-41, 43. 22:1-7. Luke 21:24. 



CHAPTER CXXIII. : SECTIONS XVI. -XVIII. 531 

16. The Jews in the Consummated Age. — The Jews shall repent and turn 
to the Lord; 9 their land shall be restored, and their city rebuilt; the palace of 
Jehovah shall again glorify Mount Zion; the perfect model of the kingdom shall 
be seen in Jerusalem, and all nations shall follow the pattern. ^ Nothing shall 
hurt or annoy in all the holy mountain; the nations shall learn war no more;^ the 
Jews shall be the most glorious and powerful of all nations ;3 the Anointed shall 
reign in Jerusalem, rule tlie nations, and they shall trust in Him;* Rome, Con- 
stantinople, Mecca, and Bagdad have usurped the prerogatives of Jerusalem and 
trodden her in the dust, but they shall be destroyed, while Jerusalem shall be in 
the beauty and glory of the whole earth. ^ What revolutions must again overturn 
the nations before the kingdom is consummated and the world can be at rest! 
But the King has reserved that work to Himself. The churches must teach, suffer 
patiently, and influence society.* 

17. The Reforming Power of the Kingdom. — The kingdom of God has 
laws for every purpose and for every subject in it, and obedience to these laws 
will procure and perpetuate the happiness of every subject, extend its borders, 
and reform the nations, f Every citizen should be familiar with all its teachings, 
maxims, rules, and regulations, and should model their whole walk and conversa- 
tion by them. They are the light of the world, the salt of the earth, the founda- 
tion and pillar of truth ; but if they cease to influence the world and bring it under 
the laws of Christ, they must be involved in its revolutions and perish under its 
judgments.^ They are, immortal subjects of an immortal kingdom. It is not 
an invisible kingdom; never was, and never will be-. God never ordained an 
invisible institution of any kind for mankind. Their adoption is not deferred till 
death, but even now they are the sons of God,'' and in confidence address -Him 
by the familiar and endearing appellation of Father.^ Two petitions in the Lord's 
prayer^ — Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven — are 
not to be prayed in hypocrisy, nor repeated and forgotten, but to be offered up 
in sincerity and truth, and then to influence every action. Why call Me Lord, 
Lord! and do not the things I say unto you?^ Death can not separate from this 
kingdom. ^ It may remove them to the royal city for a time, ^ but the King, throne, 
and city, with the spirits of just men made perfect, and records of the first-born, 
who may still be on the earth at that time, shall all descend to earth; their victory 
shall be complete, and their triumph everlasting.* Its constitution, testimonies, 
laws, and institutions are everlasting; when the Heaven and earth have been 
regenerated by fire and the kingdom delivered up to the Father, it will still endure, 
and the Son will be the first-born among many brethren.^ Every Christian 
church should exhibit the kingdom of God, in miniature (a perfect sample of the 
'New Jerusalem) a fac-simile of the kingdom, showing what is coming on a large 
scale, and recommending it to every intelligent mind. Churches are so many 
provinces, districts, or villages of this kingdom, and should preserve the testi- 
monies, laws, and institutions as Christ gave them, and should have a perfect 
resemblance to the parent city — a perfect ambrotype. All churches which do not 
come up to the New Jerusalem model and will not reform must be destroyed. 

18. Importance of the Subject. — The kingdom of God was the grand theme 
of John, Christ, and of the apostles, and the glad tidings were its proximity. 
Christ went about the cities and villages proclaiming this, and He sent the twelve, 
and again the seventy, to do the same. ^ The apostles made this the burden of 
their preaching to the Jews. Philip proclaimed it to the Samaritans, and when 
they heard they believed and were baptized. ^ Paul hired a house at Rome, and 
for two years taught all that came to him about the kingdom of God ;^ and should 



(9) Rom. 11:5, 26. 27 (1) Chap 70. (2) Isa 2:1-4 (3) M'c. 3-5 Isa. 60. 61. Jer. 30:7-11. 
(4) Isa. 54. 9:4-7. Amos 9:9-15. (5) Mic. 8-5. Zeph. 8:12-20. (*) Chap. 124, §§ 8-10. (f) Chaps. 
3, §§ 1, 2, 15. 8, § 5. 124, § 2 (6) Matt. 5:18-16. Phil. 2:15. (7) I John 3:2. (8) Rom. 8:15-17. 
(9) Matt. 6:10. (1) Luke 6:4. (2) John 11:26. (8) Heb. 12:28. (4) Rev. 21:22. (5) 8:29. Col, 
1:15,18. Rom. 8:29. (6) Matt. 10:5, 7. Luke 10:1, 9. (7) Acts 8:12. (8)28:80,81,40, 



632. THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

it not be our theme, and keep it before the people? When Joseph was dying he 
spoke of their going into the promised land, and gave charge concerning liis 
bones, knowing God would take care of his spirit. ^ The old patriarchs died with 
their eyes tixed on this hope, which they viewed in the distance.^ The pains of 
death and the near approach of rest in sheol could not divert their eyes from tlf^ 
consummated age of the kingdom; and shall we, within one hundred years of this 
glorious era, let that great event overtake us as a thief in the night, ^ and spring 
as a snare on the world P Preach to the unregenerated and wicked about death, 
and hell, and Heaven; but keep the kingdom of God, with all its covenants, oaths, 
and })romises, its laws, teachings, and institutions, before the Christians, and let 
their hope and example lead men to salvation. Make the kingdom of God and 
His righteousness the primary object of life.^ 

Our Father, who art in Heaven ! 

Hallowed be Thy name ! 

Thy kingdom come! 

Thy will be done! as in Heaven, so on earth \^ 



CHAPTER CXXiy. 



LAWS AIND OBJECT OF THE KINGDOM. 

1. Design of the Kingdom. — We have said the great object of the kingdom 
is to reform this world and to govern it when reformed; and hence the great 
object of the citizens should be to strengthen its center and extend its borders. 
The promises in the New Testament of rest in Heaven at death and happiness 
among the spirits of just men made perfect, are incentives to action and encour- 
agements under sufferings, but they are not set before us as supreme objects of 
pursuit. The proper Christian idea is this : Our time and talents ought to be 
devoted to the development and consummation of the kingdom of God when 
God's will shall be done on earth as it is now done in Heaven. But in this work 
we shall have much toil and suffering, much fear, vexation, and discouragement. 
This life, however, will soon have an end, and then shall we rest from toil and 
suffering, enjoy perfect felicity with our King in Heaven, return with Him in 
triumph to possess and govern the world, and realize all the hopes inspired by 
the divine promises, covenants, and oaths. When we fall in the conflict our rest 
and comfort are sure, and when the victory of the kingdom is completed we shall 
most assuredly participate in the triumph and enjoy the happiness. There is a 
conflict between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. Long and 
terrible has been the struggle. Millions of the children of light have been 
slaughtered on the field, died in loathsome dungeons, been wrecked with 
excruciating tortures, devoured by ferocious beasts, roasted in slow consuming 
fires, wasted and worn to death by long and oppressive persecutions, restrictions, 
and impositions. But the powers of darkness shall be vanquished, and then 
shall these martyred hosts arise from the dust and take the dominion over the 
whole world. ^ Then follows the long, peaceful, happy, and glorious consumma- 
tion of the kingdom. But our work now is to develop and advance the kingdom 

(9) Gen. 50:24-26. (1) Heb. 11:13, 39. (2) I. Thes. 5:2. (3) Luke 21:35. ^) Mart. 6:33. (5) 
6:9,10. (l)Dan. 7:10, 22.26, 27. 



OtlAPTER CXXIV. : SECTION II. 583 

of God. This must be iiio priiiiary object of our lives. ^ To those who never 
heard of the kingdotn we must proclaim the glad tidings.^ But in our land, 
where all have heard or can hear the word of God, we must fully develop the 
superiority and excellencies of the kingdom in all our words and actions and in 
ever J condition, position, and relation. Let your light so shine that others may 
see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven. ^ Herein is my Father 
glorified: That ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. ^ We may be 
able to prove all the facts, explain philosophically all the teachings of Christi- 
anity, and show all the excellencies of the kingdom and its laws, but not any- 
thing will recommend it to the world so effectually as the genuine Christian life. 
The Christian life of one man may shine as a lamp in a dark, stormy night sub- 
ject to many fiickerings, dimmings, oscillations, and mishaps; but the mutual 
aid, confidence, advancement, regard, love, and cooperation of whole societies 
of believers, exhibit what the kingdom of God is, and its competency to save the 
world from its untold miseries. The children of this age can there see how and 
where happiness can be obtained and enjoyed. The term, faith, literally means 
belief, but as a technicality it denotes the whole Christian system of principles 
and practices. It is often used in the abstract for the concrete. ^ Promises of 
eternal life are made to faith, "^ but fully expressed, it is faith in Jesus Christ."^ 
Christ is presented to us for a teacher, a savior, and a king. He teaches the 
way of reformation and happiness perfectly ; His salvation is perfect and free ; 
His government is perfect and His laws just right. Faith in Christ is confidence 
in Him as a teacher, a savior, and a king. If we believe in Him we will receive 
His teachings, accept His salvation as a free gift and complete, and will obey His 
laws as adapted to the end. To perfect the Christian life and develop the excel- 
lencies of the kingdom before the world, we must receive all its instructions, 
obey all its laws, and observe all its institutions. Christ has reserved all power 
for coercion to Himself, and uses nature and nations for the purpose. f Many 
institutions have been imposed on Christians by men which Christ or His apos- 
tles never authorized ; many laws have been enforced on believers that the king- 
dom never possessed ; and many teachings have been inculcated that Christ never 
taught nor authorized, and the pernicious consequences have been to confound 
the kingdom of God witTi the kingdoms and institutions of this world, to destroy 
its efficiency, and to tarnish its beautj^ All efforts to improve the divine model 
and internal structure have and will prove pernicious to the kingdom and subver- 
sive of the best interests of men. The kingdom of God is the foundation, or 
ground-work and pillar, that keeps the truth elevated and conspicuous before the 
world, "^ and truth on every subject must be ascertained and presented continually 
before saint and sinner.^ Truth is an attribute of God, and Christ came to bear 
witness to the truth and destroy the works of the devil, of which falsehood is 
one.* 

2. Laws of the Kingdom. — The laws of the kingdom may be classified 
according to man's relations, of which he sustains four. The laws regulating 
these relations we call moral laws, or moral principles. Man sustains a relation- 
to God, to himself, to his fellow man, and to the irrational animals. The princi- 
ples regulating his relation to God are comprehended in, and fiowfrom, supreme 
love to God. ^ The laws governing the mutual relations between men are com- 
prehended in, and are founded on, love to another as to one's self. The Script- 
ures do not enjoin self-love, but they recognize it to be inherent in every one not 
degraded below the brute, and make it the standard of love to our neighbor.^ 
Paul says : No man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it.^ 
Man was created to govern the irrational animated creation, and the inanimate 
creation was subjected to him for that purpose. And though by disobedience to 



(2) Matt. 6:33. (3)28:19,20. Mark 16:15, 16. (4) Matt. 5:13-16. (5) John 15:8. (6) Chap. 
98, §§ 5, 6 (71 Mark 16:16 l8) John 3:14-18, 36. (f) § 10. (9) I. Tim. 3 15. (1) John 18:37. 
8.47. 3:19-21. (*) 1 John 3:8, John 8:44. (2) Matt. 22:37-40. Luke 10:27, 28. (3) Eph. 5:29. 



534 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

God he lost control of his subjects, yet his relation to them remains, and he must 
enforce obedience and subdue the earth*. But, as the happiness of his subjects 
should be man's delight, we may safely say man should love the brute creation. 
Hence, love is the fulfilling of the law 5. Love is an affection composed of 
joyful emotions and benevolent desires. When the beloved object appears, or 
is contemplated, the sullen countenance is changed, pleasant sensations and 
joyful emotions pervade the soul ; strong desire for proximity to the object, 
whether possessor or possessed, swells the breast; the happiness of the object 
is ardently desired ; and we wish to please the object and to receive its appro- 
bation. To give a specific precept for every specitlc thought and action, would 
be to wTite a large volume that would never be read; but love will prompt to 
procure and perpetuate the happiness of every sentient being." 

3. Love to God. — Our love to God must be supreme, and all other rela- 
tions and interests must yield to our relation to Him. Other relations may cease 
or change, but this relation remains forever, in every state of existence — in time 
and in eternity. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom ;ir but perfect 
love casts out fear'' and gives confidence But, how can we love God, whom we 
have not seen? He dwells in the light to which no man can approach; whom 
no man has seen, nor can see. ^ We know but very little about the Deity! A 
Being presides over me and is all around me ! I need not look for Him, for I can 
not see Him ! I need not feel, for I can not touch Him I I need not listen, for 
I can not hear Him. He is everywhere ! but I can not find Him anywhere ! But 
we are acquainted with some traits of character in His creatures, which are pos- 
sessed in perfection by the Creator; we attribute these traits to Him and call them 
attributes. Now, we can love or hate these attributes wherever we find them in 
the animated creation, and so we can love or hate them where they are perfect 
and concentrated in one being, and all we are able to conceive of the Deity is fully 
exhibited by the Son in His humanity. Hence, if we see the Son, we see all that 
can be comprehended by us of the Father,^ and so can not love the one and not the 
other; nor can we hate anyone transformed into His image. ^ 

Much of our knowledge of God is negative : we know what He is not. We 
say He is a spirit, ^ and not matter ; but what kind of a spirit is He? Are there 
as many modifications of spirit as there are of matter? We don't know. God 
is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His existence and all His attri- 
butes. Of His being, or existence, I can form no conception; but I can contem- 
plate His attributes, to the boundary of my conceptions. I know what is long 
time, but not what is eternal. I know what is large, or immense, but not what 
is infinite and everywhere present. I can conceive something permanently the 
same for a long time, but mutation is associated in my mind with all my contem- 
plations. His being is beyond my comprehension ! We often attribute to Him 
creature forms, passions, and infirmities, which He does not possess, as hands, 
feet, face, eyes, nostrils, mouth, anger, vengeance, grief, repentance, jealousy, 
etc. We can not contemplate spirit, moral qualities, and mental endowments 
without material associations. We may sympathize with infirmity, but can not 
love it, and we may fear malevolent feelings in superiors, but can not love them. 
How, then, can we love God? God is love (I. John, 4:6). Love emanates from 
Him and centers in Him. We can love those attributes in Him which we find 
imperfectly possessed by His creatures, as wisdom, power, holiness, justice, good- 
ness, and truth. The history of Christ Jesus is very short, but is sufiicient to 
show Him possessed of these attributes beyond the limits of our conception. 

4. Attributes of God. — Wisdom: We use this term in the widest sense, 
comprehending intelligence and discretion. God possesses knowledge, and knows 



(4) Gpn. 1:28 9:2. (5) Rom. 13;10. (*) I. Cor. 13:4-13. Phil. 4:5-9. Chap. 103, § 21. Gal. 
5-16 18 22-25 (6) Ps. 111:10. (7) L John 4:8 (8) I. John 4:12, 20. John 1:18. 6:46. L Tim. 
6:16. (9) John 14:9, 10. (1) I. John 4:20. (2) John 4:24. 



OFAPTER CXXIV.: SEOTION IT. 636 

liow to iise it. Examine the works of creation — in their structure, positions, rela- 
tions, and adaptations to their designs and His government of the world — and 
you will discover wisdom beyond comprehension; but the Son manifests the 
greatest intelligence and discretion with the least possible ostentation ; whether 
dealing with friends or foes, with the wise or ignorant, with men or spirits, He 
shows perfect knowledge of them and their relations, and He knows how to use 
that knowdedge to accomplish His purpose. But His greatest display of wisdom 
is in the institution and management of the kingdom of God for the reformation 
and the government of this world. But how very few have observed it ! 

Power: We use this term in its widest acceptation to comprehend all force 
and ability to dispose of matter and spirit, to regulate them and their attributes. 
When we contemplate the boundless universe, with its immense worlds whirling 
along immeasurable orbits with inconceivable velocity, and the mighty agents 
imprisoned in our earth and atmosphere, we must confess the power that made 
and controls them to be Almighty. Christ showed His power over matter and 
spirit, winds and waters, the dead and living, men and devils, things visible and 
invisible. None could overpower Him; He prostrated His captors, ^ but laid 
down His life and took it again, ^ and the preservation, advancement, and predicted 
consummation of His kingdom show His power as well as His wisdom. 

Holiness: We use this term to comprehend all intrinsic purity in the person, 
and developing itself in every relation, thought, word, and action, and is closely 
allied to justice. Holiness is a place for everything, and everything in its place, 
and justice is a law for everything, and everything according to its law. Physical 
purity was strictly enjoined by Moses, and was most studiously preserved and 
displayed in the temple. Purity of spirit was enjoined by those laws imposing 
restrictions on the animal propensities, and in mortifications of the flesh, and by 
the obligations to fear, reverence, and love Jehovah, who was presented to them 
as a holy being, abhorring everything impure in thought, word, and action. 
Christ's enemies accused His disciples of transgressing the traditions of the elders, 
but they never accused Him of violating the laws of Moses in regard to purifica- 
tion, nor did His most vigilant foes charge one impure word or action against Him. 
All His words and actions on record exhibit the purest spirituality, and show how 
He preferred the purity of the spirit to that of the flesh. ^ His thoughts, and 
actions were all in their proper place. 

Justice: This term denotes conformity to law and regard to its dignity. 
When applied to the Deity, it means that He will deal with His creatures according 
to the laws of their creation and positive laws given to them, whether these laws 
are physical, mental, or moral. He will not require one species of His creatures 
to be governed by the laws to which others are adapted. Irrational animals are 
not subject to moral laws, and men are not required to perform the work of angels;* 
nor does He punish the ignorant as the intelligent, ^ though ignorance itself be a 
violation of mental and moral laws. Though Christ wept over Jerusalem, He 
would not avert one stroke of justice. But the greatest display of justice was in 
the Son bearing the wrath of God due to us. The Father dispensed not with 
justice when it fell upon His only begotten Son, and the Son evaded not the sentence, 
but maintained the dignity of the law by the sacrifice of Himself — soul and body. 
He obeyed every precept and suffered every penalty of positive law, and when 
He returns He will execute justice on those who will not accept His pardon nor 
submit to His authority. ^ 

Goodness: We do not use this term in the sense of purity or excellence, but 
in the sense of beneficence, love, friendship, favor, and compassion. We meet 
this attribute in man, but it is generally restricted by selfish interests and relations; 
but in Christ it was exhibited without restrictions — the unclean leper the furious 



(4) John 18:6. (5)10:18. (6) Matt. 15:2, 11, 17-20. (4) Heb. 2:16. (5) Luke 12:47, 48. Ley. 
5:2-19. Num. 15:24-31. (6) Luke 19:27. Matt. 22:7. • 



536 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

demoniac, the Jew, Samaritan, and gentile, friend and foe, experienced His favor. 
But the goodness of God passes all boundary of conception when the Father 
gave His only begotten Son to restore us to happiness, and the Son suffered visible 
and invisible agonies to save lost men. Father, forgive them ! they know not 
what they do. '^ 

Truth: We use this term to include fidelity to engagements, or true to 
promises. Truth is the presentation or representation of everything just as it is, 
was, or will be, without any exaggeration or diminution in approbation or disap- 
probation of friend or foe, or in anything of value or interest. Truth insures 
the fulfillment of promises or authorized expectations, and the- reality of all 
presentations. All Christ's words and presentations were exactly so, whether he 
spoke of Jews, Samaritans or gentiles, or addressed Peter, James and John, or 
scribes, Pharisees, Saducees, or Satan. His character and conduct authorized 
sinners and sufferers to come to Him; and no one was ever disappointed by Him. 
All divine promises and authorized expectations have been realized so far as the 
proper time has come, and so have the threatenings. 

Now, contemplate these attributes as you find them in creation, in men, and 
in Christ, and do you love them ? and do you love that Being who possesses them 
all in perfection? do you hunger and thirst to be transformed into that image? 
Well ! If you love Me keep My commandments. ^ He that has My command- 
ments and keepeth them, he is it that loveth Me • ^ -^^ -^ he that loveth Me 
not, keepeth not My sayings.^ He saying, I love Him, but keeps not His com- 
mandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him. ^ Implicit obedience is due to 
God; and hence that petition, Thy will be done on earth as in Heaven. 2 

5. Philosophical and Revealed Religion. — Philosophy may labor to give 
us adequate ideas of the Supreme Being ; but we are lost in the vastness of the 
subject! and are best edified when He is presented in the relation of King, or 
Father. In philosophical religion we practice virtue and discharge duty because 
we understand the reason and see the advantage : in revealed religion we do so 
because God says so. God has given satisfactory evidence that He has given a 
revelation, and that He has spoken; but that once proved. He demands implicit 
obedience. Revealed and philosophical religion are not antagonistic, nor is it 
wrong to perceive and admire the wisdom of God's injunctions and their adapta- 
ti(m to the end and object. But in our present deranged state of body and mind 
we are very incompetent to reason on divine things and moral subjects ; and when 
acquainted with the nature, condition, and operation of anything, we are apt to 
become careless, and even attempt improvements of our own which might be 
subversive of the whole design. How frequently does the Lord remind Israel of 
His authority by the phrase: I am the Jehovah."^ It is dangerous to permit 
ignorant subjects to exercise a discretionary power in receiving or rejecting laws 
and commands. A faithful, wise, and competent citizen may be intrusted with 
discretionary powers; but even then, regard to the importance of government 
requires obedience where commands are given. Our King has set us an example 
of obedience, and enjoined the same on His subjects.^ For nearly six thousand 
years has God been teaching man the necessity of obedience to positive laws ; but 
even Christians evade and disobey them yet. 

6. Regeneration Indispensable to Citizenship. — Th*e kingdom of God 
has no penal laws now, as under the laws of Moses in the preparatory age; but 
it has an exclusion, which leaves the person exposed to the final condemnation 
of the wicked,^ which is more terrible than death by the law. It is to be feared 
that mistaken views about the mild, genial voice of the Gospel has led unregen- 
erated souls to imagine they can do as they please and go to Heaven as they 
choose. Christ's people are a willing people, and in the day of His power will 



(7) Luke 28:34. (8) John 14:15, 16. (9)14:21.23,24. (1) I. John 4:20. (2) Matt. 6:10. (*) 
Lev. 11:44, 45 Ex. 20:2. (3) Matt 3:15. Heb. 5:8. (4) I. Cor. 11:32. 



CflAPTER CXXIV. : SEC ION Ytl. 537 

not need a standing army to enforce obedience.^ A man in heathen lands may 
love the attributes of God wherever found, and condemn Jews and Christians, 
who, with revelation in their hand, hate them.^ Our relation to the Deity requires 
us to know, fear, love, and obej implicitly. Supreme love to Jehovah will 
induce love to ourselves, and pr()mpt us to improve ourselves for whatever work 
pleases Him. Oft do we see children working and learning, with no view to the 
advantage but just to please parent or teacher, and to possess their favor; so, 
when supreme love to God takes possession of our souls, we desire to be trans- 
formed into His image, and every way qualified for [lis service and communion 
with Him by the spirit. Regeneration is indispensable to citizenship. Not only 
does the constitution require it, but without it the general law, founded on love 
to others and regulating our transactions with them, would subvert^its very design. 
As ye would that others should do to you, do ye even so to them. "^ Though self- 
love is inherent in man, yet some have so degenerated below nature that all gen- 
uine love is rooted out of their breasts,''^, and they prefer the gratification of some 
animal Inst to the happiness of soul and body; and desiring others to enable him 
in accomplishing his object, he would be required by Christ's golden rule, given 
above, to aid others to accomplish the same wicked object. Tlie licentious, the 
haughty, the implacable, and the covetous, would be required to gratify licen- 
tiousness, disdainfulness, revenge, and covetousness ! because he wishes others 
to gratify him in these things. He must furnish the drunkard with liquor, the 
glutton with luxuries, and the assassin with weapons. Some philanthropists have 
sadly blundered in trying to govern the unregenerated nations by the mild laws 
of the kingdom of God. Hyenas and tigars can not be governed by the laws of 
love. The best laws for unregenerated men are the laws of Moses. They were 
added to the covenants because of transgressors.'^ If the covetous would carry 
out this law of Christ in one way, it would cure them of their lust. When they 
desire the property or labor of others for nothing, let them give their property 
and labor for nothing, and they will find it an expensive lust. This they will 
not do, though they desire it of others. But the murderer might, and will, aid and 
screen another murderer and expect the same in return. I^one, but those trans- 
formed into the image of God, can act in all cases according to this law. Ye 
must be born from above. ^ In acting out all tlie laws of the kingdom we will 
meet with losses, sufferings, discouragements, and trials, that will test our faith, 
hope, and love. Are these covenants, hopes, and promises, sure? Am I an heir 
to them, and do I love the inheritance ? Do I hunger and thirst to be transformed 
into the image of God and freed from corruption ? Will I submit to those laws 
and regulations that enable me to please God and do His will ? The children of 
philosophy may discover many of the duties founded on the relation to ourselves 
and to others and see their utilitv, but the children of God must act on these 
relations by the laws and teachings of the kingdom, whether they perceive the 
utility or not. They may not judge but obey. 

7. Relations and Obligations. — The relation a citizen of this kingdom sus- 
tains to himself requires him to know himself and observe the laws of his crea- 
tion and the positive laws of the kingdom He is a moral, mental, and physical 
being, and also subject to positive laws. In the consummated age he must and 
will be perfect in all these developments, but in this intermediate age he must be 
approximating into the likeness of his King. He must grow in grace and in the 
knowledge of the holy, and come to the full stature of the perfect man in Christ 
Jesus. 1 His moral character comes primarily and directly under the reforming 
influences and designs of the kingdom, and this should be his primary object; 
but the cultivation and discipline of his mind, the recuperation and government 
of the body, his sustenance and position in society, are also enjoined. ^ Paul 

(5)Ps. 110. (6)Rom. 2:12-16, 27 Matt. 12:41, 42. (7) M.itt. 7:12. (*) Gal. 5:19-21. (8)3:19. 
(9) John 3:7. (1) Eph. 4:13, 15. II. Pet. 1:5-8. (2) Eph. 5:28, 29- 4:28. I. Thes 4:10-12. II. Tlies. 
3:10-12. 



TMI2 kingdom of god bEVELOPED. 

represents the regenerated man as a new creature, renewed into the image of 
God, in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. ^ Knowledge belongs to 
the intellectual powers of man's spirit ; holiness to the innate dispositions, or 
sensibilities, and righteousness to the will, or voluntary powers; and if we would 
please God and be fitted for His fellowship and service, we must attend to our 
emotions, desires, and affections, cultivate our intellectual powers, and choose 
and practice according to the Divine will. We must be zealous of good works, '^ 
and observe the Lord's day because we delight in His service.'^ The relation a 
subject of this kingdom bears to all mankind requires him to love them and to labor 
for their moral, mental, and physical reformation and advancement, but the rela- 
tion to his fellow-citizens of the kingdom enjoins special duties which he does not 
owe to the rest of the human family. He may labor for the reconciliation of the 
world to God, their regeneration by the Spirit, and submission to the throne of 
Christ, but as they belong to the kingdom of darkness and are not governed by 
the laws of Christ, he can not confide in them nor participate in their fellowship. 
But, fellow-citizens being regenerated by the same Divine Spirit, redeemed by the 
same Savior, menibers of the same family, and heirs of the same inheritance, 
must receive his confidence, cooperation, and gratuitous benificence. They may 
divide their labors, but they must aid each other in advancing the kingdom, 
showing its adaptation to promote happiness and its competency to regenerate 
and govern this world. Every social evil must be guarded against, and every 
root of bitterness must be eradicated. The relation between labor and capital 
should be fixed on Christian principles. 

Position in Society: They must consider the relative position they holdin 
society, and while laboring to secure their own interest and enjoyment, should 
labor to promote the happiness of all occupying different positions. If a superior, 
he should consult the feelings peculiar to inferiors, and make them comfortable 
and happy. If he is an inferior in position, he should regard the position of 
others, consider the peculiar difficulties of their situation, give them no trouble, 
but enable them to discharge the various duties of their office with fidelity, facility, 
and comfort. So the law of Christ enjoins and love to others instigates. A large 
portion of life's evils arise from superiors disregarding the happiness of inferiors 
and violating their rights and feelings, and from inferiors' envy and hostility to 
superiors, disrespect to their position in society, throwing obstacles in the way of 
discharging duties, and depriving them of aid and cooperation. These relations exist 
in families, churches, schools, and civil governments, and between employer and 
the employed. 

Personal Safety and Interest: Life, health, and strength are desirable to 
every regenerated soul, and in laboring to obtain these to himself for the service 
of God, he must conduct his affairs so as to secure the same for others. Love to 
God prompts to secure and preserve these for advancing His cause. Self-love 
demands them for our own sustenance and enjoyment, and love to others dictates 
the securing of them to others. Though wealth is not the supreme object of the 
citizens, yet, being convenient and useful in every good cause, industry and 
-^onomy are enjoined upon all, and equal love to others will prevent injury and 
prompt to advance the interest of all. They must work or not eat;^ must not 
hinder others, nor take their property or labor without compensation ; nor do dis- 
honest nor scant labor when employed by others. 

Personal and Social Character : They must keep all animal propensities in 
subjection to the regenerated spirit, must labor to disseminate pure morals in 
thought, word, and action, and thus bring society under control of the spiritual 
man and make character and advancement secure in community. Truth in all 
things is indispensable to individual reformation and perfection, and character, or 



(8) Col. 3:10. Eph. 4:24. (4) Tit. 2:14. (*) Isa. 58:13, 14. Rev. 1:10. Acts 15:28, 29. (5) II 
Thes. 3:10. 



(5aAtTBft cxxiv. : sj^ctions viii.-ix. 5S9 

l-eputation, is necessary to man's standing and influence in society and his wel- 
fare in time of adversity; hence, love to ourselves and others requires everyone 
to observe a strict regard to true and exact representations of everything in rela- 
tion to himself and others and every subject. They must let their light shine 
for the glory of God and the good of others, ^ and they must not tarnish the char- 
acter of others by false, or misrepresentations. It is not often that all are equally 
prosperous, well situated, and fully satisfied with their condition, but these citi- 
zens must cultivate contentment with their own possessions and conditions, rejoice 
in the prosperity, affluence, and influence of others, even when themselves are 
obscure, indigent, and in adversity. We brought nothing into the world, and we 
shall carry nothing out; having food and raiment let us be content, for God has 
promised to never leave nor forsake His people. ''^ 

8. The Object of Churches. — Churches, or local assemblies, should be 
mutual aid societies, to live out Christ's teachings before the world and show the 
social blessings of Christianity, and to secure all the blessings of this kingdom, 
both physical and spiritual, to all the citizens without necessitating them to 
abandon home and go on pilgrimage to some central point, or holy city. They 
should be the light and salt of their neighborhoods, and bear up the truths of 
God before all around them.^ When Jerusalem is restored and regenerated, it 
will be the center of Christian concourse and the fountain of every blessing. 
There will be perfect holiness and happiness, and thence will flow the divine 
truths, testimonies, and wholesome regulations, with every development of the 
kingdom; there will be displayed the perfect model of the kingdom, the true 
character of the children of God, and be enjoyed the richest blessings of earth 
promised by Moses. But till then we must maintain its truths, laws, and regu- 
lations in small societies, with Christ divinely present, ^ and see that all the mem- 
bers comply with the requisitions and enjoy the blessings. Churches should 
exercise a mutual care and supervision over both bodily and spiritual welfare; 
every member should be employed, and have the means of self-sustenance 
afforded, and they should grow in grace and the knowledge of the Holy.^ They 
must be industrious, or not eat;^ must be frugal and gather up the fragments ;^ 
must be prudent and keep out of debt ;* ought to possess some property for nec- 
essary and benevolent purposes;^ must be faithful and honest when hired, or 
employed, and reasonable with laborers and servants.® The pastor's business is 
to know the condition and circumstances of every member and have them sup- 
plied with whatever is necessary to their physical and spiritual welfare, and know 
who want work and who want work done. 

9. Relation to Institutions of the World. — The neglect, failure, and 
unfaithfulness of churches to do the work of the kingdom has given rise to many 
semi-religious institutions of the world for the reformation of society and the 
amelioration of suffering humanity. We should understand the relation these 
institutions bear to the kingdom of God, and how we should act toward them. 
To abandon the object and work of the kingdom and labor to supersede it in the 
reformation and government of the world by uniting with the children of dark- 
ness, is unfaithfulness to Christ and His throne. The children of this world may 
form associations to reform society and obviate life's evil's if they can without 
submitting to the throne of Christ or complying with all its laws. We may not 
oppose their effort, but must not unite with them. Why should we unite with 
them? Is Christ not able to accomplish His undertaking? Is His kingdom a 
failure? Are we not complete in Him?"^ Are His laws and regulations not 
adapted to the end and object of reformation and government ? Does a mixture of 
unregenerated, independent, and self-willed material give efflciency to reformation 



(6) Matt. 5:13-16. (7) I. Tim 6:8. Heb 13:5. (8) Matt. 5:13-16. I. Tim. 3:15. (9) Matt. 
18:20. (1) II. Pet. 3:18. (2) II. Thes. 3:10. (3) John 6:12. (4) Rom. 13:8. (5) Tit. 3:14. Eph. 
4:28 (6) 6:5-7. Col. 3:22 I. Tim. 6:1. Tit. 2:9, 10. I. Pet. 2:18. Eph. 6:9. Col. 4:1. Jam. 5:4. 
(7) Col. 2:10. 



540 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

tion and insure success? Are the manners and maxims of the world better 
adapted to reform and govern than the laws and teachings of the kingdom ? If 
this kingdom is to break in pieces and subdue all opposition and stand forever,® 
why not advance in reformation under its banners? Are these societies formed 
by the true disciples of Christ ? Why do they desert His standard and labor to 
bring glory and triumph to an institution of the world ? But are they the dis- 
obedient that disregard His laws, and will they be more obedient when united 
with unbelievers who profess no subordination to Christ? Do those forming 
these societies love one virtue and hate another? Or approve one law of Christ 
and disapprove of another? Or do they hope to reform society just to their own 
standard and govern the world without Christ? If the children of Satan divide 
their ranks and hasten the downfall of His empire, very well ! Let them work 
away ! But if the children of God divide their ranks, and opposing fragments 
combine with opposing fragments of the enemy, may not the kingdom of God be 
divided and the devil capture all?^ The devil has a large force, can keep a 
solid army, and can yet spare regiments enough to unite with disaffected frag- 
ments of Christ's kingdom, with the professed object of reform, and when suffi- 
ciently alienated from Christ he can capture the whole squad. If Satan can 
induce Christians to abandon the kingdom and desert its banners, he laughs at 
all their reformations. Without Christ we can do nothing. ^ If Christians unite 
with the world, the children of the world will govern the movement. The king- 
dom of God has a work to do and a way to do it in, and the reformation and 
happy government of the world cannot be affected by any other institution nor in 
any other way. Let children of the world, influenced by the teachings and prac- 
tice of Christians, carry on reformation in their own way if they can, and do not 
oppose them; 2 but let the children of the kingdom advance under their own ban- 
ners and according to their own laws. Let them study the constitution, laws, 
nature, and designs of the kingdom — the light of the world, salt of the earth, and 
foundation, etc. — and then, in accordance with these, let them labor to take the 
dominion over the whole earth^ and govern the nations with an iron scepter.* 
But in vain do they expect to escape the awful desolations which will overthrow 
the empire of Satan, by forming alliances with the world and disobeying the 
laws of Christ. There is not any evil in the world for which the kingdom of 
God has not provided a remedy. Study the Scriptures honestly, with the fear of 
God before your eyes and the love of truth in your heart, and comply with all its 
instructions, and then the kingdom will triumph and the world rejoice. 

10. Relation to Civil Government. — We are enjoined submission to civil 
governments. God ordained civil governments for controlling unregenerated 
men by laws adopted to their character and condition. They govern by fear and 
interest. Christians ought to be actuated by higher and nobler motives while 
rendering obedience to these laws enforced by power and penalties ; while others 
obey out of fear of loss or punishment.^ When civil laws come in collision with ' 
the laws of the kingdom of God, we must adhere to the kingdom, though it costs 
our property and lives. We may not incite rebellion or revolutions ; but if others 
instigate them, we should favor the right, if we may participate in them at all. 
As the kingdom advances in the accomplishment of its object, civil government 
will become unnecessary; but, till then, we must support and obey it. That 
church is unworthy a name or place in the kingdom of God that can not control 
the relations and transactions of its members among themselves without appeal- 
ing to civil law.^ Where we have share in civil government, we ought to exer- 
cise all legitimate power and influence to make the constitution and laws in 
accordance with the divine teachings. In the preparatory age, when blood, 
flesh, and property relation gave citizenship in the kingdom, God gave it a civil 



(8) Dan. 2:44, 45. (9) Matt. 12:24-30. (1) John 15:4, 5. (2) Mark 3:22-27. 9:38, 39. Matt. 
15:12-16. (3) Dan. 7:18-27. (4) Rev. 2:26, 27. (5) Rom. 13:1-7. (6) I. Cor. 6:1-4. 



CHAPTER CXXIV. : SECTIONS X. 641 

government adapted to a society of mixed characters (the law was added to the 
covenant with Abraham, on account of transgressions,^ which necessarily implies 
transgressions); but when Christ came and restricted citizenship to the regen- 
erated, He took away the civil government and enjoined His disciples to submit 
to the civil governments where they sojourned.'^ The business of civil govern- 
ment is to restrain and control evil ; and the business of the kingdom is to eradi- 
cate it altogether. When societies or communities are governed by love to God 
and man, civil governments are not necessary; till then they are indispensable 
and must be supported. Wherefore receiving a kingdom which can not be shaken 
let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and 
godly fear: for also (kai) our God is a consuming fire,"^ and a jealous God.^ We 
need not vex ourselves about civil government, and institutions, and associations 
of the world ; for all power in heaven and on earth are given into Christ's 
hands,^ and He will manage them with almighty power and infinite wisdom, 
though we may not think so. If civil governments grant us rights and property 
we must use them, if they intrust us with office we must be faithful ; but if they 
need to be revolutionized or overthrown, Christ will cause the children of the 
world to do that at the proper time and in the right manner. Let us mind our 
own business. The light of the world. The salt of the earth. The ground and 
pillar of the truth. Though love to God and man should induce the children of 
God to deny themselves of their natural rights and enjoyments, for the good and 
reformation of others, it is unwise and unauthorized to attempt to force the 
unregenerated to submit to such restrictions. It requires power to force those 
governed by animal propensities to give up animal rights, pleasures, and grati- 
fications; and such power Christ reserved to Himself and will use it when He 
sees proper. We may provoke war and be defeated, or entail greater evils on 
community. The time for the saints to govern the world has not yet come : 
the tares must be gathered out of the kingdom first; and hypocrits must not 
govern the churches. Civil governments should be governed by the inherent 
physical, mental, and moral laws of creation, and secure the happiness and pros- 
perity of the citizens ; but let them keep hands off the revealed will and positive 
laws of God. They may not legislate for the kingdom of God. " What has the 
emperor to do with the church ? What has the church to do with the kings ? 
Wliat have bishops to do at court?" This is the motto of the true churches of 
Christ. I 



(7) Gal. 3:18, 19. (*) Rom. 13:1-7. 1. Pet. 2:13, 14. (9) Heb. 12:28, 29. (1) Deut 4:24-. 

(2) Matt. 28:18. 



Period Seventeenth. Chaps. 125-127. A. M. 4030-4330, or A. D. 26-326. 

The Pure or First Seal Period of the Intermediate Age of the Kingdom 
of God. 

CHAPTER CXXY. 



POSITION m THE DIVINE PROGRAMME, AND CHARACTER OF 
THE KINGDOM. (Continued from Chap. 109.) 

1. No Central City, or Authority. — Having received the last additions 
to the Prophetic Programme, let us proceed with the historical development of 
the kingdom of God. But here we will find some difficulty in gaining an ade- 
quate and comprehensive idea of it. Jerusalem being now destroyed, we find no 
center to which the different churches might gather ; no central power to which 
they must report and whose mandates thej must obey ; no synods, assemblies, 
patriarchs, nor popes. The royal city is now in Heaven, and from thence the 
Royal Son of David wields His iron sceptre over all nations. There all the legiti- 
mate citizens go when they have finished their witness-bearing on eartli and are 
numbered with the spirits of just men made perfect, and from thence will they 
come with Christ to judge and to rule the world at the end of this age. But now 
they are scattered over the world in individual loneliness, in small groups, and in 
large congregations, having no or^janized union, confederacies, or consolidations 
on earth. 3 Their union consisted in discipleship to one Teacher, salvation by 
the same Savior, sanctification by the same Holy Spirit, children of the same 
Heavenly Father, heirs of the same inheritance, subjects of the same King and 
laws, and pursuit of the one object — the consummation ot* the kingdom of God 
and their individual transformation into the image of God in holiness, knowledge, 
and righteousness. Wherever one Christian met with another possessing these 
family characteristics, he must recognize him to be in Christ Jesus and treat him 
as a brother. 

2. The Standard Authorlty. — The laws to be obeyed, the institutions 
and ordinances to be observed, the instructions to be received, the truths to be 
believed and accepted, are now perfected and committed to writing ; and not any 
power, or order of men, on earth, has any authority to amend, alter, or annul 
them. The old covenant Scriptures are the words of God, given by the same 
Holy Spirit that dictated those of the new covenant ; and they are profitable for 
instruction, for reproof, for correction, that the man of God may be perfected for 
teaching and every good work. Not any part nor portion of them is to be 
destroyed, but all of them must be fulfilled. However, as they belong to a differ- 
ent dispensation, or age, of the kingdom, they must be taken by the Christian in 
subordination to the teachings of the new covenant Scriptures. x\nd if any article 
of faith or practice be deduced from them, contrary to the teachings of the new, 
they must be rejected — just as a law of the land may be set aside because contrary 
to the constitution. 



(3) Neander, pp. 118-9. 



CHAPTER CXXV. : SECTIONS III. -VI. 543 

3. Difficulty in Obtaining Adequate Historical Information. — The 
judgment we may form of the character and condition of the kingdom of God 
after the close of the Inspired volume, is liable to great uncertainty ; for our 
histories are of individual persons and churches occupying positions not the most 
favorable to genuine Christianity. We have seen the seven churches in Asia 
Minor, and others addressed by the apostles, were in very diiferent conditions 
and exhibitedv ery different characters, and the history of the one would not give 
the true character or condition of the other. But reasoning from causes, means, 
and agencies, we have concluded : That Christianity was planted in its purity, 
and churches were organized in every part of the world where Jews and syna- 
gogues were found ; and in how many more places we can not tell ; and we shall 
continue to contemplate them as pure and faithful till we iind evidence to the 
contrary. And this is the teaching of the lirst seal in the Book of the Revelations 
to John. 

4. Position of the Kingdom in the Divine Programme. A. M. 4104, or 
A. D. 100. — -The picture in the first seal presents a horse, denoting power and 
energy, under the control of a guiding intelligence. A horse by himself is not so 
formidable or dangerous as many other animals ; but under a brave and skillful 
rider, he becomes a power hard to be resisted. White: denoting purity and 
honor, like white robes, and light. A rider: denoting a guiding intelligence. 
This rider is not a commander bearing a sword as an insignia of office, but an 
archer, or hunter, with a bow, representing individual, personal, enterprise, and 
exertion. The fighting men are conspicious; but no officer is seen. A crown, 
diadem, or wreath, was presented to him in token of his success. He went 
lorward conquering, and sought new territory to subdue. He defended his own 
provinces and invaded others. So we read the picture in the first seal. (Chap. 
109:7,8.) 

5. The kingdom of God went forth among the nations with a power and 
energy that was felt. It was a pure, gentle, meek, loving, forgiving, honorable, 
and soul-elevating in its force and in its influence, as the new covenant histories, 
teachings, and exhortations show. Christ was the only acknowledged leader. 
No PeterSj no Pauls, no Apollos ! but Christ was all, and in all. All are yours 
and ye are Clirist's, and Christ is God's. Persecuted at Jerusalem, they went 
preaching the Gospel everywhere. Though Apollos knew only the baptism of 
John, he boldly preached what he did know; and Aquila and Priscila instructed 
him without orders from bishops and councils. The Gospel found its way to 
Damascus, Samaria, Antioch, and Rome without the apostles sending it. No 
commanders, but all were laborers : and they were crowned with success. The 
Word of God, the testimony of Jesus Christ, the gifts and influences of the spirit, 
prayer, praise, and Christian character, were their sharp arrows and strong bows. 
No compromise with sin and pollution ; but their light shown around and people 
saw the good fruits, glorified God, believed in Jesus, entered the kingdom, and 
became preachers and examples to others. How long this holy, unassuming, 
and prosperous condition of the kingdom continued we shall trace out on the 
page of history. (See § 9.) 

6. The apostles have now (A. D. 100) finished their labors and sufferings, 
and have joined the company of the spirits of just men made perfect in Heaven, 
where Christ is. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are no longer communicated by 
the imposition of the apostles' hands ; but many who received these gifts, before 
their departure, remain in the churches witnessing for the truth, edifying the 
brethren, encouraging the saints in times of trials; and confute and confound 
the adversaries.^ Of some of these apostolic men we have some account. One 
of them — Clement of Rome — wrote an epistle to the church of Corinth before 
John wrote his Gospel, but he presents no teachings or practices contrary to 



(4) Chap. 106. 



544: THE KINGDOM OF UOD DEVELOPED. 

the Scriptures. The churches of that time could easily ascertain the truth in 
regard to any teachings or practices of the apostles, till their writings became 
distributed among all the churches. Clement was acquainted with these writings, 
for he quotes the words of Christ out of the Gospels, cites most of the epistles, 
and refers the Corinthians to Paul's epistles to them. This shows, that these 
writings were known at this time at Rome and Corinth ; or, at least, the facts 
and teachings contained in them. (See Home's Introduction, Paly, and others.) 

7. Heretics. — The false brethren, deceitful workers, or those professing 
themselves Christians but perverting its truths and disobeying its precepts, were 
called Nicolaitans and Cerinthians. Though troublesome and painful to the 
churches, they proved of great advantage to the kingdom by the results pro- 
duced-: Christians were under the necessity of examining evidence and adhering 
strictly to the well authenticated teachings of the apostles; and to be very careful 
in selecting pastors and teachers, accepting letters and instructions, manuscripts 
and translations of the Scriptures. These internal enemies rejected polytheism 
and professed their belief in the existence of one God only, and their faith in 
Jesus Christ; but they made their own whimsical conceptions and speculations 
the supreme standard of knowledge and practice, and instead of genuine faith 
and implicit obedience, they subjected all Divine revelations to their own appro- 
bation or rejection, and hence they denied the Divine inspiration of the Scrip- 
tures, altered others, and forged some. They had neither the fear of God before 
their eyes nor the love of truth in their hearts. The apostles discarded such ; 
the churches excluded them and had no fellowship with them. Their teachings 
were whimsical and confessed abstractions, and their practices were capricious 
and contradictory, and while some emaciated their bodies to purity their souls, 
others indulged in licentiousness, considering gratification of the flesh, or animal 
propensities, no crime. This gave Polytheism a pretext to traduce Chris- 
tianity, and made it necessary for churches to be vigilant in guarding 
against disorderly and unworthy members, and pastors, and teachers, and against 
spurious documents, for could these false professors of Christianity identify 
themselves with the true disciples they would do it ; could they impeach the 
genuineness or the authenticity of the writings of the apostles and evangelists, 
and impose their own forgeries on the believers, they would do it. Thus, the 
hostility of Satan was overruled to secure to us genuine and authentic copies of 
the Inspired writings. 

8. Thkee Antagonistic Eeligious Foeces. — The religious forces and influ- 
ences antagonistic to the kingdom of God during this period maybe divided into 
three classes — heretics, philosophers, and Polytheists. The heretic perverted, 
corrupted, and distracted; the philosopher might accept such facts and princi- 
ples, or notions, from Christians, Jews, and Polytheists, as suited his purpose, 
and dispose of them to accommodate his theory; and when in power or authority, 
might favor whatever party best suited his designs or notions. The body of 
Polytheism, or the Red Dragon, was the priesthood and the multitude, while 
civil governments constituted the heads. The priest might be a Polytheist or an 
atheist, and the governor might be a philosopher, who acted according to his own 
judgment or capricious notion. In the past history we have found the civil rulers 
often friends and protectors to the people of Jehovah, and so we may continue 
to find them often when the multitude, instigated by the priesthood, clamor for 
the death of Christians. 

9. Chakacter of the Kingdom of God During this First Seal Period. 
(Continued from § 5.) — During this period the characteristics of the seal are very 
conspicuous. It was the universal sentiment of the churches and the heretics 
that the demons were the authors, the patrons, and objects of idolatry. The 
most trifling marks of respect to the national worship the Christian regarded as a 
direct homage yielded to the demon and against the majesty of God, and it was^ 
the first, but arduous, duty of the Christian to preserve himse' ■' pure from the 



CHAPTER CXXV. : SECTION X. 



545 



practice of idolatry. The innumerable deities and rites of Polytheism were 
closely interwoven with every circumstance of business or pleasure in public or 
private life, and it seemed impossible to escape the observance of them without 
renouncing the commerce of mankind and all the offices and amusements of 
society. Such was the anxious diligence required to guard the chastity of the 
Gospel from the infectious breath of idolatry, that opportunity was often fur- 
nished the Christians of declaring and confirming their zealous opposition. By 
these frequent protestations their faith was continually fortified, and in proportion 
to the increase of their zeal they combatted with more ardor and success against 
the empire of demons, i The primitive Christian demonstrated his faith by his 
virtues. The first apologists and later writers display in the most lively colors 
the reformation introduced into the world by the preaching of the Gospel. Even 
the faults, or errors, of the primitive Chrstians were derived from an excess of 
virtue. ^ The Christian system, as taught into the second century, preserved its 
native and beautiful simplicity, and was comprehended in a small number of 
articles. The public teachers inculcated no other doctrines than those in the 
apostolic creed (as it was called), and in illustrating them everything beyond the 
reach of common capacities was carefully avoided. At this time there was not 
the least controversy about those capital doctrines of Christianity which after- 
ward divided the churches. The bishops were, for the most part, plain, illiterate 
men, more remarkable for piety and zeal than for learning and eloquence. ^ A 
change, however, began in the second century. If the primitive defenders of 
Christianity were not always most happy in the choice of their arguments, yet 
they discovered more candor and probity than those of the following age. The 
artifice of sophistry and pious frauds in support of truth had not yet infected the 
Christians. The most of them appear destitute in penetration and learning, 
order, application, and force. ^ 

10. Testimony of the Ancient Friends and Foes. — Ignatius was sent from 
Antioch, in Syria, to Rome, to be thrown to the wild beasts, and in his journey 
there stopped among the seven churches in Asia Minor, and, in his epistles, tes- 
tifies to their purity and fidelity. ^ Hegesippus says : The church continued until 
then as a pure and uncorrupt virgin, while if any attempted to pervert the sound 
doctrine of the saving Gospel, they were yet skulking in dark retreats ; but when 
the sacred choir of apostles became extinct, and the generation of those that had 
been privileged to hear their inspired wisdom had passed away, then also the 
combinations of impious errors arose by fraud and delusion of false teachers.^ 
Pliny, governor of Bythenia, says : The account which the apostates gave of 
Christianity was this : They were accustomed to assemble on a stated day, before 
sunrise, and join together in singing hymns to Christ as to a Deity, and binding 
themselves not to commit any kind of wickedness; to be guilty of neither theft, 
robbery, nor adultery ; to never break a promise, nor keep back a deposit when 
called upon. Their worship being concluded, they dispersed and met again for 
a repast ; promiscuous but harmless. He tortured two deaconesses, but extorted 
nothing but the acknowledgment of their religion. "^^ Origen, in the third cen- 
tury, presents the church at Athens as a model in good order, constancy, meek- 
ness, and quietness.^ Antoninus, emperor, says: They serenely confide in God 
during calamities, while the Polytheists were desponding.^ While threatened 
with torture, Justin answered : Dispatch us ! for we are Christians, and cannot 
sacrifice to idols. These cruelties were exercised on persons of the most virtuous 
characters for their adherence to the worship of One God. ^ Blandina was tor- 
tured from morning till night to extort a confession of the crimes which Polythe- 
ists charged on Christians, but her answer was: I am a Christian. No evil is 



(1) Gbn. Vol. I., pp. 162-4. Chap. 15. (2) Idm., pp 168, 169. (3) Mosh. Cent. 2; pt. 2; chap. 
3, § 1. (4) Idm. (5) Miner. Cent. 2; chap. 1; pp. 90-3. (6) Euseb., bk. 3, chap. 32; p. 118. (7) 
Jones, p. 117. Miner. Cent. 2; chap. 1, pp. 86-7. (8) Jones, p. 124. (9) Idm., p. 126. (1) Idm.. pp. 

-35 



546 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

committed among us. Sanctus was likewise tortured barbarously for the same 
purpose, but his constant answer was: I am a Christian. Biblias, who, at the 
beginning of the persecution, had renounced Ohristianit}', was tortured for the 
same purpose, but, recovering her hope while under torture, she answered : How- 
can we eat infants, for whom it is unlawful to eat blood ?2 The conduct and 
humble piety of the martyrs show them to be followers of Christ.^ The church, 
in giving an account of these martyrs, says : They were bedewed and strengtli- 
ened by the waters of life which flow forth from the heart of Jesus Christ, and 
that nothing is terrible where the love of God exists, nor painful where the glory 
of Christ dwells. ^ The church at Smyrna says of her martyrs : They sliowed us 
all that they were absent from their bodies during these torments, or, rather, that 
the Lord stood b}^ them and conversed with them, and, relying on the grace of 
Christ, they despised the torments of the world. ^ Justin, in his apology to 
Emperor Antoninus Pius, says : We have many instances to show the powerful 
eifects of their example among men; many persons have been brought in favor 
of the Gospel by observing the sobriety and temperance of their neighbors, or 
the unparalleled meekness of their fellow-travelers under cruel treatment, or the 
uncommon integrity and equity of those with whom they transacted business. ^ 
Turtullian, in his apology, could tell the emperor: That no Christian had suffered 
by the hands of the executioner for any crime, but only for his religion.'' Their 
rigid discipline and exclusion of members guilty of crimes show their pure char- 
acter, opposition to heretics, and zeal for truth. Origen says : The work of 
Jesus Christ is shown in the whole world where the churches of God exist, which 
were founded by Christ, and consist of men reformed from a thousand crimes ; 
and the name of Jesus still further has a wonderful efficacy in introducing mild- 
ness, decency of manners, humanity, goodness, and gentleness among those who 
embrace the belief of God and Christ, and of a judgment to come, not from any 
worldly advantage or purpose, but honest!}^ and uprightly. Compared with the 
communities of the people among whom they are placed, the Christians are as 
lights in the world. ^ The striking opposition between Christianity and heathen- 
ism, the Christian church and the world, preserved the Christians from many of 
those intermixtures of church and world, spiritual and worldly things, so common 
in later times. '-^ Turtullian, Origen, and Cyprian taught that ordinances and 
church privileges without true reformation of the soul was pernicious. ^ (Con- 
tinued in chap. 127.) 

11. Regard to Inspired Authority. — Justin Martyr, in his first apology to 
the emperors — Antonines, says : The memoirs of the apostles and writings of the 
prophets were read and expounded in the Christian assemblies for public worship. ^ 
These were extensively circulated, for they were mentioned, quoted, and referred 
to by writers of this ])eriod in Rome, France, Athens, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, 
and Carthage,^ and in this period they were translated into Egyptian. S3"rian, and 
Latin. ^ As the Greek and Latin were the languages of the government and 
learned of that day, they served as depositories of the Scriptures for the different 
churches in the Roman empire. But as all translations may be defective, we find 
Turtullian appealing from the Latin translations to the original Greek. But the 
Greek translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint, was the Bible of 
the first Christians and the source of their translations; for but few of these Greek 
and J^atin writers could read the Hebrew. ^ The mass of the churches were neces- 
sarily dependent on teachers who understood the Greek and Latin languages, till 
]>r()vincial translations were made. Tliese teachers might dispute translations, as 
Turtullian did, and hence great regard was paid ^o apostolic men and to their 
approved scholars, and to apostolic churches and their testimony and customs. 



I 



(2) Jones, p. 131. Euseb. 5:1; p. 173. (3) Euseb., pp. 180-2 (4) Neander. p. 66. (5) Tdm. 64. 
(6) Miner Cent. 2, fhap 3, p. 105. (7) Gbn , Vol. T., chap 15, p. 169. and Guizot's note q. (8) 
Nearder. p. 152. (9) Idm. 153. (1) 1dm. 154. (2) Horn, Vol. I., p. 44. (3) Idm. 45. (4) Idm. 
270-6. (5) 266, 275. 



CHAPTER OXXV. : SECTIONS XII. -XIII. 547 

Still, love for truth obligated everyone acquainted with the original Hebrew and 
Greek Scriptures to correct, if able, translators, bishops, presbyters, deacons, and 
churches; for God is the only Father, and Christ is the only Teacher and Leader, 
and churches should be the foundation and pillar of truth — keeping the truth 
conspicuously before the world. Now, as about all persons who had received the 
supernatural endowments of the Holy Spirit by imposition of the apostles' hands 
had passed away about the close of the second century, the churches needed to 
watch and examine evidence, or they might be imposed on by spurious traditions, 
incorrect translations, and false reasonings, or they might become bewildered in 
vain speculations and seduced from the purity and simplicity of the Gospel. 
Such innovations began in the second century, yet the genuine Christian character 
was conspicuous in the churches, and the Scriptures were held in the highest 
estimation. 

12. Things Not Enjoined. — Some customs were observed in the churches 
from the first which were not commanded by Christ or any of His apostles, nor 
required by love to God or man ; and some Jewish rites were still practiced by 
Jewish Christians. Where there is no law there is no transgression. So we find 
different practices in different churches, and each asserted the example of an 
apostle, and there was no tribunal to force uniformity among them. They might 
observe these things as they pleased, or not observe them at all. Such were fasts 
and festivals in commemoration of important events. During the second century 
many unnecessary rites and ceremonies were added to the Christian worship, 
which were offensive to the wise and ^ood, and which, after this century, super- 
seded the simplicity of the Gospel. ^ The same is true of the teachings. Disputes 
with Polytheists, philosophers, and Jews made learning and reasoning important 
and the exposition of the Scriptures necessary. Apologists, logicians, and 
expounders of the Scriptures appeared and did good work. But in after centuries 
the beauty and venerable simplicity of the Gospel was gradually effaced by the 
laborious efforts of human learning and the dark subtilities of imaginary science. 
The austere submitted to all mortifications in private without breaking asunder 
their social bonds or withdrawing from the concourse of men, but after some time 
such persons retired into the deserts. "^ 

13. Individual Labor, and not Leadership, Characterize this Period. — 
Ignatius points out three distinct ranks in the primitive churches — bishop, pres- 
byter, and deacon. A. blind and implicit submission to a hierarchy, however 
corrupt, worthless, and ignorant, was then unknown ; but a just and regular sub- 
mission according to the ranks of men in the churches was much attended to, ^ 
and whoever were found qualified to benefit the brethren were exhorted by the 
bishops to address the people."^ In the time of Turtullian (A. D. 194-220), who 
stands on the boundary between two different epochs in the development of the 
church, we find definite traces of the powerful opposition made to the hierarchy 
which was then establishing itself. Turtullian says : As far as the thing itself is 
concerned, the laity have the right to administer the sacraments and to teach in 
the churches. The Word of God and the sacraments were communicated by 
God's grace to all Christians as instruments of God's grace. But the inquiry here 
is not merely what is lawful in general, but also what is convenient under existing 
circumstances. We must here apply the declaration of Paul : All things which 
are lawful are not convenient. With a view, therefore, to the maintenance of that 
order which is necessary in the church, the laity* should use their priestly rights, 
as to the sacraments, only where time and circumstances require. Although the 
office of teaching in the congregations was constantly more and more limited to 
the bishop and presbyters, we find, nevertheless, traces of that original quality 
of spiritual rights among all Christians, down till the time of Origen (A. D. 
200-253 1). A class to give orders and another class to do the labor we have not 



(6) Mosh. Cent. 2, pt. 2., chap. 1. (7) Idm., chap. 3. 



548 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

yet found ; nor do we find any, having an opportunity to labor in the Gospel, under 
the necessity of waiting for orders from superiors. Frutnentius collected a church 
and made converts in India, or Abyssinia, and the king and queen of Iberia, or 
Georgians, embraced the Gospel through the influence and instructions of a captive 
woman in the fourth century. f One instructor, or bishop, presided over each 
Christian assembly, to which office he was elected by the voices of the whole 
people. In this post lie was to be watchful, and provident, and attentive to the 
wants of the church, and careful to supply them. To assist him were presbyters, 
and subject to them were deacons. During great part of the second centur}^ the 
churches were independent of each other; nor were they joined toscether by asso- 
ciations, confederacies, or any other bonds but those of love. Each Christian 
assembly was a little state governed by its own laws, which were either enacted 
or approved by the society. Councils, of which we find not the smallest trace 
before the middle of the second century, changed the whole face of the church 
and gave it a new form, for by them the ancient privileges of the people were 
considerably diminished and the power and authority of the bishops greatly 
augmented. The humility and prudence of these pious prelates prevented their 
assuming all at once the power with which they were afterward invested. At first 
they acknowledged they were no more than delegates of their respective churches, 
and acted in the name and by the appointment of the people. ^ These councils, 
or synods, might be of great advantage in determining the genuineness and authen- 
ticity of writings professing to come from the apostles, apostolic men, or apostolic 
churches, and their existence was not inconsistent with the characteristics of the 
first seal, but afterward they usurped the sole government of the churches. These 
synods, or councils, originated among the Greeks and extended to all other 
nations; but as yet they were harmless. Toward the close of this period, Victor, 
bishop of Rome, showed the domineering spirit of leadership, but he was rebuked 
by other bishops, and his authority was disregarded and rejected. ^ Cyprian 
attempted to crush opposition by virtue of his office, but a layman reproved 
him, and reminded him that priests should be humble, like Christ and His 
apostles. 4 

14. Jews and Heretics. — During this period the Jews made their last effort 
to regain their nationality, and their supremacy in the kingdom of God, and they 
cruelly persecuted and murdered the Christian Jews that would not help them; 
but Adrian dispersed them and forbade them to approach Jerusalem. Part of the 
Christian Jews gave up their peculiarities and chose a pastor of the gentile brethren, 
but others preferred exile to abandoning the rites of Moses. The name of Israel 
disappears from the prominent positions in the development of the kingdom of 
God, and they are branded as heretics under the names of Ebonites and Nazarenes. 
As in the time of the apostles, some persons professed Christianity who were 
never born from above, nor ever loved the truth nor service of God. These wished 
to model the kingdom, with its laws and institutions, to suit themselves, though 
tlieir common sense rejected Polytheism. They made their wisdom and wishes 
their rule of faith and practice, and brought reproach upon Cliristianity; but they 
were rejected by the churches as heretics. However, we can not regard all those 
stigmatized by this term to merit the opprobrious appellation. Considering the 
difference of languages, the peculiarities of different minds and modes of concep- 
tion of ideas, inaccuracy in expressions, and the intricacy of some subjects, they 
were liable to be misunderstood, and so misrepresented. On this point we can 
not now form an adequate decision. Perhaps such was the case with the Mon- 
tanists. Turtullian at first opposed them, and afterward joined them. Perhaps 
when he fully understood them he approved of their principles and practices as 



(8) Miner. Cent. 2. chap. 1: p. 92 (9) Euseb., pp 240-1. (1) Neander, pp. 112-113. (f) Miner. 
Cent 4, chap. 6, pp. 298-9. Mo.sh. Cent. 4, pt. 1, chap. 1, § 20. (2) Mosh. Cent. 2. pt. 2, chap. 2, 
§§ 1-3. (3) Euseb., pp. 209-10. (4) Neander, p. 133, and note *. Continued chap. 127, § 3. 



CHAPTER OXXV. : SECTION XV. 549 

more agreeable to the simplicity and purity of the Gospel than what lie had 
adopted. But what was charged upon them were pretentions not to be tolerated 
by the friends of truth. 

15. The Michael Army, and First Seal Characteristics. — We must 
remember what is called ecclesiastical history is a history of but few churches and 
prominent individuals; and though these churches and men may be the most 
conspicuous in history, they may not have been the best societies, nor the most 
devoted, orthodox, and laborious men. But from what we have found we are 
authorized in saying: The characteristics given in the first seal are very conspic- 
uous during the first two hundred years, and more, and Polytheism, or the Ked 
Dragon, has been cast down from- its high estimation and conspicuous position in 
the Roman world, and can not continue long without being supported by force. 
Pliny said : The temples were deserted, the victims for sacrifice scarcely found a 
purchaser in his province, till, by persecution, he somewhat restored the worship 
of the gods, s Turtullian says in his apology to the Roman emperor: Are there 
not multitudes of us in every part of the world? True, we are but of yesterday, 
and yet we have filled all your towns, cities, islands, castles, boroughs, councils, 
camps, courts, palaces, senate, and forum — we leave you only your temples.^ In 
times of peace persons rejected Polytheism and attached themselves to the 
churches, who were not genuine Christians of the Michael army and fell away 
under persecution, but sought readmission in time of safety, which shows Polythe- 
ism had fallen in the estimation of unregenerated people. The widespread of 
numerous sects of philosophy, improperly accredited to Christianity, which rejected 
Polytheism and admitted the existence of but one God only, but speculated wildly 
about Christ, angels, and the creation, shows the downfall of the Red Dragon and 
the success of the Michael army. Some of these sects inculcated strict morals 
and rigid discipline, while others sanctioned licentiousness. The Bassilidians 
affirmed it lawful to participate in Polytheism by dissimulation to escape perse- 
cution, but the Red "Dragon found no place in the genuine churches on any con- 
ditions. '*' (Continued chap. 126, § 7.) 



X 



(5^ Miner. Cent. 2, chap. 1, p. 87. (6) Miner. Cent. 3; chap. 2; p. 144. (7) Mosh. Cent. 2, pt. 
2, chap. 5, §§ 13, 14, 23, and so on. 



CHAPTER CXXVI. 



THE MICHAEL AlsD EED DRAGON WAE. A. M. ^030-4330. 

(Continued from Chap. 112.) 

1. The Ked Dragon a Slanderer, or a Diabolos. — One of the character- 
istics of the Red Dragon, as given in the prophetic programme, is that of traducer, 
or slanderer, and he is said to accuse the brethren before God day and night. 
Whether Satan ever had the privilege to appear before the throne of God and 
accuse the saints of bad actions and motives, his representatives on earth have 
always impeached them before the world and in their assemblies for worship, 
where God is present. x\nd if the innocent blood of Abel shed upon the ground 
cried to God, so the impeachments of His saints by atheism and Polytheism 
must be cognizant to Him and call for His impartial decision. God will not tolerate 
iniquity in David, or in any Christian who, by their misconduct, open the mouth 
of the adversary to blaspheme the cause of Christ. Xow, the persons, and char- 
acters, and religious sentiments of the first Christians were most unjustly treated 
and most perfidiously misrepresented to the credulous multitude, who were 
restrained by this from embracing the Gospel. ^ They were blackened and ren- 
dered odious by the railings, the calumnies, and libels of the heathen priests, and 
the other defenders of a corrupt and most abominable system of superstition. 
The imputations and horrid charges ought to stand always upon record as a proof 
of the weakness and wickedness of their adversaries. ^ The vilest calumnies were 
projected against them, and they were accused of eating human flesh, and of 
various unnatural crimes not fit to be mentioned. ^ In this characteristic Polytheism 
was an exact development of the antagonism of the Diabolos, and, according to 
the Hebrew idiom, may properly be called the Diabolos. (Chap. 126:13.) 

2. Body and Heads of the Dragon. — The heads of Polytheism were civil 
sovereignties, but the body was the priesthood and the populace, or rabble. 
Edicts of a severe nature were issued against the Christians, and the magistrates, 
animated bv the priests and the multitude, shed their blood with a cruelty which 
frequently exceeded the most barbarous laws. ^ A horrid custom prevailed of 
persecuting the Christians as often as a bloody priesthood, or an outrageous 
populace set on by them, demanded their destruction, many of whom fell victims 
to the rage of a merciless multitude. The heathen priests breathed nothing but 
fury as^ainst the disciples of Jesus. During the public games the populace, set 
in motion by the priests, with one voice demanded of their magistrates the 
destruction of the Christians, and the magistrates, fearing a sedition, too, were 
disposed to gratify them in their request. ^ But the magistrates were sometimes 
philosophers, who esteemed all religions according to their utility in the govern- 
ment, and sometimes they relieved their sufferings and alleviated the burden of 
their distresses. Trajan forbid all search after them and prohibited all anony- 
mous libels and accusations; Antoninus Pius enacted penal laws against their 
accusers; and other emperors, and sometimes generals, by various acts of benifi- 
cence and compassion defended them from the injurious treatment of the priests 
and people. ^ 



(8) Mosh. 2:1; 1,§7. (9) Idm., chap. 2, §8. (1) Jones, p. 131. (2) Mosh. Cent. 8, pt. 1, chap. 
1, § 2. (3) Idm. 2:1, 2. §§ 1, 3. (4) Idm. chap. 1, § 2. Jones pp. 124-6. 



CHAPTER CXXVt. : SECTIONS III. -IV. 551 

3. TmiiD Battle. (Continued from chap. 107, § 11.) — The third }3ersecution 
took place, or commenced, A. D. 106, under the Emperor Trajan. Our knowl- 
edge of this persecution is limited to only a small part of Asia Minor and to 
Syria. But this scanty history shows the deep inroads Michael had made into 
the dominions of the Red Dragon and another victory gained by his faithful army 
of martyrs. As in the days of the apostles, some renounced Christ and some 
abandoned Him through fear of loss and suffering, but the Sons of Oil conquered 
by suffering. (Here insert, or read, the letter of Pliny, general of Bythenia, and 
Tiberinus, governor of Syria, and extracts from Ignatius, in Milner. s) To what 
extent Christians suffered from lawless mobs we can not tell. When brought 
before Pliny and threatened with the punishment of the law they were interro- 
gated three times, and if they avowed themselves Christians, they were imme- 
diately executed, except those having Roman citizenship, who were sent to Rome 
to the emperor. Of apostolic men who suffered, Simeon, bishop of the church 
at Jerusalem, and Ignatius, bishop of the church at Antioch, are mentioned. 
Tiberinus, governor of Syria, declares himself wearied with punishing the Gali- 
leeans, or Christians, yet they never ceased to voluntarily profess that they were 
Christians in spite of all persecution. Simeon was one hundred and twenty years 
•old, but endured scourging many days. The governor, Atticus, was astonished, 
but not moved with pity at his sufferings, and at last ordered him to be crucitied. ^ 
Ignatius was introduced to the emperor, Trajan, in Antioch, who accused him of 
an impious spirit in transgressing imperial commands and inveigling others into 
the same folly to their ruin. These magistrates do not appear so much concerned 
about the gods as about respect to their own authority and commands. Ignatius, 
having professed to have Christ, the crucified, in his bosom, Trajan ordered him 
to be taken, bound, to Great Rome, and there thrown to the wild beasts for the 
entertainment of the people. So Ignatius traveled from Antioch to Rome, and 
was devoured by the wild beasts in the amphitheater. But, in his journey he 
visited churches in Asia Minor, and wrote seven letters to different churches, and 
these letters show these churches to continue in apostolic purity, and himself to 
be a true apostolic man. "^ However, Trajan forbid all anonymous accusations 
against the Christians to be received by any officers; he also forbid any search to 
be made for them, but if they were accused and convicted before magistrates, 
tliey were to be executed unless they renounced Christ. 

4. The law of Trajan was artfully evaded under his successor, Adrian. The 
populace, set in motion by the priests during the public games, demanded of 
their magistrates the destruction of the Christians. During these commotions 
Serenus Granianus, the proconsul of Asia, represented to the emperor, by letter, 
how barbarous and unjust it was to sacrifice to the fury of a lawless multitude 
persons convicted of no crime. This moderation may have been owing to the 
apologies of Quadratus .and Aristides. ^ (Here insert, or read, Adrian's letter to 
Minutius Fundanus, successor to Granianus.^) So this persecution was neither so 
general nor so severe as that under Trajan. As the laws of Adrian protected 
Christians from persecution, their enemies, under Antoninus Pius, accused them 
of the crime of impiety and atheism. This calumny was refuted in an apology 
for them to the emperor by Justin Martyr. So, Antoninus Pius ordered all pro- 
ceedings against them to be regulated by the laws of Adrian. This did not sup- 
press the rage of bloodthirsty persecution, and in Asia the people renewed their 
violence against the Christians, considering them the cause of the earthquakes and 
other calamities inflicted by the angry gods. The emperor, informed of these 
barbarous proceedings, addressed an edict to the whole province of Asia, denounc- 
ing capital punishment against the accuser unable to prove them guilty of any 
crime. 1 (Here insert, or read, the edict in Jones. ^ Letters of similar import 
were sent, also, to the Larissians, Thessalonians, Athenians, and all the Greeks. 3) 

(5) Jones, pp. 116-123. Euseb., pp. 117-119. Miner. Cent. 2, chap. 1., pp. 86-98. (6) Idm. p. 88. 
(7) Mm., pp. 88, 89. (8) Mosh. 2, 1; 2, § 3. (9) Jones, pp. 124, 125. (1) Mosh. 2:1; 2, § 4. (2) 
Jones, p. 126. (3) Euseb.. p. 163. 



552 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

5. The Fourth Battle. — The fourth battle of which we have any account 
commenced under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, A. D. 162. Our 
information of this persecution is confined to the churches of Asia Minor, and of 
Vienna and Lyons, in France; but these churches furnish examples of the manner 
of warfare, and of the valor and success of the Michael army. Efforts were made, 
by threats and by sights of torture and of wild beasts, to cause the Christians to 
renounce Christ, and, failing in this, they were condemned to cruel and ignomin- 
ious deaths; they were thrown to the wild beasts, and burnt on funeral piles, and, 
if Roman citizens, they were slain with the sword. Under the severest tortures 
the Christians showed the greatest tranquility and calmness. The church at 
Smyrna said: They showed us all that they were absent from their bodies during 
these torments, or, rather, that the Lord stood by them and conversed with them; 
and, relying on the grace of Christ, they despised the torments of the world. 
Among those who suffered was the aged Polycarp, pastor of the church and a 
scholar of the Apostle John, who had served Christ eighty-six years. * The cry 
of the multitude against Polycarp was : This is the teacher of Asia, the father of 
the Christians, the subverter of the gods, who teaches many that they must not 
perform the sacred rites nor worship our deities. Away with the atheists ! All 
efforts to shake his firmness were in vain. ^ He refused to say. Our lord, the 
emperor, and to offer sacrifice, but professed himself a Christian, and in his 
prayer on the funeral pile, before lighted, he thanked God that he was accounted 
worthy to share the cup of Christ among the number of His witnesses. The 
church recognized in their bishop what a genuine martyrdom should be. He 
neither rushed into, nor shrunk from it. ^ The same year (A. D. 166) Justin 
Martyr presented his second apology to the emperor and Roman senate, and 
states the case of his Christian brethren and the unrighteous cruelty they every- 
where suffered without being accused of any crime, but to no purpose. Justin 
and six of his companions were seized and carried before Rusticus, prefect of 
Rome, where many attempts were made to induce them to obey the gods and 
comply with the emperor's edict, but to no purpose. They said : We are Chris- 
tians, and can not sacrifice to the gods. The governor pronounced the sentence : 
For refusing to sacrifice to the gods and to obey the imperial edicts, they should 
first be scourged and then beheaded, according to law. The reign of this emperor, 
abounds with instances of unrelenting cruelty on the part of the magistrary, and 
of the patient suffering of the disciples for Christ's name. These cruelties are 
inflicted on persons of the most virtuous characters for their adherence to the 
worship of the One True God. "^ The edict was : Seize these people, and if they 
refuse to sacrifice to our gods, punish them with various kinds of torments, and 
cease punishment when the object is obtained of extirpating the crime. ^ The 
persecution of the churches at Lyons and Vienna, in France, is more minutely 
recorded than any we have yet had, and Eusebius records them as examples of 
what was done in other provinces. ^ These churches sent the account in an epistle 
to the brethren in Asia and Phrigia, but is too long to be inserted here. They 
say : The greatness of the tribulation and the extent of the madness exhibited by 
the heathen against the saints and the sufferings which the martyrs endured in 
this country we are not able to fully declare, nor is it possible to describe them. 
The adversary assailed us with his whole strength, giving us a prelude how 
unbridled his future movements among us would be, and, indeed, he resorted to 
every means to accustom and exercise his own servants against those of God. 
* * "^ But the grace of God, contending for us, rescued the weak and prepared 
those who, like firm pillars, were able through patience to sustain the whole weight 
of the enemy's violence against them. These coming in close conflict, endured 
every species of reproach and torture. They also give accounts of individual 
confliicts and victories, overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of 



(4) Neander, pp. 63-5. (5) Jones 127-8. (6) Neander 65. (7) Jones 129. (8) Neander 63. (9) 
Euseb., pp. 168-182. 



CHAPTER CXXVI. : SECTIONS VI. -VII. 553 

their witnessing. (Here insert, or read, tiie entire account of Eusebius. ^) Pothi- 
nus, bishop of Lyons, being past ninety years of age, was, doubtless, an apostolic 
man. With the death of Marcus Aurelius came an end to this imperial persecu- 
tion, but the old laws not being repealed, governors of provinces were left in 
power to inflict persecution as often as their interest with the priesthood and 
people required, and Arius Antoninus, proconsul of Asia Minor, did commence 
a persecution there, but the Christians crowded around him in such multitudes 
to suffer martyrdom he became frightened, and, having sentenced a few to death, 
he said to the rest: As for you, miserable creatures, if you choose to die, you 
have rocks to dash yourselves from and ropes to hang yourselves with. Though 
Christians participated in all the common privileges of the empire, yet the 
churches were at all times sending many martyrs to the Father in Heaven, says 
Ireneus; and Clement says : We see daily many martyrs burnt, crucified, and 
beheaded before our eyes. ^ 

6. The Fifth Battle. — The fifth battle commenced under the Emperor 
Severus. The scene of rest, or mitigation of suffering, changed toward the end 
of the second century, when Severus was declared emperor. The provinces of 
Asia and Egypt and other provinces were dyed with the blood of martyrs. It 
was this series of calamities under which the churches groaned that engaged 
Turtullian to write his apology and several other books in defense of the Chris- 
tians. ^ In the beginning of the third century the Christian churches suffered 
calamities of various kinds throughout the provinces of the Roman empire, which 
increased in a terrible manner in consequence of a law, made A. D. 203, by the 
Emperor Severus, prohibiting any subject to change from the religion of their 
ancestors to that of the Christians or Jews. Rapacious magistrates persecuted 
to death in order to extort money from Christians for their exemption or safety.^ 
So mightily did the persecution then prevailing shake the minds of many that 
some thought the anti-Christ had come.^ This imperial law would expose new 
converts especially, while the old laws still stood at the option of the magistrates. 
We have a detailed account of five Catechumans martyred in Carthage. These 
Catechumans endured the severest trials, but they triumphed most gloriously. 
Their imprisonment and sufferings presented many lovely traits of the power of 
the Christian faith united with Christian tenderness of disposition. Two of them 
were young women, whose relations and conditions would have excited respect 
and compassion in the breast of every animal except a Red Dragon. ^ Also, at 
Alexandria we find six Catechumans and an ofticer newly converted, tortured 
and burnt, or beheaded ; and a woman named Potamiaena appears conspicuous 
in the conflict. Many things are related of her fortitude in suffering for the faith 
in Christ, and at length, after horrible torture and pains, the very relation of 
which makes one shudder, she was committed to the flames, in company with 
her mother, Macella. Many others at Alexandria promptly attached themselves 
to the doctrine of Christ in these times. ^ But this persecution was not confined 
to new converts ; and illustrious testimonies were given by the combatants for 
religion in all the churches everywhere. They particularly abounded in Alex- 
andria, whilst the heroic wrestlers from Egypt ana The bias were escorted thither, 
where, by their invincible patience under various tortures and modes of death, 
they were adorned with crowns from Heaven. Many thousands were crowned 
with martyrdom.''' (Continued in § 8.) 

7. The Kingdom Advances. (Continued from Chap. 125. ) — In the prophetic 
programme events appear to transpire in a moment and changes seem to succeed 
instantaneously ; but in the historical development changes take place gradually 
and sometimes commence imperceptibly, and events are consummated after 
centuries of progress. The casting out of the Red Dragon was accomplished by 



(1) Neander, p. 70. (2) Mosh. 2:1; 2 § 7. (3) Mosh. Cent. 3, pt. 1, chap. 2, § 7. (4) Euseb., p. 
225. (5) Neander 72-3. Jones 142-5. (6) Euseb., bk. 6, chaps. 4, 5. (7) Idm., chap. 1, 2. 



554 ' THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

degrees, and tlie kingdom of God grows into power like the stone cut out of the 
mountain in Nebuchnezzar's dream. During this period Christianity became 
more and more conspicuous in the world and penetrated farther and farther into 
heathen lands — it went forth conquering and to conquor — while Polytheism was 
falling in the estimation of the nations and sinking into disrepute and neglect 
throughout the Roman empire. The respect, recognition, and advancement, of 
Christianity shows the casting out of Polytheism, which was directly antago- 
nistic, and the established religion of every nation during most of this period.^ 
From the death of Septimus Severus till the reign of Decius Trajanus, 
A. D. 211-250, the churches enjoyed a continued calm, except during the three 
years' turbulent reign of Maximius. Having murdered Alexander Severus, 
Maximius ordered the death of those pastors who favored Severus, and others 
suffered at the same time. ^ This persecution extended to Cappadocia and 
Pontus. Under such an emperor this fury would have full play, and in many 
cases it was backed by the governors of provinces ; but it was only in particular 
districts, and the persecuted could escape by flight to other places. ^ But the 
rest of the world had tasted his ferocity as much as the Christians. 2 With this 
exception the Christians had enjoyed an undisturbed repose for thirty years in 
many provinces, and in others for a longer time ; and many had crept into the 
churches destitute of vital Christianity, which was now respected, and some 
entered because their parents were Christians.^ Origen, who wrote in the third 
century, says: God has constantly caused the number of Christians to increase, 
and their number is still daily on the increase ; and He has already given them 
the free exercise of their religion, although a thousand obstacles opposed the 
popagation, in the world, of the doctrine of Jesus Christ ; and the more the 
emperors, governors, and the multitude have sought to oppose the Christians 
the more powerful have the latter become. He says : Among the multitude of 
those who embraced Christianity were many rich people, many in high offices, 
rich and well-born women ; and now a Christian pastor might obtain honor and 
respect. But Origen foresaw that the persecutions had not yet reached their 
limit, and that the opinion — that the downfall of the state religion and the irresist- 
able propagation of the Gospel, or Christianity, were bringing disaster on the 
Koman empire — would sooner or later revive the flames of persecution. He was 
persuaded that all religions would fall to the ground and Christianity alone 
prevail ; as even then it was continually gaining more souls.^ Cyprian's account 
of church members and officers and their matrimony with unbelievers shows 
how Christianity had superseded Polytheism in the estimation of the unregen- 
erated ; and did not persecution protect it? Polytheism had already been cast 
out of all conspicious regard, ^ and those who apostatized under persecution had 
great difficulty in obtaining read mission in time of peace, which shows the Red 
Dragon had no place in the ecclesiastical Heaven, and the progress of Chris- 
tianity made it evident that Polytheism in the Roman empire would be cast out 
of the political and conspicuous Heaven. It is certain the rights and privileges 
of the Christians were multiplied in the third century. In the army, the court, 
and all orders of the nation, there was a considerable number of Christians who 
lived entirely unmolested ; and what is still more, the profession of Christianity 
was no obstacle to public preferment under most of the emperors that reigned in 
the third century. It is also certain that Christians in many places had houses 
of divine worship, with the knowledge and connivance of the emperors and 
magistrates; and some of the emperors were very favorably inclined to the 
Christians and were far from having any aversion to their religion. ^' Gibbon 
says : After the persecution by Severus, the Christians enjoyed a calm of thirty- 
eight years. Till then they had usually held their assemblies in private houses 
and sequestered places. They were now permitted to erect and consecrate 

(8)Mosh.3:l; 1 § 1, 3, 6, 7. (9) Euseb., bk. 6, Chap. 28. (1) Neander, p. 159. (2) Miner. Cent. 
3, chap. 4, p. 159. (3) Neander 76. (4) Idm. 75. (5) Miner. 3:8, 165. (6) Mosb. 3:1; chap. 1, § 1-3. 



CHAPTER CXXVI. I SECTION VIII. 555 

convenient edifices for religious worship, to purcliase lands even in Rome itself 
lor the use of the comraunitj, and to conduct the election of their ecclesiastical 
riiinisters in so public and exemplary a manner as to deserve the respectful atten- 
tion of the gentiles ; and Alexander Severus borrowed their example. The 
eminent persons of the sect were admitted into the palace in the honorable 
character of priests and philosophers, and their mysterious doctrines, already 
defused among the people, insensibly attracted the curiosity of their sovereign. 
Bishops, perhaps for the first time, were seen at court. '^ The Emperor Alex- 
ander Severus showed the Christians in many ways and upon every occasion the 
most unmistakable marks of benignity and favor, and is said to have gone so far 
as to pay a certain sort of worship to Christ, and considered Him worthy a place 
among those distinguished by their sublime virtues and honored with a commis- 
sion from above. The Philips, both father and son, proved so favorable and 
friendly to them that these two emperors passed, in the opinion of many, for Chris- 
tians. With regard to Gallienus and some other emperors of the third century, 
if they did not professedly favor the progress of Christianity they did not oppress 
its followers nor retard its advancement. ^ (Continued in § 9.) 

8. Sixth Battle. — Polytheism had already fallen from its high regard and 
estimation in the eyes of all but those directly interested in its support ; and they, 
foreseeing it must have but a short time in the empire, were resolved to destroy 
the government by persecutions, or civil wars, before they would give up its 
preeminence and rites. The sixth battle commenced under Emperor Decius 
Trajanus, A. D. 249, and lasted about ten years, with slight intermissions. His 
elevation to the imperial throne raised a new tempest, in which the fury of perse- 
cution fell in a dreadful manner upon the churches of Christ. The prators were 
ordered, upon pain of death, to extirpate the whole body of Christians without 
exception, or to force them by torments of various kinds to return to the pagan 
worship. Hence, in all provinces of the empire multitudes of Christians were put 
to. death by the most horrid punishments which an ingenious barbarity could 
invent. ^ It was certainly the intention of the emperor to entirely crush Chris- 
tianity. He ordered strict inquiry to be made about all persons suspected of 
non-observance of the state religion, and Christians were required to comply with 
the ceremonies or be tortured and put to death. Frorn Rome this persecution 
extended into the provinces. ^ It was evident that nothing less than the destruc- 
tion of the Christian name was intended. ^ But a rebellion in Macedonia and 
the Gothic war called away Decius, and he lost his life. ^ His successors, Gaul- 
lus and Yolusianus, reanimated the flame which was beginning to burn with less 
fury.^ A pestilence, spreading desolation through many provinces, was 
attributed by the pagan priests to the anger of the gods on account of the lenity 
shown to the Christians.^ But war and rebellion prevented Gallus from perse- 
cuting with vigor till he was murdered, A. D. 253. Then his successor, 
Yalerianus, restored tranquility for three years; but after that time he ordered 
all to observe the Roman ceremonies, and then followed banishment, imprison- 
ment, confiscation, beating, condemnation to labor in the mines. In A. D. 258 
appeared this edict: The bishops, priests, and deacons shall be put to death 
immediately by the sword ; the senators and knights shall lose their dignities 
and property, and if they continue to be Christians they shall suffer the same 
punishment of death ; women of condition, after confication of their property, 
shall be banished ; those in the service of the imperial court, especially the 
slaves and freedmen, who have formerly, or do now, profess Christianity shall be 
considered as the property of the emperor, and shall be distributed in chains to 
labor in the various imperial public works. ^ A considerable number of Chris- 
tians in all the different provinces of the emperor were put to death, and by such 



(7)Gbii., Vol. I., Chap. 16; p. 195. (8) Mosh. 3:1; 1 § 2, 3. (9) Mosh. 3:1; 2,§ 3. (1) Neander 
76. (2) Miner. 3:8; p. 165. (3) Neander, p. 79. (4) Mosh. 3:1; 2 § 5. (5) Neander 80, 81. 



550 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

cruel methods ot" execution as were more terrible than death itself. Valerian 
was taken prisoner in a war with the Persians, and his son, Gallienus, restored 
peace to the churches A. D. 260. ^ Valerian was persuaded into this persecution 
by Macrianus, a superstitious and bigoted pagan. Aurelian became emperor 
A. D. 270, and, instigated by his own superstition or the barbarous counsels of a 
bigoted priesthood, was preparing a formidable attack upon the Christians ; but 
he was compelled to march into Gaul and was murdered there, A. D. 275, before 
his edicts were published throughout the empire. '^ In addition to those imperial 
persecutions, the heathen priests stirred up local persecutions, even when the 
emperors were favorable to the Christians. Dionysius gives account of cruel 
persecution in Alexandria, instigated by an augur and poet, one year before 
Decius issued his edicts ; but it was stopped by a sedition and civil war turning 
their fury upon one another. ^ These persecutions were terrible and cruel, and 
caused multitudes, who had abandoned Polytheism and joined the Christians but 
were not born from above, to apostatize while they lasted ; but when safety was 
restored they sought read mission to the Christian churches and obtained it with 
difficulty ; but the Michael army stood firm and gained another victory over the 
Red Dragon, and obtained peace for forty years, A. D. 260-303.^ JSTot only had 
emperors and proconsuls employed the terrors of unrighteous edicts and the 
edge of the destroying sword, but also the Platonic philosophers exhausted all the 
force of their learning and eloquence, and all the resources of their art and 
dexterity in rhetoric, declamation, subtle writings, and ingenious stratagems, 
against Christians ; but all was in vain, and Christianity came off triumphant 
over Polytheism. (Continued in § 10.) 

9. The Kingdom Advances Conquering and to Conquer. (Continued from 
§ 7.) — During these forty years of partial peace the Gospel goes on conquering 
Polytheism, and this was acknowledged in the edicts of the next persecutions. 
But we must not suppose these times of prosperity were entirely free from perse- 
cution in all places, but they were not authorized by the emperors, nor without 
restraint. On ascending the throne, Gallienus immediately recalled the banished, 
restored all the burial grounds belonging to the churches, and their other grounds 
and houses, and recognized them as a legally existing corporate body.^ The 
number of Christians increased among all classes. In the large towns large and 
splendid edifices succeeded the former modest simple churches. Christians were 
employed in the offices of the most importance in the imperial court, and enjoyed, 
with their families, the free exercise of the Christian religion. The bishops held 
an honorable rank in their respective provinces, and were treated with distinction 
and respect by the people, and by the magistrates themselves ; and now many 
unworthy persons became Christians, and some bishops enjoyed vast revenues, 
went in princely style, and received the veneration of the people. ^ Constantius, 
emperor with the rank of Csesar in Gaul, abandoned the absurdities of Polytheism 
and treated the Christians with condescension and benevolence. The principal 
offices of his palace were executed by Christians. He loved their persons, esteemed 
their fidelity, and entertained no dislike to their religious principles. This alarmed 
the pagan priests, whose interests were so closely connected with the continuance 
of the ancient superstition, and who apprehended that, to their great detriment, 
the Christian religion would daily become more universal and triumphant in the 
empire. ^ When some of the Roman senators proposed to ask counsel of the 
Sybilline books, others said there was no need to take refuge there, for the power 
of the emperor was so great there was no need to ask counsel of the gods. The 
emperor expressed his displeasure and wrote : I wonder you should have hesitated 
so long to open the Sybilline books, as if you had been consulting in a Christian 
church, and not in the temple of all the gods. He called upon them to support 



(6) Mosh. 3:1; 2 § 6. (7) Idm. § 7. Euseb., bk. 7, p. 308. (8) Miner. 3:9; 188. (9) Gbn.,Yol. 
I, chap. 16; p. 196. Neander, p. 83. 



CHAPTER OXXVI. : SECTION X. 557 

him by religious ceremonies of every kind, for it could be no shame to conquer 
with the help of the gods. He offered to defray all costs incurred by the offering 
of all kinds of victims, and also to furnish prisoners from all nations — human 
sacrifices. 4 As Diocletian wished to renew the former glory of the Roman 
empire, it might appear to him, as to other statesmen, necessary to restore the old 
religion, which was daily sinking into neglect, and to extirpate the un-Roman 
religion, which was constantly spreading wider and wider, and threatened at last 
to attain undivided sway in the world. He said : It is an enormous crime to pull 
down what our fathers established and has now dominion in the state. ^ The 
heathen priests said: The gods were no longer present at the sacrifice, because 
the hostile and profane sign of the cross was hateful to them. ^ The last edict 
for persecution by Maximinus confesses the fallen condition of the temples and 
neglect of the sacrifices. It required the fallen temples of idolatry to be restored, 
and that all freemen and women, all slaves, and even little children, should be 
compelled to offer sacrifices and to eat meats offered to idols. And all eatables 
offered in the markets were to be sprinkled with water or wine which had been 
used in sacrifice to idols, to force Christians into contact with idolatry by their food. '^ 
The object of the persecution was declared to be for recalling Christians to the 
religion of their fathers. The decree of Maximinus to Sabinus acknowledges the 
prevalence of Christianity. Diocletian and Maximinus saw almost all men aban- 
doning the worship of the gods and attaching themselves to the Christians, and 
ordained they should be reclaimed by the infliction of punishment and pain. ^ The 
followers of the established religion invented new modes of sacrifice, expiation, 
and initiation, and attempted to revive the credit of their expiring oracles, and 
listened with eager credulity to every impostor who flattered their prejudices by a 
tale of wonders.^ The groves of the academy, the garden of Epicurus, and even 
the portico of the stoics, were almost deserted as so many schools of skepticism, 
and many among the Romans were desirous that the writings of Cicero should 
be condemned and suppressed by the senate. The prevailing sect of the Platoni- 
cians connected themselves with the priest they despised against the Christians 
they feared, and recommended the worship of the ancient gods as emblems or 
ministers of the supreme Deity. ^^ Thus, we see Polytheism was fallen,"^ though 
not cast out, and the dragon was wroth, and sought to be reelevated by the destruc- 
tion of the Christians. 

10. Seventh Battle. (Continued from § 8.) — An attentive observer might 
discover symptoms that threatened the churches with a more violent persecution 
than any yet endured. The zeal and rapid progress of the Christians awakened 
the Polytheists from their supine indifference in the cause of those deities whom 
custom and education had taught them to reverence.^ The heathen must have 
seen the season of the downfall of their old temples and the dominion of Chris- 
tianity, which they detested, daily approaching nearer and nearer, and they must 
have set all their energies to work in persecuting Christians. This last struggle 
of heathenism against Christianity would become the most violent and passionate. 
The heathen party of statesmen, priests, and philosophers required only a powerful 
instrument to obtain their ends. They found one in the emperor, Caius Galerius 
Maximianus. ^ This prince, whose gross ignorance of everything but military 
affairs, accompanied with a fierce and savage temper, was a proper instrument for 
executing their designs. ^ He had been educated in blind heathen superstition, 
was devoted to it, and attached great virtue to sacrifices and auspices. ^ Set on 
by the malicious insinuations of the heathen priests, the suggestions of a super- 
stitious mother, and the ferocity of his own natural disposition, he solicited 
Diocletian with such indefatigable importunity and in such an urgent manner for 
an edict against the Christians that at length he obtained his horrid purpose. In 

(1) Neander, p. 82. (2) Idm. 82-4. Gbn., Vol. I., chap. 16. p. 197. (3) Mosh. 4:1; 1 § 1. Gbn. 
1:16; 197. Jones 159. (4) Neander, p. 83. (5) Idm. 84. (6)85. (7)92. (8) Euseb., p. 394. (9) 
Gbn., Vol. I., p. 16; 197. (1) Gbn , Vol. I.; chap. 16, p. 198. (*) Chap. 127:1, 2. (2) Idm. 



558 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED 

A. D. 303 an order was obtained from Diocletian to demolish the Christian 
churches, to burn all their books and writings, to take from them all their civil 
rights and privileges, and render them incapable of any honors or civil promo- 
tions. This was destructive to many, and especially those who refused to deliver 
up the sacred books. Some bishops and presbyters delivered them up, but their 
conduct was condemned by the most steady and resolute Christians as sacriligious, 
and they were called traditors. A second edict ordered all Christian bishops and 
ministers to be cast into prison. A third edict soon followed, ordering all sorts 
of torments to be employed, and the most insupportable punishments invented, 
to force them to renounce their profession by sacrificing to the heathen gods. 
An immense number of persons, illustriously distinguished by their piety and 
learning, became the victims of this cruel strategem, throughout the whole Roman 
empire, except Graul, which was under the mild and equitable dominion of Con- 
stantius Chlorus. Some were punished in such a shameful manner as the rules 
of decency oblige us to pass in silence; some were put to death after having their 
constancy tried by tedious and inexpressible tortures, and some were sent to the 
mines to draw out the remains of a miserable life in poverty and bondage. In 
A. D. 304 a fourth edict was published by Diocletian, at the instigation of Galerius 
and other inveterate enemies of the Christian name. By it the magistrates were 
ordered and commissioned to force all Christians, without distinction of rank or 
sex, to sacrifice to the gods, and to employ all sorts of torments to drive them to 
this act of apostacy. The diligence and zeal of the JRoman magistrates in the 
execution of this inhuman edict had like to prove fatal to the Christian cause. ^ 
The most excessive and outrageous barbarities were used in this and the preceding 
persecution upon all who would not blaspheme Christ and offer incense to the 
imperial gods. They were publicly whipped ; drawn by the heels through the 
streets of the cities; racked till every bone was disjointed ; had their teeth knocked 
out; their noses, hands, and ears cut off; sharp pointed spears run under their 
nails; had melted lead thrown on their naked bodies; their eyes dug out ; their 
limbs cut off; were condemned to the mines ; ground between stones ; stoned to 
death; burnt alive; thrown from high buildings; beheaded; smothered in burning 
limekilns; run through the bodies with sharp spears; destroyed with hunger, 
thirst, and cold; thrown to wild beasts ; scraped to death with sharp shells; torn 
asunder by the boughs of trees, and, in a word, destroyed by all the various methods 
that the most diabolical subtlety and malice could devise. "^ The persecutors 
already believed they were able to triumph over Christianity and to suppress it; 
in the inscriptions on medals and pillars the titles of honor of the emperors were 
augmented by the annihilation of Christianity and the restoration of the worship 
of the gods, s 

11. Division and civil war gives deliverance to the Christians, and brings 
wrath, or misery, upon the recognized citizens of the Roman empire, or dwellers 
upon the earth. At the commencement of the persecution the Roman empire 
was ruled by four emperors : the two superior, having the title of Augustus, were 
Diocletian and Maximian Herculeus, and the two inferior, having the title Csesar, 
were Constantius Clorus and Maximianus Galerius. All of them were enemies 
to the Christians but Constantius, who protected them in Gaul, although in obe- 
dience to the edict of Diocletian he demolished their ciiurches. Galerius obliged 
Diocletian and Maximian to resign the rank of Augusti, and then the supreme 
power devolved on himself and Constantius, and the rank of Caesar he conferred 
on Severus and Daza Maximin This placed Spain, France, and Britain under 
the entire control of Constantius, who restored peace to the Christians in liis 
dominions, while the rest, under Galerius, had their sufferings and calamities 
dreadfully augmented. Constantius dying, A. D. 306, his army transferred his 
title, Augustus, to his son, Constantine, and Galerius was obliged to confirm the 



(8) Neander, 85. (4) Mosb, 4:1; 1 § 2. (5) Neander 85. (6) ^Tosh. Cent. 4, pt. 1, chap. 1, 
§§ 1^. (7) Chandler in Jones, p. 150. Miner. 4:1. (8) Neander 91. Miner. 4:1; 258. 



CHAPTER CXXVI.: SECTION XI. 559 

act and send him the purple, but granted him only the title Caesar, while he con- 
ferred the rank of Augustus upon Severus. ^ Maxantius, son of Maximian Her- 
culeus, provoked at this, assumed the imperial dignity and chose his father for 
colleague with the title Augustus, which he had enjoyed with Diocletian, and 
which was again acknowledged by the senate and Koman people, and added 
strength and reputation to the son's party. Severus hastened to Rome, but only 
secured his own death. Maxantius and Constantine formed an alliance, and the 
old Maximian conferred the title of Augustus upon Constantine. Galerius, with 
a powerful army, entered Italy to revenue the death of Severus and extirpate the 
senate and Roman people by the sword; but he had to retreat, ravaging, plun- 
dering, burning, and destroying, while Maxantius hung on his rear but declined 
an engagement.! Galerius now conferred the vacant purple of Severus upon 
Licinius, and resigned to him Illyricum. Then Maximin Daza, who oppressed 
Egypt and Syria, exacted, almost by violence, the equal title of Augustus. The 
Roman empire was now divided between six emperors. In the west, Maxantius 
and Constantine reverenced Maximian, the old colleague of Diocletian, and in 
the east, Licinius and Maximin honored Galerius, ^ the instigator of the last 
persecution. 

The western Christians, except those in Italy and Africa, enjoyed a tol- 
erable tranquility under Constantine during these tumults and civil wars, while 
those under the other emperors seldom continued any considerable time in the 
same situation. At length Galerius, the author of these persecutions, being tor- 
mented by a terrible and lingering disease, whose complicated horrors no lan- 
guage can express, published an edict, A. D. 311, ordering the persecution to 
cease, and restoring freedom and repose to the Christians against whom he had 
exercised such cruelties. ^ Five emperors against the Christians, and but one for 
them. The old Maximian was banished by his sou, Maxantius. He went to 
Galerius, who also banished him. He took refuge with his son-in-law, Constan- 
tine, and ended his days after an attempt to supersede his son-in-law in power, 
A. D. 310. Galerius died A. D. 311, leaving Maxantius and Constantine 
emperors in the west, Maximin and Licinius in the east. A sense of interest 
soon connected Licinius and Constantine ; a secret alliance was concluded 
between Maximin and Maxantius, and their unhappy subjects expected with 
terror the bloody consequences of their dissensions. Italy and Africa groaned 
under a tyrant as contemptible as he was odious. Maxantius was cruel, rapacious, 
and profligate; he wasted his own dominions with fire and sword; indulged his 
soldiers in massacres, robbery, and the licentiousness which himself practiced. 
But he rashly provoked a war with Constantine, and the senate and Roman 
people conjured Constantine to deliver them from a detested tyrant. Maxantius 
raised an army of one hundred and eighty-eight thousand. Constantine, leaving 
part of his army to guard the Rhine, marched about forty thousand against him, 
cut to pieces the garrison at Susa, and burnt part of the city. At Turin he met 
the lieutenants of Maxantius and destroyed most of them by the sword. Most 
all the cities of Italy, from the Alps to the Po, acknowledged the power of Con- 
stantine with zeal and embraced his party. At Yerona he fought the able gen- 
eral, Pompeianus, all night, and morning displayed his victory. Pompeianus 
was slain on a field of carnage covered with many thousands of vanquished 
Italians. Yerona immediately surrendered, and declared the safety of Rome 
and the empire devolved on Constantine. Maxantius, by his ample resources 
and skillful generals, raised another army, more numerous than both the former, 
consulted the Sybibline books, received their artful response, and in person gave 
battle at Saxa-Rubia, about nine miles from Rome. The Moors and J^umidians 
being put to flight, the Italians deserted a tyrant they hated and no longer feared. 
The Pretorian guards were slaughtered in their ranks, and the fugitives, pursued 



(9)abn. 1:14; 144. (1) Gbu. 1:14; 145-6. (2) Idra, 146, (3) Mosh. 4;1; 1, § 5, 



560 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

by the Gauls, rushed bj thousands into the Tiber. Maxantius was crowded off 
the Melvian bridge and drowned. Constantine was received as a deliverer, and 
the senate conferred on him -the first rank of the three Augusti, who now gov- 
erned the Roman world. ^ Thus, the Christians of Italy and Africa were dehvered 
from the power and persecution of Polytheism; for Constantine was a monotheist, 
but not a Christian. Constantine secured the government of Kome to himself, 
and then consummated the marriage of his sister with Licinius, and then an inroad 
of the Franks recalled him to the Rhine. Maximin, tyrant of Egypt and Syria, 
undaunted by the defeat of his ally, Maxantius, moved out of Syria in the winter 
with a well-disciplined army of seventy thousand, and captured Byzantium before 
Licinius was aware. Great numbers of his men and horses perished in the snows. 
He was defeated by Licinius with thirty thousand lUyrians, and lost the flower of 
his veteran army. He fled to Nicomedia and died at Tarsus in three or four 
months. Without abilities or virtue, he was not lamented by the soldiers or 
people, and the provinces of the east cheerfully acknowledged the authority of 
Licinius. The Roman world was now divided between Constantine and Licinius. ^ 

12. The Michael Army Triumphant. — In consequence of the last edict of 
Galerius, stopping the persecution and allowing the Christians to profess their 
religion and meet in public worship, great numbers released from prisons and 
the mines returned to their own country, singing hymns of triumph. ^ The edict 
of Constantine and Licinius, issued at Milan, A. D. 313, allowed every subject of 
the empire to profess either Polytheism or Christianity unmolested ; secured to 
the Christians their places of worship, and directed the restoration of all their 
property. '^ In Egypt and Syria Maximin had continued, or renewed, the perse- 
cution after the death of Galerius ; but it ended with his defeat by Licinius. The 
joy of the Christians was soon interrupted by a war between Constantine and 
Licinius, which terminated in the defeat of the latter, A. D. 311, and a treaty of 
peace was observed nine years. Incensed by the heathen priests, Licinius armed 
a second time against Constantine, A. D. 321. During this war he endeavored 
to engage all those remaining attached to Polytheism, and so persecuted the 
Christians in a cruel manner, and put to death many bishops after trying them 
with tortures or torments of the most barbarous nature. But he was defeated 
and put to death A. D. 325.^ Civil wars, carried on by such vast and well 
disciplined armies and fleets, must have produced terrible carnage, misery, and 
desolations. The Gospel offers salvation to all, whether Jews or gentiles ; but 
the mass of them reject it and must be destroyed, whether Jews or gentiles. 
Those Mine enemies, that would not that I should reign over them, bring hither 
and slay them under My foot-stool. All power is given to Christ, and He wears 
a robe dipped in blood. The Christians conquered by suffering, and these revo- 
lutions put a monotheist on the throne of Polytheism. The Michael army stood 
Arm during every persecution, and loved not this life, to the death of the soul, 
nor to the death of their cause. They would neitheir fellowship Polytheism nor 
abandon Christianity. With difiiculty did the lapsed regain admission into some 
churches, while some would not receive them on any profession of repentance. 
Constantine was now sole emperor of the Roman world and employed all the 
charms of his munificence and liberality to efface by degrees the superstitions of 
Polytheism and to propagate Christianity in every corner of the Roman empire. 
Polytheism had persecuted Christianity from its infancy and convulsed the Roman 
empire at times to put it down ; but still it grew stronger and stronger, till sacri- 
fices were neglected, temples fell into ruins, and Christianity was found in every 
part and department of the Roman empire. In vain did civil government try to 
eradicate it; and yet Polytheism will not let the empire be quiet. Kow Constantine 
tries the experiment the other way, makes Christianity the state religion, and 
turns the civil arm against Polytheism. The experiment is a success. Polytheism 



(4) Gbn. 1:14; 148-151. (5) Idm., pp. 152-3. (6) Jones 163. (7) Idm. (8) Mosh. 4:1; 1 § 10. 



CHAPTER CXXVI. : SECTION XIII. 561 

disappears without persecution and the empire is no more convulsed by it. In 
this last struggle the philosophers took part with the pagan priests they despised 
to oppose the Christians whom they feared. They speculated on subjects they 
knew nothing about, forged stories' about miracles said to have been wrought 
by heathen men they did not know, and predictions of oracles trained to decep- 
tion ; and they wrought magic tricks to discredit and depreciate the miracles and 
predictions of' the Scriptures. But all in vain! Polytheism has been cast out of 
the ecclesiastical, the conspicuous, and the political heavens, and has fled to 
small and obscure villages, called in Latin pagus, or pagi, and hence obtained 
the name paganism. This very name shows its fallen and obscure abode on the 
earth. Polytheism is no longer the conspicuous antagonism to the kingdom of 
God. Henceforth monotheism shall sit on the throne of the Caesars and rule the 
world; and Jesus Christ of Nazareth shall be acknowledged as The Sent of God. 
(Continued, Chap. 128 § 1.) 

13. The Song or Shout of Victory.* — These were days of rejoicing to the 
Christians who regarded the accuser of their brethren as cast out of power, and 
considered the kingdom of God and His anointed to have come with power 
over the gentiles as it had over the Jews. Eusebius, who was one of them, 
says : All fear of those who had previously afflicted them was now wholly 
removed. They celebrated splendid festival days with joy and hilarity. All 
things were filled with light, and all who before were sunk in sorrow 
beheld each other with smiling and cheerful faces. With choirs and hymns 
in the cities and villages, at the same time, they celebrated and extolled, first 
of all, God, the universal King, because they were thus taught; then they 
also celebrated the praises of the pious emperor, and with him all his^ divinely 
favored children. There was a perfect oblivion of past evils, and past wickedness 
was buried in forgetfulness. There was nothing but enjoyment of the present 
blessings and expectation of those yet to come. Edicts were published and issued 
by the victorious emperor full of mercy, and laws were enacted indicative 
of munificence and genuine religion. After all the tyranny had been purged 
away the empire was justly reserved firm and without a rival to Constantine and 
his sons, who, first sweeping away that enmity to God exhibited by the former 
rulers, sensible of the mercies conferred upon them by God, exhibited also their 
own love of religion and God, with their piety and gratitude to Him, by those 
works and operations which they presented to the view of all the world. ^ In his 
panegyric, after describing the rage and savage assaults of Polytheism and its 
votaries, or the dragon and his angels, Eusebius says : Then the Angel of the 
imighty council, the great Captain and Leader of the armies of God, after a suffi- 
•cient exercise which the greatest of the soldiers of His kingdom had exhibited in 
their patience and perseverance, again suddenly appeared, and destroying what 
was hostile, and annihilating His foes so that they scarcely appeared to have had 
:a name, * * * so that now (what never happened before) the supreme sovereigns 
;spit upon the faces of idols, trample upon the unhallowed rites of demons, ridicule 
the ancient delusions of their ancestors, and acknowledge only the One True God, 
the common benefactor of all and of themselves. They also confess Christ, the 
Son of God, as the universal King of all ; proclaim the Savior in their edicts, 
inscribing His righteous deeds and His victories over the impious with royal char- 
acters on indelible records and in the midst of that city which holds the sway over 
the earth. So, that our Savior Jesus Christ is the only One ever acknowledged 
by the supreme rulers of the earth, not as a common king among men, but wor- 
shiped as the True Son of God, and God Himself, and all this justly, too. (Here 
insert or read the whole extent of His victory, i) The released martyrs returned 
from prisons and the mines singing songs and psalms in praise to God.^ But, 
enough. Michael and his angels have shouted their triumph over the Red Dragon 



(1) Euseb, 4Q9-16, md pp. 392-S. t{2) Idm. 381. (*) GJiap. 109, § 6. , (9) Euseb. p. 439. 



562 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

and his angels. The great warfare between Polytheism and monotheism, carried 
on since the time Moses undertook to teach Pharaoh the existence and character 
of Jehovah, the God of Israel, is ended in the conspicuous heavens, and 
Polytheism can no longer be the conspicuous successful antagonism to the 
kingdom of God, though it may exercise its hostility secretly, or in disguise, or 
by delegated agents. And now, not only around the throne of the kingdom 
among the crowned elders, but every creature in Heaven, or in the churches, 
and on the earth, and under the earth, in caves, quarries, and mines, and on 
the seas in ships, and on islands, might be heard, saying: Blessings, and honor, 
and glory, and power unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the 
Lamb, for ever and ever. ^ And if there is any joy in Heaven over one peni- 
tent sinner, certainly there was joy in Heaven among the angels and spirits of 
just men made perfect, and of the martyrs who, by firmness into death, had 
achieved this victory. Though the prophecy does not require us to understand 
this triumph to be literally celebrated in Heaven or in the churches, or conspicu- 
ously, yet, doubtless, it was literally verified there. The slanders of the pagans, 
preferred openly against the saints on earth, were in the presence and hearing of 
God, and were painful to the saints in glory; but now they can no more be 
openly preferred in the face of High Heaven, and the accuser can no more 
appear in court against them in the great Roman empire, nor slander them with 
impunity there. But, where is Israel, to shout the triumph of that fundamental 
truth for which they fought and sufi'ered ? The voices I hear shouting this vic- 
tory are the voices of the off'spring of Polytheists, and are hated by unbelieving 
Israel. The Nazarene Christians, undoubtedly, shouted this great triumph of 
their religion, but they are a small portion of Israel, as they are, also, of the 
triumphing Christians. Rome is conquered by the kingdom of God, as has been 
Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea, Persia, Media, Greek and Macedonian Egypt, and 
Syria. Rome, that regarded not any god but what she made by decrees of the 
senate, and conferred divine honors upon her emperors, has now adopted Jehovah, 
the God their fathers acknowledged not, and her emperors will honor Him with 
a sincere devotion and with costly gifts, as Daniel foretold about eight hundred 
years before.* But the tribes of Israel do not shout the victory while Eusebius 
and other gentiles quote their Scriptures and chant their songs of praise on the 
occasion of this triumph over Polytheism. Now has come the salvation, and the 
strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Anointed, 
because the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accused them before our 
God day and night.* And they overcame the Red Dragon and his angels by the 
blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their 
lives in this world in preference to death in Christ and for His sake. For this 
victory, rejoice, ye Heavens celestial and ecclesiastical, and yet hat dwell in them. 
Israel commenced the war under Moses, and the Christians finished it under the 
banner of the Son of David. But woe to the recognized citizens of the kingdoms 
of this world, for the Diabolos is come down unto you, having great wrath, for 
he knows his Polytheistic development has but a short time. ^ Polytheism shall 
soon expire in the Roman empire, and the sword of monotheists will exterminate 
it in the north, the east, the south, and west. (Continued, Chaps. 127:1, 2, 5, 
6. 128:5, 6. 134:12. U6. 152. 153:6. 159. 160. 161. 170.) 



(3j Rev. 5:13. (4) Dan. 11:36-9. (*) Chap. 126, § 1. (5) Rev. 12:12. Chaps. 136, § 9. 137, §8. 



CHAPTER CXXYII. 



CHARACTER CHANGES FROM FIRST TO SECOND SEAL. 

(Continued from Chap. 125, §§ 10 and 15.) 

1. The Woman, or True Churches. (Continued from chap. 112, § 15.)— 
According to the divine programme, the woman, or true churches, left the scene 
in the conspicuous Heaven to flee into the wilderness, leaving Michael and the 
dragon the objects of chief attention, but she had not reached that spot of safety 
and nourishment when the battle was ended. The dragon and his angels being 
cast down, the triumph celebrated, and conspicuous martyrdom in the Roman 
empire ended, the woman becomes the victim of persecution in the earth wher- 
ever the dragon and his angels, lurking in the empire, or in foreign countries, 
found opportunity, pretext, or power ; the dragon sends a deluge after her, and 
then inaugurates a perpetual war upon her faithful seed. The woman had not 
separated from her degenerating offspring when the dragon was cast down into 
the earth, so he made no distinction, but persecuted the Christian name wherever 
and whenever he could. But, in persistingly refusing all and any compromise 
with Polytheistic rites and institutions, she identified herself and fled to the wil- 
derness. This persecution, the flood, and the war with her seed, belong to the 
next, or second, seal period of this intermediate age; but, as the separation of the 
genuine woman from her degenerating daughters, or the true churches from those 
abandoning the primitive purity and simplicity of the Gospel, commenced in this 
period, we shall notice the beginning of this separation. In the preparatory age 
of the kingdom of God, the whole nation, or people, of Israel were the people 
of Jehovah by the covenant made at Sinai. The prophet Isaiah predicts the 
judgments of God on them, which should consume them like a tree browsed on 
by herds or flocks all winter, but in the spring recruits and flourishes again 
because its vitality remained in it ; and so, the Holy Seed was the substance, or 
vitality, of the Jewish nation. The high priest, chief priests, rabbi, and rulers 
were not desiring the advent of the Messiah, for they had usurped His authority 
and made His temple a den of thieves. But Zachariah, Simeon, Anna, Joseph, 
and many others, were waiting in painful anxiety for the consolation of Israel 
and ardently longing for the birth of the Prince with the iron sceptre. These 
were the holy seed, or saints, and the true woman. After the pentecost of the 
holy spirit, these elect of Israel were constituted the kingdom of God, or the 
true churches of Jesus Christ. To these were conjoined an election out of the 
Samaritans and the gentiles. This election was according to faith in Jesus Christ. 
They were born from above — born of God. ^ The kingdom of God, in this inter- 
mediate age, is constitutionally restricted to these. *" They are children, or heirs, 
of the kingdom, and are put there by the Son of Man. ^ But the adversary sowed 
tares — put children of the Wicked One into it — and in the historical develop- 
ment, these tares became so rank and powerful that the children of the kingdom 
could not grow among them, and so had to separate from them and bear the 



(6) John 3;3, 5, 7. 1:12. (7) Matt. 5:3, 10, 20. Mark 10:15. Matt. 18:3. (8) Matt. 13:37-9. 



564 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

opprobrious epithets of heretics and schismatics. These tares, or children of the 
Wicked One, gained the ascendency imperceptibly, and altered the laws and 
institutions insidiously and gradually, and the children of the kingdom, the true 
churches of Christ, separated from them in different places and at different times. 
These tirst secessions were called schismatics, and those afterward were called 
heretics ; the first were the primitive churches, those afterward were reformers. 
The first was the woman ; the latter was her faithful seed, begotten of the word 
and Spirit. History reports two extensive schisms, or secessions, from what was 
called the Catholic, or universal, church, before the dragon was cast out of 
Heaven, and how many smaller secessions took place after that event we do not 
know. These schisms we consider the secession of the true churches of Christ 
from a degenerating hierarchy, and many excluded heretics in after days we 
regard as reformers from apostatized churches. 

2. The First Seal Characteristics Conspicuous to the End of this 
Period. — If we judged from the description given by Cyprian and Eusebius, ^ 
we might suppose the first seal characteristics of Christianity had passed away 
and the fire-red horse and his rider had taken peace out of the churches, though 
they had not commenced to kill one another with the sword. But these two, 
being irritated by opposition to the assumption of power by their hierarchy, and 
indulging in their disposition to show their rhetoric, exaggerated the picture and 
attributed to many what might have been "true of a few, and impeach men with 
motives which they cannot judge, as may be seen in case of Novatus. ^ But the 
firmness with which vast multitudes withstood persecution and maintained the 
contested truths, shows the white horse, and his crowned rider with bow and 
arrows, were still conquering by individual exertion, while they sustained the 
true Christian character. The moving force and energy was pure white, and the 
guiding intelhgence was bold, energetic, active, and individually engaged. But, 
as formerly, some exceptions must be made, for Polytheism had fallen in the 
estimation of reflecting men, and many not born of God had entered the churches 
because they approved of the superior principles and influences of Christianity. 
These were neither prepared to tell the truth nor give up their own self-impor- 
tance in teaching and the management of business. At the beginning, Satan 
sowed tares among the wheat, and the more popular Christianity became, and 
the less labor and suffering to be endured, the more easily tares can be intro- 
duced and propagated. Pure and faithful churches have sought obscure and 
retired places, as in the wilderness, to maintain their apostolic faith and prac- 
tice, yet bold and fearless churches and persons maintained the great truths con- 
tested and gained the victory in most conspicuous places as if in the blue sky 
above. They may not have been perfect, but they were firm and faithful, were 
acknowledged by Christ and sustained in the conflict. Those who declared the 
truth to the world, exhibited piety and fortitude. Acts of beniflcence and liber- 
ality were performed by Christians to the heathen as well as to one another. 
Their charity to the poor was boundless ; they expressed love to their enemies, 
took care of the sick and infirm, showed humanity to captives and redeemed 
those they could, and developed illustrious virtues, which rendered them worthy 
of universal esteem. Pious frauds were but few and seldom, if practiced at all. 
The assiduous laborers and holy lives of teachers reclaimed barbarous tribes, 
and amidst dangers and trials of various kinds they erected churches in Gaul and 
Germany.^ Learned and pious men published different works in defense of the 
Gospel, and spread abroad translations of the Scriptures. ^ While the Polythe- 
ists abandoned the sick in time of pestilence, the Christians never deserted them, 
but took care of one another in such calamities, as at Carthage and Alexandria. * 
The professions, confessions, and conduct of the martyrs show most of the 



(9) Jones 151. Euseb. bk. 8, chap 1. (1) Euseb. bk. 6, chap. 43, and bk. 7, chap. 8. Miner. 3:9, 
179. (2) Mosh. 3:1; 1 §§ 4-7. (3) Neander 158. 



OHAPtER OXXVII. : SECTION III. 565 

churches to be genuine churches of Christ, while the apostacies in times of per- 
secution only show tares sown among the wheat, and many of these were only 
weak, and became true penitents and some recruited strength and witnessed 
unto death, like Peter, But this firmness and fidelity does not prove that they 
were all sound in every principle and every practice. The Scriptures, and not 
the uninspired belief and practice of churches, is the standard of principles and 
practices, and by them must churches and individuals be measured in all places 
and at all times. (See §§ 5, 6.) 

3. Change in Government. (Continued from Chap. 125, § 1, 6, 13, and 
from Chap. 106. — The notions of the theocracy of the Old and of the New 
Testament, which were so decidedly kept distinct from one another by the 
apostles and the first Christians, became again gradually interchanged and con- 
fused and the source of theoretical and practical errors, which lasted through 
many centuries. Many notions of government, foreign to the Gospel, were 
brought from the Old Testament into the Church of Christ; and so was the Old 
Testament notion of the priesthood introduced. ^ It appears in the third century 
that in the large cities there was at the head of each church a bishop, who ruled 
the sacred community with a certain sort of authority in consort with the body of 
presbyters, and consulting in matters of moment the opinion and the voices of 
the whole assembly. In every province one bishop was invested with a certain 
superiority over the rest in point of rank and authority. The rights of these 
primitive bishops were not everywhere accurately fixed, nor determined in such 
a manner as to prevent encroachments and disputes ; nor does it appear that 
the chief authority in the province was always conferred on the bishop presiding 
over the church at the metropolis. The bishops of Eome, Antioch, and Alex- 
andria, considered as rulers of primitive and apostolic churches, had a kind of 
preeminence over all others — were consulted in afikirs of a difiicult and momentous 
nature, and were distinguished by peculiar rights and privileges. The bishop of 
Home had, in this third century, obtained, in the opinion ot Cyprian and some 
others, a certain preeminence in the churches, attributed to his position in the 
empire city. But the equality in dignity and authority of all bishops was insisted 
on, and they rejected, with contempt, his judgment when they considered it 
ill-founded or unjust, and acted independently. ^ Thus, we see the lust for preem- 
inence and power which Christ rebuked in His apostles and forbid to be exercised 
in His kingdom, is fully displayed but not yet established, and the management 
of the churches was concentrating into monarchy and despotism, after the manner 
of the empire. The ancient ecclesiastical method seemed still to exist in general, 
while at the same time, by imperceptible steps, it had varied from the primative 
rule and was degenerating into a despotic hierarchy. Bishops aspiring to higher 
rank and authority violated the rights of the people and encroached on the pril- 
vileges of the presbyters. This change in government was soon followed by a 
train of vices dishonoring the ministry, and many sunk in voluptiousness and 
luxury, were puffed up with vanity, arrogance, and ambition ; and filled with 
discord and contention, showed the fire-red horse carrying a leader was making 
his appearance. Cyprian himself showed this leader domineering disposition. 
When Pupian asked an explanation, Cyprian, instead of giving it, appeals to the 
judgment-seat of God, who had appointed him bishop, and declaims against the 
iniquity of any man making himself a judge over the priest, called to his office 
by God Himself.^ Here we have the anti-Christian doctrine of church govern- 
me«it distinctly avowed ; authority by virtue of the office instead of by the com- 
petency and fidelity in filling it. Christians are commanded to honor, support, 
and obey the civil magistrates, because of their office — for they are the ministers 
of God -j"^ but ecclesiastical rulers must be obeyed because they zealously watch 
for souls, in view of their accountability to God; and they must be honored for 



(4) Neander 111. (5) Mosh. 3:2; 2 § 1-4. 



566 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

their work, or service. A bishop is as much subject to the judgment of the 
brethren who are com])etent to judge as they are to his. Every man's work or 
service in the kingdom of God must be open for inspection to the whole world. 
Even the translators of the Scriptures may be judged by those competent, and 
their work may be approved or condemned. No pope, patriarch, bishop, elder, 
nor deacon, can crush opposition by virtue of his office, nor decide any contro- 
versy by it. Every one that is competent must judge and act for themselves. 
But where brethren do not understand the subject they should submit to the 
decision of those acquainted with the facts and principles. The people were 
certainly very dependent on those having access to the Scriptures for instruction 
in faith and practice, and would accord to them respect and authority because of 
their superior knowledge, and submit to their decisions ; but, when any claimed 
this respect and obedience by virtue of their office or position, they made them- 
selves lords over God's heritage, but were not examples to the flock. ^ The 
bishop, elder, or deacon, is to be supported, honored, and obeyed, not because 
he holds that office or post of duty, but because he devotes his time and strength, 
and labors faithfully, and shows what is the truth and will of God. ^ The officer 
labors for God and not man, and the members obey God and not man. This 
purely Christian idea of government was lost by some of the leading and opulent 
bishops; but we iind they met with opposition that enraged them.^ They 
claimed the power to call councils, decide questions, and give orders. But we 
find the authority of the bishop of Rome and others^ rejected by other bishops : 
and though Cyprian claimed to lead the African bishops, yet his authority was 
rejected by presbyters; his conduct scrutinized, and himself rejected by brethren. 
A layman gave Cyprian a reproof, and reminded him that the priest ought to be 
humble, for even Christ and His apostles were humble.^ (Chap. 133.) 

4. Change in Ordinances, and Yiews of Church Membership as Exhib- 
ited IN THE Restoration of the Lapsed. — Mosheim says:* The prayers of the 
first Christians were followed by oblations of bread and wine and other things; 
hence, both the ministers of the church and the poor derived their subsistence. 
^ " ^ Of the bread and wine, such a quantity was separated from the rest as 
was required in the administration of the Lord's supper; this was consecrated by 
certain prayers pronounced by the bishop alone, to which the people assented by 
saying: Amen. The holy supper was distributed by the deacons, * -^ -^ and 
was followed by sober repasts, called agape, or feast of charity, or love. The 
rites and customs of the primitive Christians were very difi'erent in diflferent 
countries, and these feasts, like other institutions, were not everywhere celebrated 
in the same manner. ^ Baptism was administered in this first century, without the 
public assemblies, in places appointed and prepared for that purpose, and was 
performed by the immersion of the whole body in the baptismal font by the 
person under whose ministry they had embraced the Christian doctrine. In the 
second century, he says, ® the sacrament of the Lord's supper was celebrated for 
the most part on Sundays. A part of the bread and wine in the oblations were 
consecrated by the prayer of the bishop; the wine was mixed with water, and the 
bread was divided into small portions, and a part was carried to the sick or 
absent members of the church, as a testimony of fraternal love, sent by the whole 
society. It appears by many undoubted testimonies that this holy rite was looked 
upon as essential to salvation, and when this is duly considered we shall be less 
disposed to censure the opinion that it was administered to infants in this century. 
The sacrament of baptism was administered publicly twice every year a^ the 
festivals of Ester and Pentecost, or Whitsuntide, either by the bishop or the pres- 
byters in consequence of his authorization and appointment. The persons, after 
they had repeated the creed, confessed and renounced their sins, the devil and 



(6) iNeander 133, note *. (7) Rom. 13:3-7. (8) I. Pet. 5:3. (9) Heb. 13:17. I. Thes. 5:12, 13. 
I. Tim. 5:17. (1) Euseb. p. 263. Miner. 3:9; 179. (2) Neander 133. (3) Encp. R. K.. Arians. (4) 
Mosh. 1:2; 4, §§ 7, 8. (5) Chap. 125, § 12. (6) Mosh. Cent. 2, pt. 2, chap. 4; §§ 12-13. 



OHAPtEiR CXXVII. : SECTION IV. 567 

his pompotis allurements, were immersed under water, and received into Christ's 
kingdom by a solemn invocation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, according to 
the express command of our blessed Lord. After baptism they received the sign 
of the cross and were anointed, and by prayers and imposition of hands they 
were solemnly commended to the mercy of God and dedicated to His service, in 
consequence of which they received milk and honey. In the third century, he 
says, "^ several alterations were now introduced into the celebration of the Lord's 
supper. * ^' "^ Prayers were lengthened, and the pomp and solemnity increased, 
-5f ^ -X- some variations were in different churches; ^ * * but it was considered 
in all as of the highest importance and as essential to salvation, for which reason 
it was even thought proper to administer it to infants. In some churches the sacred 
fasts preceded it, and in others they followed. There were twice a year stated 
times when baptism was administered to such as after a long course of trial and 
preparation offered themselves. This ceremony was performed only in the 
presence of the initiated. The remission of sins was thought to be its immediate 
and happy fruit, while the bishop, by prayer and the imposition of hands, was 
supposed to confer those sanctifying gifts of the Holy Spirit that are necessary to 
a life of righteousness and virtue. We have already mentioned the principal 
rites used in the administration, and have only to add that none were admitted to 
this solemn ordinance until, by the menacing and formidable shouts and declara- 
tions of the exorcists, they had been delivered from the dominion of the prince 
of darkness and consecrated to the service of God. Fasting began now to be 
held in more esteem than formerly, and incense was introduced in many churches. 
Thus, we see the two ordinances ordained by Christ were so burdened with addi- 
tional ceremonies that those not having access to the Scriptures in the original 
language could not tell what was enjoined by Christ and essential to the ordinance, 
or what was the most important ceremony about it. Hence, the very thing 
expressly commanded might be dropped or changed, and the innovations be 
retained as the essential parts. And instead of observing these ordinances as acts 
of obedience, and memorials of important events or truths, and of instructive and 
endearing associations, they were relied upon for procuring salvation at death. 
The way was now prepared to alter these institutions, and to grant them, out of 
compassion, to persons in no way qualified for the service of Christ and on per- 
sons in danger of death. Neander says : Baptism was originally administered 
by immersion, * "^ ^ an exception was made only in the case of sick persons, 
which was necessary. Many superstitious persons imagined that baptism by 
sprinkling was not valid, and distinguished them by the name of Clinici. Cyprian 
expresses himself strongly against this fancy: "The breast of the believer is 
washed in one way, and the soul of man is purified by the merit of faith in 
another. In the sacraments of salvation, when necessity compels, and God gives 
permission, the divine service, though abridged, confers its whole efiicacy on the 
belever." Totum oredentibus confurent divina compendia. ^ From a want of a 
proper distintion between the external and internal things of baptism, the idea 
was forever gaining ground and becoming more firmly fixed, that without outward 
baptism no one could be freed from that inherited guilt and saved from the eternal 
punishment that threatened him, or brought to eternal happiness ; and while the 
idea of the magical effects of the sacrament was constantly obtaining more and 
more sway, the theory of the unconditional necessity of infant baptism developed 
itself from that idea. This was generally received in the North African church 
as early as the middle of the third century. ^ Cyprian advocated it on the ground : 
"We must do all in our power that no soul should be destroyed."^ Cyprian also 
mentions the effects of the Lord's supper on a child that had been given before 
some broth offered to idols. ^ According to Cyprian's view, the only road to 
Heaven was in the church. ^ Such opinions introduced deviations from the primi- 
tive faith and practice ; but during this period we find admissi6n into the church 

(7)Mosh. 3:2; 4, §§ 2-4. (8) Neander 197-8. (9)Idni. 200, 402. (1) Wall., Vol. II., pp. 482-3. 



568 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

and its ordinances, in all ordinary circumstances, to be through the school of Cate- 
chumans. In Origen we iind two classes of these, distinctly separated from each 
other: 1. Those who were for the first time receiving private instruction; 
2. Those who were admitted to the congregations, and were under immediate 
preparation for baptism. ^ 

5. Schism. — In this period appeared a schism of the greatest importance on 
the page of history, called the Novatian schism. But that the numerous churches 
comprehended in this appellation had any connection with either Novatus of Car- 
thage, or Novatian of Rome, or owed their origin to them, or received any article 
of faith and practice from them, has not been shown in any history of my acquaint- 
ance. It is more plausible to suppose that these churches ha"d retained the primitive 
truths and simplicity of the Gospel, and that these men and their adherents, 
excommunicated by Cornelius and Cyprian, united with them, or only maintained 
the same or similar principles, and then the domineering party stigmatized all 
who opposed their despotic usurpations by the name of the excommunicated per- 
sons. And that was not the last time the witnesses for truth and freedom of 
religion have been stigmatized by the name, or conduct, of some persons defeated 
and excommunicated by the domineering party. The true merits of Novatus and 
ITovatian, and of their cases at Carthage and Rome, is hard to determine, for all 
our information comes from their enemies, whose exaggerated and somewhat 
contradictory accounts show them to be irritated partisans and incompetent wit- 
nesses. Novatus at Carthage is represented to be the advocate of loose discipline, 
and Cyprian of the rigid ; Novatian at Rome is the rigid, and Cornelius the loose 
disciplinarian. The loose discipline was the most likely to be popular, and Cor- 
nelius at Rome, and Cyprian at Carthage, united in its defence against Novatian 
and Novatus. On this subject (the readmission of those fellowshiping idolatry 
in time of persecution) the churches differed before this ; but, as no Cyprian and 
no Cornelius had tried to force uniformity, no schism had appeared. The church 
was at that time without any general recognized principles as to church penitence, 
and two parties existed. * Cyprian might call bishops to establish a rule and 
excommunicate Novatus at Carthage, and Cornelius might do the same and excom- 
municate Novatian at Rome ; but individual churches, bishops, presbyters, deacons, 
and brethren might do as they pleased, and so reject the usurped authority of 
these councils and espouse the cause of the excommunicated. Then the domi- 
neering party would stigmatize all rejecting their authority by the name of the 
persons excommunicated. It must be remembered that the materials for church 
history are mostly furnished by opulent churches in prominent localities and 
published by prominent organs of these societies, while humble churches and 
unassuming men appear not till some contention among the prominent requires 
them to approve or condemn, and then they are stigmatized by the domineering 
party if they approve or defend the defeated party. I do not find any missionaries 
or agents sent out by Novatian to collect and organize any churches or societies, 
nor councils called by him, nor any churches appealing to him for authority, nor 
acknowledging him in any way; yet they flourished till the fifth century in the 
greatest part of these provinces which had received the Gospel. ^ Now, the 
churches at Rome and Carthage were two of the most opulent, and had two of 
the most domineering bishops of the times. These bishops, finding their opinions 
rejected and their authority disregarded by some of the presbyters who opposed 
their election, called a council of bishops and excommunicated them, and stigma- 
tized all rejecting their sentence as Novatians. Excepting the calumnies against 
these individuals mentioned, no charge of false doctrine nor unchristian practices 
is preferred against them by their enemies, except their rigid discipline. Authors 
acquinted with the writings of Novatian give him the highest character for intel- 
ligence, judgment, and moral character, and their strict discipline contradicts the 

(2) Neander, p. 135. (3) Idm. 193. (4) Neander 135. Mosh. 3:1; 2, § 4. (5) Mosh. 3:2; 5, § 17. 
(6) Jones 181-4. Ben., pp. 4-8, and others. Neander 132-6. 



CHAPTER CXXVII. : SECTION VI. 569 

the calumnies about Novatus and his adherents. ^ This schism took place A. D. 
251, and so the Novatians and their principles were tried throughout the severest 
persecutions, and when the dragon was cast down they could shout the victory in 
the foremost ranks of the Michael army, and never adopted any of the rites nor 
principles of Polytheism. Another schism about the end of this period (in A. D. 
311-314) took place, called Donatists. This schism originated about the ordination 
of a bishop, but terminated in a bold stand against churches being wedded to 
civil governments. The doctrine of the Donatists was orthodox and their lives 
exemplary, as acknowledged by their enemies ; '^ but their history belongs properly 
to the next period and the reign of the beast, and so does the Arian controversy. 

6. YiEW OF Church Membership. — It is evident separation from the church 
and its ordinances was regarded by the dominant party as a separation from 
salvation, according to Cyprian's view. In the church alone is the road to 
salvation, ^ and many of the bishops, having usurped apostolic authority without 
apostolic qualifications, were attempting, by fear of excommunications, to coerce 
all persons to submit to their authority.,^ But many neither feared the bishops 
nor their combined excommunication. The true idea of a Christian church is : 
It should be the foundation and pillar of the truth, the light of the world, and 
the salt of the earth ; therefore the maintenance and propagation of the truth 
and the development of the Christian character before the world are of the 
utmost importance. Salvation is ofi'ered to the chief of sinners, and all truly 
penitent prodigals and apostates should be restored to fellowship in it. But care 
in discipline must be taken to prevent hypocrits from abusing the grace of God 
and turning it into licentiousness. Persons continually apostatizing and contin- 
ually professing repentance may be judged guilty of hypocricy, and so should 
not be restored until a corresponding life — fruits meet for repentance — prove their 
repentance to be genuine. J^ow, Christianity was persecuted at one time and 
patronized at another ; soon persecuted again, and again restored. In such times 
the popular part of the community were liable to fluctuate with the times, pro- 
fessing and apostatizing, repenting and soon scandalizing their profession, till 
Christianity had like to lose its stability in the war and its influence on society. 
To stop this pernicious result it was necessary to require strong evidence of 
repentance before readmission. It may be the Novatians carried this principle 
too far and excluded forever those falling back to idolatry, or into other hyenous 
sins. Cyprian says : They exhorted the apostate to repentance and confession, 
and to do all the good in their power to wash away their sins ; but after all they 
should die without the church. ^ This looks more like rhetoric than truth, but still 
it might be so. They might labor to bring them to reformation, and thus secure 
their final salvation ; and yet consider the character and efiiciency of the 
churches in this world forbid their readmission. ^ But certainly this was not the 
ground of the schism, for the doctrine that sins after baptism could not be 
pardoned, was held by leading men in the so called Catholic churches, if his- 
torians are entitled to belief ^ and JS^ovatus was more lax in discipline than 
Cyprian. The real ground of separation was the usurpation of authority by some 
bishops and the unyielding firmness of those maintaining the primitive truth 
and simplicity.^ This charge enabled the domineering party to work on the 
feelings of the multitude; and representing it as shutting the fallen ones out of 
Heaven at death, they augmented their own power by thus teaching. The only 
sure way to Heaven was to enter their churches and keep on good terms with 
the bishops, who could give them absolution and a safe passport into Heaven to 
death. This false notion, that the primary design of churches is to take souls at 
Heaven at death, or to secure Heaven to them at death, has prostituted it and 
all its ordinances to the most polluted characters and cruel wretches in the world, 



(7) Mosh. 4:2; 5, § 8. (8) Neander, p. 135, 200, 402. (9) Idm. 133. (1) Neander, p. 145. (2) 
Idm. (3) Neander 201. Miner. 5:2, 381. (4) Neander 132-4. Euseb., bk. 6, chap. 43. 



570 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

and invented new ways of salvation not to be found in the Bible ; and it bas 
given to priests, bishops, and popes a superstitious power over man that none 
but God should possess. This doctrine has appeared at the end of this period ; 
and in opposition to it we find the true doctrine — that church members must be 
upright and faithful, and • no rites nor official power can pardon sin, but God 
only can ; and lost favor with God can not be restored by man. It may be this 
true doctrine was carried too far, but I doubt this charge was a gratuitous slander. ^ 
But, admitting all their enemies have said against them, we here find churches 
maintaining the primitive faith and practice, separated from the forming hier- 
archy, enduring the severest persecutions of the Red Dragon, and existing 
wherever the Gospel had been received when Polytheism was cast down from 
being the conspicuous antagonism to the kingdom of God. These churches were 
not formed into episcopates, for there were four of them in Constantinople and 
several in Alexandria in the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth cen- 
turies. ^ Such appears to have been the character and condition of Christianity 
in the Roman empire when the dominant party took the place of Polytheism on 
the throne of the Csesars."^ During this period, also, the fallen star opened the 
bottomless pit ; the smoke began to fill the ecclesiastical atmosphere and darken 
the sources of Christian light ; but, as the most pernicious effects were exper- 
ienced in the next period, we shall give an account of it in Chapter 132. 



riod Eighteenth. A. M. 4330-4600. 
The Second Seal^ or Red-Horse Period. A. D. 326-596. 

CHAPTER CXXYIII. 



FALL, WRATH, PERSECUTION, FLOOD, AND WAR OF THE RED 

DRAGON. (Continued from Chap. 126.) 

1. Polytheism Cast Out. — After the defeat of Licinius, the empire was 
ruled by Constantine alone until his death, A. D. 337, and the Christian cause 
experienced the effects of his auspicious administration. This zealous prince 
employed all the resources of his genius, all the authority of his laws, all the 
engaging charms of his munificence and liberality, to efface by degrees the super- 
stitions of paganism and to propogate Christianity in every corner of the Roman 
empire. His sons followed his example in continuing to abrogate and efface the 
ancient superstition of the Roman and other idolatrous nations, and to accelerate 
the progress of the Christian religion throughout the empire."^ A Christian 
education, counter to the pagan, was instituted and the youth were educated into 
Christianity. ^ By circular letters Constantine exhorted all his subjects to imi- 
tate, without delay, the example of their sovereign, and to embrace the truth of 
Christianity. ^ The fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries celebrate in their 
writings the triumph of the church and of Constantine. ^ Polytheism was still 
tolerated by Constantine, though he condemned, under the most rigorous penal- 
ties, the occult and impious arts of divinition, imposed ignominious silence on 



(5) Neander 145. (6) Ben., p. 7. {*) Continued chap. 128, §§ 5-7. 



CHAPTER CXXVIII. : SECTIONS II. -Til. 571 

the oracles eon vieted of fraud and falsehood, abolished the effeminate priests of 
the Nile, and demolished the temples devoted to open prostitution. The 
imperial city of Constantinople was in some measure raised at the expense and 
adorned with the spoils of the opulent temples of Greece and Asia, the sacred 
property was confiscated, the statues of gods and heroes were transported with 
rude familiarity as objects of curiosity among the people. Under his sons the 
demolition of temples was celebrated as one of the auspicious events of their 
reign. An edict from Constantius commanded the temples in all the cities to 
be shut and guarded, and all citizens to abstain from sacrificing, under the pen- 
alty of the sword and confiscation of property; and the same penalties were 
denounced on all governors neglecting to enforce this edict. Still it was not 
enforced in all places, and the public exercise of pagan worship continued dur- 
ing the reign of the sons of Constantine. ^ The devil is an invisible agent, and 
so are his actions and instigations ; and his wrath is known by its effects only. 
He instigates civil wars and dissensions in churches and governments, and sends 
Polytheist invasions. The dragon is a visible agent, or development of an agent, 
and his movements can be traced. The devil may work with the dragon ; but 
he may work without him. The devil wrecked the monotheist empire within by 
dissensions, while the dragon assailed it without by pagan invasions. 

2. The Last Struggle. — This glorious triumph of monotheism and the 
name of Jesus Christ over Polytheism was arrested for a moment by the elevation 
of Julian to the sole empireship of Rome. ^ Julian professed to be a wise philoso- 
pher and a decent Polytheist, and tried to reform and restore the worship of the 
gods; he required good characters in his vicar priests, and himself was the high- 
est priest in the whole empire.^ He transferred the property of the clergy to the 
priests, deprived the Christians of the offices in the state, and of schools, that 
their children might be taught by the pagans, condemned them to restore the 
temples, and demolished churches built on their ruins, ^ incited the Jews to 
rebuild their temple, but they failed. The great temple of Apollo, at Daphne, 
had but one goose for sacrifice, and the sacred ground had become a graveyard ; 
he attempted to remove the dead and restore the rites, but it was burnt down by 
some unknown means. ^ For a moment Polytheism could boast of flaming 
altars, bleeding victims, smoking incense, and solemn processions.''' But Julian 
fell on the battle-field by a Persian lance, and with him fell the hopes of Poly- 
theism. Had he returned victorious from Persia, Christianity would have felt 
the wrath of the Red Dragon, reanimated by hope and despair. Julian's reign, 
as sole emperor, was sixteen or twenty months. The following emperors pro- 
moted Christianity and endeavored to entirely root out the pagan superstition, but 
the most zealous and successful was Theodosius the Great, or the first, A. D. 
379-395. Theodosius enacted severe laws and penalties against Polytheism, and 
his sons pursued with zeal the same end, so that at the end of the fourth century 
it had rio prospect left of recovering it primitive authority and splendor. ^ So 
rapid, and yet so gentle, was the fall of paganism, that only twenty-eight years 
after the death of Theodosius the faint and minute vestiges were no longer visible 
to the eye of the legislator. ^ The ruin of paganism was described by Polytheists 
as a dreadful and amazing prodigy which covered the earth with darkness and 
restored the ancient dominion of chaos and night. ^ But the Christian view of it 
is sung in Revelations 5:8-14 and 12:10, 11, 12. 

3. Character of Citizens of the Empire and Members of the Empire 
Church. (Continued from chap. 127, § 6.) — Woe to the inhabiters of the earth 
and of the sea ! for the Diabolos has come down unto you, having great wrath, 
for he knows his time is short. By the terms, earth and sea, can not be meant 
the true Christians, for they had experienced his severest wrath from the first ; 

(7) Mosh. 4:1; 1, §§ 10, 11. (8) Mosh. 4:2; 1 § 4. (9) Gbn. 1:20, p. 254. (1) Idm., p. 257. 
(2) Idm., chap. 21, p. 285. (3) Mosh. 4:1; § 12. (4) Gbn., Yol. L, chap. 28, p. 302. (5) Idm., p. 
307-8. (6) Gbn. 1:23; 930. (7) Idm. 302. (8) Mosh. 4:1; 1, § 15. (9) Gbn. 1. 28; 393. 



572 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED 

nor can it denote the priesthood and zealous devotees of Polytheism, for they 
were the cast out development of Satan, which caused the devil's wrath, and 
which had the short time. They had exhibited the devil's wrath, but it must 
designate those recognized citizens of the nations who could profess Christianity 
or Polytheism as best suited their interest and secured their tranquility. They 
acknowledged the superior excellence of Christianity, but preferred their own 
tranquility and safety. When the churches refused to tolerate Polytheism among 
their members, the dragon waged war to make them fellowship it. What harm 
to say: My lord, the emperor! and offer up sacrifices ?i The proconsul said : 
We, too, are pious, and we swear by the genius of the emperor, our lord ; and 
we pray for his welfare, which you must do, ^ and offer sacrifices for his pros- 
perity. ^ Failing in the project, he, next thing, tries to entirely crush out Chris- 
tianity, * but, by civil wars, was himself conquered and cast out of the political 
and conspicuous heaven. Now the devil that animated and controlled the dragon 
was full of wrath and ready to destroy those nominal Christian citizens and 
empires that deserted his cause or were indifferent to his Polytheistic develop- 
ment. The last conspicuous persecution shows many such citizens in the Roman 
empire ; they preferred Christianity, but would not suffer for it. When safety 
returned, they deserted Polytheism, threw the power on the side of Christianity, 
and cast out the dragon. Now these faithless ones form the bulk of the empire 
and the ruling part of the empire church, and the Diabolos is wroth with them, 
and the philosophers exhausted all their rage and bitterness in their efforts to 
defame the Christian religion. ^ Christianity had now received many of these 
venal subjects who did not worship the dragon in his old development, nor were 
they the citizens of the kingdom of God, born from above, but they were the 
citizens of the world, and the inhabiters of the land and the sea, and ruled them. 

The hopes of wealth and honors, example of an emperor, his exhortations, 
and his irresistible smiles, diffused conviction among the venal and obsequious 
crowds of the palace. The cities which signalized a forward zeal by the voluntary 
destruction of their temples were rewarded with municipal privileges and popular 
donatives, and the salvation of the common people was purchased at an easy 
rate. ^ Julian easily reconverted multitudes of these back to Polytheism."^ The 
majority of the people of Antioch supported the glory of the Christian name and 
contented themselves with disobeying its moral precepts, but they were scrupu- 
lously attached to the speculative doctrines of their religion.^ Themistius 
observes : In the recent changes both religions had been alternately disgraced by 
the seeming acquisition of worthless proselytes of those votaries of the reigning 
purple, who could pass without a reason or a blush from the church to the temple 
and from the altars of Jupiter to the sacred table of the Christians. The philoso- 
phers who had abused their transient favor under Julian, thought it prudent to 
shave their beards and disguise their profession. ^ Thus, the state, or empire 
church, was full of the children of this world, or of the inhabiters of the earth and 
of the sea, and they were hated by the priests, philosophers, and devotees of 
Polytheism, who form the body of the Red Dragon. What was the character of 
the ruling portion of the Christians in other nations, we can not tell ; but, judging 
from their relation to the empire church, as forming one great Catholic church 
under a domineering hierarchy, we suppose them about the same. The empire 
church was filled with the increasing multitude of unworthy proselytes who had 
conformed, from temporal interests, to the reigning religion, and while they 
devoutly imitated the posture and recited the prayers of the faithful, they satisfied 
their conscience by the silent and sincere invocation of the gods of antiquity. ^ 
Thus, Polytheism was giving its strength and support to the monotheistic Roman 
empire. 



(1) Neander, p. 64. (2) p. 71. (3)72. (4)76. (5) Mosh. 4:1; 1, § 17. (6) Gbn. 1:20; 259. (7) 
Chap. 23; 303. (8) Gbn. Vol. I., chap. 24, p. 313. (9) Idm. 25; 329. (1) Idm. 28; 392. 



chapter oxxviii.: section iv. 573 

4. Wkath Shown to the Empire Church and to Those Sympathizing 
With It. — Libanius, the friend of Julian, was an indignant spectator of the 
triumph of Christianity. ^ At the funeral of Julian the Poljtheists lamented the 
approaching ruin of their altar. 3 The dragon's wrath is shown in the Roman 
empire on every occasion, and how much the Polytheists had to do in producing 
civil wars, we can not tell ; but Roman citizens who were not true Christians 
suffered from heathen citizens and heathen invaders ; but, as the dragon is cast 
out into the earth, his actions will not be so obvious as when he fought in the 
open face of Heaven. In one engagement in the civil wars between the sons of 
Constantine, fifty-four thousand fell.* Before the wounds of civil discord could be 
healed, the provinces of Gaul were overwhelmed by a deluge of barbarians, and 
the Persian monarch again threatened the peace of Asia. ^ When Julian, the 
apostate, came to the throne, his ministers exercised a vexatious tyranny over the 
empire Christians. The whole empire, and particularly the east, was thrown 
into confusion by the edicts of Julian, and the Pagan magistrates, inflamed by 
zeal and revenge for their abrogated religion and demolished temples, abused the 
rigorous privilege of the Roman law and apprehended the aged prelate, Mark, 
whose zeal had destroyed temples, and scourged him inhumanly, tore his beard, 
and suspended in a net his naked body besmeared with honey, to be stung by 
insects and scorched by a Syrian sun. But he still gloried in his crime and 
insulted the impotent rage of his enemies. ^ Julian applauds the devotion of the 
holy cities of Syria, whose pious inhabitants had revenged the injuries of the 
gods with less moderation than he should have recommended. In the cities of 
Gaza, Ascalon, Csesarea, Heliopolis, and others, the pagans abused without 
prudence or remorse, the moment of their prosperity, and the unhappy objects of 
their cruelty were released from torture only by death ; and as their mangled 
bodies were dragged through the streets, they were, in the universal rage, pierced 
by the spits of cooks and distaffs of enraged women ; and the entrails of Christian 
priests and virgins were tasted of by the fanatics, then were mixed with barley 
and thrown to the unclean animals of the city. Such scenes of religious 
madness exhibit the most contemptible and odious picture. But the massacre at 
Alexandria attracts more attention. The prison was forced open by the rage of 
a superstitious multitude, and the Christians expire under their cruel insults, and 
the archbishop — an Arian — was carried through the streets on a camel and 
thrown into the sea. Two of his ministers shared his fate. The leaders of the 
tumult declared their resolution to disappoint the devotion of the Christian and 
intercept the future honors of these martyrs who had been punished, like their 
predecessors, by the enemies of their religion. Julian said : The contempt 
shown for all the gods tills me with grief and indignation.^ The Christians con- 
sidered Julian a cruel and crafty tyrant, who suspended the execution of his 
revenge till he returned victorious over the Persians, then they expected all the 
horrors of a heathen persecution, but insinuated their ability to defend them- 
selves. "^ Julian never returned, and Jovian restored and enlarged the ecclesi- 
astical immunities and abolished the edicts of Julian.^ Satan's wrath against 
the Christian Roman empire, shown by the invasions of barbarians, will be 
noticed in the floods cast out of the dragon's mouth ; but here we must mention 
the fact that the pagan citizens instigated these invaders to treat with violence 
and cruelty the Christian citizens. The painful recollections of their abrogated 
rites and the hopes of reestablishing their former liberty and privileges by means 
of their new masters, induced the worshipers of the gods to seize with avidity 
every opportunity of inspiring them with the most bitter aversion to the Chris- 
tians, who, in the beginning of their usurpations, suffered heavily under the 
rigor of their government.^ The savage Radagaisus was a stranger to the 
manners, the religion, and even the language of the civilized nations of the 



(2) Idm. 24 ; 315, (3) Idm. 25 ; 828. (*) Gbn. 1:18 ; 236-7. (4) Gbn. 1:19 ; 241. (5) Gbn. 
23; 308- (6) Gbn. 1:98; 309-11. (7) Idm. 312. (8) Idm. 25; 328. (9)Mosh. 5:1; 2, § 1. 



574: . THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

south. The fierceness of his temper was exasperated by cruel superstition. 
The public danger displayed the incurable madness of religious faction. The 
votaries of Jupiter and Mercury respected in the implacable enemy of Rome the 
character of a devout pagan, and secretly rejoiced in the calamities of their 
country, which condemned the faith of their Christian adversaries.^ The 
pagans alleged that since the progress of the Christian religion everywhere, the 
gods, filled with indignation to see their worship neglected and their altars 
abandoned, had visited the earth with these plagues and desolations, which 
increased every day. In Gaul and the neighboring provinces, the Goths and 
Yandals, whose cruel and sacrilegious soldiery respected neither the majesty of 
religion nor the rights of humanity, committed acts of barbarity and violence 
against the Christians. In Briton they were tormented by the Scots, Picts, and 
Saxons, till the conversion of these Polytheists gave the power to the empire, 
church, and state. ^ The Huns, in their irruptions into Thrace and Greece, and 
other provinces, treated the Christians with great barbarity, not so much, perhaps, 
from an aversion to Christianity as from a hostile spirit of hatred against the 
Greeks and a desire of overturning and destroying their empire. The Lom- 
bards, having conquered Italy, added to their natural ferocity an aversion to the 
religion of Jesus, and the Christians, in the beginning of their kingdom, 
endured calamities of every kind. ^ After Christianity became the state religion 
of the Koman empire. Polytheism in other nations found a pretext to persecute 
it on account of political relations; but whether these governments persecuted 
all Christians, or only those confederated, or Catholic churches, imitating and 
sympathizing with the empire church, it is hard to determine. Athenarick, king 
of the Goths, for some time persecuted with bitterness that part of the Gothic 
nation which had embraced Christianity; and in the remote provinces of the 
empire the pagans often defended their ancient superstitions by force of arms 
and massacred the imperial Christians, who used fraud and force in propagating 
their religion. Sapor II., king of Persia, vented his rage against the Christians 
in his dominions in three dreadful persecutions. The last, most cruel, and 
destructive, lasted forty years and carried off an incredible number of Christians. 

These persecutions were instigated by the Jews and Magi, who persuaded 
the Persian monarch that all the Christians were devoted to the interests of the 
Poman emperor, and that the archbishop of Selucia and Ctesiphon, sent to 
Constantinople intelligence of all that passed in Persia.* But whether he 
persecuted all Christians, or only those confederated with the empire church in 
one Catholic communion, I can not find out, and so can not tell whether this is the 
dragon persecuting the woman, or the devil's wrath against the inhabitants of 
the earth and the sea. The Jews belong to the wicked spirits in the heavenlies, 
but the Magi worshiped the sun, fire, thunder, etc., and belong to the dragon. 
The instigators were prompted by hatred of Christanity itself; but the monarch, 
by political motives ; and as the empire church persecuted heretics and schism- 
atics, they could not be reckoned in the emperor's interest, and so may not have 
been persecuted. Julian protected them; so did the Yandals in Africa, and 
after this the Persians protected the Nestorians and Monophysits, and were aided 
by them against the empire. 

The next persecution in Persia was provoked by Abdas, bishop of Suza, 
pulling down the pyreum, or temple of fire, and refusing to rebuild it at the com- 
mand of the king, Isdegerdes. The bishop was put to death (A. D. 414), and 
the churches were leveled to the ground. The Christians were treated in a more 
barbarous and inhuman manner by Yararenes, who was instigated by the Magi 
and by a notion they favored the Romans and rendered them real services. A 
prodigious number of Christians suffered and perished under the most exquisite 
tortures ; but they were delivered by the peace made with the Roman empire 



(1) Gbn. 1:30; 411. (2) Mosh. 5:1: 2, § 1-3. (3) Mosh. 6:1; 2, § 2, 3. (4) Mosh. 4:1; 1, § 24. 



CHAPTER CXXVIII.: SECTION V. 575 

A. D. 427. ^ And as often as the two nations were at war the Christians in Persia 
felt their monarch's wrath. Chosroes declared he would make war not only upon 
Justinian, but also upon the God of the Christians, and he vented his rage against 
them in the most barbarous manner and put multitudes of them to the most cruel 
aud ignominious deaths. ^ As the Catholic church was united to the Roman 
empire, and the Catholic Christians of Persia were protected by the treaties with 
the Romans, it is evident these bishops and churches were regarded by both 
nations as in the interest of the empire; and as the empire persecuted heretics and 
schismatics at home, it is not probable it espoused their cause in Persia and other 
nations, and if they were regarded as disaffected to the empire, state, and church, 
it is highly probable they were protected in Persia and other nations after they 
were known to be regarded as enemies by the empire. And the true churches 
of Christ would not provoke persecution by destroying property and refusing to 
restore it. The piety of Catholic bishops outside the Roman empire may be 
judged from that of Isaac, archbishop of Armenia. He said : Our king is too 
much addicted to licentious pleasures, but he has been purified in the holy waters 
of baptism. He is a lover of women, but he does not adore the fire or the elements. 
He may deserve the reproach of lewdness, but he is an undoubted Catholic, and his 
faith is pure though his manners are flagitious. I will never consent to abandon 
my sheep to the rage of devouring wolves, and you would soon repent your rash 
exchange of the infirmities of a believer for the specious virtues of a heathen. 
The exasperated nobles accused the king and the archbishop as the secret adher- 
ents of the emperor. "^ The history of Christianity in Persia from the days of the 
apostolic missions till the persecution in the fourth century is not extant, but most 
likely after the confederation of churches in the third century the wealthy bishops 
sent ordained bishops to rule the churches, and so produced schismatics who 
maintained the primitive simplicity in faith and practice. Thes^ may have escaped 
the persecutions instigated by hostility to the imperial government. When we 
read of great conversions from paganism, after A. D. 325, we must remember 
they are conversions to the empire church, and so they are obnoxious to all 
national hostility to the Roman empire. Though Armenia received the Gospel 
in the apostolic times, a history of it was not known till what is called the Armenian 
church was formed by Gregory, who was consecrated bishop of Armenia by 
Leontius, bishop of Cappadocia, in the fourth century. Gregory, with his min- 
isters, converted Tridates, the king, and all his nobles, and the whole province. 
The same is true of the Abassines, or Ethiopians, whose first provincial bishop 
was consecrated by Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria. The Iberian king and 
queen were converted by a captive woman during the time of Constantine ; but 
they sent to Constantinople for one to perfect the work. Part of the Goths had 
received the Gospel before the fourth century, but, being vanquished with the 
Samaritans by Constantine, many of them were brought into the empire church. ^ 
In this way was Polytheism made to augment and give its power to the empire 
church, while the advocates of primitive truth, purity, and simplicity were 
denounced and persecuted under the names of schismatics and heretics. 

5. The Deagon Peksecutes the Woman. (Continued from chap. 127, §§ 1, 
2, 5, 6.) — Tf 1. The kingdom of God, at the time the dragon was cast down, bore 
a remarkable resemblance to its condition when the iron sceptre Prince was 
born. Then the ruling part was impious and domineering, while a portion of the 
citizens were anxiously and devoutly waiting for His birth. Then the domineering 
part rejected the Prince and chose Csesar for their king, persecuted His cause, and 
forced His elect out of their community to hunt a place of sojourning in the 
wilderness between Egypt and the promised land, or iDetween Levitical bondage 
and the consummated age of the kingdom ; but it took time to disintegrate the 
chosen from the impious. At this time the domineering part was a hierarchy, 



(5) Mosh. 5:lj 2, § 4. (6) 6:1; 2, § 3. (7) Gbn. 1:32, p. 451. (8) Mosh. 4:1; 1, §§ 19-21. 



576 THE EINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

ready to accept the honors of this world ; to adopt heathen rites for sake of wealth 
and power; to accept a Caesar for a king, and to persecute all advocates of primi- 
tive truth, purity, and simplicity. The Novatian schism had taken place already, 
but it required time to disintegrate the true Christian churches from this domi- 
neering hierarchy. How far a church may deviate from the primitive and true 
standard, and still be a church of Christ, would be hard to determine. We find 
among the seven churches of Asia Minor some had fallen greatly from the true 
standard, and though reproved, admonished, and threatened, yet the memorial 
of their existence and recognition was still retained by the Savior. How many 
individuals and churches under this hierarchy disapproved of innovations and 
a union with civil government we can not discover; hence, when the dragon 
undertakes to persecute the woman he must persecute the universal, or Catholic, 
churches until the true churches are all separated from the spurious, and then he 
can select his victims. How much of the work we have attributed to the wrath 
of the devil belongs to the dragon's persecution of the woman we can not say, 
but perhaps all of the fourth century, and in all those nations remote from or not 
at war with the Koman empire. But the wrath of the Diabolos against all recog- 
nized and protected citizens of the Roman empire and of other nations cooperates 
with the dragon's persecution of the woman, and it is often hard to discover 
whether the destruction of the nation or of true Christianity is the supreme object. 
But while the devil, by an unseen policy, vents his wrath in many ways against 
the nations, in his dragon development he makes the true churches of Christ the 
special objects of persecution. Much of what we attributed to the wrath of the 
devil may be considered the persecutions of the dragon, and much of the destruc- 
tion produced by the flood out of the dragon's mouth may be attributed to the 
devil's wrath. The dragon may be disappointed, but the devil will make the 
citizens and soverigns of nations about to abandon his Ked Dragon development 
feel his wrath. Though in his Satanic and Diabolonian development he will 
practice till the time of his appointed perdition in the fire prepared for him and 
his angels, yet his Red Dragon development in antagonism to the kingdom is 
short; the sword of monotheism, in the hands of Unitarians and Trinitarians, 
will destroy the power of Polytheism. To accomplish his object successfully, 
the dragon delegated his power and work to a wild beast, which we shall view in 
Chapter 129. By this deputy he could distinguish the true churches of Christ and 
persecute them without incurring the displeasure and opposition of the monothe- 
istic children of the devil. The Dragon has lost his credit in the ruling portion 
of Satan's empire, and must give over his antagonism to a substitute. Changes 
had taken place in the kingdom of God, as we have seen, ^ and one schism was 
perfected before the dragon was dethroned, or the wild beast appeared. ^ 

If 2. The wild beast called a council of bishops to heal divisions in the (so 
called) Catholic church; Constantine, the emperor, asked Acesius, a Novatian 
bishop, why he separated from them? Acesius replied: Because we think to 
apostatize is the sin unto death, and those guilty of it ought never to be restored 
to the communion of the church, though they are to be invited to repentance 
and to be left to God, who alone has the power to forgive sins. Constantine 
replied : Acesius, set up a ladder and climb up to Heaven by yourself ^ If this 
is correctly reported, we have two antagonistic principles which exist to the present 
day. The IMovatian considers a church to be a foundation and pillar to bear up 
the truth of God to the world, a light to the human family, and the salt of the 
earth, and therefore the purity of a church in principle and practice is of supreme 
importance. 

This position is true, but it may be carried too far, as the Novatians 
are said to have done. The Catholics considered the church to be a ladder, or 
pathway, to Heaven, and none out of it can be saved, and the bishops, pope, or 



(9) Chap. 127, §§ 3, 4. (1) Idm., §§ 5, 6. (2) Miner. 4:3; 282. 



CHAPTER CXXVIII. : SECTION V. 



577 



clergy have alone the power to let men into or out of it. Hence the necessity of 
entering and receiving the church ordinances before death, and the horror of excom- 
munication which the clergy could inflict. This principle is false, and its conse- 
quences most pernicious. The ]Movatians were spread over all the provinces 
wherever the Gospel had reached. ^ Their vast extent is manifest from the names 
of the authors who have mentioned or written against them, and from the several 
parts of the Roman empire where found ; thej had men among them of note and 
eminence ; they set the example of contending for the purity and simplicity of 
Christian worship, and a firm adherence to the laws of the King of Zion. ^ The 
purity and orthodoxy of these is acknowledged by all, and they flourished into the 
fifth century and had no fellowship with the empire church, ^ and that they existed 
toward the end of the sixth century is evident from the book of Eulogius, bishop 
of Alexandria. 6 They were included in Constantine's edict of persecution of 
heretics, but afterward exempted."^ Paphlagonia was filled with them^ and they 
defeated the legions sent by the Arian bishop, Macedonius, to convert them to 
the Arian, or to extirpate them. ^ They were numerous in Phrygia and a number 
of eminent men were raised up in the work of the ministry.^ Their books were 
burnt, and they were persecuted by both the Arians and the Catholics, by bishops 
and civil magistrates, by councils and imperial edicts; they were robbed of churches 
and property; they were banished and put to death, till they disappeared in the 
wilderness^ (about A. D. 432-455). 

If 8. Another schism took place in the Catholic hierarchy before it became 
the empire church, called the Donatists schism, A. D. 311-314. The doctrine of 
the Donatists was orthodox, as even their adversaries confess; nor were their 
lives less exemplary than those of other Christian societies, if we except the Cir- 
cumcelliones, who the greatest part of the sect regarded with detestation and 
abhorrence, 2 and, like the Novatians, they had no fellowship with the empire 
church. As in the Novatian schism, so here we have two men of the same 
name, Donatus, and Donatus the Great. The schism originated in the election of 
a bishop, and some person is to be blamed for it; and some things are said about 
Donatus and his party, which, if true, we can not justify. These impeachments 
may be false, or the misrepresentations of party fury and exaggerations. I once 
saw a history of the Protestant reformation, written by a Paptist, which set 
Luther and the reformation in a worse light than the Novatians or Donatists; 
but the Px'otestants, having written their own history, have vindicated their ori- 
ginators and their work. In this case of the Novatians and Donatists, their 
enemies have accused, tried, condemned, and punished them for schism, and not 
for crime or false doctrine ; and then they have written the history of the whole 
affair and burnt all their writings that they could find, A. D. 331.^ Again, the 
originators may have been in the fault, and yet the churches called by their 
names, or, perhaps, only stigmatized, may in no way be chargeable with it. 

The reformation in England originated with Henry YIIL, whose character, 
motives, and actions can not be justified by the teachings and laws of Chris- 
tianity, yet the reformation in England was good, great, and glorious. In regard- 
ing the Novatians and Donatists as the true churches of Jesus Christ, we are 
under no necessity to prove the actions or motives of the first originators of the 
schisms, nor are we authorized to admit the inflamed and exaggerated charges of 
their enemies. The account of the savage barbarity of the Circumcelliones in 
Africa may be true or false, and yet the Donatists may be in no way accountable 
for them. If the Circumcelliones were desperate and cruel assassins, the legions 
of the empire were no better, and the mutual persecutions of Arians and Cath- 
olics and their treatment of heretics and schismatics were as cruel and savage as 
could be. It has always been the policy of civil factions to animate their soldiers 

(3) Mosh. 3:2; 5, §§ 17. 18. (4) Ben , pp. 1-8. (5) Neander 140-8. (6) Ben., p. 8. (7) Gbn. 
1:21; 285. (8) Gbn. 1:21; 283. (9) Orch., p. 56. (1) See Mosh., Miner., Jones, Orch., Ben. (2) 
Mosh. 4:2; 5, §8. (3) Ben., p. 7. Orch. p. 57. 
—37 



678 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

by religion, and where they find a religion opposed to the religion of theii' ene- 
mies it is sound policy to adopt or profess to defend it; and there is no sect so 
pure and entirely Christian that some of their number, or friends, or abettors, 
when driven to madness by oppression, will not unite with those promising them 
deliverance. Even the peaceful Quakers, with much lees provocation, furnished 
soldiers in the Revolutionary war of these United States, and yet the society con- 
demn all wars and resistance. So here, rebels for some cause, found a perse- 
cuted religion, opposed to the empire church, and espoused its cause, and, very 
likely, received some of its abettors into their ranks. This gave the empire 
church a pretext to slander, like the Red Dragon, and excuse their own blood- 
stained religion. Their inveterate enemy, Augustine, owns concerning one party 
of the Donatists, the Rogatians, that they carefully distinguished themselves 
from the Circumcelliones;^ and Mosheim says : The greatest part of the Donatists 
regarded the Circumcelliones with detestation and abhorrence. ^ The motto of 
the Donatists places them in direct antagonism to all state churches ; they said : 
What has the emperor to do with the church ? What have Christians to do with 
kings? What have bishops to do at court ?^ The Donatists flourished exten- 
sively in Africa, while the Sovatians spread over every province, and they resem- 
bled each other in doctrine and discipline. Both taught that none should be 
admitted into the church but true believers, or true saints, and so maintained 
purity of church discipline. Both taught the independency of each church, 
did not recognize the baptisms of the imperial church, or of heretics, and rebap- 
tized all of them that united with them ; but the Donatists readmitted penitents. "^ 
The Donatists were banished by Constantine and his sons, but were permitted to 
return by Julian. By the edicts of Honorius and Theodosius II., they, with 
the Novatians, were doomed to death A. D. 413. The edict ordered that all 
those rebaptizing and those rebaptized should be put to death. ^ This is in the 
Theodosian code, but appears to have been promulgated by Honorus A. D. 414. ^ 
Three hundred bishops of the Donatists in Africa, with many thousands of the 
inferior clergy, were torn from their churches, stripped of their ecclesiastical pos- 
sessions, banished to the islands, and proscribed by laws if any concealed them- 
selves in Africa. Their numerous congregations were deprived of the rights of 
citizens and religious worship, but they found .a deliverer in Genseric and the 
Yandalsi A. D. 428. But when the Vandals were overthrown, A. D. 534, the 
Donatists were again oppressed and marched out for vengeance by Pope Gregory, 
A. D. 591; they disappeared A. D. 604.2 

% 4. Aerians — a sect that arose A. D. 375, in Armenia, Pontus, and 
Cappadocia, the followers of Aerius, a presbyter of Sebastia in Pontus. His 
purpose was to reduce Christianity to its primitive simplicity; he maintained that 
bishops were not distinguishable by divine right from presbyters ; condemned 
prayer for the dead, and other such rites, and rejected fasts and festivals observed 
in a superstitious manner ; and this was highly agreeable to many good Chris- 
tians who were no longer able to bear the tyranny of the bishops of the fourth 
century. ^ His followers were driven from the churches and out of all the towns 
and villages, and were obliged to assemble in the woods, caverns, and open 
defiles. 4 The progress of superstition and erroneous notions of religion excited 
the zeal and effort of many to stem the torrent, though exposed to infamy and 
reproach. Most eminent among these was Jovinian, an Italian, whose judicious 
opinions began to be adopted. But he was condemned by the church at Rome, 
and by Ambrose in council at Milan, A. D. 390. Jovinian was banished by the 
Emperor Honorius. ^ Honorius ordered him and his accomplices to be whipped 
with scourges armed with lead, and then to be banished to different islands. He 



(4) Miner. 5:6; 433. (5) Mosh. 4:2; 5, i? 8. (6) Ben., p. 9. Jones 226. Orch. 88. (7) Orch. 87. 
Ben. 9. 10. Jones 225. (8) Ben. 10. Orch. 94. (9) Gbn. 1:33; 455. (1) Gbn. 1:3; 454-5. (2) Orch. 
100-101 Encp. R K., Donatists. (3) Mosh. 4:2; 3, § 21. (4) Encp. R. K., Aerians. (5) Mosh. 
4:2; 3. ,^'22. 



CHAPTER CXXVIII. I SECTION VI. 



579 



was banished to the isle of Boas and died about A. D. 406. « These two were 
condemned as heritics, and not schismatics ; but they were reformers and the 
legitimate seed of the woman ; and it is now evident' that the true churches of 
Christ cannot be nourished where emperors and imperial prelates can find them ; 
and war is waged against the seed of the woman who keep the commandments 
of God and have the witness-bearing for Jesus Christ. The beginning of perse- 
cution of the woman by delegated authority of the dragon may be dated from 
A. D. 331 till A. D. 432, and soon after tliis she disappers to the princes and 
prelates of the great monotheistic empire, and can not be nourished in their 
presence till a date from A. D. 1591 till A. D. 1692. 

T 5. But ample facilities were furnished the true churches to fly into the 
wilderness, or obscure retreats, as the persecution became severe. 

6. Facilities for Fleeing Into the Wilderness. — According to the divine 
programme, the true churches advocating the primitive purity, truth, and sim- 
plicity, fled into the wilderness during these persecutions after the fall of the 
dragon; as this flight was to hide from the serpent it must have been imper- 
ceptible and not en mass. This secretly slipping away into obscurity would 
require time and opportunity ; and where they went can not be known till they 
are discovered. Renarious Sacco, of the bloody inquisition, mentions authors of 
note among the Waldenses who made their antiquity remount to the apostolic 
age, "^ and so they have been there from the first. Claudius Leyssel, a papal 
archbishop, traces the rise of the Waldensian heresy to a pastor named Leo, 
leaving Rome during the last persecutions of Constantine, A. D. 331-337, and 
retiring to the valleys.^ But we must remember that the kingdom of God was 
not restricted to the Roman empire ; nor were all churches effected by its perse- 
cutions ; and of persecutions in other nations we have but little or no account. 
Polytheism was the national religion of all governments, and we may safely 
conclude Christianity had similar conflicts in all of them and had sequestered 
churches in all lands where it was first propagated. The valleys of Pidmonte 
are not the only spots on earth consecrated to the kingdom of God. When per- 
secuted in pagan countries, Christians would naturally flee into the Christian 
empire; but when the true churches were proscribed in the Christian Roman 
empire where could they be nourished except in the obscurity of the wilderness ? 
and for flying into obscurity ample facilities were furnished to them, like the 
wings of the great eagle. These facilities were wars and invasions, rebellions, 
conspiracies, and revolutions in the nations, and dissensions in the established 
religion ; but history enables us to notice these facilities in the Roman empire 
alone. 

We know Christianity was persecuted outside the Roman empire, but self- 
interest and state policy may have led rulers to tolerate, or protect, or favor, 
the heritics and schismatics persecuted by the Roman empire ; and by these terms 
were the true churches of Christ designated after the fourth century. The 
Catholic hierarchy have accepted a Csesar for king and proscribed all reformation 
and reformers. The Catholics under Constantine, and the Arians under Con- 
stantius, perecuted the Novatians, Donatists, and Aerians A. D. 331-352; and 
war with Persia, and civil wars between Constantine's sons, and usurpations, 
and the elevation of the apostate Julian to the throne of the empire, A. D. 340- 
363, furnished opportunities and facilities to flee from the supervision of perse- 
cuting prelates ; and the bloody struggles between Arian and Catholic bishops 
would induce subordinate magistrates to nourish these true churches. The 
Emperor Yalens persecuted A. D. 375, but involved in a war with the Goths 
he was slain A. D. 378. Gratian commenced to persecute, but a revolt proved 
his death and the elevation of Maximus. Maximus, said to be the first emperor 
that shed Christian blood, was slain in a civil war with Theodosius, A. D. 383. 



(6) Encp. R. K., Jovimans. (7) Mosh. 12:2; 5, § 11. McLain note. (8) Orch. 58. 



580 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, persecuted the Novatians A. D. 412, but was soon 
involved in the great dissension with Xestorius of Constantinople. Inocent, 
bishop of Rome, persecuted the Npvatians A. D. 412-415 ; Augustine, bishop of 
Kippo, persecuted the Donatists in Africa A. D. 413-415. In A. D. 404 the 
Emperor Honorius was solicited by bishops to enforce the persecuting edicts of 
the Theodosian code ; in A. D. 405 he imposed fines ; in A. D. 413 the edict 
imposing death on the rebaptised and rebaptizers was issued by Honorius, or 
by him and Theodosius II., which included the Novatians and Donatists, who 
rejected the baptism of the empire church. Alaric, the Goth, invaded Italy and 
plundered Rome A. D. 400-410 ; and Adolphus founded the kingdom of the Yis 
Goths in Gaul and Spain A. D. 425. Honorius died A. D. 423, and the Yandals 
conquered his African provinces A. D. 428. Celestines, bishop of Rome, perse- 
cuted the Novatians A. D. 432, and the council at Ales and at Lyons controverted 
their views A. D. 455, but they still existed A. D. 475. The western empire 
was torn to fragments and ceased to give laws A. D. 476. The Vandals protected 
the Donatists in Africa A. D. 428 till A. D. 533, when their empire was over- 
thrown ; and in A. D. 591 Pope Gregory persecuted the Donatists till they 
disappear, A. D. 604."^ 

In the eastern empire, the invasion of the European provinces by the bar- 
barians, wars with Persia, conspiracies and rebellions of generals, intrigues of 
ministers of state, contests of a corrupt, court with faithful prelates, as John 
Chrysostom, the Nestorian, and other controversies, in which Cyril, bishop of 
Alexandria, was involved, furnished ample opportunities and facilities to the true 
churches to retire from the supervision of emperors, patriarchs, and empire 
bishops ; while interest and state policy taught Persia and the invading barbarians 
to tolerate, protect, and favor them, though the Jews, Magi, and pagan priest- 
hoods might hate and try to instigate their persecution. In A. D. 604 the last 
of the Donatists were seen, and in A, D. 575 the last sight of the Novatians is 
recorded in the book of Eulogius, bishop of Alexandria.^ (See Chap. 134:12.) 

7. While the dragon persecuted the woman, in his own person in other 
nations, and by delegate in the Roman empire, he also poured out a river, or 
flood, to destroy her and sweep her away. A flood destroys indiscriminately 
whatever may be in its way, though the main object of those sending it may be 
to destroy some particular object. Here the main object was to sweep away the 
true churches, wliich began to fly into sequestered spots when persecuted by the 
dragon's delegate; but participating in the wrath of the devil against the inhab- 
iters of the earth and the sea, he wishes to destroy indiscriminately, and so sends 
a flood, or river, to inundate and sweep away. Satan prefers a Heaven-daring 
impiety in the presence of God Himself ; if he cannot get this, he will accept 
atheism ; if this is too strong for human nature, he will accept Polytheism ; if 
defeated in this policy, then he will advocate the doctrine of one God, one 
Savior, and a divine revelation ; but will persecute any or every divine truth, or 
law, to his utmost power. Satan hates divine truths and laws, and labors to 
destroy them in all times and places. And while he advocates monotheism and 
Christianity, he will instigate the Jew to destroy Christianity, and the Polytheist 
to destroy monotheism, and the atheist to destroy Polytheism, and then he will 
inspire the impious to disregard and defy Jehovah. And though the empire 
church was more pleasing to Satan tlian the true churches of Christ, and he liad 
delegated his Red Dragon authority to it, yet he continued to rage against the 
Roman empire, and in his dragon development sends inundations of Poljtheists 
to destroy it with its established religion, and at the same time to sweep the true 
churches of Christ into perdition. ^^ The flood of the dragon and the wrath of 
the devil are blended to destroy the woman. But the earth swallowed up the 
flood, and the true churches escaped to obscure retreats, where also they can be 



(9) Orch. 57-63, 86-101. (1) Orch., p 63. For dates of wars see Gbn. and Thai. (*) Gbn.,Vol. 
I., chap. 134:12. 



CHAPTER CXXIX.: SECTION I. 581 

nourished. The imperial edicts confiscating and banishing, and especially that 
one A. D. 413, decreeing death to them, prohibited them to grow and prosper, in 
view of an emperor's palace or a bishop's cathedral. The first inundation was 
led on by the Goths, many of whom had embraced Christianity ; in their long 
and victorious march from the Danube to the Atlantic ocean, they converted 
their allies, and they educated the rising generation.* Their example was 
followed by all invaders of the west ; and, having adopted the Arian creed, they 
protected schismatics and heretics, and also tolerated the Catholics. In the east, 
all the invaders adopted the religion of Mahomet and extirpated Polytheism, 
and the Greek-Roman empire saw monotheism established on the ruins of 
Polytheism from the Ganges to the Atlantic, and from the frozen north seas to 
the sunny Abyssinia and happy Arabia. Thus, the monotheistic Poman empire 
absorbed" all these inundations of Polytheism, and left the true churches of Christ 
nourished in safe retreats. But after some time the dragon, in another disguise, 
waged war with the seed of the woman in the west, and discovered the woman 
herself, and renewed his persecution of her ; and in the east his delegated wild 
beast waged perpetual war with her seed that kept the commandments of God 
and had the witness-bearing of Jesus Christ. (Continued in chap. 146. See 
also The Sealed ones, Chap. 131, § 2.) 



CHAPTER CXXIX. 



THE FIRST WILD BEAST. A. M. 4330-5465. (Continued from Chap. 

113, §§ 1-3. 

1. The Compeomise with the Red Dkagon. — The heart of the Roman 
empire was the Mediterranean sea, and its revolutions and civil wars are 
appositely symbolized by the commotions of this sea ; and the change of the 
national religion was consummated out of great commotions, civil wars, and 
persecutions of Christians. Six emperors reigned at one time, and all of them 
them fell in conspiracy or civil war except Galerius, who died before the one 
who made this change became sole emperor. ^ The seventh head of the Red 
Dragon was this Roman empire, and the throne, though often divided and 
removed, was properly in Rome, and the legitimate power was in the senate at 
Rome, which conferred, or confirmed, the titles and authority of emperors and 
the divinity of the gods. The title of Augustus was conferred on Constantine by 
his army, but it was confirmed by the senate. After great commotions and 
bloody battles the entire throne, the armies, and all authority passed into the 
hands of Constantine, and in the plenitude of his authority he changed the national 
religion from Polytheism, and his successors perfected the change. Excepting 
the sixteen or twenty months' reign of Julian, Polytheism continued to transfer 
all its wealth, all its devotees and temples, all the authority of the senate, and 
all the power of the army to these Christian, or monotheistic, emperors. The 
senate did once petition for the restoration of the altar of victory, but in vain. 
In a full meeting of the senate, the Emperor Theodosius proposed, according to 



(*)Gbn., Vol. L, chap. 37; pp. 503, 508. (2) Gbn. Vol I., chap. 126, § 11, 12. 



582 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOflED. 

the forms of the repubhc, the important question : Whether the Worship of 
Jupater, or that of Christ, should be the religion of the empire ? On a regular 
division of the senate Jupater was condemned and degraded bj the sense of a 
large majority. Many of these reluctant proselytes betrayed on every favorable 
occasion their secret disposition to throw aside the mask of odious dissimulation. 
But they were gradually fixed in the new religion as the cause of the ancient 
became more hopeless. They yielded to the authority of the emperor, to the 
fashion of the times, and to the entreaties of their wives and children, who 
were instigated and governed by the clergy of Kome and the monks of the east. 
The decrees of the senate which proscribed the worship of idols were ratified by 
the general consent of the Romans. ^ 

But the greatest transfer of power was the wholesale spurious conversions of 
Folytheists into the empire church, and this gave it substantial power. There is no 
doubt but that the victories of Oonstantine the Great, the fear of punishment, and 
the desire to please this mighty conqueror and his imperial successors, were the 
weighty objects' that moved whole nations, as well as particular persons, to embrace 
Christianity. * Themistius, deputy of the senate to Emperor Jovian, olDserves : In 
the recent changes botli religions had been alternately disgraced by the seeming 
acquisition of worthless proselytes, who could pass, without reason or a blush, from 
the church to the temple, and from the altar of Jupiter to the sacred table of the 
Christians \^ and whilst they devoutly imitated the postures and recited the 
prayers of the faithful, they satisfied their conscience by a silent and sincere 
invocation to the gods of antiquity. ^ Thus, they worshiped the beast in form by 
obeying his imperial orders, and they worshiped the dragon in fact, who had 
given his power to the bea§t. They thought the beast too powerful to be resisted, 
and so obeyed him ; but they worshiped the dragon as a matter of choice and 
piety. '^ The title, the ensigns, the prerogatives of sovereign pontiff, which 
had been instituted by Numa and assumed by Augustus, were accepted without 
hesitation by seven Christian emperors, who were invested with a more 
absolute authority over the religion which they had deserted, than over that 
which they professed, ^ and Gratian was the first emperor that rejected it. ^ 

Another means of securing the power of Polytheism was by adopting pagan 
rites and ceremonies in the churches, practicing pious frauds, substituting the 
veneration of the saints for the worship of the gods, and transforming Chris- 
tianity into heathen shows and festivals. The most respectable bishops had per- 
suaded themselves that the ignorant rustics would more cheerfully renounce the 
superstition of Polytheism if they found some resemblance — some compensation 
in the bosom of Christianity. ^ The rites and institutions by which the Greeks, 
Romans, and other nations had formerly testified their veneration for fictitious 
deities, were now adopted with slight alterations by Christian bishops and 
employed in the service of the true God. In these times (fourth century) the 
religion of the Greeks and Romans differed very little in its external appearance 
from that of the Polytheists. Both had a most pompous and splendid ritual, gor- 
geous robes, mitres, tiaras, wax tapers, crosiers, processions, lustrations, images, 
gold and silver vases, and many such circumstances of pageantry were equally to 
be seen in the heathen temples and in the Christian churches. No sooner had 
Constantine the Great abolished the superstition of his ancestors than magnifi- 
cent churches were everywhere erected for the Christians, which were richly 
adorned with pictures and images, and bore a striking resemblance of the pagan 
temples, both in their outward and inward forms, and were consecrated with 
great pomp and with certain rites borrowed mostly from the ancient laws of the 
Roman pontiffs. ^ Well miglit the Red Dragon, or Polytheism, compromise 
with a monotheistic empire wedded to such a Christianity upon condition it 
persecuted the true churches of Christ and made war upon true reformers who 

^sTobn 1:28; 388. (4) Mosh. 4:1; 1, § 23. (5) Gbn. 1:25; 329. (6) Gbn. 28; 392. (7) Rev. 
13:4. .(8) Gbn. 1:21; 386. (9) Idm., note L. (1) Gbn. 29:395. (2) Mosh. 4:2; 4, §§ 1, 2. 



CHAPTER CXXIX. : SECTION II. -III. 683 

sought to know and keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus 
Christy for he gained more than he lost and established a more impious religion. 

2. Chaeacteeistics of the Beast. — This beast was variegated as a leopard 
in appearance; it was a Christian and a pagan; proclaimed the Gospel of peace, 
and forced compliance by war; it persecuted the pagan, the Jew, the heretic, and 
the true Christian ; yet its skin, or outward appearance, was spotted with them 
all. Its citizens were of different colors, nations, languages, and customs; it had 
all kinds of institutions and pursuits, and it liad the cunning and stealthy spring 
of the leopard. Its tramp was crushing as a bear, and oppressed by its weight 
wherever it set its foot. Its voice was powerful, and its mandates shook the city, 
the wilderness, the land and the sea; and it had the jaws of a lion, and could 
devour an inoffensive Christian or an opposing pagan. When its strength was 
exhausted it was restored by the Red Dragon. Whole tribes of pagans would 
become monotheists and recruit the empire. This monotheistic wild beast occupies 
the throne of the Csesars, and the dragon retires to the country villages, which 
in the Latin are called pagi, and hence, the term pagan, designating obscurity 
— or divested of power and prominence — becomes the title of Polytheism. This 
beast has seven heads, not yet developed, and ten crowned horns, not yet visible 
in history. The Roman empire had often two or more emperors, having their 
palaces in diflferent cities, while the senate at Rome was honored as the head, 
although the emperors generally proved to be the neck and turned the senate as 
they pleased. But Constantine built Constantinople for an imperial rival to 
Rome and created a senate in it. This was a second head, and, after Theodo- 
sius, became permanently separated from Rome, survived and superseded it as 
the head of the great monotheistic empire. ^ After the death of Theodosius, A. D. 
395, his sons, Arcadius and Honorius, were saluted by the unanimous consent of 
mankind as the lawful emperors of the east and of the west, and the oath of 
fidelity was eagerly taken by every order in the state — the senators of old and 
new Rome, the clergy, the magistrates, the soldiers, and the people. The 
division line, in Europe, of the empire was not very different from the present 
Turkish boundary, including Greece, and in Africa it was the west 
boundary of Egypt, and the respective advantages of territory, riches, 
populousness, and military strength were fairly balanced and compensated in 
this final and permanent division of the Roman empire.^ Thus, the Roman 
empire was permanently divided into the west and the east empires, or the Latin 
and the Greek empires, having Rome and Constantinople, or old Rome and new 
Rome, for empire heads. The title, New Rome, given to Constantinople was 
engraved on a column of marble.^ We remarked on Daniel's prophecy that it 
was evident this Roman empire would be divided, ^ and the west would be sub- 
divided into ten divisions and would remain till Christ's second advent, while 
the east would be destroyed by a northern power ; and here now we meet with a 
permanent division. The east must be pushed by a southern power, but destroyed 
by a northern. '^ Before this division took place, Constantine had surveyed the 
lands for the purpose of taxation, or divided it for a price, or gain, or for fixing 
a price on them for taxes. ^ This great empire, whose senate decided the divinity 
of all gods to be worshiped and deified its emperors, but in fact regarded no god 
and made its laws superior to all gods, has now bestowed adoration and riches 
on God Almighty, who its founders never knew, or acknowledged by any sena- 
torial action, and has cast off the gods of their fathers. ^ 

3. Civil and Ecclesiastical Characteristics. — Let us now take a view of 
this wild beast with its new capital, new policy, and new religion, i Unlike 
pagan Rome,^ it is a civil government, distinct from any religious intermixture ; 
no civil office conferred any ecclesiastical office, nor did any ecclesiastical office 



(8) Gbn. 1:27; 383. (4) 29; 395. (5) 17; 211. (6) Chap. 81, §§ 3, 4. (7) Dan. 10-12, Chap. 
65, §§ 1-8, (8) Gbn. 1:17; 211-222. (9) Dan. 11:36-9. (.1) Gbn. 1:17; 205, 211. (2)Idm. 28; 387. 



584 I^Hfi KiNGt)OM OF GOD DfiVELOPEt). 

confer any civil office. Such a distinction between civil and ecclesiastical affairs 
was unknown to ancient Komans. ^ It is a monarchy sustained by the power of 
the sword and the force of the army. ^ The senate was only a nominal court to 
sanction the counsels, edicts, and actions of the emperor, and they feared to 
offend or disobey him. All offices, civil — millitary, and financial — were bestowed 
by the emperor and held by his power ; and they were so divided, arranged, and 
balanced as to be mutual checks to rebellion and aspirations, and all finances 
were arranged to flow the weaUh of the citizens into the disposal of the despot. 
The emperor might be assassinated, but all power immediately passed into the 
hands of the successful usurper, or substitute, promoted by the army. A con- 
spiracy or rebellion might be successful, but if so, it took the throne and exercised 
all the powers of the vanquished monarch. In short, he was a wild beast whose 
will was the law, and he was governed by his own inclinations. He recognized 
the church as distinct from the state; yet he claimed to be its supreme liead on 
earth, and the right to model and govern it as he pleased. And though he 
allowed ecclesiastics to decide and control their owm business, yet if they did not 
please him he compelled them to comply, or superceded them by the calling or 
appointment of others. He called councils and enforced their decisions if agree- 
able to him, but if averse to his wishes he convoked others that did please him 
and enforced their decree ; or if he was indifferent he neglected their requisitions. 
Hence, persons were banished and recalled, condemned and acquitted by 
different councils and emperors, according as unitarian and trinitarian had the 
emperor on their side ; ^ and heretics and schismatics were persecuted or pro- 
tected against the ecclesiastics, as the emperor pleased. These monotheistic 
emperors exercised the same authority over religion that the Polytheistic 
emperors did, though they they did not claim to be ecclesiastical pontiffs. Though 
Constantine the Great permitted the church to remain a body politic, distinct 
from the state, yet he assumed to himself the supreme power over this sacred 
body, and the right of modeling and governing it in such a manner as should be 
most conducive to the public good. This right he enjoyed without any opposition, 
as none of the bishops presumed to call his authority in question. He established, 
by imperial authority, general, universal, or ecumenical councils, consisting of 
commissioners from all the churches in the world, and assembled the first of 
these at Nice, A. D. 325. His successors modified, in various ways, the ancient 
customs of the churches according to their own pleasure; and at the end of the 
fourth century no more remained of the ancient church government than a mere 
shadow, and many of the rights formally invested in the universal church were 
transferred to the emperors. As Constantine made several changes in the laws 
of the empire, to fix his authority upon solid and stable foundations and in the 
form of government, so he suited the administration of the church to these 
changes in the civil constitution. He created four patriarchs — one at Rome, 
one at Antioch, at Alexandria, and at Constantinople — corresponding to the four 
pretorian prefects in the state government. In the fifth century, the bishop of 
Jerusalem was made patriarch of Palestine.^ Under these were the exarchs 
having the inspection over several provinces, corresponding to the civil exarchs. 
Under these were the metropolitans, having the government of but one province; 
and under these the bishops brought up the rear. Though the emperor claimed 
only the external inspection of the church, yet he frequently determined matters 
purely ecclesiastical ; and bishops decided things merely external. "^ Thus, we 
find the head of this church, which calls itself the Catholic, or universal church, 
to be a civil ruler, who is not the Anointed Son of David, but an usurper of the 
prerogatives of Jesus Christ. How many individuals and individual churches 
declined, or disapproved of, this religious civil monarchy and pursued their own 
course we can not discover ; but so soon as they testified against it, as Aerius 



(3) 17; 205 (4) 1:17; 211-224. (5) See History of Councils in Gibbon; follow index, Vol. II. 
503. (6) Mosh. 5:2; 2, § 2. (7) Mosb. 4:2; §§ 1-4. 



CHAPTER CXXIX. : SECTION IV. 585 

did, they were persecuted, banished, and fled to the wilderness of obscurity; and 
it was hard to escape the eyes of this hierarchy, which was now under the head- 
ship of the Roman empire. Here is the first organized development of the 
monotheistic antagonism to the kingdom of God ; and the throne of the apostle 
and tombs of the Csesars"^ were united and worshiped. 

4. Blasphemous Titles on the Heads of the Wild Beasts. — The title, or 
titles, on the heads of this monotheistic wild beast are blasphemous. To blas- 
pheme is to reproach or defame contemptuously. This may be done by disparaging 
a superior in assuming his titles, attributes, or prerogatives. The Jews accused 
Christ of blasphemy when He called Himself the Son of God, because He thus 
assumed equality with God. The Jews caused the name of Jehovah to be blas- 
phemed by professing to be His people and yet acting wickedly; and hence, 
professing to be the head of the kingdom of God and yet wearing a pagan title, 
is disparaging the king. The Jews disparaged Jesus when they rejected Him 
and chose Csesar for their king. Caesar was a Polytheist and was the first emperor 
of Rome, and his name became the title of all Roman emperors. The name 
Augutus was chosen by Octavianus, the second Roman emperor, as title of super- 
excellency, expressing the character of peace and sanctity which he uniformly 
affected. ^ Both Csesar and Augustus were deified heathen emperors,^ and any 
person professing to be preeminent in the kingdom of God, who wears the titles 
Caesar or Augustus, is guilty of wearing a blasphemous title, which disparages 
Jesus Christ and exalts the Red Dragon to the throne of His kingdom. Csesar 
Augustus ! a pagan-Roman god ! sits on the throne of Christ, and claims to be 
the head and ruler of His kingdom. Upon his heads — all of them — is a name 
of blasphemy, or a blasphemous title ; one that disparages Christ and dishonors 
God Jehovah. The Jehovah's anointed ! Augustus ! Csesar ! And it is the fact 
that all the seven heads of this monotheistic antagonism have claimed the title 
Caesar, or Augustus, or blend them both into one title ; or, the title of Yicar of 
the Prophet, or of the Apostle of God, or the Commander of the Faithful. And 
if we take the singular for the plural, we find the emperor and under officers 
wearing presumptuous titles, inconsistant with Christianity. Jesus Christ is not 
only the Prophet, like Moses ; the Priest, after the order of Melchizedek ; but 
also the Anointed King of the seed of David. Any person or power placing 
themselves over the kingdom of God as supreme prophet, priest, or king, and 
assumes titles or attributes belonging to the Father, Son, or Spirit, wears titles 
of presumptuous blasphemy. The Scriptures never confer titles of superior 
excellency upon civil or ecclesiastical ministers in Israel, nor among the nations. 
There are kings, judges, rulers, and captains ; priests, prophets, and levites — all 
titles of service — but no majesties, excellencies, highness, nor highnesses. But 
in this empire we have: your sincerity! your gravity! your excellency! your 
eminence ! your sublime and wonderful magnitude ! your illustrious magnificent 
highness ! All the magistrates of the Byzantine empire were divided into three 
classes : the illustrious, the respectables, and the most illustrious. In this divine 
hierarchy — for such it was frequently styled — every rank was marked with the 
most scrupulous exactness, and its dignity was displayed in a variety of trifling 
and solemn ceremonies, which was a study to learn and a sacrilege to neglect. ^ 

The most lofty titles and the most humble postures applied to the Supreme 
Being have been prostituted by flattery and fear to creatures of our own nature. 
The adoration by falling on the ground and kissing the feet of the emperor was con- 
tinued to the last age of the Greek empire, or monarchy, and was exacted off all 
ranks who entered the royal presence. ^ But the emperor assumed titles above 
and superior to Augustus, which were not only impious but extremely foolish, 
and not worth reporting. ^ However these titles may be regarded in Polytheistic, 
astheistic, or infidel governments, they are impious and blasphemous when viewed 

(*) abn., Vol. II., chap. 2, p. 36. (8) Yol. I., 3; 36. (9) Gbn. 1:17; 212. (1) Gbn.; Vol. IL, 
14; 273. (2) Gbn. 2:14; 272. 



586 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

from a Christian or Jewish standpoint in relation to the government of the king- 
dom of God, Not any titles of honor or excellence are admissible in the civil or 
ecclesiastical administration of the kingdom of God ; but only those titles desig- 
nating office and service are admissible. But we shall defer any farther 
consideration of titles or blasphemous speeches till we see all the heads 
developed. However, we must not suppose this monotheistic empire had noth- 
ing good in it, or that it did nothing to advance the cause of God. Some of the 
Polytheistic empires did more for the Jews and their temple than some of the 
sons of David sitting on His throne. This empire has brought whole tribes and 
nations to a knowledge of God and the Savior ; and the divine truth may some- 
time dispell their darkness and produce genuine reformations; and this empire 
church may still reform whole tribes and nations from Polytheism. (See Chap. 
130, § 2. Continued in Chap. 151, §§ 6, 7.) 



CHAPTER CXXX. 



THE SECOND SEAL CHARACTERISTICS. A. M. 4330-4600. 

(Continued from Chap. 109, § 9.) 

1. Red Horse Conspicuous. — The characteristics of the first seal, which, 
shown conspicuously in the first age of Christianity^ began, with the change of 
government about the middle of the third century, to be streaked, or interspersed, 
with some of the second seal's, which dishonored the character and authority of 
those administering the afi'airs of the churches;^ but in the fourth century, and 
onward, the fire red horse and his rider supersedes the white. Two monstrous 
errors were most universally adopted in the fourth century and became a source 
of innumerable calamities and mischiefs in the succeeding age. The first was, 
that it was an act of virtue to deceive and lie when by that means the interest of 
the Catholic church might be promoted. The second was, that errors in religion, 
when maintained and adhered to after proper admonition, were punishable with 
civil penalties and corporal tortures. The first had already disgraced Christianity 
in the third century, but in the fourth the greatest men and most eminent saints 
of the empire church, as Ambrose, Hilary, Augustine, Gregory Nazianzen, 
Jerome, and others were involved in this accusation.^ The morals of empire 
Christians, or of the Catholic church, were a mixture of good and evil ; but the 
immoral and unworthy began to predominate, so that the examples of real piety 
and virtue became extremely rare. Most of the bishops exhibited the contagious 
examples of arrogance, luxury, eff'eminancy, animosity, and strife, with other 
vices too numerous to mention; inferior rulers and doctors neglected their duties 
and fell into wrangling and idle disputings, and many professed Christianity for 
gain or the fear of punishment, and dissensions and intestine troubles were 
fomented. ^ Augustine and others obtained penal laws from the emperor against 
the Donatists in Africa,^ and when the Donatists reproached him with making 
martyrs of their bishops and elders, as Marculus, Maximian, Isaac, and others, 
and told him God would require an account of their blood at the day of judgment, 
he answered : I know nothing about your martyrs. Martyrs ! martyrs to the 

(3)Mosh. 3:2; 2, §§ 3, 4. (4) Mosh. 4:2; § 16. (5) Idm., §§ 16-18. (6) Gbn. 1:33; 455. Orch. 93. 



CHAPTER CXXX. ! SECTION II. 587 

devil ! They were not martyrs ; it is the cause, not the suffering, that makes a 
martyr. There is no such thing as a martyr outside of the church. Besides, it 
is owing to their obstinacy; they killed themselves, and now you blame the mag- 
istrates.'' iNestorius exclaimed: Give me, O Csesar, give me the earth purged 
of heretics, and I will give you in exchange the kingdom of Heaven. Extermi- 
nate with me the heretics, and with you I will exterminate the Persians. ^ Thus, 
we see the empire church approved persecution to extermination, and none that 
they murdered could be martyrs, because they were out of the church and would 
not submit to lordly bishops. Thus, the domineering bishops instigated and 
enforced the persecution of Novatians, Donatists, Aerians, and Jovinians, as we 
have seen. ^ But the empire church was divided between the Catholics and Arians, 
or Trinitarians and Unitarians, and, though both parties persecuted the Novatians, 
they fought and shed each other's blood freely. The Arian emperor, Constantius, 
was exasperated by the tumults of the capital and the behavior of the orthodox 
who opposed the religion of their sovereign. Many were imprisoned, persecuted, 
and driven into exile. Whole troops of heretics, as they were called, were mas- 
sacred; towns and villages were laid waste and utterly destroyed, and the flames 
of the Arian controversy consumed the vitals of the empire. The simple narrative 
of the intestine divisions which distracted the peace and dishonored the triumph 
of the church will confirm the remark of a pagan historian and justify the com- 
plaint of a venerable bishop. Ammianus said: The enmity of the Christians 
toward each other surpassed the fury of savage beasts against man ; and Gregory 
Nazianzen laments that the kingdom of Heaven was converted by discord into 
the image of chaos, of a nocturnal tempest, and of hell itself. ^ The decisions 
of the council of Constantinople completed the theological system established in 
the council of Nice, and reduced the Arian party to the condition of heretics, and 
the edicts of Theodosius doomed them, with all other heretics, to exile, confisca- 
tion of property, and death. ^ The zeal of the Roman people in the cause of their 
orthodox bishop, Liberius, against the Arian Felix, was not confined to words 
alone, and they excited a dangerous and bloody sedition ; Felix was expelled, and 
his adherents inhumanly murdered in the public places, in the baths, and even in 
the churches. In the dispute of the archbishopric of Constantinople between 
orthodox Paul and Arian Macedonius three thousand one hundred and fifty lives 
were lost. On removing the body of Constantine from the chapel into the 
church of Saint Acacius, the Arians and orthodox flew to arms, and the 
well before the church overflowed with a stream of blood which filled the 
porticos and adjacent courts. ^ These are only samples of the Arian and Catholic 
dissensions. The orthodox fought among themselves for offices, and in the con- 
test between Damasus and Usinus for the Episcopal seat at Rome one hundred 
and thirty-seven dead bodies were found where the Christians held their religious 
meetings.^ TheNovatian and monophisite dissensions will be noticed under the 
third trumpet, ^ and enough has been produced to show the fire red horse and 
his great sword rider. These dissensions took peace from the earth, or monothe- 
istic empire, and these empire Christians killed each other with the sword during 
this whole period. The moving force and energy most conspicuous in the Catholic 
church, and throughout the Roman empire, is contention, strife, and war, and the 
guiding intelligence is leadership clothed with civil and military authority. They 
invoke the sword and use the power supported by the sword. 

2. The White Horse Still Visible.^ — But we must not suppose the white 
horse has entirely disappeared. The facilit}^ with which ]^ovatian, Donatus, 
Aerius, and Jovian found adherents shows multitudes of genuine Christians who 
did not worship the beast nor the dragon, and reformations after this period show 
they had not all left the Catholic church.^ iimmianus, a pagan historian, in 



(7) Rob. Hist. Bap., p. 199. (8) Gbn. 2:8; 131. (9) Chap. 128, § 5. (1) Gbn. 1:21; 283-4. 
(2) 27; 372-5. (3) 21; 282. (4) Gbn. 1:25; 337. (5) Chap. 136. (6) 129, § 4. (7) 146, § 2. 



588 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

speaking of the opulence and arrogance of the bishop of Rome, says : They had 
better imitate the exemplary life of some provincial bishops whose temperance 
and sobriety, mean apparel, and downcast looks recommend their pure and modest 
virtue to the Deity and His true worshipers.^ But such humble characters do not 
fill the pages of history. And we must not suppose that all persons among the 
dissenters were genuine Christians any more than that the first company of dis- 
ciples had no Judas among them. The purity of the Novatians, their persecution 
by the Arians, and their sympathy and aid to the orthodox when persecuted and 
themselves exempted, is granted by all."^ The Donatists were reproached with 
the crimes of the circumcilliones, but unjustly, for they condemned their conduct. 
We can not infer the universal, or total, corruption of the Catholic, or empire, 
church from the characteristics of the second seal any more than from the pages 
of history, for the sacred history itself presents the changes and unfavorable 
aspects in Israel while the truly pious are but incidentally brought to light, and in 
the period of the first seal there were many hypocrits and disobedient, and in 
error. The divine programme presents the historical development, and not the 
internal condition known to God alone. Those participating in all the graces, 
joys, and sorrows of genuine Christians may know where to find many of the 
same character; but these seldom write their own history and are overlooked by 
others. How little we know of the apostles and their laljors ! (Chap. 135:6.) 



CHAPTER CXXXI. 



NECESSITY FOR MEASURING AND SEALING. A. M. MOO, AND 

ONWARD. 

1. Necessity FOE Measuring. (Continued from chap. Ill, § 3.) — The Cath- 
olic church was the phrase by which the stronger party of the Christian hierarchy 
called themselves, and comprehended all the churches in every tribe or nation 
that belonged to that party. This party, becoming united with the Roman 
empire, became the empire church, and as the emperor called the Catholic councils 
and enforced their decrees, all churches in other nations uniting in these councils 
and endorsing their decrees may be regarded as empire churches, or state churches, 
and as the Roman empire, in all its parts and divisions, was the only civil gov- 
ernment united and identified with them, they might justly be regarded as favorable 
to it, and desirable for its extension over them, and the subjugation of their rulers 
and country to its control; and those persecuted by the empire church might be 
regarded by all statesmen as hostile or indiff'erent to the empire and favorable to 
other governments, and if not in the empire they might be regarded as more 
favorable to their own nation than to it. The empire church is now (A. D. 400) 
established, and is, indisputably, not the pure, simple, and faithful institution 
Christ set up on the earth, and hence not anything in it, or about it, can be received 
as apostolic, unless it can be proved from the Scriptures to have been taught, given, 
or instituted by Christ or His apostles. The Novatians, Donatists, and other 
sects, called schismatics or heretics, may claim to have preserved the simplicity 
and purity of the faith and practice of the primitive Christians, but this claim 



(8) Gbn. 1:25; 337. (9) Miner. 4:11; 321, and note *. 



CHAPTER CXXXI. I SECTION II. 589 

must be examined by the Scriptures; for many heretics did pervert both the teach- 
ings, institutions, and practices of the apostles. Reformers from the Catholic, 
schismatic, or heretic churches may not have reformed in every point of faith and 
practice, or their professed reformation may have restored some points and per- 
verted others, or carried some sound principles too far. Hence, all churches, or 
sects, must be measured by the divine reed, or measuring rule — the Scriptures. 

Since the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus the kingdom of God has had no 
temple, or royal palace on earth, and so when spoken of as on earth it must be 
taken figuratively. The temple is a very apposite. figure for all divine worship or 
service in the churches, and its measurement denotes the testing of the churches 
themselves and of their worship. John was told to measure the temple and 
everything in and about it. ^^ The outer court appositely represents a profession 
of the Christian religion and an observance of rites and ordinances. But there 
was no use in measuring these rites and institutions nor those observing them, for 
these were so altered and abused, as we have seen,^ that they bear no resemblance 
to the originals, and those appropriating them to themselves are the unconverted 
masses of the nations; you might as well hunt a needle in a haystack as to hunt 
the genuine Christian, or primitive truth, purity, or simplicity there. Go in and 
measure the altar, where they ofiPer sacrifices or incense; for even the way of 
obtaining reconciliation with God is changed from faith and repentance to penance, 
and bestowing gifts on bishops, churches, and enterprises ; and prayers, and praises, 
and reading, preaching, and meditation are perverted into idle ceremonies, amuse- 
ments, entertainments, and mockery, and the mass of these worshipers are not 
genuine Christians. The churches themselves are so altered in their ministry, 
discipline, labors, designs, pursuits, and influences they must be examined and 
measured by the Scriptures of the new covenant before you can tell what is the 
temple, what are the appendages, what are the alterations, and what are the sub- 
stitutes. The I^ovatians and Donatists rejected the empire church entirely, 
rebaptized all Catholics joining their churches, and reordained all their ministers 
coming to them, because the loose discipline and unchristian members in it and 
in its ministry could not stand the measurement of God's Word. Aerius disputed 
the assumptions of power by the bishops, from the Scriptures. ^ Henceforward 
all reformers must measure everything they reject and everything they embrace 
by the Scriptures, and not anything can be received on tradition of the fathers, 
nor on the practice of apostolic churches; even the Novatiansand Donatists, and 
all other sects, must be measured by the new covenant Scriptures. Christ's wit- 
nesses may not yet be necessitated to put on sackcloth, but perhaps soon will. 

2. ^N^ECESsiTY OF Sealing THE SERVANTS OF GoD. (Continued from Chap. 109, 
§§ 22-4:.) — For many centuries the Jews out of Judea had been accustomed to 
live under gentile governments, while they were permitted to be governed by 
their own laws, administered by their own priests and elders, and their syna- 
gogues became both courthouses and places of worship. Under this perigrinating 
system of government they often became powerful in communities. In the fifth 
century a community of them, under the patriarch, Gamaliel, a man of the 
greatest power and influence, persecuted the Christians, but were restrained 
by an edict from the Roman emperor, Theodsius H., A. D. 415.^ But we must 
not suppose all these unbelieving Jews were impious persons, actuated simply by 
a spirit of malice against Christianity. About four hundred years and many 
revolutions had intervened since the crucifixion of Jesus of l^azareth, and few, 
or none, of the Jews of the fourth and fifth centuries knew anything about the 
evidence of his Messiahship ; and when they looked on the empire church and 
Christians, and many heretics, they could see but very little of the characteristics 
of their Messiah's people, as given by their old prophets. They had been 
taught to look upon Jesus of Kazareth as an impostor, and His followers as 



(1) Rev. 11:1-13. (2) Chap. 127, §§ 3, 4, 6. (3) Mosh 4:2; 3, § 21. (4) Mosh. 5:1; 2, § 4. 



590 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

usurpers of their prerogatives in monotheistic religion ; and if Paul could, in his 
day, ignorantly persecute Christianity out of zeal for Jehovah's cause, how much 
more might pious Jews of this age look upon the corrupted Christianity of their 
days as an imposition on the nations, a usurpation of their prerogatives, and 
treason to the covenant and laws of Moses ! They were still witnesses for 
Jehovah's sole divinity, for His word and His covenants, oaths, and promises, 
and some of them have the mark of Jehovah's servants, and may be one of the 
two candle-sticks. But the Jews, as a nation, were cast off by Jehovah, and only 
the election by faith could receive the adoption. ^ These being persecuted by the 
synagogues as apostates from Moses, and by the empire church as heretics in 
Christianity, needed to be sealed with the seal of the Living God, that they might 
be recognized by any or all of the true churches and genuine Christians from the 
gentiles. Many Jews after this were converted into the empire church, by force 
and other means, and by so doing gave up the hope of Israel. From the first 
till the fourth centuries we find Christian churches composed wholly of Jews, 
which were the true churches of Christ, and bore the original name of Xazarenes. 
In the writings of Jerome, under the name of Nazarene, we find the descendants 
of these Jewish Christians of a genuine evangelical disposition, who observed 
the ceremonial law but did not force it on gentile believers. They taught the 
harmony of the teachings of the apostles, acknowledged Paul as a teacher of 
divine wisdom chosen of God to bring the tidings of salvation to the gentiles ; 
they lamented the unbelief of their own people, and longed for the time when 
they, also, should be converted to the Lord whom they had crucified. ^ But these, 
being branded by the empire church as heretics, "^ no doubt suffered with Nova- 
tians, Donatists, and others, till dispersed and driven into the wilderness, and 
no longer do we find a band of Jews leading on the hosts of Christians in the 
contests between truth and falsehood. Persecuted by Jews and Christians, they 
disappear from the page of history with the gentile believers who maintained the 
primitive truth, purity, and simplicity of the Gospel. But, having the mark of 
the servants of the Living God in their foreheads, they could recognize one 
another in the wilderness, or wherever they met. 

3. How Statesmen and Heroes Regard Genuine Christianity, or True 
Piety. — The character of the empire church and the Jews, and their relation to 
the kingdom of God and hostility to the true churches, show the time has about 
come for the four angels to let loose the four winds of Heaven upon the earth 
and sea. ^ These winds were empowered to hurt the occupiers of both and 
denote the wrath of God ; and as their time to be let loose had certainly come in 
the fifth century, so the time for sealing the servants of the Living God had also 
come, and the mark had been impressed. The design of this sealing may be 
that they may know eacli other wherever they meet; but, judging from the 
context, it was also for protection from these winds of wrath let loose upon 
hostile Jews and persecuting Christians. As Satan sowed tares in the kingdom, 
we cannot regard every one in the wilderness to be genuine Cliristians, whether 
Nazarene, Aerian, Novatian, Donatist, or others ; nor can we suppose every one 
among the Jews or in the empire church were impious and devoted to the wrath 
of God any more than that no centurions in pagan Roman armies could excel the 
Jews in faith in Jesus Christ, or that they could not equal Cornelius in piety and 
good deeds. The individual saints are sealed ones, known to God and recog- 
nized by one another. Now the conspicuous seal, or seal in the forehead of the 
Living God, is the the true Christian character. Herein is My Father glorified, 
that ye go forth and bear much fruit; so shall men know ye are My disciples. 
By their fruits ye shall know them. If ye do whatsoever I say unto you, or 
keep My sayings, then are ye of My disciples indeed. Hereby shall men know 

(Sfjohn 1:11, 12. (6) Neander, p. 238. (7) Mosh. 2:2; 5, § 2, note C. Gbn. 1:15, 160-1. 
(8) Rev. 7:1-8. 



CHAPTER OXXXI.: SECTION III. 591 

that ye are My disciples, if ye love one another. Now the true Christian will 
come to the light and not love darkness; will seek to know the truth and obey 
Jesus Christ in all things ; will obey civil rulers and support them in their lawful 
government, and not conspire against them; they will not usurp authority over 
their brethren, nor try to grasp the sword of persecution. Hence, all heroic 
warriors and bold invaders will soon learn to distinguish them from those 
identified with national governments and military operations ; and especially 
so where they have been the objects of persecution in their own country. The 
history of the Jews in their dispersion shows that great generals and able 
statesmen do not persecute religion where they do not fear its influence against 
their own interests or authority. It is the priesthood ruling unprincipled or 
superstitious sovereigns, and the degraded, or ignorant, rabble that instigate and 
intensify persecution; and often the Polytheistic Roman emperors and governors 
shielded the Christians from persecution by the priests and rabble. But this 
sealing was an interlude in the sixth seal, and may refer to the time and scenes 
of that seal. (See chap. 174, § 9. 

The first occasion for this conspicuous distinction among Christians was in 
the east, in Persia. There the Jews and Magi instigated the persecution of 
Christians by persuading the monarch that they favored the Romans, and that 
the archbishop sent intelligence of all that passed in Persia to Constantinople.^ 
This archbishop, as his title shows, belonged to the Catholic hierarchy, and 
no doubt did desire the Roman empire to extend over Persia and clothe him 
with power to destroy Polytheism and persecute schismatics and heretics. In 
A. D. 414 Ahdas, bishop of Suza, pulled down the temple of the sun and refused to 
rebuild it at the orders of the king. This secured his death and a persecution of 
the Christians. The Armenian nobles wished the archbishop, Isaac, to join in an 
accusation against their king, Artisires, for his vices and debaucheries. Isaac 
refused because the king was a genuine Catholic, although guilty of licentious- 
ness, lewdness, and debaucheries, and said he would accuse him to a Christian 
emperor but could not abandon his sheep to the rage of devouring wolves, and 
asserted such infirmities of Christians better than the specious virtues of a 
heathen. The exasperated nobles accused both the king and bishop as secret 
adherents of the emperor. ^ Whenever the Romans and Persians were at war 
the Christians in Persia suffered ; and in the treaty of peace the emperor stipu- 
lated for the rights of Christians. ^ ]S[ow, though the Jews and Magi were 
instigated by hatred to Christianity, the monarch appears to have acted from 
state policy, and it is not likely he would destroy his subjects who were schis- 
matics and heretics, and persecuted by the empire church and state ; and the 
Persian monarchs did protect the Nestorians and gave them the Catholic 
churches. ^ The Yandals in Africa did protect the Donatists, and the Goths 
granted toleration to all.^ The Iherian king and queen were converted by a 
captive Christian woman ; and Ulphilas, the Arian bishop and apostle of the 
Goths, was a son of captives, and acquired their love and reverence by his 
blameless life and indefatigable zeal. ^ Hence, we conclude the genuine Christian 
character, openly manifested as a mark on the forehead, did protect the servants 
of the Living God in captivity in Persia and in the barbarian invasions; and we 
know it did in the settled governments of the Goths, Yandals, and Franks, on 
the destruction of the western empire. Also, their persecution by the empire 
church drove them out of those places most exposed to the ravages of invasions, 
and the Saracens always offered protection to those who accepted toleration on 
paying tribute. ^ All Catholic Christians would be regarded as identified with 
the civil government, while persecuted schismatics and heretics would be consid- 
ered as disaffected subjects; and genuine Christianity, conspicuously developed, 
would command the respect of all but persecuting and bigoted priests and clergy, 

(9)Mosh. 4:1; 1, § 24. (1) Gbn. 1:32; 451. (2) Mosh. 5:1; 2, §4. (3) Gbn. 2;8; 143. (4) 1:37; 
* 505. (5) Idm. 503. (6) Gbn. 2:12; 226, 237. 



592 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

and their power appears to have been lost in these revolutions, and wrathful 
winds, announced by seven trumpets, and sent on the domineering churches 
which had abandoned the primitive truth, purity, and simplicity of the Gospel. 
(See chap. 134, § 12.) 



CHAPTER CXXXII. 



FALLEN STAE, ABYSS, AND SMOKE. A. M. 4200-4400. 

1. Heathen Philosophy. — In the great revolutions of nations, when the 
Asyrians, and Chaldeans, and Persians destroyed temples and kicked the gods 
about, the folly of Polytheism as developed in idolatry became manifested to all 
rational and reflecting minds, while the religion of Jehovah vindicated its divine 
origin in Assyria, Chaldea, Media, Persia, Egypt, and Syria by the predictions and 
history of the Jews. This knowledge of the divine programme in relation to Israel 
and those empires was carried into every land and presented to view on every 
Sabbath in the synagogues dispersed throughout the known world. The purity 
of this religion, its support by superior evidence, and its excellence far surpassing 
all systems of Polytheism, necessarily attracted the attention of all thinking 
minds. Proud science, however, refused to sit at the feet of Moses and the 
prophets and implicitly receive instruction as little children, but, being convinced 
of the wisdom and truth of their teachings about God and man, it incorporated 
some of these leading truths ipto its systems of philosophy. Unwilling to 
acknowledge themselves and their ancestors to be fools, they began to talk and 
write about God and man what they falsely called philosophy, and tried to justify 
Polytheism; excuse idolatry, and perpetuate all pagan rites. They tried to per- 
suade the people that they all worshiped one and the same God, in His different 
attributes, by different images and rites manifesting these divine traits of char- 
acter, or characteristics of the Divine Being. ^ When Christianity came forth in 
its pure and practical simplicity, this same heathenism tried to attach itself to the 
Gospel of Jesus Christ, promising superior and more comprehensive knowledge 
of God, angels, or celestial beings, of man, and all creation, and all relations, 
with reasons for all actions and institutions. Hence, it would account for all 
mysteries and ordinances in religion, and induce new teachings, rites, and 
arrangements. This unholy alliance with heathen philosophy was firmly and 
absolutely rejected by the apostles, apostolic men, and by their immediate fol- 
low^ers and faithful witnesses, as Polycarp, Papias, Melito, Ireneus, and others.''' 

Christianity starts out with the simple facts that all men are subject to divine 
law; all have sinned and are in a state of condemnation. God will not suffer His 
laws to be violated with impunity. Jesus Christ has sustained the dignity of the 
law, and secured a way of salvation in accordance with all the attributes of God. 
All who believe in Christ Jesus, or become His true disciples, are justified and so 
have passed from death into life. Holiness and obedience are essential to eternal 
life, and the Spirit, as its agent, the word and institutions of God as the means, 
insures the genuine character of the children of God. Churches are their schools 
and mutual aid societies; the advancement of the kingdom of God in the 
reformation, salvation, and government of the world is their primary object; rest 
in Heaven, the first resurrection, and final triumph of the kingdom are their 
hopes and incentives to action; mutual love for Christ's sake is their bond of 



(2) Gbn. 1:13; 142, and 16; 198. (7) Neander325. 



CHAPTER OXXXII. : SECTIONS II. -III. 593 

union; unity in faith and practice is the ground of their cooperation in the 
advancement of their great work. The genuine Cliristian character, and the 
happy fruits of it among themselves, are the great arguments in favor of its 
divine origin and adaptation to the reformation and happiness of mankind. But, 
as it advanced in its glorious conquests, philosophy, falsely so called, proffered 
to help by 'explaining mysteries, removing difficulties, and making it more accept- 
able to the world and more respected by men of science. This proffer was at 
first rejected by the churches, and its abettors were excluded as heretics; but, in 
the end of the second century it was introduced by a fallen star, Ammonius Saccas, 
promoted by Origen and others in the third, and its pernicious effects were expe- 
rienced in the fourth and onward, and historians speak of it and its effects in 
figures similar to those used in the divine programme. ^ 

2. The Fallen Star. — Ammonus Saccas was born of Christian parents and 
educated a Christian, and, perhaps, never gave up entirely the profession of it. 
Porphyry asserts he did and embraced paganism, and Eusebius asserts he perse- 
vered constantly in the profession of Christianity to the end of life. ^ This, he 
says, is evident from his writings, viz : The Harmony of Moses and Jesus, and 
the Harmony of the Four Gospels. But, unless these were written at the last of 
his days, this fact will not prove that he did not apostatize at last. The harmony 
of Jesus, Moses, and Polytheism, or heathen philosophers, was his new doctrine. 
That he was a fallen star in appearance is evident from the fact that he was 
claimed by both pagans and Christians, and that he was so in fact is evident 
from his teachings as they are derived from his disciples. He reckoned an infe- 
rior worship was due to celestial ministers, who were in fact the pagan gods. He 
acknowledged Christ to be a most excellent man, the friend of God, the admir- 
able Theurge, but denied that Jesus designed to abolish entirely the worship of 
demons and of the other ministers of Divine Providence. ^ If this is not fallen 
from the starry Heaven of Christianity, I know not what can be called fallen. 
Christ, only a good man ! only a friend of God! Christians, partake of the Lord's 
table and the table of the demons! drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of 
demons ! Ammonius Saccas was a fallen star. 

• 3. The Bottomless Pit and the Smoke. — The heathen philosophy and the 
controversies originating from it are appositely represented by an abyss, or pit 
without a bottom. Gibbon says: The same subtle or profound questions, as 
Plato's, concerning the nature, generation, the distinction, and the equality of 
the Three Divine Persons, were agitated in the philosophical and Christian 
schools of Alexandria. An eager spirit of curiosity urged them to explore the 
secrets of the abyss, and the pride of the professors and of their disciples was 
satisfied with the science of words. ^ Again, he says : The mind of Constantius, 
the emperor, was blindly impelled to either side of the dark and empty abyss by 
his horror of the opposite extremes. ^ If the Arian controversy was an abyss, 
what was that heathen philosophy out of which it arose — but one bottomless pit 
below another? A lower deep within the lowest deep. The pelagian contro- 
versy which attempts to sound the abyss of grace and predestination soon became 
the serious employment of the Latin clergy,* and Augustine boldly sounded the 
dark abyss of grace and predestination, free will and original sin,f and a thick 
mist for ages pervaded the Christian world, supported and strengthened by Ori- 
gen's absurd allegorical manner of interpretation.:]: Thus, the language of an 
infidel historian presents the same figure which we find in the divine programme. 
Again, he calls the two natures of Christ an incomprehensible mystery and a 
theological labyrinth involved in the gloom of impenetrable orthodoxy.^ He 
confesses these subtle and loquacious disputes obscure doctrines and mysteries 



(8) Mosh. 2:2; 1, § 7, note, M, and § § 8-12. Miner 2:9; 135, and 4:7; 301. (9) Euseb., p. 238-9. 
(1) Mosh. 2:2; 1, § 11, (2) Gbn. 1:21; 269. (3) 275. (*) Gbn. 1;30, 412. (f) Gbn. 1:33, 456. it) 
Miner 3:15, p. 220. (4) Gbn. 2:8; 130. 
-38 



694: THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

to have come out of heathen philosophy, ^ and when he calls them metaphysical 
quarrels, ^ and. the disputants men of scholastic theology, of allegory, and meta- 
physics, ''f he might as well have characterized them smoke out of the abyss of 
heathen philosophy."^ Thus, this philosophy is recognized to be a pit without a 
bottom, or the unfathomable gulf of falsehood and corruption which was locked 
up from the Christian churches when Paul admonishes them to avoid the falsely 
named philosophy. ^ The controversy which Egypt derived from the Platonic 
school was terminated after a war of three hundred years by the final conversion 
of the Lombards.^ But the establishment of an obscure doctrine suggested new 
questions and new disputes, and the east was distracted by the Kestorian contro- 
versies, which attempted to explain the mysteries of the incarnation and hastened 
the ruin of Christianity in its native land, by the Mahomedans. ^ 

4. Gnostics. — Of all the systems of philosophy none was more detrimental 
to the Christian religion than the Gnostic, or oriental. From this oriental science 
issued forth those chiefs who perplexed and afflicted the churches in the first 
three centuries. They endeavored to accommodate the pure, simple, and sub- 
lime teachings of the Son of God to their phantastic philosophy; and thus brought 
forth a multitude of idle dreams and fictions, and imposed upon their followers 
a system of opinions, perplexed with intricate subtilities and covered with impen- 
etrable obscurities. 5 Impenetrable obscurities may well be called smoke, and 
the oriental philosophy a bottomless pit. They corrupt all the teachings of 
Christ and His apostles in such a manner as to reconcile them with their own 
pernicious tenets. Thus originated sentiments and notions most remote from the 
Gospel teachings and the nature of its precepts. ^ They adopted austere rules of 
life and severe bodily mortifications in order to purify the mind and enlarge it for 
the contemplation of celestial things. Some of them went to the other extreme 
and denied any difference between right and wrong, and gave loose rein to all 
the passions.''' The rules and manners Maricon prescribed to his followers were 
excessively severe, prohibiting wedlock, wine, flesh, and all external comforts of 
life, and many adopted them. ^ These were the Asiatic Gnostics ; but the 
Egyptian branch blended into one mass the oriental philosophy and the Egyptian 
theology. ^ All the heresies and sects down till Montanus were the offspring of 
philosophy,^ and darkened every subject they touched ; tarnished, distorted, and 
perverted every teaching and practice of revealed religion. The doctrine of 
Manes was a motly mixture of the tenets of Christianity with the ancient philos- 
ophy of the Persians, and accommodated to Jesus Christ the characters and 
actions attributed to the god Mithras ; and Manes claimed to be the comforter 
promised by Christ, and he rejected most of the Scriptures. ^ Hierax excluded 
little children from Heaven, denied the resurrection of the body, and cast a 
cloud of obscurity over the Sacred Scriptures by his allegorical fictions. ^ As the 
Scriptures are the source of light in the kingdom of God, an obscuring cloud cast 
over them is the same as smoke in the atmosphere darkening the sun, moon, 
and stars; and this cloud came out of the abyss of the heathen philosophy. But 
all these sects were excluded by the churches which received the Scriptures as 
the word of God and supreme ruler of faith and practice ; so, while they excluded 
the light from themselves, they did not prevent the light of divine truth from 
shining in the orthodox churches up into the third century. But the introduc- 
tion of the platonic-eclectic philosophy by Ammonius Saccas did fill the whole 
atmosphere of the kingdom of God with a dense smoke that concealed the pure 
and simple light of the divine oracles from the minds of the Catholic churches ; 
and these became the empire church in the fourth century. 

5. Eclectic-Platonics. — Ammonius Saccas laid the foundation of the sect 
distinguished by the name. New Platonics. ^ They all owned him for their 



(5) 1:37; 509. (6) 2:8; 137. (7) 130. (8) 1:37; 509. (9) Col. 2:8. I. Tim. 6:20. (1) Gbn. 
1:37; 509. (5) Mosh. 1:2; 1, §4. (6) Mosh. 1:2; 5, §4. (7)Idm.,§7. (8) 2:2; 5, § 7-9. (9) Idm., 
§ 10. (1) Idm., § 23. (2) 3:2; 5, §§ 3-10, 11. (3) Mosh. 2:2; 1, § 7. 



CHAPTER CXXXII. : SECTION VI. 595 

master. * He maintained that the great principles of all philosophical and religious 
truths were to be found equally in all sects and that they differed only in the 
method of expressing them, and in some opinions of little or no importance; and 
that, by proper interpretation of their respective sentiments, they might be easily 
united into one body. By this new Platonic philosophy all the gentil© religions, 
and even the Christian, too, were to be illustrated and explained. But to do 
this the fables of the priests were to be removed from paganism and the com- 
ments and the interpretations of the disciples of Jesus from Christianity, and 
forced allegories were to be subtly employed to accomplish this object. He 
supposed true philosophy originated in the eastern nations, was tataght to the 
Egyptians by Hermes ; and from them it was derived by the Greeks and deformed 
by subtilities ; but it was restored by Plato. This scheme, he said, was agreeable 
to the intentions of Jesus Christ. ^ He enjoined upon his disciples of the first 
rank towering contemplations, severe penance, and mortification of the body by 
hunger, thirst, and the like ; and he gave an air of authority to these injunctions 
by expressing them partly by terms borrowed from the sacred Scriptures. ^ To 
reconcile all religions he turned into allegory the whole history of the gods, 
reckoning them celestial ministers entitled to a worship inferior to what was due 
to the Supreme Deity ; and he represented Christ as a most excellent man and 
the friend of God, whose only intention was to purify the ancient religion, or 
oriental philosophy, but not to abolish entirely the worship of demons, or celestial 
ministers.''' This new species of philosophy, imprudently adopted by Origen and 
many other Christians, was extremely prejudicial to the cause of the Gospel and 
to the beautiful simplicity of the celestial doctrine. From hence it was that the 
Christian doctors began to introduce their subtle and obscure erudition into the 
religion of Jesus, and to involve in the darkness of a vain philosophy some of 
the principle truths of Christianity that had been revealed with the utmost plain- 
ness and were obvious to the meanest capacity, and to add to the divine precepts 
of our Lord many of their own inventions having no sort of foundation in the 
Sacred writings. From the same source arose the mystics, who speculated about 
the origin and nature of souls; and monkery, which led myriads into that indolent 
and slothful life in deserts, and in cells, and on pillars, under the pretext of con- 
templation for the elevation of the soul. ^ To this philosophy we may trace a 
multitude of vain and foolish ceremonies, proper only to cast a veil over truth 
and nourish superstition. But it would be endless to enumerate the pernicious 
effects of this philosophy, which alienated many in the following ages from the 
Christian religion and substituted in the place of the pure and sublime simplicity 
of the Gospel an unseemly mixture of Platonism and Christianity. ^ 

6. Oeigen Advances It. — The man who stands next to Ammonius Saccas in 
the advancement of this Platonic Christianity is Origen. From the fanciful mode 
of allegory introduced by him, and uncontrolled by Scriptural rule and order, 
arose that vitiated method of commenting on the sacred pages ; and in a similar 
way his fanciful ideas of the letter and spirit tended to remove from men's minds 
all just conceptions of genuine spirituality. A thick mist for ages pervaded the 
Christian world, supported and lengthened by his absurd allegorical manner of 
interpretation. The learned alone were considered as guides, to be implicitly 
followed ; and the vulgar, when the literal sense was hissed off the stage, had 
nothing to do but follow their authority wherever it might conduct them, i In 
his estimation the highest object of Bevelation was the speculative improvement 
of man, by communicating the most elevated truths to spiritual men who were 
capable of understanding them. These refer chiefiy to God; the nature of His 
Only Begotten Son, and the mode in which He is the Son of God ; the causes 
which impelled Him to come down and take upon Him the nature of man ; the 



(4) Miner. 4:7; 301. (5) Mosh. 2:2; 1, §§ 7-9. (6) § 10. (7) § 11. (8) 2:2; 3, § 13. (9) § 12. 
(1) Miner 3:15; 221. 



596 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

effects of His incarnation, and whom it effects; the higher kinds of reasonable 
beings who have fallen from a state of happiness, and the causes of their fall; 
the difference of souls, and whence this difference arises; what the world is, and 
wherefore it was created ; why there is so much evil in the earth, and whether 
evil is found only there or elsewhere also. To determine these incomprehensible 
subjects. He adopted three meanings in the different texts of Scripture: the 
literal (historical), the allegorical, and the spirtual, or hidden, meaning. 2 Except- 
ing this radical error in regard to philosophy, Origen was the greatest man of 
his day, and did most to obtain the genuine copies and readings of the Scriptures; 
and it was his good qualities and great labors that gave his errors such weight 
and caused such mischief in the churches. But he was not the tirst, nor the only 
one that promoted the principles of Ammonius Saccas. We can not condemn 
all philosophical knowledge, nor all who taught science and solved difficulties in 
their religious instruction ; but the allegorizing and mystifying of the Scriptures 
to accommodate philosophical speculations on incomprehensible subjects is open- 
ing a bottomless pit we can not explore, nor tell what is in it, or what may come 
out of it. This abyss was now opened in the churches ; the smoke now ascended 
in thick columns and was filling the Christian atmosphere, and its effects will be 
conspicuous in the future. 

7. Its Rise and Influence in the Second Century. — Of the second century 
Mosheim says : The Christian system, as hitherto taught, preserved its native and 
beautiful simplicity. This venerable simplicity was not, indeed, of long duration. 
Its beauty was gradually effaced by the laborious efforts of human learning and 
subtilities of imaginary science, and several tenets of a chimerical philosophy were 
imprudently incorporated into the Christian system by different sects; yet all were 
unanimous in regarding with veneration the holy Scriptures as the great rule of 
faith and manners, and hence that laudable and pious zeal of adapting them to 
general use. ^ However, the expositors (toward the end of the second century) 
attributed a double sense to the words of Scripture, and the literal and obvious 
sense was neglected, and they turned the whole force of their genius and applica- 
tion to unfold the hidden and mysterious meaning, and were more studious to 
darken the holy Scriptures with their idle fictions than investigate the true and 
natural sense, and some of them forced the expressions of Scripture out of their 
obvious meaning to support their philosophical systems. Of these pernicious 
attempts Clement, of Alexandria, is said to have given the first example. ^ Clement 
was of the eclectic sect of philosophers, and it is sincerely to be regretted that 
he had any acquaintance with them; for, so far as he mixed their notions with 
Christianity, so far he tarnished it, and though he did good to many by instructing 
and inducing them to receive the fundamentals of the Gospel, he clouded its pure 
light. ^ In describing events by periods of one hundred years, some things are 
predicated of the century which is true of only a part; hence, what Mosheim says 
of the tarnishing and obscuring Christianity in the second century is said in rela- 
tion to the last part. Mosheim places Clement in the second century, but Milner 
places him in the third. Paly places his quotations at A. D. 194:,^ and he cer- 
tainly wrote and taught A. D. 194-211,'' and lived during the persecution by 
Septimus Severus and in the reign of Caracalla. Ammonius Saccas also taught 
in Alexandria about the conclusion of the second century;^ hence, the corrupting 
and darkening influences of such teachers and teachings belong properly to the 
third century, though these effects are described under the second, when the causes 
originated. Remember, the Scriptures are the sun and source of all Christian 
light, and to mystify them is to darken the ecclesiastical sky. 

The heathen philosophy concerning the nature of the soul, the influence of 
matter, the operations of invisible beings or demons, and the formation of the 



(2) Neander, p. 355. (3) Mosh. 2:2; 3, §§ 1-4. (4) Idm., § 5. (5) Miner. 3:4; 146 (6) Paly's 
Works, pp. 298, 299. (7) Euseb. Chro., pp. 475-6, and bk. 6, chaps. 3, 11. Neander 430-1, and 
Chro., pp. 469, 470. (8) Mosh. Cent. 2, pt. 2, chap. 1, § 7. 



CHAPTER CXXXII. : SECTIONS VIII. -IX. 597 

world, adopted by the more learned of the Christians, produced that train of 
austere and superstitious vows and rites that cast a veil over the beauty and sim- 
plicity of tiie Christian religion, and produced penance, mortifications, and the 
innumerable swarms of monks, refusing their talents and labors to societv in the 
senseless pursuit of a visionary sort of perfection. ^ The maxim that to deceive 
aiid lie to advance truth and piety, or to use pious frauds, was adopted from the 
1 Jatonists and Pythagorians. i The manner of exclusion was altered and enlarged 
by a vast multitude of rites used in the heathen mysteries. 2 Eites and ceremonies 
were adopted to captivate the vulgar accustomed to those of the heathen, which 
obscured the native lustre of the Gospel. 3 Gospel institutions were called mys- 
teries, and terms and rites were adopted from heathen mysteries, as also were 
images, signs, and actions. 4 "^ ' 

8. Its Progress in the Third Century.— In the third century, the phil- 
osophy of Ammonius Saccas eclipsed all others. It was formed in E^vpt and 
issued forth from thence with such rapid progress that in a short time it extended 
almost throughout the Eoman empire and drew into its vortex the greatest part 
ot philosophers The question concerning the excellence and utility of philos- 
ophy was now debated with great warmth among Christians, and the two parties 
were nearly equal in numbers. But, by degrees, letters and philosophy 
triumphed, principally by the mfluence and authority of Origen, whose fame as a 
philosopher increased daily among the Christians, and his method of proposing 
and explaining the doctrines of Christianity gained authority till it became almost 
universal He recommended this new Platonic philosophy to his pupils and 
some philosophers of the school of Plotinus embraced Christianity on condition 
they retained their superior opinions, which, of course, they would spread 
abroad. 5 Onpn was the greatest luminary in the churches of that age, and his 
virtues and labors deserve the admiration of all ages. 6 However durins- the 
greatest part of the third century the principal doctrines of Christianity were 
explained to the people in their native purity and simplicity without any mix- 
ture of abstract reasonings or subtle inventions ; nor were the feeble minds of the 
multitude loaded with a great variety of precepts. But the Christian doctors, 
who had applied themselves to the study of letters and philosophy, soon aban- 
doned the frequented paths and struck out into the devious wilds of fancy 
Urigen was at the head of this speculative tribe, and, enchanted with the Pla- 
tonic philosophy, set it up as the test of all religion. He handled the subject 
with caution and ability ; but his disciples overleaped his bounds, and destitute of 
his abilities, interpreted the divme truths of religion in the most licentious 
ThToZ^ Z"t"^ '^- ^he Platonic philosophy, afd originated the scholastic 
theology and the mystic. The mystic theology produced solitary hermits, who 

fXwdlhi l?'.^^ l^Vn "'' ^'''^t'''' ' ^ P^^^^^^^^« nnmber^of mterpreTers 
followed the method of Origen with some variations ; nor could the few, who 
explained the Scriptures with judgment and a true spirit of criticism, oppose 
successfully the torrent of allegory overflowing the churches ;8 and pioAs frauds 
and forgeries were used to establish the monastic-mystic theology and other sub- 
jects of like nature. « As Origen became head of thi Alexandrifli school A. D 
220 and was martyred AD. 254, or 256, ^ the pernicious fruits of his philosophy 
m the third century must have been produced in the latter part of it. 

9. Its Progress in the Fourth Century. -Most all the philosophers in 
t .Zt Z P ^^f ^;;^^ Platonists and we find the principles of Platonism 
A !• 7 ^°^' ^f the Christians. 2 But the fundamental principles of the 



598 THE KINGDOM OF (K)D DEVELOPED. 

discovered greatest ignorance and utter confusion of ideas ; so in the council of 
Nice, they appeared to substitute three gods in place of one. These vain fictions 
adopted by the doctors from the Platonic philosophy were now confirmed, 
enlarged, and embellished in various ways, and hence arose purgatory, veneration 
for departed saints, and the worship of images and relics, which, in after ages, 
almost utterly destroyed the Christian religion, or at least eclipsed its luster, and 
corrupted its very essence in the most deplorable manner — a cloud of superstition 
obscuring the glory of the Gospel. ^ True religion was almost entirely superseded 
by horrid superstition. ^ Among the interpreters very few discovered a just 
discernment, or a sound judgment,* and the doctrines of Christianity had no 
better fate than the sacred Scriptures, from whence they were drawn. Origen 
was the great model ; Gregory Nazianzen among the Greeks, and Augustine 
among the Latins, were followed for a long time as the only patterns worthy of 
imitation ; and who, next to Origen, may be considered as the parents and sup- 
porters of the philosophical, or scholastic theology. They were both zealous 
Platonists, and holding all the tenets of that philosopher not totally repugnant 
to the truths of Christianity, they laid them down as fundamental and drew 
from them a great variety of subtle conclusions, which neither Christ nor Plato 
ever designed. Swarms of monks produced by the mystics almost overspread 
the Christian world, ^ and a gloomy cloud of religious darkness began to spread 
itself over the minds of many. ^ From the east this gloomy institution of monk- 
ery spread into the west. "^ The inconsiderate and ill-directed piety of the 
bishops, under protection of the Roman emperors, cast a cloud over the beauty 
and simplicity of the Gospel by the prodigious number of rites and ceremonies 
they invented to embellish it, and which were to be seen equally in heathen tem- 
ples and in Christian churches. ^ 

In A. D. 317 the Arian controversy arose in the Catholic church, and with 
its offshoots filled that church in all its branches with smoke that darkened every 
source of light and happiness till the Saracens invaded the east empire. This 
controversy arose in Egypt and was the legitimate ofi'spring of the New Platonic 
Philosophy of Ammonius Saccas, and the Scholastic Theology of Origen, and 
produced those bloody quarrels between Arians and Catholics. The power of 
these parties changed with the change of emperors till Theodosius I. gave 
Arianism a final defeat by the sword and drove it out of the empire. But this 
Arian controversy produced new sects by the indiscretion of the contending 
parties. Arianism disputed about the nature, distinction, and mutual relation 
of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit;^ and out of this grew the dispute about 
the divine and human natures of Jesus Christ, and whether he had one or two 
wills. 1 These incomprehensible subjects and philosophical disputes furnished 
business for emperors, bishops, and councils ; occasioned decrees, edicts, and 
persecutions, that distracted and weakened church and state till both were ruined. ^ 
(Continued in Chap. 139, Ml.) 

10. It Dispelled the Hope of Israel. — This Platonic theology dispelled 
the Hope of Israel, or the millennium, from the Catholic churches, and these 
became the empire church. The ancient and popular doctrine of the millennium 
was intimately connected with the second coming of Christ, and was supposed to 
be the seven thousandth year of the world. The assurance of such a millennium 
was carefully inculcated by a succession of the fathers, from Justine Martyr and 
Irenus, who conversed with the immediate disciples of the apostles down to 
Lactantius, the preceptor of the son of Constantine. But when the edifice of 
the church was almost completed, the doctrine of Christ's reign upon the earth 
was treated as a profound allegory, was by degrees considered as a doubtful and 
useless opinion, and at length was rejected as the absurd invention of heresy and 



(3) Mosh. 3, §§ 1, 2, 3. (4)4:2; 3, §4. (5) Idni. § 5. (6) § 12. (7) § 14. (8) 4, § 1. (9) 
Mosh. 4:2; 5, §9. (1) § 17. (2) § 5. 



CHAPTER OXXXII. : SECTION X. 599 

fanaticism. ^ This tradition may be traced to Barnabas, of the first century. The 
testimony of Justine of his own faith and that of his orthodox brethren in the 
doctrine of millennium, is delivered in the most clear and solemn manner. It is 
unnecessary to allege all the immediate fathers, as the fact is not disputed. ^ 
Papias, who received his information from those who followed the apostles and 
heard them, said there would be a certain millennium after the resurrection, and 
that there would be a corporeal reign of Christ on this very earth. ^ 

Long before the time of Origen an opinion had prevailed that Christ was to 
come and reign a thousand years among men before the final dissolution of this 
world. This opinion, which hitherto had met with no opposition, was diff'er- 
ently interpreted by different persons; nor did all promise themselves the same 
kind of enjoyments in that future and glorious kingdom. But, in this third cen- 
tury, its credit began to decline, principally through the influence and authority 
of Origen, who opposed it with the greatest warmth because it was incompatible 
with some of his favorite sentiments, and his disciple, Dionysius, of Alexandria, 
stopped its progress. ^ They believed the struggle of the Christian church with 
the heathen state would continue until the victory should be conceded to it 
through the return of Christ and immediate interposition of God. Many formed 
a picture to themselves which had come from the Jews and suited their condition 
in persecution. This was the idea of a millennial reign which the Messiah 
should establish on earth, as the close of the whole career of the world, during 
which all the saints of all ages were to live together in holy communion with 
each other. This, they supposed, would be the seven thousandth year of the 
world. They imagined the happiness of this period in a spiritual manner that 
corresponded well with the real nature of Christianity, for they conceived only 
the general dominion of God's will, the undisturbed and blessed union and inter- 
course of the whole communion of saints and the restoration of harmony between 
man as sanctified and all nature as refined and ennobled. (See Barnabas, chap. 
15.) But the gross images which the carnal sense of the Jews had made to itself 
of the delights of the millennial reign, were transferred in part, also, to the 
Christians.''' 1 do not know what Neander considers gross images, nor do I 
know what ideas all or any of those millennarians had about the consummated 
age of the kingdom of God, but I do know that, if these spiritual attainments be 
realized, God's blessing will rest upon His people, the earth will yield her fruits, ^ 
the genuine arts and sciences will flourish — and such is the hope of Israel. ^ Per- 
haps Neandei is a little tinctured with Amminian Platonism. If this doctrine 
was not universal in the first periods of Christianity, it was extensively main- 
tained, for we find it in Asia Minor, in France, and in Egypt, held by the real- 
istic fathers, as Justine, Irenus, Papius, and others. Two causes operated in a 
more general repression of millennarianism — opposition to Montanism, on the 
one hand, and on the other the influence of the Spirit, meaning Scripture, which 
proceeded from the Alexandrian school. ^ By what arguments Korakion defended 
the doctrine, or what were the views of Nepos, or what were the arguments used 
against it by Dionysius, I do not know, nor does it matter to us. It is the hope 
of Israel, taught in the Scriptures of truth, insured by covenants, oaths, and 
promises, and it will be realized at the time fixed in the divine programme. 



(3) Gbn. 1 :15; 165-6, and notes 0-T. (4) dbn. 1 :15; 165-6; notes P, T, and S. (5) Euseb. p. 
125-6. (6)Mosh.3:2;3, §12. (7) Neander, 403-6. (8) Ps. 67. (9) Chap. 70. (1) Neander, 405. 



CHAPTER CXXXIII. 



A EEYIEW OF THE PKOGEESS, POSITION, AND CONDITION OF 
CHKISTIANITY AT THE END OF THE FOURTH CENTURY. 

1. PROGRESS AND Pertersion OF CHRISTIANITY. — We HOW take our stand 
at the end of the fourth century, or A. M. 4404, or A. D. 400, and view the 
known world as it stands related to the kingdom of God. The Gospel of the 
kingdom has been carried by Jewish Christians from Jerusalem into all parts of 
the known world, wherever they sojourned, and reported in their synagogues. 
Persecuted by their unbelieving brethren, they were necessitated to form separate 
societies with the believing proselytes, and, on visitation of the apostles, by the 
imposition of whose hands the gifts of the Holy Spirit were imparted, the uncir- 
cumcised believers from the gentiles were received and acknowledged citi- 
zens in the kingdom. After this their progress and piety aroused the wrath of 
Polytheism in all nations, and they had to suffer for the cause of Christ Jesus. 
But in very few countries has the history of them been written, and their con- 
flicts and sufferings will not be known till the kingdom of God is consummated 
and the faithful individuals be rewarded by their King, Savior, and Teacher. In 
the Roman empire, after ages of suffering, Christianity, in name, but monotheism 
in fact, supplanted Polytheism in the throne of the Csesars. This taught the Red 
Dragon what fate awaited him in other nations by the success of the Gospel of 
Christ, and filled the devil with great wrath against the citizens of this great 
monotheistic empire, for he knew his time to rule the world in his Polytheistic 
development was short. But, when he could do no better, he animated and 
caused Polytheism to compromise with this monotheistic wild beast, and to dele- 
gate its throne, influence, and great authority to him, upon condition the beast 
would persecute the true branches of Christ and wage a perpetual war with all 
faithful Christians who kept the commandments of God and witnessed for the 
primitive truths, purity, and simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The 
vanity and degrading influence of Polytheism were so obvious to all that even 
men without piety despised it, and now the devil himself professes to be a mono- 
theist and both a Unitarian and Domitian Trinitarian. Still, he would rather 
destroy this wild beast and reestablish his Red Dragon development. So, all 
pagans in the Roman empire embraced eveiy opportunity to persecute the Chris- 
tian citizens, and thus produced much suffering. 

This empire Christianity was a confederated power, holding councils that 
regulated the faith and practice of the churches in all nations, which necessarily 
created an influence in favor of the Roman empire that might subvert the govern- 
ment and religion of other nations where these Catholic churches were located. 
This furnished a pretext to pagan priests for instigating civil rulers to persecute 
their Christian subjects as conspirators against their authority and in favor of the 
Roman interests, but whether these governments had the good policy to except 
and protect those heretics and schismatics, persecuted by the Catholic churches 
and the Roman empire, is not certain; most probably thej^ did when they 
understood their relations to the Catholics. But wherever the dragon was 



CHAPTER CXXXlIl. : SECTION I. 601 

defeated, he gave his power and influence to the wild beast; and thus, this beast, 
though often defeated in battle and his existence endangered, continued strong 
and able to call councils and issue edicts, and to exterminate Polytheism, banish 
heretics, and persecute the true churches of Christ. This empire, or Catholic 
church, sent out commissioned missionaries to proseljte nations and to govern 
their churches, but of the success, suffering, or fate of the churches of primitive 
faith and practice, we have no account beyond the Roman empire. 

This monotheistic Roman empire extended from the Atlantic ocean to Persia, 
and from Britain to Mauritania along the Atlantic, and from Egypt to the Caspian 
sea on the east. It took in Egypt, part of Arabia, Syria, crossed the Euphrates 
and Tigris, taking in part of Messopotamia, and all Asia Minor; these were its 
eastern provinces; Egypt, Cyrenaica, Africa, and Mauritania in Africa were its 
southern provinces; in Europe it comprehended all the countries from the Medi- 
terranean sea to the Danube and the Rhine — twenty-seven provinces^ — and was 
the most powerful, wealthy, and extensive empire in the known world at that 
time. When united and well governed, no nation equaled it, or was able to make 
war with it, and no Polytbeists, Jews, heretics, nor schismatics could withstand 
the empire church wedded with this political wild beast. This Christian hierarchy, 
recognized citizens of the empire, considered their power established, so they 
worshiped the beast and the dragon and persecuted the true churches and faithful 
individuals. This great empire is now (A. D. 400-500) divided into two political 
divisions, governed by two independent sovereign headships. The prophecies 
of Daniel foreshowed this, and that they would have different histories and different 
destinies, or terminations;^ and so the churches incorporated with them must be 
considered separately, though often united in the same councils. The eastern 
division was called the Greek, Eastern, and the Byzantine empire; and the western 
division was called the Latin, and Western. The churches wedded with the Greek 
empire used the Greek language in their liturgies and records, and is called the 
Greek church, and the state churches in the Latin empire used the Latin language, 
and is called the Latin church. As no separation had taken place at this time, 
they were both comprehended in the name of Catholic. In the division the Greek 
empire occupied the territory now called Turkey, and the Latin empire was, prop- 
erly, the old Roman domain before it began to conquer the Macedonian- Greek 
empire, and is properly the original fourth wild beast of Daniel.* 

This whole monotheistic empire, under both headships, has now inaugurated 
its policy in relation to the woman, and to her seed who keep the commandments 
of God and have the witness-bearing of Jesus Christ. It has dispersed the 
Aerians, decreed death to the Novatians and Donatists for disowning the empire 
church and rebaptizing all their converts from it, and it has banished Jovinian, 
for attempting a reformation in it, and the prayers of Christ's witnesses who 
triumphed over the downfall of Polytheism are now turned against this rapacious 
wild beast. The angel has offered their prayers as incense upon the golden altar 
before the throne of God, and having filled his censor with burning coals from 
off that altar, he has cast it into the earth; and now conflicting voices have been 
heard, threatening aspects have appeared, and revolutions have been felt and 
expected which will break this great power threatenmg to extirpate the truth of 
God. The Aerian controversy distracted the councils of church and state; civil 
wars terminated by Theodosius the Great shook the empire, and new troubles 
appear. The servants of the Living God have been sealed ; the seven angels are 
prepared to call attention to passing events by sounding seven trumpets, and the 
four winds are about to be let loose lipon the land and the sea. ^ Theodosius is 
now dead, and his son, Arcadius, governs part of Illyricum, Thrace, Asia Minor, 
Syria, and Egypt, and his son, BLonorius, governs the Latin empire, comprising 



(2) Thai. Anct. 326, § 182. (3) Chap 62, §§ 4, 5. Chap. 65. §§ 1-11. (4) Chap. 65, §§ 1-11. 
(5) Chap 110. (6) Gbn. 1:27; 386. 29; 395. (7j Alosh. 4:2; 5. 



602 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Italy, Africa, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and part of Illyricum. Arcadius makes Con- 
stantinople tlie capital of the Greek empire, and Honorius at first made Milan 
his imperial throne, but moved it for safety to Ravenna. ^ There still remained 
in several places, especially in the remoter provinces, temples and rites of the 
pagan deities; the public profession of Aerianism has fled to the Goths, Burgun- 
dians, and Yandals, and former sects and schismatics remained in both empires. "^ 

2. The Relation of the Empire, Church, and Heretics, and their Condi- 
tion. — At the conclusion of this fourth century the Novatians had three or four 
churches in Constantinople; also, they had churches at Nice, Nicomedia, and 
Cotiveus in Phrigia, all of them large and extensive bodies, and they were very 
numerous in the western empire. In A. D. 410 they had several churches in 
Alexandria, and Bishop Cyril shut up their churches, stripped them of all their 
sacred vessels and ornaments, and deprived ministers of all they possessed ; and 
at Rome, Bishop Innocent, of Rome, did the same thing. In A. D. 413 an imperial 
edict condemned them to death for rebaptizing converts from the Catholics, and 
Albanus, with others, suffered death. These combined modes of oppression led 
the faithful to abandon the cities and seek retreats in the country. They had 
many places of worship and large congregations, but they were robbed and driven 
into obscurity by the tyrannical bishops of the empire church (A. D. 415-455) ; 
but in A. D. 476 the Gothic conquests put an end to all persecutions in Italy, and 
they are found to have existed A. D. 575, as is evident from the book of Eulogius, 
bishop of Alexandria; but they retired to obscure retreats and may be traced 
under other names. ^ The banished Donatists were permitted to return, but an 
edict of A. D. 413 doomed them to death, and three hundred bishops, with many 
thousands ot the inferior clergy, were torn from their churches, stripped of their 
property, banished to the islands, and their congregations were deprived of citizen- 
ship and rights to worship, and they were anathematized by Augustine and his 
council at Melea in Numidia. Under the Yandals they, with other dissidents, 
enjoyed freedom, and in the seventh century they disappear from the page of his- 
tory. ^ In the eastern empire the government was involved in every religious 
controversy and persecuted those condemned by councils, whether they were 
right or wrong. ^ When a civil government assumes the authority to decide on 
religious controversies, and to coerce or punish those condemned according to its 
judgment, it usurps a prerogative of Deity, and is as liable to persecute the servants 
and cause of Christ as to oppose falsehood and impiety, and such a Christian gov- 
ernment may become as great an adversary to the kingdom of God as any pagan 
government, and must be broken down. And so must this wild beast.. (Chap. 
117, § 2. 



(6)Gbn.l:27; 386. 29; 395. (7)Mosh. 4:2; 5. (8) Orch., chap. 2,§1. Ben., pp. 4-8. (9) Ben., 
pp. 8-11. Orch. 84-102. Gbn. 1:33; 455. (1) Mosh. 5:2; 5, §§ 4, 8, 14-16, 21. 



CHAPTER CXXXiy. 



CENSER CAST UPON THE EAUTH, AND FIRST AND SECOND 
TRUMPETS SOUNDED. A. M. 4400-4736. 

1. Alaeic and the Goths. (Continued from Chap. 110.) — The Gothic inva- 
sion had been rolled back by the prudence, skill, and valor of Theodosius L, or 
the Great ;2 the alliance of Persia had been secured by treaty ;3 the assassination 
of Gratian and almost successful civil war by Maximus had been successfully 
suppressed by him; yet the west had been exhausted by the Gothic war. ^ The 
western provinces of Spain, Gaul, Britain, oppressed before, were robbed of 
what wealth they yet possessed by Maximus to maintain a barbarian army.^ 
Thus, the catastrophies attending the censer cast upon the earth are conspicuous; 
the threatening aspects glare as lightning and are astounding as thunder, and 
civil commotions like earthquakes indicated the fall of that mighty empire. 
Such was the portentious condition of both empires when Arcadius and Honorius 
ascended their thrones. The firm union and reciprocal aid of the two empires 
were necessary for their perpetuation ; but, on the contrary, they were instructed 
by their masters to view each other in a foreign, and even hostile light; to rejoice 
in each other's calamities; to embrace, as their faithful allies, the barbarians, 
whom they incited to invade the territories of their countrymen. Intrigue, 
treachery, and murder were frequent among the best generals and officers of state, 
and deprived both empires of their only efficient protectors. The usurpation of 
Gildo, in Africa, was subdued by Marcezel, and the northern invader was defeated 
by Stilicho ; but envy and jealousy procured the death of both, and left the west 
without a competent commander or statesmen. And in a divided court and among 
a discontented people, Arcadius, in the east, was terrified by the aspect of Gothic 
arms, but was protected by the fortifications and position of Constantinople. ^ 

2. The First Trumpet Has Sounded. — The Goths, under the Arian 
Christian king, Alaric, ^ issued from their forests, and disdaining to trample any 
longer on the ruined countries of Thrace and Dacia, south of the Danube, 
resolved to seek a harvest in a province that had hitherto escaped the ravages of 
war, and covered the fertile fields of Phocis and Baeotia with a deluge of barba- 
rians, who massacred the men able to bear arms and drove away the beautiful 
females with the spoils and cattle of the flaming villages, leaving for years the 
deep and bloody traces of their march. The whole territory of Attica was 
blasted by Alaric's baneful presence, and Athens resembled the bleeding and 
empty skin of a slaughtered victim. Corinth, Argos, and Sparta yielded without 
resistance to the arms of the Goths, and the most fortunate of the inhabitants 
were saved by death from beholding the slavery of their families and conflagra- 
tion of their cities. Works of art were distributed among the barbarians without 
appreciation. And the remains of paganism were extirpated. Stilico, general 
of Honorius' army, after a long and doubtful conflict, drove the Goths to a 
mountain where they were besieged by Stilico ; but the Greeks in Stilico's army 
spread themselves over the country of their allies and stripped it of all that was 



(2) Gbn. 1:26; 366-7. (3) 27; 379. (4)371-379. C5) Gbn. 1:29-30. 400-3. 



604 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

left, and so the Goths escaped to Epirus. Arcadins, emperor of the east, 
created Alaric, the Gothic leader, master-general of eastern Illjricum ; Stilico, to 
avoid a civil war, retired, and the provincials and allies were indignant at the 
promotion. The Goths proclaimed Alaric king of the Yis-Goths, and having 
the magazines and manufactories under his control, he compelled the provinces 
to manufacture abundance of arms for their own destruction by his army.* 
Tempted by the fame, beauty, and wealth of Italy, Alaric invades Pannonia, 
Istria, and Yenitia, and peaceable old rustics saw their contemporary trees blaze 
in the conflagration of the whole country. The pagans deplored the neglect of 
omens and interruption of sacrifices, but the Christians still derived some com- 
fort from the powerful intercession of the saints and martyrs; and the public 
distress was exaggerated by some horrid tale of strange and portentious accidents. 
The legions of Rome were exterminated by the Gothic and civil wars, and it 
was impossible to assemble an army for the defense of Italy, without exhausting 
and exposing the provinces. But Stilico issued orders to the most distant troops 
of the west, raised an army, and defeated Alaric again, while the Goths were cel- 
ebrating Easter festival and the scene of rapine and slaughter made some com- 
pensation for the calamities inflicted on the subjects of the empire. Alaric was 
again defeated at Yerona with as great a loss ; but he escaped. The first moment 
of public safety was devoted to gratitude, but the second to envy and calumny. 
Honorius now removed his capital to Ravenna, a fortification in the marshes, for 
fear of invasions."^ (A. D. 400, 403.) 

3. Radagaisus, Yandals, Suevi, and Buegundians. — While Italy rejoiced 
in her deliverance from the Goths a furious tempest was excited among the 
nations of Germany by an irresistible impulse communicated from the eastern 
extremity of Asia. Radagaisus marched from the northern extremities of Germany 
almost to the gates of Rome, and left the remains of his army to achieve the 
destruction of the west. The Yandals, Suevi, and Lombards formed the strength 
of his army; the Alani added their active cavalry, and the Gothic adventurers 
crowded to his standard. The revolutions of the north may have escaped the 
knowledge of Bonorius in Ravenna till the dark cloud, collected along the coasts 
of the Baltic, burst in thunder upon the banks of the upper Danube. The safety 
of Rome was intrusted to the counsels and sword of Stilico. But so exhausted 
was the empire it was impossible to defend the Danube and prevent invasion, so 
he confined his eflPorts to the defense of Italy, abandoned the provinces, and 
called in all the troops. Many cities of Italy were pillaged, or destroyed, and 
Florence was besieged. Such a hoard of four hundred thousand, passing down 
to Italy without resistance, must have marked their inroad with wide spread 
devastation appositely compared to the devastation made by a storm of hail, fire, 
and blood. The savage Radagaisus was a stranger to the manners of religion 
and the language of civihzed nations, and his fierce temper was exasperated by 
cruel superstition. The public danger, that should have reconciled all domestic 
animosities, displayed the incurable madness of religion; and the remaining 
votaries of Polytheism secretly rejoiced in the calamities of their country, which 
condemned the faith of the Christians. Stilico, conscious he commanded the last 
army of Rome, would not expose it in the open field to the headstrong fury of 
the Germans, but surrounded the enemy with a strong line of circumvallation, 
which was his former plan, and Radagaisus and his besieged army were starved 
or destroyed. The rest of his army, which remained beyond the mountains, 
turned and invaded Gaul after forcing their way through the Franks and losing 
twenty thousand men; and here may be considered the fall of the Roman empire 
in the countries beyond the Alps. The subjects of Rome in these parts, uncon- 
scious of danger, enjoyed quietude and prosperity. Their flocks and herds grazed 
on the pastures of the barbarians and they hunted in the dense forests without 



(6) 80:407; note U. (*) Gbn. 1:30; 404-5. (7) Gbn. 1:25; 405-9. 



CHAPTER CXXXIV.: SECTION IV. 605 

fear, while the banks of the Rhine were crowned with elegant houses and well 
cultivated farms. This scene of peace and plenty was suddenly changed into a 
desert, and the prospect of the smoking ruins could alone distinguish the deso- 
lation of man from the solitude of nature. Mentz was surprised and destroyed, 
and many thousands of Christians were massacred in the church. Other cities 
experienced the cruel oppression of the German yoke, and the consuming flames 
of war spread from the Rhine over the greatest part of the seventeen provinces 
of Gaul. That rich and extensive country as far as the ocean, the Alps, and Pyre- 
nees, was delivered to the barbarians, who drove before them in a promiscuous 
crowd bishops, senators, and virgins, ladened with the spoils of their houses and 
altars. Britain was no longer protected from her enemies of the ocean, the 
mountains, and the Irish coast. The army, or remaining soldiers, chose a king 
who fixed his residence in Gaul after vanquishing what remained of the imperial 
army there. The total decay of national strength had annihilated the last 
resources of despotic governments, and the revenue of exhausted provinces could 
no longer purchase the military service of a discontented and pusillanimous peo- 
ple. 8 (A. D. 405-408.) 

4. Discords, and Alaric's Second Invasion. — The superior merits of Stilico 
brought upon him the jealousy of his sovereign and the envy and intrigues of 
aspirants, and he and his friends were assassinated by order of the pusillanimous 
emperor, Honorius. ^ Honorius now restricted all offices to persons of the 
Catholic, or empire, church ; and this disqualified some of his bravest officers, who 
were Arians or pagans. The foreign auxiliaries were attached to Stilico, but for 
the safety of their families and property, detained in strong cities of Italy, did 
not attempt to avenge his death. But at the same hour these cities of Italy were 
polluted by horrid scenes of massacre and pillage, involving in promiscuous 
destruction the families and fortunes of the barbarians. I suppose these barbar- 
ians were mostly Arians. Exasperated by such injury, thirty thousand of these 
bravest soldiers and weight of the army revolted to Alaric ; and he soon found a 
pretext to invade Italy again and pitched his camp under the walls of Rome, 
which for six hundred and nineteen years had never been disgraced by the pres- 
ence of a foreign enemy. Rome soon experienced the distress of scarcity and the 
horrid calamities of famine. The emperor in Ravenna had sent six thousand 
men to prevent the siege, but they were cut to pieces by the Goths while dis- 
traction, murder, and intrigue in the palace prevented wisdom or power from 
coming to alleviate the miseries of the city. Some fed on human flesh, and 
mothers ate the flesh of their slaughtered infants. Many thousands expired in 
their houses and on the streets, and the miseries of famine were aggravated by a 
pestilential disease. Thus, Christian Rome experienced some of the calamities 
sufl'ered by Jewish Jerusalem. Alaric agreed to raise the siege for an immense 
sum, and retired into Tuscany, where he was recruited by forty thousand bar- 
barian slaves who aspired to revenge the injuries and disgrace of their servitude, 
and by a reinforcement of Goths and Huns under Adolphus, who had cut his way 
through the imperial ranks. The city of Rome was supplied with food for the 
present and stores for the future. Negotiations were proposed by Alaric with 
Emperor Honorius and his court, who enjoyed the security of the marshes 
and fortifications of Ravenna, but were rejected, and Alaric returned to the siege 
of Rome. He secured the magazines of grain and then demanded the surrender 
of the city. The senate consented to surrender the city and place another 
emperor on the throne of Honorius. Attains, prefect of the city, was proclaimed 
emperor and the gates were opened. More intrigue and perfidy was practiced. 
Attains was despoiled of the diadem and purple by Alaric, who sent them to 
Honorius as the pledge of peace and friendship, and again proposed negotiations. 
Negotiations being insolently refused, Alaric renewed the siege ; the gate was 



(8) Gbn. 1 :30,- 409-414. (9) 414-416. 



606 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

thrown open at midnight and the inhabitants awoke at the sound of the Gothic 
trumpet. Alaric commanded to spare the non-resisting citizens ; the churches of 
Peter and of Paul should be holy and inviolable sanctuaries ; and to the Vatican 
he had safely conducted, in religious procession, the gold and silver plate of St. 
Peter; and a multitude escaped to the secure sanctuary of the Vatican. But a 
cruel slaughter was made of the Komans. The Huns were pagans, and the Arian 
Goths were not much restrained by the Gospel precepts, and the streets were 
tilled with dead bodies. In short, Rome experienced the fate of a sacked city; 
where fire, and sword, outrage, destruction, insult, and indiscriminate captivity, 
slavery, and plundering, fill the scene. Above four years the Goths reigned 
without control over Italy. After six days' pillaging, Alaric left Rome, marched 
to the extreme of Italy, attempted to cross to Sicily, designing to conquer Africa, 
destroying whatever opposed his passage, and plundering the unresisting provinces. 
But death ended his victories, A. D. 410. After possessing Italy four years (A. D. 
408-412), Adolphus, brother-in-law to Alaric and now king of the Goths, con- 
cludes a peace with the emperor, Honorius, and marches with his Goths into 
Gaul. 1 

5. The European third natural division of the Roman empire has now 
actually been destroyed by internal dissensions and foreign invasions, but its 
calamities are not yet ended. Adolphus, having made peace with Honorius and 
married the emperor's sister, Placidia, marched into Gaul as a Roman general, 
and he and his successors extended the Gothic conquests over the Suevi, Alani, 
and Yandals, ^ in the southern provinces of Gaul, and in Spain from Marseilles 
to the ocean, in the name of Rome; and after the Goths retired from Italy, Rome 
and the most injured provinces were so restored within seven years that the 
vestiges of the Gothic invasion were almost obliterated, and the tyrants beyond 
Italy were repeatedly vanquished in the name of Honorius. A Roman general 
of Roman origin, named Constantius, defended the imperial throne and con- 
quered the usurper Constantine, of Britain and Gaul, and in five years seven 
usurpers yielded to Honorius, who was incapable of counsel or action, A. D. 
411-416. 

Before the sack of Rome by the Goths, or A. D. 409, the Suevi, Yan- 
dals, and Alani poured like a torrent with irresistible violence from the frontiers 
of Gaul to the sea of Africa. These barbarians exercised their cruelty on the 
Romans and Spaniards, and ravaged with equal fury the cities and the open 
countries. Famine reduced the inhabitants to feed on the flesh of their fellow- 
creatures. Wild beasts multiplied and boldly attacked their human prey; pesti- 
lence followed famine and swept away a large proportion of the people, and the 
groans of the dying only excited the envy of their surviving friends. At length 
the barbarians, satiated with carnage and rapine, and afflicted with the contagious 
evils which they introduced, fixed their permanent seats in the depopulated 
country, and, forming a relation with their new subjects, giving protection and 
exacting obedience, the ground was again cultivated and the towns and villages 
were occupied with a captive people. Adolphus being assassinated and his 
assassin being assassinated, Wallia became king of the Goths and reconquered 
Spain to the empire, but established there the kingdom of the Yis-Goths ; and 
the Goths, Burgundians, and Franks obtained a permanent settlement and 
dominion in the provinces of Gaul, A. D. 415-420. Britain and Armorica had 
become independent, A. D. 409, under the usurper Constantine. After the 
ururpers of Gaul had successively fallen, the maritime provinces were restored to 
the empire, but the emperors wisely acquiesced in the independence of Britain 
and it was ruled by the clergy and nobles. Such was the condition of the nominal 
western Roman empire A. D. 420.^ The widow of Adolphus was married to 
the general, Constantius, who shared the honors of Augustus seven months with 



(1) Gbn. 1:31; 417-432. (2) 31; 436-7. (3) Gbn. 1:31; 433-40. 



CHAPTER GXX^IY. I SECTION VI. 607 

Honorius, and died. Honorius died A. D. 423, and his secretary, John, usurped 
his throne. ' Placidia, sister of Honorius, widow of Adolphus and also of Con- 
stantius, and aunt of Theodosius 11. , had quarreled with Honorius and fled with 
her children, Honoria and Yalentinian, to Constantinople to the protection of her 
nephew, Theodosius II. Theodosius sent an army, killed usurper John, and 
placed his cousin, Yalentinian III., on the Latin throne in Kavenna. But, Val- 
entine III. being only six years old, his mother, Placidia, reigned in his name 
for twenty-five years. Her armies were commanded by two able generals, Aetius 
and Boniface, who may deservedly be named as the last of the Romans. Aetius 
was an Arian, and Boniface an orthodox. Boniface was always faithful to Pla- 
cidia, and was made governor of Africa; but, in his absence Aetius instigated 
her to recall him. This recall Aetius represented to him as a sentence of death, 
and advised him to disobey ; and this disobedience he represented to Placidia as 
a revolt. Boniface formed an alliance with the Yandals of Spain and promised 
them a permanent settlement in Africa.^ Now the second trumpet sounds the 
downfall of the African third natural division of the monotheistic Roman empire, 
and we see that the internal discords, dissensions, and commotions, appositely 
represented by voices, thunders, lightnings, and earthquakes, contributed as much 
to the destruction of the empire as the foreign invasions announced by the trum- 
pets. But before we consider the events of the second trumpet, let us finish up 
those of the first, A. D. 428. 

6. Attila and the Huns in Europe. — The destructive elements of calami- 
ties have not spent all their force yet upon the European third natural division of 
the great Roman empire, but, under Attila, the Huns again became the terror 
of the world, and alternately insulted the emperors of the east and of the west, 
invaded the European provinces of both, and urged the rapid downfall of the 
Latin empire. The Huns, under Attila, stretched from east to west on the north 
of the Black sea, and it was the subject of anxious conjecture whether the tem- 
pest would fall on the dominions of Persia or of Rome. But, the subtle Gen- 
seric now, A. D. 441, in Africa, by negotiations excited the Huns to invade the 
European provinces of the eastern empire, and thus compel Theodosius II. to 
withdraw his fleets and help from Placidia and Yalentinian III. The lUyrian 
frontier was covered by a line of castles and fortresses, but these were instantly 
swept away by the Huns. They destroyed with fire and sword the populous 
cities, where the discipline of the people and the construction of the buildings had 
been adapted to the sole purpose of defense. The whole breadth of Europe, from 
the Black sea to the Adriatic gulf, above five hundred miles, was at once invaded, 
occupied, and desolated by the myriads of barbarians led by Attila. The troops 
Theodosius II. had sent against Genseric in Africa were recalled, the garrisons 
on the side of Persia were exhausted, and the whole military force of the eastern 
empire was collected into the European provinces and were vanquished in three 
successive engagements and driven back to the Hellespont. From the walls of 
Constantinople to Thermopile, Attila ravaged and destroyed the countries of 
Thrace and Macedon at his pleasure, and historians apply the words most 
expressive of total extirpation and erasure to describe the scenes; and Atilla 
dictated the terms of peace to the court of Constantinople. ^ Theodosius, being 
injured by a fall from his horse while hunting, soon died, and his sister, Pulcheria, 
was empress, A. D. 450. She gave her hand to the Senator Marcian, who was 
a man of worth. ^ Marcian refused to be insulted by the Huns in demanding the 
tribute stipulated. Attila threatened to chastise the rash successor of Theodosius 
II. , but he hesitated whether he should direct his invincible armies first against 
the eastern or the western empire, but decided to invade Gaul and then Italy. 

The western empire was now ruled by the perfidious Aetius, in the name of 
Placidia and her son, Yalentinian III. After the death of Boniface, Aetius, at 



(4) Gba. 1 :33j 453-4. (5) Gbn. 1 :34; 460-3. (6) Gbn. 1 :34; 407^-8. 



608 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPEB. 

the head of sixty thousand barbarians, solicited his pardon for periidy and murder, 
which the weakness of Placidia and her son could not refuse, and he supported 
the ruins of the western empire for nearly twenty years in the name of his 
nominal sovereign. He attached to himself a numerous army ot Huns and 
Alani in Gaul, and used them in maintaining the shadow of Roman authority ; 
and the kingdom of the Yis-Goths, in the south of Gaul, formed an alliance with 
the Romans. Attila, with his confederates of Germans and Sythians, marched 
west seven hundred or eight hundred miles to the conflux of the Rhine and the 
Keeker, where he was joined by the Franks, and the hostile myriads were poured 
with resistless violence into the Belgic provinces. The consternation of Gaul 
was universal, and the various fortunes of its cities have been adorned by tra- 
dition with martyrdoms and miracles. But most of them were besieged and 
stormed by the Huns who involved in promiscuous massacre the priests who 
served at the altar, and the infants who in the hour of danger had been providen- 
tially baptized by the bishop, and flourishing cities were given to the flames. From 
the Rhine and the Mossele, Attila marched into the heart of Gaul, crossed the 
Seine at Auxerre, and fixed his camp under the walls of Orleans. But Aetius, 
with an army of allies gathered in Germany and Gaul, and Theodoric, with his 
Yis-Goths from the south of Gaul, came to the relief after a breach had been 
made and the pillage had begun, and Attila sounded a retreat. The Roman 
allies pressed the Huns, and an encounter of the Franks with the Gepide, in which 
fifteen thousand of the barbarians were slain, was a prelude to a general and 
decisive action. There were Franks, Germans, and Goths in both armies, and 
the nations from the Yolga to the Atlantic were assembled on the fields, or plain, 
of Chalons; the pagan Atila consulted his priests and haruspices, scrutinized 
entrails and scraped bones, and no doubt Christians called on God, Christ, and 
the saints. The conflict was fierce, various, obstinate, and bloody, unparalleled 
in the past or present, and the slain were computed at from one hundred and sixty 
thousand to three hundred thousand. Attila was defeated and retreated. Attila 
might have been destroyed, but Aetius, fearing the preponderance of the Goths, 
induced Torismond, their new king— his father, Theodoric, being killed in battle — 
to return home, lest his brothers might occupy the throne, and so Attila escaped. 

The next spring (A. D. 452) Attila invaded Italy, reduced cities to heaps of 
stones and ashes, slaughtered the citizens, and forced many to the islands and 
marshes of the sea, which resulted in originating the republic of Yenice. The 
desolate scenes marking the march of Attila and his horde of barbarians may be 
inferred from his boast that the grass never grew on the spot where his horse had 
tr<.td. The Emperor Yalentinian, the senate, and Roman people sent an embassy 
with Leo, bishop of Rome, to Attila, and purchased the deliverance of Italy by 
an immense ransom, for those allies that defended Gaul refused to march to the 
relief of Italy. Attila returned beyond the Danube, retired to bed oppressed by 
wine and sleep, and, having burst a blood vessel, died, and his kingdom fell to 
pieces."^ The patrician, Aetius, was murdered in the palace by Yalentinian and 
his courtiers. Yalentinian was in turn murdered by some friends of Aetius, 
and Patronius Maximus was proclaimed emperor, and in about three months was 
murdered, when Avitus was made emperor by the influence and power of Theo- 
doric II., king of the Yis-Goths in Gaul, A. D. 453. ^ Thus, European Rome, 
except the sea coast and islands, is destroyed from Constantinople to the Atlantic 
ocean, and a universal storm of hail, fire, and blood would not have produced 
greater devastation. 

7. Gensekic and the Yandals in Africa. — We have said the second trumpet 
had sounded and African Rome, including the islands and sea-coasts belonging 
to the Latin empire, was about to fall. The barbarians who overrun European 
Rome had no shipping, and cities, villages, and islands, as well as Africa, escaped 



(7) Gbn. 1:35; 468. (8) Gbn. 1:35, 36; 478-81. 



CHAPTER CXXXIV. : SECTION VIII. 609 

their ravages. But the Vandals of Spain accepted the proposition of Boniface 
and crossed into Africa in Spanish vessels and in those furnished by Boniface, 
and were joined by the Moors, and perhaps by the Circumcellians, A. D. 429. 
Placidia and Boniface discovered the perfidy of Aetius, and Boniface, Carthage, 
and the Roman garrison returned to their allegiance; but too late! Genseric 
refused to rehnquish his prey. Boniface and his band of veterans and hasty levies 
were defeated with considerable loss ; the barbarians insulted the open country ; 
Carthage, Cirta, and Hippo Regius were the only cities that appeared to rise above 
the general inundation. On a sudden, the seven fruitful provinces were over- 
whelmed by the invasion of the Yandals, and the death of their countrymen was 
expiated by the ruin of the cities where they fell, without regard to age or sex, 
and they destroyed the olive and other fruitful trees. Boniface was besieged in 
Hippo, but the Italian fleet and army, reinforced by Asper with a powerful arma- 
ment from Constantinople, came to his assistance A. D. 431 ; then he marched 
out against Genseric and was defeated, and Africa was irretrievably lost to the 
Latin empire. Boniface left for Rome, and was received and promoted by Placidia, 
but wounded in battle with Aetius, whom he defeated, he died. The inhabitants 
of Hippo were either slain or made prisoners by the Yandals. Carthage, the 
Rome of the African world, was taken by surprise; the licentious troops satiated 
their rage and avarice ; a regular system of rapine and oppression was instituted, 
and the provinces of the eastern empire were filled with exiles from Africa 
A. D. 4399 

8. The desolation and loss of the provinces from the ocean to the Alps 
impaired the glory and greatness of Rome, and her internal prosperity was irre- 
trievably destroyed by the separation of Africa. The Yandals confiscated the 
estates of the emperors and interrupted the subsidies which relieved the poverty 
and encouraged the idleness of the plebians. Genseric next built fieets, which 
issued from Carthage and claimed the empire of the Mediterranean; the conquest 
of Sicily, the sack of Palermo, and the trequent descents on the coasts, of Lucainia 
alarmed the eastern and what remained of the western empires; but Genseric's 
confederacy with Attila compelled both to the defence of the north from A. D. 441 
to A. D. 453. The revolutions, dissensions, outrages, and murders of the palace 
of Ravenna left the west without a defender, and at the invitation of the Empress 
Eudoxia to avenge her wrongs on the murderer of her husband, Genseric, with a 
numerous fleet of Yandals and Moors, cast anchor at the mouth of the Tiber and 
boldly advanced to the gates of the defenceless city, A. D. 455. He was met by 
a venerable procession of bishops, headed by the same Leo who ransomed the 
city from Attila and visited in person his camp. Genseric promised to spare the 
unresisting multitude, protect the buildings from fire, and exempt the captives 
from torture. But Rome and its inhabitants were delivered to the licentiousness 
of the Yandals and Moors; the pillage lasted fourteen days and nights, and all 
that remained of public or private wealth, -of sacred or profane treasures, was 
diligently transferred to the vesfc,els of Genseric. Among the spoils were the 
splendid relics of two religions — the pagan and the Jewish. The golden table and 
candle-stick, captured by Titus when Jerusalem was destroyed, and deposited in 
the Temple of Peace in Rome, were carried to Carthage in Africa by a tribe from 
the Baltic. The Christian churches, enriched and adorned by the superstition of 
the age, afibrded more plentiful materials for sacrilege. In the forty-five years 
since the Gothic invasion the pomp and luxury of Rome was somewhat repaired, 
and it was diflicult to escape or satisfy the avarice of a conqueror who had leisure to 
collect, and ships to transport, the wealth of the capital. The imperial ornaments, 
furniture, wardrobes, massive plate of gold, silver, brass, and copper, the empress, 
her two daughters, and many thousands of captives were transported to Carthage. ^ 



(9) Gbn. 1:33; 454. (1) Gbn. 1:36; 479-81. 
-39 



610 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

9. The nominal Latin Roman empire was now ruled by Count Ricimer, one 
of the principal commanders of the barbarian troops that defended Italy, who 
was a Goth by his mother and a Suevi by his father. - The Emperor Avites was 
dethroned A. D. 456, and Majorian promoted A. D. 457-461. Majorian proved 
hirriself competent to reign, if he had the men and the means. He encountered 
the Yandals and Moors, at the mouth of the Liris, encumbered with the spoils of 
Campania, and slaughtered them and chased them to their ships. His army was 
composed of barbarians. He collected a fleet in the harbor of Carthagenia, in 
Spain, to invade Genseric, in Africa ; but by the envy and treason of some of his 
powerful subjects Genseric was enabled to surprise it, and sink, burn, or capture, 
many of the ships. Ricimer impelled the barbarians against him, and he abdicated 
the throne and died A. D. 461. Ricimer now elevates to the throne Severus, 
whose virtues he did not fear, but soon dispatched him and managed affairs 
without an emperor ; and the empire of the west dwindled down to the kingdom 
of Italy; and during the reign of Ricimer it was afflicted by the incessant depre- 
dations of the Yandal pirates. In the spring of each year the Yandals equipped 
a formidable navy in the port of Carthage, and, commanded by Genseric, repeat- 
edly visited the coasts of Spain, Liguria, Tuscany, Campania, Lucania, Bruttium, 
Calabria, Yenitia, Dalmatia, Epirus, Greece, and Sicily. They subdued the island 
of Sardinia, and spread desolation or terror from Gibralter, in Spain, to the 
Nile, in Egypt. They took cavalry with them, landed unexpectedly, swept the 
country with their cavalry, and embarked again with their spoils. Their ranks 
were recruited with Moors, Romans, captives, and outlaws : a set of desperate 
wretches guilty of most atrocious crimes and cruelties. They massacred five 
hundred noble citizens of Zant and cast their mangled bodies into the sea. The 
eastern empire purchased a peace with them, but the west was still distressed. 
The haughty Ricimer was compelled by necessity to implore, as a subject, the throne 
of Constantinople for protection ; and Italy submitted to accept a master from 
the choice of the emperor of the east, in the person of Anthemius, A. D. 467-472. 
And according to custom, Ricimer married the daughter of Anthemius. Genseric, 
who had long oppressed the land and the sea, was now threatened on every side 
with a formidable invasion. The cities of Tripoli were subdued, and the Yandals 
were driven from Sardinia by Marcellinus, the independent patrician of Dalmatia. 

The fleet from Constantinople consisted of one thousand, one hundred and 
thirteen ships and one hundred thousand men. The army of Heraclius by land, 
and the fleets of Marcellinus and Basiliscus by sea, vanquished the opposing Yan- 
dals, and could have exterminated them. Genseric professed his willingness to 
surrender all in five days if a truce was granted ; which was given. The wind 
becoming favorable, Genseric manned his largest ships and towed many large 
barks filled with combustible material, and in the darkness of the night these 
destructive vessels were impelled against the unsuspecting and unguarded fleet of 
the Romans, which was close and crowded. The noise of the wind, the crackling 
of the flames, and the dissonant criefe of the soldiers and mariners increased the 
horrors of the nocturnal tempest. The Yandals also attacked them with skill 
and valor, and more than half the fleet was destroyed. Basilicus fled to Con- 
stantinople ; Heraclius effected his retreat through the desert, and Marcellinus 
retired to Sicily and was there assassinated by one of his own captains, perhaps 
instigated by Ricimer. Genseric again became the tyrant of the sea, and the 
coasts of Italy, Greece, and Asia were again exposed to his avarice and revenge. 
Tripoli and Sardinia returned to his obedience ; he added Sicily to the number 
of his provinces, and before he died, A. D. 477, he beheld the final extinction of 
the empire of the west,^ A. D. 476. Thus, the African, and seacoast, and island, 
natural one-third division of the Roman empire, is destroyed by a power, well 
represented by a burning mountain cast into the sea. Genseric destroyed two 



(*) Gbn. 483, 492. (2) Gbn. 1:36; 479-90. 



CHAPTER OXXXIV. : SECTIONS X. -XI. 611 

fleets by fire, and the seacoasts and islands were destroyed by blood, fire, and 
rapine. The western fleet was destroyed at Carthaginia, and only two fleets 
remained on the sea: the one of Marcellinus, patrician of Dalmatia, who had 
revolted from under Yalentinian III., and the other belonged to the eastern 
empire. Into these two Genseric rolled by the wind his fire ships like a burning 
mountain. Two-thirds, or two natural divisions, of the E-oman empire have 
been destroyed ; but the Asiatic third natural division remains. 

10. The First Head of the Monotheistic Wild Beast Extinguished. — 
The Latin empire, which was the original Roman beast of Daniel before it began 
to trample down the former wild beasts, is divided into ten horns. The peaceful 
and prosperous reign, which Anthemius promised to the west, was soon beclouded 
by misfortune and discord. Ricimer, by perfidy and the aid of Burgundians and 
Suevi, secured the murder of Anthemius and the pillage of Rome. The soldiers, 
who united the rage of facetious citizens with the savage manners of barbarians, 
were indulged without control in the licence of rapine and murder, and the city 
exhibited indiscriminate pillage, stern cruely, and dissolute intemperance, A. D. 
472. The tyrant Ricimer died of a painful disease ; his nephew and emperor 
died in seven months; Julius Nepos became emperor A. D. 472, but fled before 
the confederated barbarians under Orestes, A. D. 476; and Augustulus, son of 
Orestes, was made the last emperor of the Latin, or western empire. The bar- 
barian mercenaries — the Heruli, Scyrri, Alani, Turcilingi, and the Rugians — 
demanded that the one-third of the land of Italy should be divided among them; 
Orestes refused ; the barbarians flocked to the standard of Odoacer, the Heruli 
chief; Orestes was slain, and his imperial son, Augustulus, implored the mercy 
of Odoacer. Odoacer, regarding the emperor as a useless ofiicer, made August- 
ulus resign his title to the senate. The senate addressed a letter to Zeno, emperor 
of the east, disclaiming the necessity or wish of continuing the imperial succession 
in Italy; and, in their opinion, the majesty of a sole monarch could protect both 
east and west ; and in their own name and in that of the people they transferred 
the seat of universal empire from Rome to Constantinople, and requested Zeno 
to invest Odoacer with the title of patrician and the administration of the diocese 
of Italy. Italy was all that remained of the western empire that was not under 
the control of the barbarians, and Odoacer was the first barbarian king that was 
recognized as the legitimate ruler of Rome, A. D. 476 or 479. The stern Goth, 
Ricimer, who trampled on the ruins of Italy, had exercised the power without 
assuming the title of king. Thus, the first head of the grdat Monotheistic wild 
beast was wounded to death; but these barbarian tribes may coalesce under some 
one headship. 

11. Odoacer was an Arian, but tolerated the Catholics, and his interposition 
was required to protect the peace of the city during the choice of the Roman 
bishop. After the reign of fourteen years Odoacer and his Heruli mercenary 
barbarians and confederates were defeated by the Ostrogoths, in the name of the 
eastern empire, and universally massacred. Then the kingdom of the Ostrogoths 
was established in Italy by Theodoric, A. D. 493-526. ^ The Franks, under 
Clovis, conquered the Armoricans, Alemani, Burgundians, and Yis-Goths, who 
were Arians, and founded the French monarchy, which was Catholic, A. D. 
481-536.^ Africa remained in possession of the Yandals till they were conquered 
by the armies of Justinian, A. D. 534. The Lombards have not yet established 
their relation with the Latin empire, but will soon claim a portion of its territory 
and be conquered by the Franks. Thus, the fragments of the western empire 
began to be consolidated into large divisions. These fragments have been 
enumerated and located by expositors of prophecy in various ways, according to 
the time of enumerating and the manner of grouping the smaller divisions. But 



(3) Gbn. 1:36; 492-96. 39; 533-4. (4) 36; 510-16. 



612 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

I shall follow history and count them as they become exterminated, absorbed, or 
incorporated by the large governments, which occupy the pages of modern his- 
tory, viewing them from the ecclesiastical standpoint. ^ 

12. The establishment of the Gothic kingdom in Italy revived the appear- 
ance of the Roman empire, under the Greek headship. This kingdom extended 
from Sicily to the Danube and from Sirmium, or Belgrade, to the Atlantic ocean. 
Theodoric declined the name, the purple, and the diadem of the emperor, but 
assumed, under the hereditary title of king, the whole substance and plenitude of 
imperial prerogatives. His address to the eastern throne was respectful and 
ambiguous, and the alliance of the east and west was annually declared by the 
unanimous choice of the consuls. The Italian one was named by Theodoric and 
formally confirmed by the sovereigns of Constantinople, and Italy was governed 
by the Roman jurisprudence. ^ This wreck of the Latin empire must have been 
the final blow to the Red Dragon in the west. Gibbon reckons not more than 
one-twentieth of the Roman empire professed Christianity when it ascended the 
throne of the Caesars, ^ and as many unworthy motives were presented after this 
to induce citizens and aliens to become Christians, ^ we can not calculate on the 
genuine conversion of the members of the empire churches, and many of the 
statesmen and military officers were avowed pagans.^ The invaders of 
the empire were Arians and pagans, and the slaughter on the fields of battles 
must have been immense on both sides. Hence, the destruction of Polytheists 
and of those who could adopt either religion must have been incalculable, and as 
all the supervisors adopted the religion of the empire, ^ this must have terminated 
the short time in the west which the devil knew was allotted to his Red Dragon 
antagonism there, and which caused him to pour out his wrath on the recognized 
and protected citizens. What advantage the true churches of Christ, the seed of 
the woman, and the two witnesses — or Sons of Oil — derived from this smashing 
up of this Latin empire, history has not recorded. But the general policy of 
invaders and rebels — to attach to their interest all malcontents and disaffected, the 
fact that the Yandals in Africa did relieve the Donatists from persecution, and 
the Goths, Heruli, and Vandals in Europe did tolerate the Catholics while them- 
selves were Arians, and the empire was divided into independent hostile powers, 
so the persecuted in the east, or in any one power, could flee to another — author- 
izes us to suppose they were protected, or not persecuted, and so they were 
enabled to spread the true Christianity in the dismembered provinces.* The 
Catholic bishops might anathematize, but they could not confiscate, banish, or 
put to death till the death wound in the first head was somewhat healed. And, 
as the inoffensive, enduring, and industrious habits of the sealed servants of the 
Living God became known to the conquerers, they would be protected, to restore 
the ruined countries ; but, as the true churches are in the wilderness, history 
knows but little about them, and but seldom stops to notice humble, retiring indi- 
uiduals. As yet, the empire churches furnish examples of Christian traits of 
character, but whether these same persons would persecute heretics, we know 
iiot, for they had not power or opportunity to show us. ^ (See chap. 131, § 3.) 



(5) Chap. 143, §§ 6, 7. (6) Gba. 1:39; 536-7. (7)15; 179. (8)28;392. (9)31; 426. Mosh. 4:1; 1, 
§16. (l)Gbn. 1:37; 508; 38; 512-14. Jones, 215. (*) Continued, chap. 146. (2)Gbn. 1:35; 472,48]. 



CHAPTER CXXXV. 



THE THIRD TRUMPET SOUNDHSTG. A. M. 4364. 

1. The Sources and Streams of Renovation. — The first head of the Oon- 
stantine, or monotheistic, empire has been wounded to death, but the second head 
survives and may restore the empire to its former dimensions. The European 
and African divisions, including the sea, have been black, and bloody, and covered 
with carcasses and bones ; but the fountains and rivers still exist and restoration 
is possible. The grass will soon spring up and make the field look green and 
promising ; the forests and fruit trees will grow in time ; the fountains will supply 
fresh water in abundance ; the fish will be recruited and shipping restored. 
Churches are the fountains of the monotheistic empire, and all these barbarians 
embrace the empire religion^ and form mighty rivers, whose wealth and strength, 
concentrated by the concentrated Catholic church, may restore the sea and land 
of empire, and the clergy are not blind to their advantages.^ But a burning star, 
called Wormwood, may have poisoned these fountains and streams, and may pro- 
duce political death to many who would have restored the Constantine empire, 
and on account of their alienation the empire may be irretrievably lost. 

2. Apollinaris. — When the divinity of Christ was established on the ruins 
of Arianism, the Catholics found the difficulty of a creed embracing incompre- 
hensible mysteries, and they hesitated to assert that the divine nature sufiTered 
what Christ endured. But Apollinaris affirmed but one incarnate nature in 
Christ, and that the Divinity was united, or mingled, with the body of a man, and 
supplied the place and office of a human soul. Apollinaris was bishop of Laodicea 
and one of the luminaries of the Catholic, or empire, church ; but he was con- 
demned by the Syrian doctors, ^ and the congregations of disciples were proscribed 
by the imperial laws ; still his monophysite principles and his manner of speaking 
were secretly adopted by the Alexandrians and Egyptians^ in their monasteries, 
and his enemies felt the hatred of Theophilus and Cyril, the successive patriarchs 
of Alexandria. A secret, incurable discord was cherished between those con- 
founding and those disuniting the divine and human natures of Christ, and though 
the difficulties of the subject induced the parties to unanimously pronounce the 
sounds of concord, a latent spark lurked among the embers of controversy and 
was quickly kindled into a mighty fiame, and the verbal disputes of the oriental 
sects have shaken the pillars of church and state, ^ and the calamities of war were 
embittered by the more permanent evils of civil and ecclesiastical tyranny. ^ In 
viewing the divine nature as absorbing the human, or denying the human nature 
altogether, they introduced the appellation to Mary, Mother of God. This impious 
title ofi'ended those who maintained the two natures distinct, perfect, and united, 
in Jesus Christ. In this class shone a brilliant star, that might be called Worm- 
wood ; but his opponent, Cyril, and many others, deserve the same title. 

3. ISTestorius. — Nestorius was a Syrian, ^ and was chosen by the emperor, on 
account of his fame, to be patriarch of Constantinople, and this choice was appro- 
bated, or acquiesced in, by the clergy and the people. He was recommended by 



(3) Gbn. 37; 502-4, 508-9. (4) 38; 513. Robertson in.Jones, p. 216; Gregory's letter. Jones 229. 
(5) Mosh. 5:2; 5, § 5. (6) Gbn. 2:8; 129-30, (7) 14; 269. (8) Mosh. 5:2; 5. 



614 THE KINGDOM OF GOt) DEVELOPED. 

the austerity of his life and the eloquence of his sermons, but betrayed the 
acrimony and impatience of his zeal in his homily before the Emperor Theo- 
dosius II. when he exclaimed : Give me, O Caesar, give me the earth purged of 
heretics and I will give you in exchange the kingdom of Heaven ! Exterminate 
with me the heretics, and with you I will exterminate the Persians. He soon 
discovered, surprised, and attacked a secret conventicle of Arians. They preferred 
death to submission, and the flames kindled by their despair soon spread to the 
neighboring houses, and the triumph of Nestorius was clouded by the name of 
incendiary. On either side of the Hellespont his Episcopal vigor imposed a rigid 
formulary of faith and discipline ; a chronological error about Easter was punished 
as an offence against the church and state ; Lydia and Caria, Sardis and Miletus, 
were purified with the blood of the obstinate, and the edict of the emperor, or 
rather patriarch, enumerates twenty-three degrees and denominations in the guilt 
and punishment of heresy. ^ He was a violent enemy to all sects, but to none so 
much as to the Apollinarian faction, after whose ruin he breathed an ardent and 
inextinguishable zeal.^ So, he was no exception to the generality of the clergy 
of the Catholic church ; he was bitter as wormwood. From the pulpit of Constan- 
tinople both his friend, Anastasius, ^ and himself denounced the title. Mother of 
God, as unknown to the apostles, unauthorized by the church, tending to alarm 
the timorous, mislead the simple, amuse the profane, and to justify the old gen- 
ealogy of Olympus. ^ This sound truth, though extremely well received in many 
places, had the majority, and converted many Egyptian monks from calling Mary 
the Mother of God,^ gave offence, and the sermons of the archbishop and the 
service of the altar were disturbed by seditious clamor ; his authority and doctrine 
were renounced by separate congregations; every wind scattered around the 
empire the leaves of controversy, and the voice of the combatants reechoed in the 
cells -of Egypt and Palestine. His opponent was Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, 
who h^d imbibed and professed the incarnation of one nature, and consulting his 
pride and ambition he rose in arms against another Arius, only more formidable, 
on the second throne of the hierarchy. His enmity to the patriarchs of Constan- 
tinople was a sense of interest and not a sally of passion ; he envied their situation 
in the sunshine of the imperial court, and he dreaded their upstart ambition which 
oppressed the metropolitans of Europe and Asia, invaded the provinces of Antioch 
and Alexandria, and measured their diocese by the limits of the empire. 

Cyril denounced to the prince and people, east and west, the damnable errors 
of Nestorius, pontiff of Constantinople and one of the most exalted, or brilliant, 
stars of the empire, or Catholic, church. The pontiff, or patriarch, of Pome, as 
might be expected, espoused the cause of Cyril and condemned the sentiments 
and person of Nestorius and degraded him as a heretic from his Episcopal dignity, 
and delegated Cyril to execute his illegal decree. Cyril darted the thunders of a 
god in twelve anathemas, and exposed the errors and passions of a mortal. ^ The 
thunderstruck prelate did not sink under the violent shock, but retorted the same 
accusation upon his adversary, charging him with Apollinarian heresy in con- 
founding the two natures of Christ, and he loaded Cyril with as many anathemas 
as he had received from him. ^ Neither the emperor nor the primate Nestorius 
were disposed to obey the mandate of the primate, or patriarch, of Rome, and a 
council was called to meet at Ephesus, whose power and cunning, bribery and 
fraud, confusion and slaughter, decided the contest, A. D. 431. The end of these 
scandalous proceedings was that the ecclesiastical power triumphed over the civil ; 
the females of the palace ruled the emperor, and monks, superstition, bribes, and 
deception left Nestorius deserted of friends, and he abdicated his Episcopal 
throne, and was conducted to his former monastery in Antioch. In four years 
(A. D. 435) the Emperor Theodosius II. subscribed an edict ranking him with 
Simon Magus, proscribing his opinions and followers, condemning his writings 

(9)Gbn. 2:8; 131-2. (1) Mosh. 5:2; 5, § 5. (2) Idm., § 6. (3) Gbn. 2:8; 131-4. (4) Mosh. 
5:2; 5, § 7. 



CHAPTER CXXXV. : SECTION iV. 6l5 

to the flames, and banishing his person to the Lybrian desert. After sixteen 
years' banishment and torturing persecution the synod of Chalcedon would have 
restored him to the communion of the church, and perhaps to his former honors, 
had not death ended his days (A. D. 4:4:2) J We see here the fire-red horse 
characteristics of the moving force, and the guiding intelligence engrossed in 
leadership and armed with a great sword ; Christians kill one another and peace 
is taken from the civil government. Though Nestorius expired, his doctrine lived ; 
and though he might not be the sole cause, yet he furnished an occasion for embit- 
tering and poisoning the sources and streams of ecclesiastical and civil support 
and recuperation. His position in the Catholic church was above all the clergy 
except the patriarch of Rome. He fell from, or was forced to abdicate, his posi- 
tion in the Catholic church, but he did not lose his light, or iniluenoe, and the 
empire felt the bitter consequences. 

4. Nestoeians Increase. — Both in his native and Episcopal provinces the 
heresy of Nestorius was speedily obliterated, being crushed by the penal laws of 
Justinian; but in Persia they found a new world, where, notwithstanding the 
resistance of the Magi, Christianity had struck a deep root and the nations of the 
east rejoiced under its salutary shade. The primate resided at the capitol, and 
in his synods and in their dioceses his metropolitans, bishops, and clergy repre- 
sented the pomp and honors of a regular hierarchy; and they rejoiced in the 
increase of proselytes, and their zeal was stimulated by the presence of an artful 
and formidable enemy. The primates were elected and ordained by their own 
suffragans, but their filial dependence was on the patriarchs of Antioch. In the 
Persian school at Edessa the rising generation of the faithful imbibe their theo- 
logical idiom, studied in the Syriac version the volumes of Theodore of Mopsu- 
estia, and they reveared the apostolic faith and holy martyrdom of his disciple 
Nestorius. The first indelible lesson of Ibas, bishop of Edessa, taught them to 
execrate the Egyptians who, in the synod of Ephesus, had impiously confounded 
the two natures of Christ. The flight of the masters and scholars, twicQ expelled 
from the Athens of Syria, dispersed a crowd of missionaries inflamed by the 
double zeal of religion and revenge. The monarchs of Persia, suspicious of the 
Christian religion among their subjects favoring the Roman emperors, had often 
prohibited by royal edicts their dangerous corrjespondence with the Syrian clergy; 
and now they were pleased with the progress of the Nestorian heresy and listened 
to the eloquence of an artful prelate who painted Nestorius as a friend to Persia 
and urged them to secure the fldelity of their Christian subjects by granting a 
just preference to the victims of the Roman tyrant. ^ Barsumas, ejected out of 
the school of Edessa by the monophysites and created bishop of Msibis A. D. 435, 
labored, A. D. 440-485, to procure for the Nestorians a solid and permanent 
settlement in Persia and was vigorously seconded by Maanes, bishop of Ardascira. 
He pursuaded Pherozes to expel the Greek, or Catholic, Christians out of his 
dominions and admit the Nestorians in their place and in possession of the prin- 
ciple seats of ecclesiastical authority in Peria. He also erected the famous school 
of Msibes, from which issued the Nestorian teachers who, in the fifth and sixth 
centuries, spread abroad their tenants through Egypt, Syria, Arabia, India, Tar- 
tary, and China. '^ 

The Nestorians composed a large majority of the clergy and people in Persia 
and they were encouraged with the smile and armed with the sword of despotism, 
and yet many of their weaker brethren were startled at the thought of breaking 
loose from the communion of the Christian world ; but the blood of seven thousand 
seven hundred monophysites, or Catholics, confirmed the uniformity of faith and 
discipline in the churches of Persia. To their standard of natural and religious 
freedom myriads of fugitives resorted from all the provinces of the eastern 



(5) Gbn. 2:8; 131-34. (6) Gbn. 2:8; 141-2. (7) Mosh. 5:2; 5, § 11. 



616 THE KINGDOM OS' GOD DEVELOPED. 

empire, and the narrow bigotry of Justinian was punished by the emigration of 
his most industrious subjects. They transported into Persia the arts of peace and 
war, and those who deserved the favor were promoted to the favor of a discerning 
monarch. Justinian introduced some conditions tending to enlarge and fortify 
the toleration of Christianity in Persia, flattering himself that the heretics would 
gradually perceive the benefits of union with the empire and the church of Rome, 
and if he failed in exciting their gratitude he might hope to provoke the jealousy of 
their sovereign. ^ The arms of Nurshirvan and his fiercer grandson were assisted 
with advice, money, and troops by these desperate sectaries who still lurked in 
their native cities of the east ; their zeal was rewarded with the gift of the Catholic 
churches ; but when these cities and churches were recovered by the Emperor 
Heraclius their open profession of treason and heresy compelled them to seek a 
refuge in the realm of their foreign ally. ^ Heraclius considered with pain the 
detriment which the Grecian empire had suiFered by the migration of the perse- 
cuted Nestorians and their settlement in Persia, and ardently desired to reunite 
the monophysites to the bosom of the Greek church. ^ But the seeming tran- 
quility of the J^estorians was often endangered and sometimes overthrown. They 
were involved in the common evils of despotism; their enmity to Rome could 
not always atone for their attachment to the Gospel, and a colony of three hundred 
thousand monophysits, or Jacobites, captives of Apamea and Antioch, was per- 
mitted to erect a hostile altar in the face of the Nestorian primate, and in the 
sunshine of the court. "^ Thus, we see the sources of resusitation and perpetuity 
from the attachment of Christians in Persia to the Catholic church and Roman 
empire were cut off by sectarian bitterness poisoning their minds with hatred to 
the empire, and inducing them to instigate and aid rebellion, invasion, and 
slaughter in Syria and other provinces. Also, the missionary enterprise of the 
Nestorians was lost to the monotheistic wild beast if it did not injure him by 
preoccupying the minds of those afterward coming in contact with him. In the 
west we shall see how the Catholics gave Justinian easy victories, and the pagan 
and Arian barbarians becoming Catholics, restored the empire and church; 
but in the east the Nestorian influence tends to prevent invaders and immigrants 
from restoring or perpetuating them. From the conquest of Persia the Nestor- 
ians carried their spiritual arms to the north, the east, and the west, and the 
simplicity of the Gospel was fashioned and painted with the colors of the Syriac 
theology. They preached to the Bactrians, the Huns, Persians, Indians, Per- 
sarmenians, Medes, and Elamites ; and the barbaric churches from the Persian 
gulf to the Caspian sea were almost infinite, and their recent faith was conspic- 
uous in the number and sanctity of their monks and martyrs. The pepper coasts 
of Malabar and isles of the ocean, Socotora and Ceylon, were peopled with an 
increasing multitude of Christians, and their bishops and clergy derived their 
ordination from the primate, or patriarch, of Babylon. They followed the roving 
tartars and entered their camps in the vallies of Imaus and the banks of the 
Selinga, and a Kan named Prester John was baptized and ordained. They 
entered China, and under Mohamedan caliphs Nestorian churches were diffused 
from China to Jerusalem and Cyprus, and their number with those of Jacobites, 
or monophysites, were computed to surpass the Greek and Latin communion. 
Twenty-five metropolitans, or archbishops, composed their hierarchy and testified 
their faith and obedience to the primate, or patriarch, of Babylon, which name 
has been applied to Seleucia, Ctesiphon, and Bagdad, A. D. 500-1200. The 
Christians of St. Thomas adhere to the Nestorians, A. D. 883-1500. i All this 
was lost to the empire and prevented its resusitation and extention. 

5. The Monophysite Influence. — According to the Catholic standard, Nes- 
torius was more orthodox tlian his enemies, but, by the jealousy of the patriarch 
of Rome against the patriarch of Constantinople, the envy and malignity of the 



(8) Gbn. 2:8; 142-3. (9) Mosh. 7:2; 5, § 4. (*) Gbn. 2:8; 142-3. (1) Gbn. 2:8; 143-4. 



C'HAt^TEE CXXXV. '. SECTION V. Olt 

patriarch of Alexandria, intrigue, corruption, and bribery, he was induced to 
abdicate, and afterwards he was banished and persecuted to death. Before Cyril 
could accomplish his object he had to abandon phrases and expressions and 
receive the articles of faith drawn up by John, patriarch of Antioch. ^ This com- 
promise between Cyril and the Catholics suppressed the flame of controversy till 
his death, A. D. 448. But a violent aversion to the JMestoriansled many into the 
opposite extreme. This was the case with the famous Eutyches, abbot of a cer- 
tain convent of monks at Constantinople, who might have expired in his cell 
where he had slept for seventy years, had not the resentment and indiscretion of 
Flavian, patriarch of Constantinople, exposed him to the world, and thus made 
him the chief of the monophysites, and the name of Eutyches has been applied 
to the sect most adverse to the Syrian heresy of Nestorius. Flavian called his 
domestic council, or synod, but Eutyches appealed to a general council. Euty- 
ches exerted his utmost force and vehemence in opposing the progress of JSTes- 
torian doctrine, and expressed his sentiments in the very terms used by the 
Egyptians, and taught but one nature in Christ — the incarnate word — which was 
the Apollinarian doctrine charged upon Cyril by Nestorius. These opinions of 
Eutyches shot like lightning through the east, and acquired such strength in its 
progress as created uneasiness to both Catholics and Nestorians. Theodosius 11. , 
the emperor, called the second council at Ephesus, A. D. 449, and placed at its 
head Dioscorus, patriarch of Alexandria, the faithful imitator of his predecessor, 
Cyril, in arrogance and fury, and a declared enemy of Flavian, patriarch of Con- 
stantinople. By the influence and caballing of Dioscorus matters were carried 
on in this council in the same scandalous manner as in the former Ephesian 
council against Nestorius by Cyril. Dioscorus confounded matters with such 
artifice and dexterity that the one incarnate nature triumphed. Eutyches was 
acquitted of error, Flavian was scourgfed in the most barbarous manner and ban- 
ished to Epipas, but died before reaching that place. The heresy of the two 
natures of Christ was condemned thus : May those who divide Christ be divided 
by the sword ! May they be hewn in pieces ! May they be burnt alive ! Dios- 
corus had a mob of monks and soldiers — the wild beasts of this spiritual amphi- 
theater — who, at his signal, broke into the council with swords and staves and did 
his fiendish work. This synod has been justly branded — as many others ought to 
be — a gang of robbers and assassins. Thus, the faith of the Egyptians prevailed, 
but the vanquished party called in the aid of Leo, patriarch of Kome, who visited 
the hostile camps of Attila and of Generic, and his tome, or epistle, became the 
creed of Justinian. Leo's provincial synod annulled the irregular proceedings of 
Ephesus, but, as this step was itself irregular, he solicited a general convocation 
of the general council in the free and orthodox provinces of Italy. Theodosius 
declined to call the council, but, after his death, Marcian consented to call the 
council of Chalcedon, in which the legates of Leo presided, A. D. 451. Dios- 
corus was condemned, deposed, and sent into banishment, the acts of the council 
of Ephesus were annulled, the exiles were recalled (including J^estorius, now 
dead), and the tome of Leo was subscribed by the oriental bishops, and the doc- 
trine that in Christ two distinct natures were united in one person was established 
as the orthodox faith. Eutyches, already banished by the emperor, was con- 
demned. 3 In this council the orientals, less adverse to the JS^estorians than to 
Cyril, accepted the Romans as their deliverers. Thrace, Pontus, and Asia were 
exasperated against the murder of their patriarch, Flavian, and the new patri- 
.archs of Constantinople and Antioch secured their places by the sacrifice of their 
benefactor, Dioscorus. The bishops of Macedonia, Greece, and Palestine were 
attached to the faith of Cyril, but in the face of the synod and heat of the battle 
the leaders with their obsequious train passed from the right to the left wing and 
decided the victory. Four of the suffragans from Alexandria were tempted from 



(2) Mosh. 5:2; 5, § 10. (3) Mosh. 5:2; 5, §§ 13-15. Gbn. 2:8; 135-6. 



618 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED 

their alliance to Monophjsm, and thirteen implored mercy of the council, for if 
they yielded, they said, they would be massacred on their return to Egypt. 
Dioscorus, proved guilty of pride, avarice, cruelty, lavishing the alms of the 
church on female dancers, keeping his palace and baths open to prostitutes, and 
keeping a concubine, was condemned and deposed by the synod and banished by 
the emperor. A majority of the bishops, however, were monophysites, though 
they had subscribed the tome of Leo, and they protested in two debates against 
changing the old landmarks fixed at Nice, Constantinople, and Ephesus, and a 
multitude of Episcopal voices repeated in chorus : The definitions of the fathers 
are orthodox and immutable ! The heretics are now discovered ! Anathema to 
the Nestorians ! Let them depart from the synod ! Let them repair to Rome ! 
The legates of Rome threatened ! The emperor — the head of the church — was 
absolute ! A committee of eighteen hundred bishops prepared a new decree, 
which was imposed on the reluctant assembly.^ The characteristics of the 
second seal are very conspicuous, but the white horse and his rider can not be 
seen in the Catholic church, and peace is taken from the empire. 

6. Characteristics of the Second Seal Conspicuous. — The orthodox 
emperors, Marcian and Leo, enforced with arms and edicts the symbol of their 
faith, and it was declared by the conscience, or honor, of five hundred bishops 
that the decrees of the synod of Chalcedon might be lawfully supported with 
blood. The Catholic^ observed with satisfaction that the same synod was odious 
to both Nestorians and monophysites. The Nestorians were less angry or less 
powerful, but the east was distracted by the obstinate and sanguinary zeal of the 
monophysites. Jerusalem was occupied with an army of monks. In the name 
of one incarnate nature they pillaged, burnt, and murdered; the sepulchre of 
Christ was defiled with blood and the gates of the city were guarded in tumult- 
uous rebellion against the troops of the emperor. The Egyptians still regretted 
Dioscorus and detested the usurpation of his successor introduced by the fathers of 
Chalcedon, but Peoterius was supported by a guard of two thousand soldiers and 
for five years waged war with the people of Alexandria, and on the death of the 
emperor Marcian became a victim to their zeal. The patriarch was besieged in 
the cathedral and murdered in the baptistry. The deadly superstition was 
inflamed on both sides by retaliation. In pursuit of a metaphysical quarrel many 
thousands were slain, and Christians of every degree were deprived of the enjoy- 
ments of social life and of the rites of baptism and the holy communion. ^ The 
remedy applied by this council to heal the wounds of a torn and distracted church 
proved worse than the disease. A great number of oriental and Egyptian doc- 
tors, though of various characters and different opinions in other respects, united 
in opposing with the utmost vehemence the council of Chalcedon and the epistle 
of Leo adopted as a rule of faith, and were unanimous in maintaining a unity of 
the nature as well as of the person in Jesus Christ. Hence, arose deplorable dis- 
cords and civil wars, whose fury and barbarity were carried to the most excessive 
and incredible lengths. ^ (A. D. 451-482.) 

The discords of thirty years produced the famous henoticon, a decree of 
union of the Emperor Zeno, which in his reign and that of Anastasius was signed 
by all the bishops of the east under the penalty of degradation and exile if they 
rejected or infringed this fundamental and salutary law. It repeated and con- 
firmed all enacted in councils of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon 
against the Arians, Nestorians, and Eutychians, and was designed to end all 
strife. But so effectually was the public mind poisoned and embittered that a 
book, a sermon, or a prayer, rekindled the flame of controversy and the bonds of 
communion were alternately broken and renewed by the private animosity of the 
bishops. The patriarchs of Rome anathematized the patriarchs of Constanti- 
nople for accepting the communion of Alexandria without the authority of a 



(4) Gbn. 2:8; 136. (5j Gbn. 2:8; 137. (6) Mosh. 5:2; 5, § 16. 



CHAPTER CXXXV. : SECTION VI. 619 

council. Hence arose new contests and divisions not less deplorable than those 
designed to be suppressed. '^ In the fever of the times the sense, or rather the 
sound, of a sylable was suflBcient to disturb the peace of an empire. The Tris- 
agion, or Thrice Holy Lord God of hosts, and the same phrase with the addition. 
Who died for us, chanted by adverse choirs, led to war and murder between the 
emperor and the faithful bishops. These furious but transient seditions were 
encouraged bj the success of Yitalian, a Gothic chief, who declared him- 
self the champion of the Catholic faith and waged war against the mono- 
physite emperor, Anastasius, in defense of the orthodox faith. ^ With an 
army of pagan Huns and Bulgarians he depopulated Thrace, besieged Constan- 
tinople, exterminated sixty thousand of his fellow Christians, obtained the recall 
of the bishops, the satisfaction of the pope, the establishment of the council of 
Chalcedon, and an orthodox treaty, reluctantly signed by the dying emperor, 
Anastasius, but more faithfully signed by the uncle of Justinian. ^ Justinian was 
an uncompromising persecutor of pagans, Jews, heretics, and schismatics, and as 
orthodox as any pope of Rome. TheNestorians were driven into Persia bj^him, 
and the Monophysites persecuted wherever he found them. 

Under the reign of Zeno and Anastasius the Mophysites usurped the thrones 
of the east and crushed on its native soil the school of the Syrians, and the rule 
of their faith was defined with exquisite discretion by Severus, patriarch of Antioch, 
and in the style of the Henoticon he condemned the heresies of Nestorius and 
Eutyches. He enforced the belief of his creed, and the blood of three hundred 
and fifty monks polluted his reign, to which he may have been provoked. Justin, 
the successor of Anastasius, replanted the orthodox standard in the east A. D. 
518; Severus fled into Egypt, and his friend, escaped from the Nestorians of 
Persia, was suffocated in his exile by the Catholics of Paphlagonia. Fifty-four 
bishops were swept from their thrones ; eight hundred ecclesiastics were cast into 
prison, and the oriental flocks, deprived of their shepherds, must have been 
insensibly either famished or poisoned. In this distress the expiring faction was 
revived, united, and perpetuated by the labors of James Baradeus, and from him 
have been called Jacobites. ]ij the confessors imprisoned at Constantinople he 
was ordained bishop of Edessa and apostle of the east, and the ordination of 
eighty thousand bishops, priests, and deacons is derived from this source. The 
speed of the zealous missionary was promoted by the fleetest dromedaries of a 
devout chief of the Arabs. The doctrines of the Jacobites and their discipline 
were also secretly established in the dominions of Justinian, and each Jacobite, 
or Monophysite, was compelled to violate the laws and hate the legislator; and the 
successors of Severus, lurking in convents and villages and sheltering their pro- 
scribed heads in caverns of hermits or in the tents of Saracens, still assert their 
right to the patriarchate of Antioch. The secondary place is filled by the Maphrian 
at Mosul, who contests the supremacy of the east with the Nestorian primate. 

Under the patriarch and Maphrian one hundred and fifty archbishops and 
bishops have been counted in the diflerent ages of the Jacobite church. In A. D. 
588 they flourished in Syria, Messopotamia, Armenia, Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, 
and other countries. ^ In Egypt, A. D. 537, the Monophysites, or Jacobites, 
were divided, and Justinian, taking advantage of the dispute, sent Narses, and 
after a desperate and bloody conflict, which filled the streets of Alexandria with 
dead bodies of citizens and soldiers, and wasted with flames the third capital of 
the Roman world, an orthodox monk of Tunis was raised to the patriarchal seat 
of Athenasius ; the powers of government were strained in his support; the 
allowance of bread to the people was suppressed ; the churches were shut, and a 
nation of schismatics was at once deprived of their carnal food. In turn, the 
tyrant was excommunicated by the zeal and revenge of the people, and none but 



(7) Mosh. 5:2; 15, §§ 19-22. Gbn. 2:8; 137. (8) 1; 3-4, (9)8; 138. (DGbn. 2:8; 145. Mosh. 
6:2; 5, §§5-7. 



620 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the Catholics saluted him as a man, or as a Christian bishop. Expelled for murder, 
his successor, Apollinaris, entered in military array, guarded by soldiers ; he stood 
erect upon the Episcopal throne, threw off his upper garments of the warrior, 
and suddenly appeared before the eyes of the mliltitude in the robes of the 
patriarch of Alexandria. Astonishment held them mute. But when he began 
to read the tome of Leo a volley of curses, invectives, and stones assaulted the 
odious minister of the emperor and the synod of Chalcedon. A charge was 
sounded by the patriarch ; the soldiers waded in blood to their knees, and two 
liundred thousand Christians are said to have fallen by the sword. The churches 
of Alexandria were delivered to the Catholics ; the Monophy sites were proscribed, 
and the nations were excluded from the honors and emoluments of the state. The 
Monophysite patriarchs retired to the monasteries of Thebias and were main- 
tained by the voluntary contributions of their people. United with the Syrian 
Monophysites, and under the name of Jacobites, their faith was diffused over the 
mass of the Egyptian copts, and they renounced all allegiance to the emperor and 
all connection with Catholics. When the arms of Persia depopulated the land 
they obtained a short respite; but the victory of Heraclius over the Persians 
renewed and aggravated their persecutions, and the patriarch again escaped from 
Alexandria to the desert, and a voice promised him deliverance in ten years by 
a people circumcized like the Egyptians — the Saracens, A. D. 625-661. ^ 

The Arabs, after a glorious and profitable enterprise, must have retreated to 
the desert had they not found a powerful alliance in the heart of the country. The 
Saracens were received in Egypt as the deliverers of the Jacobite Monophysite 
church, and a secret and effectual treaty was opened during the siege of Memphis 
between a victorious array and a people of slaves A. D. 638. ^ The Abyssinians 
became Jacobites A. D. 530,^ and the Armenians A. D. 520,^ in the time of 
Severus of Antioch. The spark of controversy, first kindled by a sermon of 
Nestorius, still burns in the bosom of the east, and the hostile communions still 
maintain the faith and discipline of their founders. ^ The east was distracted by 
the l^estorian and Eutychian controversies, which attemped to explain the 
mysteries of the incarnation and hastened the ruin of Christianity in her native 
land. '' We might add here that the Monophysites and Nestorians, full of resent- 
ment against the Greeks, from whom they had suffered the bitterest and most 
injurious treatment, assisted the Arabians in the conquest of several provinces. ^ 
(Continued in chap. 137, § 9.) 



(2) Gbn. 2:8; 147-8. (3) Gbn. 2:12; 235. (4) 8; 148-9. (5)146. (6) 8; 142. (7) 1:37; 509. 
(8) Mosh. 7:1; 2, §4. 



CHAPTER CXXXYI. 



PAETIAL EESTOKATION OF THE KOMAJST EMPIRE. A. M. 4399-4531. 

1. A YiEW OF THE Political Government of the Second, or Greek, Head. — 
We now turn to view, politically, the Greek Roman empire, or the Greek head of 
the Monotheistic wild beast. After the death of Theodosius I., or the Great, the 
Greek Roman empire was governed in the name of his son, Arcadius, who was 
as incompetent to govern the east as his brother, Honoring, was to govern the 
west. His empire was a monarchy extending from the Adriatic to the Tigris, and 
from the cold Sythia to the torrid Ethiopia, and his court displayed all the effemi- 
nacy, wealth, vice, and intrigue of the east. The vicious and incompetent were 
advanced to power, and the virtuous and competent fell victims to their envy, 
malice, and avarice, and this led to conflicts and rebellions. Some oflicers appear 
competent to command, and at the head of their barbarian troops supported the 
empire. The history of John Crysostom shows the corruption and unchristian 
character and conduct of the court and bishops, the persecuting spirit of Theophilus, 
archbishop of Alexandria, and that some fearless and faithful bishops in the 
empire churches testified for truth and righteousness and were respected, appre- 
ciated, and beloved by the people. But the court and its minions prevailed, and 
John Chrysostom died in banishment A. D. 407. Arcadius died A. D. 408. ^ 
The envy, or animosity, toward the western empire was greater than against the 
pagan government of Persia. ^ 

Theodosius II. being but seven years old, the government was administered 
for a short time by Anthemius, who was afterward placed on the Latin throne. 
At the age of sixteen, Pulcheria governed the empire in the name of her brother, 
Theodosius II., who was then fourteen, and after his death she governed through 
her nominal husband, Marcian, who taught Attila to respect the authority of the 
Greek empire. ^ Besides the wars in the European provinces with the Goths and 
Huns, who destroyed the west, a war was incited with Persia by the Bishop Abdas, 
who destroyed a temple of the sun, or of fire, in Suza, and refused to rebuild it 
at the command of the Persian monarch. Yengeance was taken on him and his 
brethren, and some of them escaping into the Greek empire were remanded and 
refused. War was waged and some undecisive engagements were fought; truce 
was made and respected for eighty years. The case of Artasires, a king of 
Armenia, and of the Archbishop Isaac, may enable us to understand the nature 
of the Persian persecutions of the Christian subjects. The Armenian nobles were 
displeased with their profligate king, Artasires, and wished Isaac to join in his 
accusation before the Persian monarch. Isaac professed willingness to accuse him 
before a Christian king, but refused to do so before a pagan prince, because the 
king was a genuine Catholic. Isaac acknowledged his licentiousness, lewdness, 
and debaucheries, but said he could not abandon his sheep to the rage of devouring 
wolves, and asserted the infirmities of a believer were better than the specious 
virtues of a heathen. The nobles were exasperated and accused both the king 
and bishop as the secret adherents of the Greek emperor, A. D. 431-40. ^ 



(5) Gbn. 1:32; 440-9. (6) 32; 448. (7) Chap. 134, § 6.- (8) Gbn. 1:32; 451. 



622 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

The participation in the wars with Alaric, Attila, and Gonseric have been 
noticed in the fall of the Latin empire. Leo succeeded Marcian, the nominal 
husband of Pulcheria. The Patrician Asper had over- awed the capital bj his 
barbarian guards and favored Genseric; but Leo had secretly levied an army of 
Isaiirians, and having overthrown Asper favored the Italians, placed Anthemius 
on their throne, sent an army to extirpate the Yandals — which failed in its 
object^ — and again appointed Nepos to the throne of Italy. Leo was succeeded 
by Zeno, to whom the Roman senate transferred forever the throne of the western 
empire;! ^nd Theodoric, the Goth, conquered Odoacer, the Heruli, and reigned 
in Italy in his name.- After female intrigues of the palace and rebellions, 
Anastasius succeeded Zeno, A. D. 491-518, and waged a short war with Theodoric; 
but, being defeated, made peace with him A. D. 509. Justine became emperor on 
the death of Anastasius, but the affairs of government were managed by Justinian, 
his nephew. A rigorous law to force Arians into the Catholic church awoke the 
resentment of Theodoric, aud he passed a mandate in Italy to prohibit the Cath- 
olic worship. Two illustrious persons were put to death by him — Boetius and 
Symmachus — A. D. 524. In A. D. 526 Theodoric died and left his kingdom to 
his two grandsons. Amalaric occupied the throne of Spain, and Italy with all 
the countries of the Ostrogoths was bequeathed to Athalaric. And in A. D. 527 
Justinian became emperor of the east. ^ 

2. Jtjstinian and the Clekgy. — Justinian was a barbarian from Bulgaria or 
Dacia, ° and his reign forms a memorable epoch in the history of the world. He 
was the last Byzantine emperor, who, by his dominion over the whole of Italy, 
reunited in some measure the two principal portions of the empire of the Csesars, ^ 
and in the development of the kingdom of God it is more remarkable, for in it 
the death wound in the first head of the wild beast began to be healed. His empress, 
Theodora, was a scandalous strumpet and cruel demon. '^ [N^either the palace nor 
the capital deserve the name of Christian, ^ and the church acknowledging such 
a head can not be; the church of Jesus Christ, no matter how many pious 
persons may be in it. The clergy and people believed in orthodoxy, and the 
provincials yielded a blind and implicit submission to the will of the capital, and 
the Catholics were attaclied to Justinian, who, between the Nestorians and Euty- 
chians, trod the narrow path of inflexible and intolerant orthodoxy. The thrones 
of the east were filled with Catholic bishops devoted to his interest, the clergy 
and monks were gained by his liberality, and the people were taught to pray tor 
their sovereign — the hope and pillar of the true religion. ^ Europe was overrun 
by the barbarians, and Asia by the monks,! and his holy plunder was condemned 
by the sectaries alone, who became the victims of his orthodox avarice. ^ Jus- 
tinian never led his armies in person, and his troops consisted chiefly of barbarian 
mercenaries — Sythians, Persians, Goths, Yandals, and Herculi, and a small 
number of Thraciens. The citizens had been long forbidden to carry arms by 
^he preceding emperors. ^ 

3. Africa Reconquered by the Empire. — When Justinian ascended the 
throne, A. D. 527, about fifty years after the fall of the Western empire, A. D. 
476, the kingdoms of the Goths and Vandals had obtained a solid, and it might 
seem, a legal establishment in both Europe and Africa, and experience and Chris- 

• tianity had refuted the superstitious hope that Rome was founded by the gods to 
reign forever over the nations of the earth. After Rome herself had been 
stripped of the imperial purple, the princes of Constantinople assumed the sole 
and sacred sceptre of the monarchy, demanded as their rightful inheritance the 
provinces subdued by the consuls or possessed by the Caesars, and feebly aspired 
to deliver their faithful subjects of the west from the usurpations of heretics and 



(9) Chap. 134, § 9. (1) Gbn. 1:36; 488, 495. (2)39; 532, 536. (3) Gbn. 1:3; 539^1. (5)Gbn. 
2:1; 8. (6) Will., p. 242, § 15. (7) Gbn. 2:1; 5-7. (8) 7-12. (9) Gbn. 2:1; 3, 4. (1) Idm. p. 12. 
(2) 14. (3) Will., p. 240, § 10. 



CHAPTER CXXXVI.: SECTION IV. 623 

barbarians. The execution of this splendid design was in some degree reserved 
for Justinian. Having purchased a peace with the Persians, the safety of the 
east enabled Justinian to employ his forces against the Yandals, and the internal 
state of Africa afforded a pretext and a powerful support. Though the Catholics 
were tolerated the Vandals were Arians, and had restored the Donatist bishops 
to their churches.^ In view of the impracticability of the war with Africa, it met 
with weighty opposition till the voice of a bishop declared : I have seen a vision ! 
It is the will of Heaven, O Emperor, that you should not abandon your holy 
enterprise for the deliverance of the African church ! The God of battles will 
march before your standard and disperse your enemies, who are the enemies of 
His 8on.^ Tripoli was recovered by a little aid given to that province. Sardinia 
was in revolt, the Yandal forces were diminished by discord and suspicion, and 
the Roman armies were animated by the spirit of Belisarius, the heroic general 
in the service of Justinian, ^ and on the departure of the army, the patriarch pro- 
nounced his benediction and the emperor gave his last commands. ^ When 
Belisarius landed in Africa the inhabitants were protected from rapine, and, in 
turn, they supplied the army in provisions. The officers of the provinces con- 
tinued in office, but ruled in the name of Justinian. The clergy, from motives 
of conscience and interest, assiduously labored to promote the cause of a Catholic 
emperor, the towns and cities opened their gates so soon as Belisarius appeared, 
and he advanced within fifty miles of Carthage, the royal city, without opposi- 
tion. "^ Ten miles from Carthage the first battle was fought, and was disastrous 
to the Yandals. Their king fled toward the desert of Numidia. Carthage, 
illuminated out of joy, the chain was removed from the entrance of the port, the 
gates were thrown open, and the people, with acclamations of gratitude, hailed 
and invited their Roman deliverers. The defeat of the Yandals and the freedom 
of Africa were announced to the city on the eve of St. Cyprian, whom three cen- 
turies of superstition had raised almost to a local deity. The Arians, conscious 
their reign had expired, resigned the temple to the Catholics, A. D. 533. ^ The 
Yandal king, Gelimer, having collected a vast army of Moors and Yandals, and 
reinforced by his brother, Zano, who had been subduing the revolt of Sardinia, 
gave battle four miles from Carthage. But Zano fell, and the Yandal power in 
Africa was ended. The Catholic church was fully established, the Arian worship 
was suppressed, the meetings of the Donatists were proscribed, and the civil gov- 
ernment of the empire was restored. ^ The Moors were subdued and the long- 
lost Mauritania Sitifi was again annexed to the Roman empire. ^ Belisarius was 
recalled- through envy and jealousy, but he enjoyed a triumph, which was the 
first Roman triumph witnessed in Constantinople — the new Rome — A. D. 534. ^ 
Spain, under Yis-Goths, formed an alliance with Justinian and was claimed as a 
province of the empire, A. D. 550-620.^ 

4. Italy Recovered to the Empire. — In Italy, as well as in Africa, the 
guilt of a usurper appeared to justify the arms of Justinian, and Belisarius cast 
anchor in Sicily, which yielded a cheerful obedience on the first summons, and 
after a long separation was again united with the Roman empire. The Gothic 
garrison at Palermo alone attempted to resist, but was soon reduced, and the 
conquerer entered Syracuse in triumph and passed the winter in the palace of 
kings. A revolt in Africa called for his presence and was soon subdued. Theo- 
datus, the feeble Gothic monarch, resigned his right to Sicily, and, in a dialogue 
with him, the imperial ambassador asserted the object of Justinian. He said : 
The successor of Augustus should vindicate his rights and recover by arms the 
ancient provinces of his empire.^ Belisarius invaded Italy, and the people of 
Bruttium, Lucania, and Campania, who abhorred the name and religion of the 
Goths, embraced the excuse that their ruined walls were incapable of defense. 



(4) Gbn. 2:2; 23. (5) Tdm. 24. (6) 25. (7) 27. (8) Gbn. 2:2; 27. (9) Idm. 28-9. (1) 32. (2) 
80. (3) 32. (4) Gbn. 2:2; 34, 35. 



624 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Naples was taken by surprise and the garrison enlisted in the conquering army. 
The Gothic army elected Yitiges for king in the stead of Theodatus and retreated 
to Ravenna, leaving a feeble garrison in the city of Rome. Instigated by religion 
and patriotism, the citizens furiously exclaimed : The apostolic throne should no 
longer be profaned by the triumphs or toleration of Arianism, and the tombs of 
the Caesars should no longer be trampled by the savages of the north. And they 
fondly hailed the restoration of a Roman emperor as a new era of freedom and 
prosperity. The deputies of the pope, the clergy, the senate, and of the people, 
invited the lieutenant of Justinian to accept their voluntary allegiance and to 
enter the city, whose gates should be thrown open for his reception, and after 
sixty years' servitude the city of Rome was delivered from the yoke of the bar- 
barians and the key of old Rome was sent to the throne of Justinian at Constan- 
tinople. ^ A. D. 536.) 

5 Belisarius and his army were received into the city with mutual congratu- 
lations and joy, and the Catholics prepared to celebrate, without a rival heretic, 
the approaching festival of the nativity of Christ, and were edified by the 
apparent respect of Belisarius for the successor of St. Peter, but they trembled 
when they understood he had resolved to endure a siege against the Goths. This 
siege he endured with consummate skill, courage, and patience, and in the 
defense slaughtered thousands of the Goths. ^ Treason being detected in some 
of the senators, they were banished; the patriarch, or Pope Sylvester, being 
convicted of the same, was despoiled of his pontificial ornaments, and, clad in the 
mean habiliments of a monk, was exiled to the east, and at the command of the 
Emperor Justinian, the clergy of Rome elected the deacon Yigilius to the papal 
throne- Vigilius purchased this favor with a bribe of two hundred pounds of 
gold. The siege was severe and Belisarius sent to Constantinople for reinforce- 
ments and supplies, and when these arrived the Goths raised the siege. The 
whole nation of the Ostrogoths had congregated for the attack, and at least one- 
third of that vast multitude was destroyed in frequent and bloody battles under 
the walls of Rome. Datius, bishop of Milan, had obtained one thousand Thre- 
cians and Isaurians to assist revolt of Liguria against her Arian tyrant. John, 
the sanguinary, had been sent with two thousand chosen horse to Alba and 
Picinum, where the Gothic families and treasures were deposited without a 
guard, and he spread the devastations of war from the Apennine to the Hadriatic. 
The siege of Rome was raised, and hundreds of Goths in their retreat were 
drowned in the Tiber. Pimini, where John had deposited his spoils, was 
besieged by the Goths, but was abandoned on the approach of Belisarius and 
Narses. Leaving their tents, standards, and leaders, the Goths fled, and their 
king, Yitiges, followed their example and found a shelter in the vales and 
morasses of Ravenna. The provinces of Italy embraced the party of the Greek 
emperor, and the final conquest of Ravenna had been quick and easy had not 
discord among the officers interfered and Narses with part of the army marched 
to conquer the Aemilian provinces. This gave the Goths, with ten thousand 
Burgundians, an opportunity to destroy Milan, and the Catholic clergy were 
slaughtered at their altars; but Datius, who raised the rebellion, escaped to Con- 
stantinople. Then the Franks invaded Italy with terrible slaughter and threat- 
ened Constantinople, but the king, Theodelbert, being slain by a wild bull or a 
fever, their devastations ended. Narses being recalled to Constantinople, Beli- 
sarius completed the conquest of Italy, entered Ravenna, and carried Yitiges, 
king of the Goths, captive to Constantinople, A. D. 539. "^ Yictory by sea and 
land attended the armies of Belisarius, whose virtues equaled the ancient masters 
of the military art. He subdued Africa, Italy, and the adjacent islands, and in 
the space of six years recovered half the provinces of the western empire. ^ 

6. The Catholic churches and the patriarch, or pope, of Rome are taken 
under the protection of the Greek successors of Constantine, who can call councils 

(5) Gbn. 86. (6) 2:2; 37-38. (7) 2:2; 36-43. (8)44. 



CHAPTER CXXXYI. I SECTION VII. 625 

and enforce their decisions. The five patriarchs — of Eome, Alexandria, Jeru- 
salem, Antioch, and of Constantinople — are under his control, and all Catholic 
churches in Spain, Gaul, Britain, Arabia, and Persia acknowledge subordination 
to the patriarchs, and sympathize with the civil government that protects these 
ecclesiastical chieftains. This sympathy might subject them to the suspicion 
and persecution of their legitimate sovereigns, as in Persia and Africa; but it 
furnished sources of power and infl.uence for the support of the Roman empire, 
that might restore it to greater extent, power, and influence, than it ever possessed 
before. We have seen with what zeal those under Arian sovereigns espoused 
the cause of the eastern, or Greek, emperor. The barbarian invaders became 
empire Christians, and the clergy bring them under the imperial yoke. Already 
the imperial armies are recruited and ofiicered with barbarians. The Romans 
have mixed with the barbarians, and the empire exhibits the strength of the iron 
and the fragility of the clay, as shown in Nebuchadnezzar's image. ^ Th^ empire 
has enemies within and without, and always had; but it is a wild beast and must 
defend itself by force against all other brutes, and if debilitated it will be pushed 
and horned by stronger beasts, and it may be horned and trampled to death. The 
troops of Justinian were scattered over sea and land; they were in Spain and 
Italy, in Africa and Egypt, on the banks of the Danube, the coasts of the Euxine, 
and the frontiers of Persia. ^ 

7. Revolutions and Invasions Subdued. — The inundations of northern sav- 
ages are not yet exhausted; Persia is strong and belongs to the Red Dragon; 
Arabia is doubtful, and western Europe may dispute the headship of this great 
monotheistic empire. When we look at the Roman empire in the midst of the 
vast hoards of human kind divided into tribes and nations, we might call it the 
Mediterranean empire, into which every stream or deluge of Polytheists flows and 
becomes transformed into the peculiar characteristics of its institutions. , The land 
of Israel was but a small spot compared with Egypt and Assyria and the inter- 
vening tribes, and the Roman empire was but a spot in midst of all the Polytheistic 
nations of the earth. But let these rivers of Polytheistic barbarians flow on into 
this sea of empire and if the transforming influences of its waters are not poisoned 
its power will be restored, and it will govern the world. 

The Gepide occupied the vacant fortiflcations on the Danube and possessed 
the desolated country around them, and professed to be ffiends and allies to the 
Greek empire; but Justinian invited the Lombards to possess the Roman provinces 
between the Danube and the Alps. The Gepide were vanquished and the Lom- 
bards became formidable. ^ The same year Ravenna surrendered to Belisarius, 
was marked by invasion of Huns and Bulgarians, and it was so dreadful it effaced 
the memory of former inroads. They spread from the suburbs of Constantinople 
to the Ionian gulf, destroyed thirty- two cities or castles, and repassed the Danube, 
dragging at their horses' heels one hundred and twenty thousand of Justinian's 
subjects. 3 But it is unnecessary to follow these storms of hail, fire, and blood 
from this exhaustless source, which have destroyed the European third of the 
Roman empire and continued for centuries. Africa, instigated by the Arian s, 
who deplored the ruin of their churches, revolted, and was reconquered. The 
Moors revolted and were reconquered, and the Greek emperors continued for 
more than a century to reign over Carthage and the fruitful coasts of the Medi- 
teranean ; but the country was desolated.^ The Goths in Italy, under Totila, 
revolted and were reconquered, but the devastations, ravages, and outrages of 
war were ruinous to Italy, and the churches and altars were no sanctuaries to men, 
women, or children. ^ The attachment and dependence of the pope on the em- 
peror was exhibited when the pope, or patriarch, Yigilius, and the patrician, 
Cethegus, appeared before the throne of Justinian and adjured him in the name 
of God and the people to resume the conquest or deliverance of Italy. ® During 

(9) Dan. 2:43. (1) Gbn., Vol. II., p. 46, chap. 3. (2) Gbn., Yol. II., p. 46, chap. 3. (3) Idm., 
48, 3. (4) Idm., 61-2, 4. (5) Idm., 61-71, 4. (6) Idm., 67, 4. 
—40 



626 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

this reconquest of Italy the Franks and Alemanni invaded Italy and added horror 
and misery to the scene, and wasted themselves by intemperance, licentiousness, 
and disease. "^ Italy was again recovered A. D. 554, and was governed in the 
name of the emperor by the exarchs of Ravenna. ^ In the wars with Persia, 
Antioch was destroyed, and all we learn from Gibbon's account of Christians in 
Persia is that of Catholics favoring Justinian, and they were involved in all the 
wars and treaties of the two monarchs, and these wars and treaties closed with 
the same boundaries that existed when the wars began. ^ The persecution of 
Christians in Arabia was provoked in retaliation to the persecuting laws of Just- 
inian against the Jews, i Justinian died A. D. 565, and was succeeded by Justin 
II., A. D. 565-574. 

8. Empire Church Under Justinian. — Justinian had in some measure 
restored the Monotheistic wild beast by his wars, councils, and treaty with the 
Franks. The Yandals and Ostrogoths persevered in Arianism till their king- 
doms in Africa and Italy were destroyed. The barbarians in Gaul submitted to 
the orthodox dominion of the Franks, and Spain was restored to the Catholic 
church by the voluntary conversion of the Yis-Goths. The Lombards were 
partly brought over to the Nicene faith by their queen, Theodelinda, but at length 
the cause of Arianism was gradually superseded by the weight of truth, of interest, 
and of example ; and the controversy which Egypt derived from the Platonic 
school was terminated after three hundred years by the final conversion of the 
Lombards in Italy, A. D. 600. ^ Justinian suppressed the schools of Athens and 
consulship of Rome, which gave sages and heroes to the world, or to mankind. ^ 
Philosophy should not be suppressed, but it should never be permitted to originate, 
alter, or abrogate, any fact, law, or institution, in the kingdom of God. Revealed 
religion is a plain and simple system of reformation adapted to the weakest 
capacity. All its teachings are founded on the divine authority, and are to be 
received because God said so and not because approved by the wisdom and science 
of man. Divine revelation and true philosophy are not antagonistic ; but man 
has not yet arrived at perfect knowledge and many subjects are beyond the com- 
prehension of the human mind. The heathen philosophers became acquainted 
with many facts of revelation from traditions, or from the Jews dispersed among 
the nations, and undertook to comprehend and explain them. Many Christian 
teachers followed their example and perverted the Scriptures to accommodate 
their example, and then corrupted the laws and institutions of the kingdom of 
God. The systems which professed to unfold the nature of God, of man, and of 
the universe, entertained the curiosity of the philosophic student; he might doubt 
with the sceptic, decide with the stoic, speculate with Plato, or reason with 
Aristotle. 4 But such speculations should never enter a church; never undertake 
to interpret the Scriptures, nor decide on the merits of any law, or institution, 
in revealed religion ; yet they did ! and gave rise to interminable controversies 
which decrees of councils and edicts of emperors could not settle. 

Toleration was not the virtue of those times, and indulgence to rebels has 
seldom been the virtue of princes, and the reign of Justinian was a uniform and 
yet various scene of persecution. He appears to have surpassed his indolent 
predecessors, both in the contrivance of his laws and in the rigor of their execu- 
tion. The insufficient term of three months was assigned for the conversion or 
exile of all heretics, and they were deprived of not only the benefits of society 
but also of the common birthright of men and Christians. The Montanists of 
Phrygia, on the approach of the Catholic priests and soldiers, grasped the crown 
of martyrdom ; but though the conventicle and congregation perished in the 
flames, these primative heretics were not extinguished three hundred years after 
the tyrant's death. The gold and silver of the Arian churches and clergy of 



(7)Gbn. Vol. II.,p. 70, chap. 4. (8) Idm., 71. (9) Idm., 57-8, 3. (1) Idm., 60, 3. (2) Gbn. 
Vol. I., pp. 508-9, chap. 37. (3) Idm., 2:1; 20. (4) Idm., 2:1; 21-2. 



CHAPTER CXXXVI. I SECTION IX. 627 

Constantinople were seized as the spoils of the provinces and trophies of the bar- 
barians, on the pretext that they, too, were Arians. A bishop was named as 
inquisitor of the faith, and his dih'gence discovered in the court and city the 
magistrates, lawyers, physicians, and sophists, who cherished the superstition of 
the Greeks, and they were sternly informed that their aversion to the Gospel 
could no longer be disguised under the mask of indifference or impiety. The 
Patrician Photius stabbed himself, the rest became hypocrits and submitted. 
The Jews gradually stripped oiF their immunities, were oppressed by a vexatious 
law, and they had the pleasure of fasting seven days, while meat was exposed in 
the market by command of the emperors; and a vast multitude of them were con- 
verted by the persuasion and influence of Justinian. ^ The Samaritans of Palis- 
tine, rejected as Jews by the pagans, as schismatics by the Jews, and as idolaters 
by the Christians, were afforded by Justinian the only alternative of baptism or 
rebellion; twenty thousand were slain, twenty thousand were sold by the Arabs 
for slaves to the Persians, and the remnant became professed Christians. But in 
this Samaritan war one hundred thousand Roman subjects were extirpated, and 
the faithful province was converted into a desolate and smoking wilderness. But 
in the creed of Justinian the guilt of murder could not be applied to the slaughter 
of unbelievers, and he piously labored to establish with fire and sword the unity 
of the Christian faith. The JSTestorians and Eutychians were exposed on either 
hand to the double edge of persecution, and the four synods of Nice, Constanti- 
nople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon were ratified by the code of a Catholic emperor. 
But his empress, the scandalous Theodora, was his adversary, and under her 
patronage some heresies revived and multiplied, and the capital, the palace, and 
the nuptial bed were torn by spiritual discords. ^ 

9. Justinian discovered ten metaphysical errors in the writings of Origen, 
and by an edict he doonded Origen, in company with Pythagoras and Plato, to 
damnation, and invited the churches of the east to join in curses and anathemas 
upon them. The fifth general council, composed of three patriarchs and one 
hundred and sixty-five bishops, acquiesced. The Latin churches opposed, but 
the Poman patriarch, or pope, Yigilius, being in the power of the emperor, 
yielded to the despotism of Justinian and the sophistry of the Greeks, and the 
religious discontent of the Italians promoted the conquests of the Lombards. 
Justinian became heretical, and, though ready to persecute, was prevented by 
death. Italy, Gaul, Spain, and Africa deplored his fall and anathematized his 
name. The four successive emperors are distinguished by a rare, though for- 
tunate, vacancy in the ecclesiastical history of the east. ^ But, whatever we may 
think of the Christianity of Justinian, his edifices show the triumph of the name 
of Jehovah, the God of Israel, over Polytheism. The cathedral of St. Sophia 
was aspletidid temple, adorned with the last trophies or spoils of paganism. 
Eight columns of porphry, which Aurilian had placed in the temple of the sun, 
were presented by the piety of a Roman matron ; eight others of green marble 
were presented by the magistrates of Ephesus. "^ Thus, the empire and the 
empire church were left by Justinian triumphant over invaders and heretics and 
schismatics, and the orthodox Franks, by the generous grant of Justinian, were 
commissioned to protect the Catholic churches which the Greek empire could not. 
But the fire-red horse was conspicuous everywhere ; peace was taken from the 
empire, Arian and Catholic Christians killed one another with the sword, and 
darkness deepened in the churches. (Continued, chap. 137, § 1.) 



(5) Mosh. 6:1; 1, § 3. (6) Gbn. 2:8; 138-41. (7) Gbn. 2:1; 15^16. 



CHAPTER CXXXYII. 



THE FOUETH TRUMPET SOUNDING. A. M. 4565-4628. 

1. Decline FEOM Justinian to Hjeraclius. — Justin II. was crowned as an 
orthodox prince by the hands and with the benediction of the patriarch of Con- 
stantinople. ^ The gepide being destroyed by the Avars and Lombards, A. D. 
566, the fair countries of Walacia, Moldavia, Transylvania, and parts of Hun- 
gary were occupied without resistance by a new colony of Sythians, and the 
Dacian empire subsisted with splendor above two hundred and thirty years. The 
Lombards relinquished their lands to the Avars and invaded Italy. Though 
Albion, their king, was an Arian, the Catholics and pagans in his service were 
tolerated fully, ^ and Italy became the patrimony of the Lombards, without a 
battle or a siege, to the gates of Eavenna and of Eome. ^ Justin 11. abdicated the 
imperial throne to Tiberius, A. D. 574-582,^ who, before his decease, selected 
Maurice for successor, and Maurice reigned A. D. 582-602. Incapable of deliv- 
ering Eome from the sword of the Lombards, he relieved the famine, and 
the people themselves invoked St. Peter and repulsed the barbarians from their 
walls. But the danger remaining, the clergy and senate sent their gifts and 
complaints again to the throne of Tiberius, whose armies were in the Persian 
war. He spent their gifts (three thousand pounds of gold) in the defense of 
their city, and advised them to bribe the Lombard chiefs or purchase the aid of 
the kings of the Franks. Mamrice also gave audience to a second deputation of 
clergy and senators; the duties and the menaces of religion were forcibly urged 
in a letter from the Eoman pontiff, pope, or patriarch, and his nuncio, Gregory — 
afterward pope — was qualified to solicit the powers of either earth or Heaven. 
Maurice adopted, with stronger effect, the measures of his predecessor, and some 
formidable chiefs were persuaded to embrace the friendship of the Eomans (one 
of them lived and died in the service of the exarchs), and they were induced to 
invade the Lombards in Italy. The passes of the Alps were delivered to the 
Catholic Franks, and the pope encouraged them to violate without scruple their 
oaths and engagements to unbelievers, but without advantage. During two hun- 
dred years Italy was unequally divided between the kingdom of the Lombards 
and the exarchate of Eavenna. ^ Amidst the arms of the Lombards and under 
the despotism of the Greeks, Eome had reached, about the close of the sixth cen- 
tury, the lowest period of her depression. ^ Still, the pope and Latin churches 
adhered to the Greek empire, notwithstanding its weakness in the west, and 
when they looked to it for light they beheld darkness. 

2. In Persia, the churches of Persarmonia were oppressed by the intolerant 
spirit of the Magi and secretly invoked the protector of the Christians, and after 
the murder of their satraps the rebels were avowed and supported as the subjects 
of the Eoman empire, or Greek-Eoman empire. The Turks offered an alliance with 
the emperor, and Persia was threatened with the united forces of Europe, Ethiopia, 
and Sythia. The Persians were defeated, and the Persarmenian Christian rebels on 
the Araxas were relieved. ' The Persians were Polytheists, and Barhain declared 

(l)Gbn. 2:6; 98. (2) 6; 100. (3) 101. (4) 102. (5) 2:6; 104. (6) 107. (7) 7; 110. 



CHAPTER CXXXVlI. : SECTIONS III. -IV. 629 

himself the friend of the gods and the conqueror of men, ^ and the Magi conse- 
crated the Persian monarchs;^ but a revolution gave the victory to Maurice and 
secured peace till his death; and Ohosroes obtained the throne of Persia by the 
arms of the emperor. ^ The Greek emperor is consecrated by a Christian patri- 
arch and is now the acknowledged head of the Roman empire and of Catholic 
patriarchs and church, and the protector of the faith against Polytheists, heretics, 
and schismatics, and his power is not adequate to the task. The Avars spread 
their domain from the foot of the Alps to the coast of the Black sea, and from Bel- 
grade to the walls of Constantinople. A line of six hundred miles was marked 
with flames and blood, ^ and the Roman pontiff, or patriarch, alarmed at the 
approach of a more savage enemy, was necessitated to cherish the Lombards as 
the protectors of Italy. ^ Prisons, one of Maurice's generals, in five successive bat- 
tles slaughtered sixty thousand Avars, four sons of the Chagen, captured seventeen 
thousand prisoners, and erected his trophies on the Danube and the Teyss ; but 
an effort of Maurice to reform the army led to a mutiny and the slaughter or 
expulsion of his adherents, to the election of Phocus for emperor, and the murder 
of Maurice and his children, A. D. 602. ^ The senate and clergy obeyed the 
summons of Phocus. The patriarch, assured of his orthodoxy, consecrated the 
usurper in the church of John the Baptist; he was acknowledged in the east 
and the west, and Gregory, now pope, pontiff, or patriarch of the west, eulo- 
gized his success and crime. ^ For this base flattery and blasphemous salutation 
Phocus confirmed the title of universal bishop upon the patriarch of Rome. 

3. Phocus reigned A. D. 602-610, and proved himself to be a monster in 
vileness, debaucheries, and bloody cruelties. The victims of his outrage and 
cruelty filled every place. The hippodrome was polluted with heads and limbs 
and mangled bodies. JSTeither his favor nor their service could protect his com- 
panions. Such was the consecrated head of the so-called Catholic and orthodox 
church, and his reign of eight years afliicted Europe with ignominious peace and 
Asia with desolating wars. His savage temper was inflamed by passion, hard- 
ened by fear, and exasperated by resistance or reproach; the green faction was 
alienated by his ingratitude, and every province was ripe for rebellion. Herac- 
lius, exarch of Africa, refused all tribute and obedience to the centurion who 
disgraced the throne of Constantinople, and being solicited secretly by the senate, 
he sent his son, Heraclius, with a fleet from Carthage, and Nicetas, son of his 
lieutenant and friend, Gregory, with an army. Heraclius, with his lofty masts 
adorned with the symbols of his religion, cast anchor in the Helespont. Phocus 
was beheaded and his body given to the flames, and, on invitation of the clergy, 
the senate, and the people, Heraclius ascended the throne. After a tedious 
march Mcetas arrived, and was rewarded with the favor and relationship of the 
emperor. Heraclius reigned A. D. 610-642. Phocus had sent the heads of 
Maurice and his sons to the Persian court and announced his own exultation to 
the throne. Chosroes II. turned with horror from the assassin, disclaimed the 
usurper, and declared himself the avenger of his adopted father and benefactor, 
who seated him on the throne of Persia. ^ 

4. The Frank Empire Acknowledged by the Greek Head of the Mono- 
theistic Empire and Its own Weakness Confessed. — The fourth trumpet now 
sounds and the Catholic churches are aroused to behold the situation of their pro- 
tecting empire, and the witnesses for Christ are called upon to mark the signs of 
the times. The day of the Greek-Roman empire has passed the meridian of its 
glory, and its declining sun is eclipsed one-third by the rising empire of the Franks. 
Under Justinian, A. D. 527-565, many of the provinces of the west were recon- 
quered to the Roman empire by the Greek head, and the Catholic churches were 
Drought under its protection and control, but not all. The Emperor Anastasius 



(8) Gbn. 7; 112. (9)113. (1) Gbn. 2:7; 114-15. (2)115-17. (3)117. (4) 2:7; 118. 



630 THE StNaOOM OF GOD DEVELOt'ED. 

bestowed the title of Roman consul on Clovis, the most powerful rival of Theo^ 
doric, king of the Goths, A. D. 510, and the monarch of Gaul, placing a diadem 
on his head, was invested with a purple and mantle in the church of St. Martin, 
and was saluted as consul and Augustus. Twenty-five years after the death of 
Clovis this important concession was more fully and formally declared in a treaty 
between his sons and the Emperor Justinian. The Frank acquisition of Aries 
and Marseilles from the Ostrogoths was confirmed by the imperial authority, 
and Justinian generously yielded to the Catholic Franks the sovereignty of the 
countries beyond the Alps, which they already possessed, absolved the provincials 
from their allegiance to the east, and established on a more lawful, though not 
more solid foundation, the throne of the Merovingians. From that time forward 
they enjoyed the right to celebrate the games of the circus at Aries, and the gold 
coin impressed with their name and image obtained a legal currency in the empire. ^ 
In the reigns of Tiberius II. and of Maurice, A. D. 578-602, the throne of Con- 
stantinople confessed its weakness, and advised the Italians to seek protection 
from the Franks. 

5. The Nestor ians, driven by prosecution, have migrated into Persia, and 
thus weakened the Romans and strengthened their enemy, who was watching an 
opportunity to destroy the empire and its church. ^ The Nestorians have also 
spread their religion through Egypt, Syria, Arabia, India, Tartary, and China, "^ 
and as they did resent their persecution by the empire, and induced the Persian 
monarch to expel the Catholic Christians, their influence would be hostile to the 
Greek-Romans. The Monophysites, whose numbers, under various names and 
influence, were prodigious, still held their positions in Syria, Armenia, Egypt, and 
Abyssinia, notwithstanding their fearful slaughters by emperors and Catholic 
bishops, and, hating the Catholic, or empire, church, are ready to aid and cooperate 
with any foe that will give them freedom and protection.^ The empire is also 
exhausted, enfeebled, distracted, and menaced with conquest and partition by the 
Persians and Avars. From A. D. 602 till A. D. 627 was certainly a dark day 
and an obscure night. The sun of the Greek-Roman empire, eclipsed one-third 
by the Frank monarchy, tipped the western horizon, and its oblique rays were 
intercepted by the Avar tents and standards. Constantine carried his victories 
from the British islands to the Euphrates, and founded his city on the Bosphorus 
for the second capital of his vast empire. Now, from the walls of Constantinople 
to the Atlantic ocean not one province or city sends a helping hand ; not one ray 
of hope; not one beam of light to enlighten the scene and save the capital. The 
ecclesiastical moon in the east is eclipsed one-third by the Nestorian and Mono- 
physite schisms, and the Persian tents, arms, and standards on the heights of 
Chalcedon for ten years intercept all light from those Catholic churches in the 
east, and absorb all moonlight rays of pale-faced hope from that quarter. Still 
mistress of the waters, her fortified sea coast cities and islands, inaccessible to the 
enemy, though one-third eclipsed by civil and religious interests and animosities, 
are gems of the seas and stars of hope, and may send forth some rays to penetrate 
the darkness of the benighted city. But the scene closes before the eclipse goes 
off; the dark period is all that is shown, and for that period the day and night 
sh(me not ; what follows the eclipse we must learn from history. Many stars of 
the Catholic church might, with all propriety, be called wormwood, who embittered 
and poisoned various fountains and rivers of reviviscence to the empire and 
Catholic church, and caused many to die in various senses; but all the character- 
istics and consequences combine to point out Nestorius as furnishing the occasion 
for developing all these traits of character which destroyed the Greek-Roman 
empire. The European third part of the great Roman empire, and the African 
and sea coast and island third part, have been destroyed by the first and second 
trumpets, and now the sources and supplies of the Asiatic third part have been 



(5) Gbn. 1:38; 516. (6) 2:8; 142-4. (7) Mosh. 5:2; 5, § 11. (8) §§ 16-22. 7:2; 5, §§ 4-7. 
Gbn. 2:8: 145-8. 



CHAPTEE CXXXVII. t SECTION YI. 631 

embittered and poisoned by the religious controversies started by the burning 
zeal of Nestorius, so that the surviving Greek head is exhausted. It can not pro- 
tect the Catholics in the west, but has advised them to look to the Catholic Franks 
for aid against the Lombards, Environed on every side, wasted and distracted 
in the middle, is it not eclipsed? When the Christians of Eome looked to it for 
deliverance in the reign of Tiberius and Maurice, A. D. 578-602, the empire sun 
gave them no light. ' When Heraclius came to the throne, A. D. 610 till A. D. 
627, the day was dark and the night obscure. 

6. The Darkest Time. — Knowing his Red Dragon development in the gov- 
ernment of the world and antagonism to the kingdom of God was about to be 
terminated, Satan makes a desperate onset to destroy the Greek head of the 
Monotheistic wild beast. Missionaries were still permeating his pagan territories, 
the invaders of the west were adopting the Catholic religion and coming under 
the dominion of the clergy, and instead of making war upon the seed of the 
woman the empire itself was so torn and distracted it had no time to hunt up 
Christ's witnesses and put them to death; and policy had induced Persia to pro- 
tect and advance the persecuted sects which had migrated into her territory. Thus, 
Satan was defeating himself by his own strategy. So he determined to destroy 
the Monotheistic beast, and then he could persecute the truth in his Polytheistic 
Red Dragon development. To accomplish this, he assails it on the west by the 
Avars and on the east by the Persians. But in this project he failed and only 
exhausted both the dragon and beast, so that Monotheists destroyed the power of 
the dragon and crippled the beast, and furnished, for a time, an asylum for the 
woman and her seed. Rome has been weakened and Persia strengthened by 
the emigration of the Nestorians and the alienation oi the Monophysites. A 
civil war in Persia had given the Greeks the ascendency and bound the present 
monarch of Persia by the cords of gratitude to the Emperor Maurice. But the 
assassination of Maurice by the infamous Phocas furnished a pretext to the 
Persian monarch to invade the empire in avenging the murder of his benefactor, 
A. D. 603-622. To this he was powerfully instigated by the national prejudices 
and religion of the satraps and Magi. Under the reign of Phocus the fortifi- 
cations of Merdin, Dara, Amida, and Edessa were destroyed by .the Persian 
monarch ; then he passed the Euphrates and occupied the Syrian cities, Hierapolis, 
Chalchis, Aleppo, and Antioch. The loss of Antioch was the first intelligence 
Heraclius received from the east after he became emperor. Caesarea, the capital 
of Cappadocia, was sacked, and Chosroes reposed his troops in the paradise of 
Damascus before he ascended the hills of Libanus, or invaded the cities of the 
Phenician coast and Palistine, A. D. 614. The ruin of Jerusalem, the most 
renowned monument of Christianity, was vehemently urged by the intolerant 
spirit of the Magi, and Chosroes could enlist for this purpose an army of twenty- 
six thousand Jews. After the reduction of Galilee and the region beyond Jordan, 
Jerusalem was taken by assault ; the sepulcher of Christ and the stately churches 
of Helena and Constantine were consumed, or at least damaged by the flames ; 
the devout off'erings of three hundred years were rifled in one sacrilegious day; 
the patriarch Zachariah was transported into Persia, and the massacre of ninety 
thousand Christians was imputed to the Jews and Arabs who swelled the disorder 
of the Persian march. 

The fugitives of Jerusalem were entertained at Alexandria by the charity of 
the Archbishop John, with the treasures of the church to the amount of three 
hundred thousand pounds. But Egypt also was subdued by the successor of 
Cyrus, A. D. 616, and his cavalry explored with impunity the long valley of the 
Nile to the confines of Ethiopia. The prefect and archbishop of Alexandria 
escaped by shipping to Cyprus island ; and Chosroes entered Alexandria, the 
second city of the empire, extended his conquests to Tripoli, extirpated the Greek 
colonies of Cyrene, and returned in triumph through the sands of Libia. Another 
army advanced from the Euphrates to the Thracian Bosphorus; Chalcedon 



6S^ THE iilNGDOM OJ^ GOD DEVELOPEt). 

surrendered after a long siege, and a Persian camp was maintained above ten years 
in the presence of Constantinople. The sea coast of Pontus, the city of Ancjra, 
and the Isle of Rhodes were conquered, and had he possessed shipping Chosroes 
would have spread slavery and desolation over the provinces of Europe. The 
Christians of the east were scandalized by the worship of fire and the impious 
doctrine of the two principles of good and evil, or of light and darkness ; and the 
Magi were not less intolerant than the bishops, and the martyrdom of some 
native Persian Christians was conceived to be the prelude of a fierce and general 
persecution. By the laws of Justinian the adversaries of the church were made 
the enemies of the state; the alliance of the Jews, Nestorians, and Monophysites, 
or Jacobites, had contributed to the success of Chosroes, and his partial favor to 
the sectaries provoked the hatred and fears of the Catholic clergy; and he 
exhausted their wealth, despoiled or demolished tligir temples, and transported 
their gold, silver, precious marbles, arts, and artists to his hereditary dominions. 
The wealth, power, splendor, and luxury of Persia was now prodigious, and the 
monarch declared he would never give peace to the Roman emperor till he 
adjured his crucified God and embraced the worship of the sun. But while he 
contemplated the wonders of his art and power, an epistle from an obscure citizen 
of Mecca invited him to acknowledge Mahomet as the apostle of God. He 
rejected the invitation and tore the epistle. It is thus God will rend the kingdom 
and reject the supplications of Chosroes ! exclaimed the Arabian prophet. Placed 
on the verge of the two great empires, of Rome and Persia, Mahomet observed 
with secret joy their mutual destruction. 

7. Situation Despeka.te. — The condition of Hereclius and the Greek empire 
was desperate and reduced to the walls of Constantinople with the remnant of 
Greece, Italy, Africa, and some maratime cities from Tyre to Trebizond on the 
Asiatic coast. Syria and the provinces of Asia and Egypt were conquered by the 
Persians, while in Europe, from the confines of Istria to the long walls of Thrace, 
was oppressed by the Avars, unsatiated with the blood and rapine of Italy. They 
encamped on the plains; they insulted and besieged the Roman empire, now 
reduced to the walls of Constantinople and those places inaccessible to the barba- 
rians. They coolly massacred their male captives in the sacred field of Panonia ; 
the women and children were reduced to slavery, and the noblest virgins to the 
lusts of the barbarians. These two mighty pagan nations, camped on both sides 
of the capital, signed a treaty for the conquest and partition of the circumscribed 
empire. After the loss of Egypt the capital was afilicted with famine and pesti- 
lence, and the emperor had ladened his ships with the treasures of the palace to 
flee to Carthage in Africa. But the patriarch, who armed the powers of religion 
in defence of the country, arrested his flight, and leading the emperor to the altar 
of St. Sophia, extorted from him a solemn oath that he would live and die with 
the people God had entrusted to his care. The chagan of the Avars, encamped 
on the plains of Thrace, pretended reconciliation and obtained an interview near 
the town of Heraclea; at the crack of the chagan's whip the Avar cavalry made 
the assault but Heraclius escaped by the fleetness of his horse; but the enemy 
almost entered the gate of Constantinople with him and his fleeing crowd. The 
Avars then plundered the suburbs and transported beyond the Danube two hundred 
and seventy thousand captives. Heraclius subscribed the most humiliating terms 
of the Persians to save the capital from capture, but at the same time prepared 
for a bold and desperate attack. Without an army and destitute of funds, he 
borrowed the consecrated wealth of the church under a solemn oath to restore 
with interest whatever he spent in defence of religion and the empire. The 
patriarch of Alexandria assisted his sovereign by the revelation of a secret treasure. 

Only two veterans who conspired with Phocas survived, but the gold of the 
sanctuary imperfectly supplied their place by uniting in one camp the names, arms, 
and languages of the east and west. With a gift of two hundred thousand pieces 
of gold Heraclius entreated the neutrality of the Avars on the west, while he 



chai»t£r cxxxvii.: section viii. 6^3 

turned his arms on the Persians on the east. To the faith of the people he com- 
mitted his children; the civil and military powers were vested in the most 
deserving hands, and the discretion of the patriarch and senate was authorized to 
save or surrender the city if they should be oppressed by the superior forces of the 
enemy in his absence. ^ This was a dark day and an obscure night to the Mono- 
theistic Greek-Roman empire. 

A. D. 622, once more the eyes of the world are turned to the contest of the 
kingdom of God with the wrath of the devil and the powers of the Red Dragon. 
There stands the city of Constantino — new Rome — that has never been polluted 
with Polytheistic idolatry ! It was built in the name of the True God and of His 
Son Jesus Christ ! It has corrupted His religion and shed the blood of His serv- 
ants and witnesses and deserves to be cast out of His sight, like Jerusalem of 
old. But the name of Jehovah and of His Son is assaulted in the name and 
by the combined powers of Polytheism. All the provinces and cities of Christian 
Rome in west and east have been captured, sacked, or ruined by Polytheism 
and sectarianism. Constantinople, the second, but lone head of that Monothe- 
istic empire, is invested in the east and west by Polytheism; her only outlet is 
by the waters, and her shipping yet commands the seas. The patriarch of the 
church stands forth and binds the deserting emperor by solemn oath to stand by 
his charge! The patriarch and senate have charge of the beleaguered capital! 
The emperor, armed and equipped by the church, goes forth to meet the pagan 
hosts, who feel sure of victory and intend to devour Constantinople at their 
leisure. (See §5.) 

8. Polytheism Yanquished. — Still master of the seas, Heraclius conveyed his 
new and undisciplined army into the natural fortifications of Cilicia, where from 
the scattered garrisons of maritime cities and mountains he recruited his army, 
and there he reformed the veterans and trained the inexperienced. Unfolding 
the image of Christ he urged them to revenge the holy altars that had been pro- 
faned by the worshipers of fire, and by labor and skill he created a formidable 
army. The first battle crowned the Greek-Romans with victory, and they win- 
tered in safe and plentiful quarters on the banks of the river Halys, while the 
emperor was required at Constantinople to soothe the restless and rapacious 
spirit of the Avars. Again, A. D. 623, Heraclius sailed with five thousand 
chosen troops, collected forces, encouraged his subjects to march under the 
faithful and victorious banner of the cross, and, penetrating into the heart of 
Persia, he compelled the great king to recall his armies from Constantinople to 
defend his own bleeding country. The rapid conquests of Heraclius were sus- 
pended only by the winter season, when he retreated into Albania, on the Caspian 
sea. In the course of this inroad the soldiers extinguished the sacred fire and 
demolished the temples of the Magi ; and the statues of Chosroes, who aspired to 
divine honors, were abandoned to the flames. Heraclius delivered fifty thousand 
captives, which spread the fame of his benevolence and difi'used the murmurs of 
the Persians against the pride and obstinacy of their own sovereign. Next year 
Heraclius descended from Albania into Media and carried his victories to the 
royal cities of Casbin and Ispahan. Three formidable armies surrounded him; 
his Colchian allies prepared to desert him, his bravest veterans manifested fear; 
but he encouraged them by reference to the power of God and their immortal 
reward. He outgeneraled the Persians and drove them from the field into the 
fortified cities of Media and Assyria. In the winter he surprised and captured 
Sabban, and there reposed during the season. On the return of spring the 
emperor returned to Sebaste in Cappadocia, oppressed by the weight of spoils 
and captives, having vanquished formidable opposition in crossing the Euphrates, 
and reported to Constantinople his safety and success. 



(9)Gbn. 2:7; 119-22. 



634 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Though Persia was exhausted by twenty years of combats, yet the revenge 
and ambition of Chosroes collected three formidable armies. The first, or Golden 
Spears, was destined to march against Heraclius; the second, to prevent a junc- 
tion with his brother, Theodorus ; and the third, under Sarbar, to besiege Con- 
stantinople in conjunction with the Avars, with whom he had ratified a treaty of 
alliance and partition of the Greek-Roman empire. Sarbar penetrated through 
Asia into the old camp of Chalcedon, and amused himself in destroying sacred 
' and common buildings while waiting for his Avar allies. The Avars rejected all 
proffers from the capital, and insultingly told the patricians that they would con- 
quer and plunder the city and that escape was impossible. The city was assaulted 
by the Avars and was defended by the senate and people, animated by Heraclius, 
who sent twelve thousand cuirassiers. The empire galleys commanded the Bos- 
phorus and rendered the Persians idle spectators of the Avars' defeat. The 
Chagan's fleet of Sclavonic canoes was destroyed. His vassals threatened to 
desert and he gave the signal of a slow and formidable retreat, and the Komans 
attributed it to the Virgin Mary. Theodorus was also victorious. Heraclius 
formed an alliance with the Turks, and the Persians retreated. Sarbar continued 
to hold his camp at Chalcedon, but he was disengaged from Chosroes and formed 
a treaty with the government of Constantinople. The Romans advanced to the 
Tigris, A. D. 627, when Phazates received the peremptory mandate to risk the 
fate of Persia in a decisive battle. On that day Heraclius surpassed the bravest 
of his warriors. Phazates fell by his sword, the greatest part of the Persian army 
were cut to pieces in the battle of Nineveh, and the victors, concealing their own 
loss, passed the night on the field. Heraclius penetrated to. the royal seat of 
Dastagerd and his soldiers satiated their avarice with the remaining wealth or 
treasures, and what they could not transport they burnt. He recovered three 
hundred Roman standards, delivered the numerous captives of Edessa and Alex- 
andria, and returned to winter in Gandzaca. Chosroes was fallen; his subjects 
were ready to revolt; his son, Siroes, usurped the throne, supported by twenty- 
two satraps tempted by the wealth and honors of a new reign. To the soldiers 
he promised increase of pay; to the Christians, the free exercise of their religion; 
to the captives, liberty and rewards; and to the nation, peace and a reduction of 
taxes. Chosroes was deposed and murdered, A. D. 628. Polytheism was van- 
quished and Monotheism triumphed forever. Siroes reigned eight months, and 
in four years nine candidates disputed with sword and dagger the fragments of 
an exhausted monarchy. Every province and city in Persia was the scene of 
independence, discord, blood, and anarchy for eight years longer, till the factions 
were silenced and united under the yoke of the Mahomedan caliphs from Arabia. 
In the spring messengers were sent to the camp of Heraclius and a peace con- 
cluded. The subjects and brethren of Heraclius were delivered from persecution 
and slavery, and the former boundaries were established, A. D. 628. The most 
valuable of the Persian spoils were consumed in carrying on the war, distributed 
to soldiers, or lost by a tempest in the Black sea. The restoration of the sacred 
money compelled a second payment of taxes; the loss of two hundred thousand 
soldiers, the decay of the arts, agriculture, and population exhausted the empire, 
and while Heraclius triumphed at Constantinople over his victories, or in Jeru- 
salem on the recovery of the true wood of the cross, an obscure town on the con- 
fines of Syria was pillaged by the Saracens, who cut to pieces the troops sent to 
its relief, and in the last eight years of his reign Heraclius lost to the Arabs the 
provinces rescued from the Persians. ^ Thus, we hear the fifth trumpet sounding, 
and behold the two great empires of the north and east exhausted and may 
become an easy pre}^ to any united power. The last power of the Red Dragon 
but one^ is broken, and will no more be a dangerous antagonist to the king- 
dom of God, and the Monotheistic wild beast is exhausted for a time. The sun of 



(1) Gbn. 2:7; 122-7. (*) Chap. 144, § 6. 



C1MAI»TER CXXXVII. t SECTION IX. 685 

empire is one-third eclipsed by the Franks in the west, and the moon in the east 
is eclipsed one-third by the banishment of the Nestorians and the defections of 
the Monophysites ; and the stars of the seas are obscured one-third by interests 
and religious animosities, and Heraclius could fiot roll oiFthe cause of the eclipse. 
(See § 9.) * 

9. Contention Continued. — Considering with pain the detriment to the 
empire from the emmigration of the persecuted l^estorians, Heraclius desired to 
reunite the Monophysites to the Greek, or Catholic, church, lest a new wound 
should be inflicted by their emmigration also, and after consulting with Paul of 
the Armenian Monophysites, and Athenasius at Hierapolis, recommended, as 
basis of agreement, the following: That in Jesus Christ, after the union of the 
two natures, there was but one will and one operation. This received the appro- 
bation of Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople; and Heraclius, the emperor, 
published an edict, A. D. 630, in favor of that doctrine, and hoped by this act of 
authority to restore peace and concord in both church and state. This edict was 
subscribed by the patriarchs of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria, 
and the see of Jerusalem was vacant at that time. But Sophronius, a monk of 
Palistine, violently opposed the decree, and when he was promoted to the patri- 
archal see of Jerusalem he called a council and condemned the one-will, or 
monoth elite, doctrine; and hence arose those obstinate contests which rent the 
church into sects and the state into two factions. To end these commotions, 
Heraclius issued, A. D. 639, the edict called the ecthesis, or exposition of the 
faith; forbidding, also, all controversy on the subject. This was also received by 
numbers of the eastern bishops, and by Fyrrhus, patriarch now of Constantinople; 
but John lA^., pope, or patriarch, of Rome, assembled a council, A. D. 639, and 
condemned the Monothelites and rejected the ecthesis. In A. D. 648, the Emperor 
Constans published a new edict, called the type, or formulary, by the advice of 
Paul, patriarch of Constantinople; this suppressed the ecthesis, and commanded 
all parties to observe silence upon that subject. The angry and contentious 
monks excited Martin, patriarch of Rome, to oppose his authority to the edict 
which hindered them from propagating strife and contention in the churches. In 
a council of one hundred and live bishops in Rome, A. D. 649, Pope Martin con- 
demned both the ecthesis and the type, and thundered out the most dreadful 
anathemas against the Monothelites and their patrons, consigning them to the 
devil and his angels. The emperor ordered Martin to be seized and banished 
for his contemptuous treatment of the imperial laws. This order was executed 
with much cruel treatment by Calliopas, exarch of Italy, A. D. 660, Maximus, 
leader of the seditious monks, was banished and other rioters were variously 
punished. This made the succeeding Roman pontiffs more prudent for awhile 
in their treatment of the emperor and his laws. With the advice of the Roman 
patriarch, Agatha, A. D. 680, the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus summoned the 
sixth general council and permitted the Monothelites and Honorius, a former 
pope, and Macarius of Antioch, to be condemned, and confirmed the sentence 
by penal laws. In the next generation, when the son of Constantine was deposed 
and slain by the disciples of the condemned Macarius, the Monothelites defaced 
the monument of the sixth council, and the original acts were committed to the 
flames. But, in the second year their patron was cast headlong from the throne, 
the bishops of the east were released from their occasional conformity, the Roman 
faith was more firmly replanted by the orthodox successors of Bardanus, and the 
tine problems of the incarnation were forgotten in the more popular and visible 
quarrel of the worship of images, which sealed the fate of the united Catholic- 
Greek empire. ^ (Continued.) 



(2) Gbn. 2:8; 141-2. Mosh. 7:2; 5, §§ 4-11. 



CHAPTER CXXXYIII. 



THE SECOND, OR RELIGIOUS, MONOTHEISTIC BEAST ARISES. 
A. M. 4:4:04:. Contlnued from Chap. 113, § 4. 

1. The Barbarians Became Christians, and the Catholic Clergy En- 
abled Catholic Sovereigns to Conquer Arian Princes. — Before the invasions 
from the north, the empire bishops enjoyed and asserted the right of being tried 
by their own peers; their clergy and subjects were tried by them, and the judges 
executed the Episcopal decrees without appeal or delay. Their subjects resorted 
to the tribunal of the bishops, whose abilities, integrity, and sometimes 
spiritual functions, were interrupted by deciding claims of property. The 
ancient right of sanctuary was transferred to the Christian temples : the fugitive 
might implore the justice or mercy of God and His ministers, and the violence 
of despotism was suspended by the interposition of the church and mediation of 
the bishops. Spiritual concerns were wholly committed to them, and the excom- 
munication of an offender cut him oif from social intercourse, the rights of 
hospitality, and of decent burial."^ The progress of Christianity overcame the 
learned and luxurious citizens of the Roman empire, and the warlike barbarians 
of Sythia and Germany, who subverted the empire and adopted its religion. The 
Goths were foremost of these savage proselytes. Of their captives many were 
Christians, and several were ministers who, though dispersed as slaves, labored 
for the salvation of their masters. A pious work was done by an Arian named 
Ulphilus, who acquired their love and reverence by his blameless life and inde- 
fatigable zeal, and they received with implicit confidence the doctrines of truth 
and virtue which he preached and practiced ; and he translated the Scriptures 
into their native language. The Yis-Goths universally adopted the Christian 
religion, and in their march from the Danube to the Atlantic they converted 
their allies and educated the rising generation. During the fourth generation 
Christianity was embraced by almost all the barbarians who established their 
kingdom on the ruins of the Roman empire — the Burgundians in Gaul, the Suevi 
in Spain, Yandals in Africa, Ostrogoths in Panonia, and the mercenaries of 
Odoacer in Italy. The Franks and Saxons remained pagans; but the Franks 
obtained the monarchy of Gaul by following the example of Clovis, who was 
converted by his wife, and the Saxons were reclaimed by the missionaries of 
Rome. England produced the apostle of Germany, and the Gospel light was 
gradually diffused from the Rhine to the Elbe, the Yestula, and the Baltic. 
Christianity opened the gates of Heaven to the barbarians and introduced important 
changes in their moral and political condition. In their days of paganism their 
priests ruled over them and controlled the jurisdiction of the magistrate, and the 
zealous proselytes transferred an equal, or more ample measure of devout obedience 
to the pontiffs of the Christian faith. The sacred character of the bishops was 
supported by their temporal possessions ; they obtained an honorable seat in the 
legislative assemblies of soldiers and freemen, and it was their interest as well as 
duty to mollify, by peaceful counsels, the fierce spirit of the barbarians. The 



(*) Gbn. 1:20; 262-3. Mosh. 4:2; 2. 



CHAPTER CXXXVIII. : SECTIONS II. -III. 637 

perpetual correspondence of the Latin clergy, the frequent pilgrimages to Eorae 
and Jerusalem, and the growing authority of the popes, cemented the union of 
the Christian republic and gradually produced the similar manners and common 
jurisprudence of the independent and hostile nations of Europe. ^ The influence 
of the clergy is seen in the part Anianus took in the siege of Orleans, ^ in the case 
of Deogratius who relieved and supported the captives Genseric brought from 
Rome. ^ The power of the clergy to restore, or prevent, the restoration of the 
Roman empire under the Greek head is seen in the establishment of the Frank 
monarchy. 

2. Influence of the Cleegt in the Conquests of Catholic Sovereigns. — 
Under the Roman empire the wealth and jurisdiction of the bishops, their sacred 
character and perpetual office, their numerous dependents, popular eloquence, 
and provincial assemblies had rendered them always respectable, and sometimes 
dangerous. Their influence was now augmented by superstition, and the estab- 
lishment of the Frank monarchy may, in some degree, be ascribed to the firm 
alliance of an hundred prelates who reigned in the discontented or independent 
cities of Gaul. The Franks esteemed the valor of the Armoricans; the Armor- 
icans were reconciled by the religion of the Franks, and they accepted the 
generous capitulation proposed by the Catholic hero, Ciovis, whose armies were 
strenuously supported by the zeal and favor of the Catholic faction against the 
pagans and the Arians, A. D. 479. Gundobald, the Arian monarch of the Bur- 
gundians, was justly alarmed by the satisfaction and hopes which seemed to 
animate his clergy and people after the conversion of Ciovis, and convened, at 
Lyons, an assembly of his bishops to reconcile, if possible, their religious and 
political discontents; but it was to no purpose, and the Catholics sternly required 
his abandonment of Arianism. The bishops were reconciled and flattered with the 
hopes of his conversion, which he artfully suggested, but artfully eluded till his 
death. His son, the Catholic Sigismond, with his wife and two children, were 
buried alive in a deep well by the stern command of the sons of Ciovis, and 
the Arian Burgundians were subdued by the Catholic Franks. The Yis-Goths 
still occupied a part of Gaul, and Ciovis declared it grieved him to see the Arians 
possess the fairest portion of Gaul, and proposed to march against them, with the 
aid of God, and vanquish the heretics and possess their fertile provinces. His 
ostentatious piety confirmed and justified the attachment of the Catholics among 
the Goths, with whom he secretly corresponded. Their devout wishes were grad- 
ually ripened into a formidable conspiracy and their Gothic rulers, who had 
tolerated them in their religion, justly accused them of preferring the dominion of 
the Franks. The sagacious monarch dreaded the rising empire of the Franks, or 
of Ciovis, but he was firmly engaged to support the national and religious cause 
of the Goths. By superstitious signs and pious frauds the Catholic Franks were 
animated and the Arian Yis-Goths were overthrown. ^ (A. D. 507-510.) In A. D. 
536, Justinian yielded to the Franks the sovereignty of the countries beyond the 
Alps and absolved the provincials from their allegiance to the Greek empire, 
and thus the Frank monarchy became the third head of the Monotheistic wild 
beast. ^ In the conquest of the Arian Yandals and Ostrogoths by Justinian's 
armies we have seen the powerful aid given by the Catholics in these govern- 
ments, but new invasions of Arian and pagan barbarians prevented their influence 
from securing the permanency of these conquests in Italy. But when these inva- 
sions of hail, fire, and blood cease, this Catholic attachment and clerical influence 
will turn these fountains and rivers of new citizens into the sea of empire, whether 
for or against the Greek headship. 

3. The Catholic, or Empire, Church Under Five Patriarchs. — The 
clerical power and influence was placed, by Constantine, under four patriarchs 
— of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and of Constantinople. In the fifth century 



(2) Gbn. 1:37] 502-3. (3) 35; 472. (4) 36; 481. (&) Gbn. 1:38; 512-16. Continued, Chap. 143. 



638 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED 

the bishop of Jerusalem assumed that rank, and his title was confirmed by the 
council of Chalcedon. Two of these patriarchs at length usurped authority over 
the rest and fiercely contended with each other for the sole and universal 
supremacy,^ and are sometimes called pontiffs. The patriarch of Constantinople 
assumed this supremacy in A. D. 588,''' but the patriarch of Rome obtained the 
title of universal bishop from the infamous emperor, Phocus, A. D. 606.^ 
Whether this imperial ^rant was of any importance or not, the patriarch of Rome 
did claim the title and did acquire the sole supremacy of the west, which had 
been overrun by the invading barbarians. When the barbarian kings perceived 
the subjection of the multitude to the bishops and the dependence of the 
bishops on the Roman pontiff, they reconciled this ghostly ruler to their interests 
by loading him with benefits and honors of every kind. ^ The popular election of 
the popes endeared them to the Romans ; the public and private indigence was 
relieved by their ample revenue, and the neglect of the Greek emperors 
compelled them to consult, in peace and war, the safety of the city. ^ But the great 
source of the power and influence of the clergy was in the superstitious regard paid 
to their supposed power over the future destiny of persons. The worst of criminals 
could purchase a pardon and a safe passport to Heaven ; and their anathema was 
supposed to blast the most powerful and exalted, in time and in eternity. The 
popes were revered as the Vicegerents of Christ upon earth, and jud^e in 
place of God. ^ The influence of popes is seen in the letter of Gregory II. to 
the Greek emperor, Leo ;^ and the influence of the patriarch of Constantinople 
is displayed in his binding Heraclius by an oath to abide by the fate of the city 
when it was threatened by the Avars and Persians, and the patriarch of Alex- 
andria and the clergy provided the treasures to carry on the war. Had it not 
been for the clergy and their wealth, Justinian had never reconquered Africa 
and Italy, and the empire would have expired A. D. 621.^ 

In later years, A. D. 1282-1320, Athanasius, patriarch of Constantinople, 
before his banishment, excommunicated Emperor Andronicus and left the written 
sentence where it was found during his banishment. The emperor trembled and 
restored the patriarch to his position to obtain a release from the sentence, for 
none but the one who excommunicated could absolve the sentence.^. But up to 
the seventh century the power and influence of the Catholic clergy were united, 
under the five patriarchs, with the Roman empire and under the Greek headship. 
The emperor subscribed the orthodox creed with his own hands and promised 
to obey the decrees of the seven synods and the canons of the holy churchf, and 
the complete restoration of the empire might have been accomplished had not 
the sources and supplies been poisoned with bitter religious strife. All the bar- 
barians would have become vigorous citizens, and Persia would have been 
vanquished in the sixth century, and Mahometism crushed in its infancy. 

4. The power and influence of the clergy and monks over the civil govern- 
ment will be further displayed in the contest about image worship,^ and in 
resistance to the emperor transferring his ecclesiastical prerogatives to the pope. "' 
The bone and muscle of the second beast is fully exhibited in the Monotheistic 
empire under the second, or Greek, headship ; but its greatest strength became 
concentrated in its papal and Mahometan horns. The severest penalty inflicted 
in the kingdom of God upon obstinate, impenitent offenders was exclusion, which 
placed the offender in the same position as publicans and heathen^ and entitled 
them to the same compassion and benevolence. This right was vested in the 
church from the earliest period, and was exercised by each Christian assembly 
upon its respective members. ^ From the time of Constantine the Great, excom- 
munication was in every part of the Christian world attended with many disa- 



(6)Mosh.5:2: 2. §§5, 6. (7) 6:2; 2, § 1. (8) 7:2; 2, § 1. (9) 5:2; 2, §6. (1) Gbn. 2:10; 175. 
(2) Mosh. 6:2; 2, §§ 2, 3. (3) Gbn. 2:10; 176-7. (4) 7; 121. (5) 24; 393. (f) 14; 275. (6) Chap. 
141, §§ 1-4. Chap. 142, §§1.2. (7) Chap. 149, §§ 1, 2. (8) Matt. 18:15-18. 5:43-48. I. Cor., 5:11. 
II. Thes., 3:6, 14, 15. (9j Mosh. 1:2; 3, § 10. 



CHAPTER CXXXVIII. I SECTION V. 639 

greeable effects. Excommunicated persons were considered in all places as objects 
of aversion to God and men. ^ Allien asius excommunicated one of the ministers 
of Egypt, and the interdict of fire and water was solemnly transmitted to the 
churches of Capadocia. Synesius, bishop of Ptolemais, devoted the haughty 
magistrate, Andronicus of Libya, with his associates and their families, to the 
abhorrence of earth and Heaven, and branding them as most pernicious charac- 
ters, deprived them of the name and privileges of Christians, of participation of 
the sacraments and of the hops of Paradise. He exhorts the clergy, the magis- 
trates, and the people to renounce all society with the enemies of Christ, to exclude 
them from their houses and tables, and to refuse them the common offices of life 
and the decent rites of burial. The church of Ptolemais addressed this declaration 
to her sister churches of the world, and the profane who reject her decrees will 
be involved in the guilt and punishment of Andronicus and his impious followers. 
These spiritual terrors were enforced by a dexterous application to the Byzantine 
court, and the trembling president, Andronicus, implored the mercy of the church. ^ 
As power became concentrated in the horns, these spiritual thunderbolts, rendered 
formidable by ignorance, struck terror into the boldest and most resolute hearts. ^ 
Excommunication received the infernal power to dissolve all connections; the 
king, the ruler, the husband, the father, and even the man, forfeited all their rights 
and advantages, the claims of nature, and the privileges of society, ^ besides eternal 
perdition in all its horrors. ^ 

5. When Polytheism was dethroned in the Roman empire a Monotheistic 
hierarchy exhibiting the character and government of wild beasts was ready to 
take the place of the pagan priesthood and enjoy the triumph; but it was divided 
into two horns, or powers, in regard to the existence and manifestation of the 
Divinity. While both contend for the existence and government of but one God, 
the Trinitarians maintained the existence of three persons, or individuals, in the 
Divinity — Father, Son, and Spirit''^ — while the Unitarians rejected the Divinity of 
the Son. The Trinitarians claimed the title Catholic, or universal, church, and 
the Unitarians were called Arians. These two powers contended for supreme 
power and shed each other's blood, as we have seen. Under Theodosius I. the 
Unitarians were condemned as heretics and banished. ^ But by the missionary 
labors of Ulphilus the Goths were converted to Arianism,^ and they converted 
their allies and overturned the western empire of the Catholics, ^ but granted toler- 
ation in Europe, while the Arian Yandals persecuted the Catholics in Africa. 
Again the Arians were conquered by the Greek and Frank Catholics and disappear 
from the empire of the Catholics, ^ and again they rise to power in the person and 
religion of Mahomet, and subdued the east and Africa, and the Unitarian caliph 
and the Trinitarian pope ruled the Monotheistic world for centuries, through an 
image of the first development of the Monotheistic wild beast.* 



(1) Mosh. Cent. 8, p. 2 chap. 2, § 6, note *. (2) Gbn. 1:20; 263. (3) Mosh. 8:2; 2, § 5. (4) 
Idm , § 6, note *. (5) Gbn. 2:11; 205. (6) Chap. 130, § 1. (7) Gbn. 1:27; 374. (8) Mm., 373-5. 
(9) Idm., 503-5. (1) Gbn. 1 :37; 503. (2) Idm., 605-9. (*) Continued, chap. 140. 



CHAPTER CXXXIX. 



MAHOMETANISM AND THE CALIPHS, AND THEIK PROPHETIC 
CHARACTERISTICS. (Continued from Chaps. 62, § 11; 113, § 4.) 

1. Origin Of. — We have already^ decided the bottomless pit to be heathen 
philosophy, which places human notions and conclusions above both revelation 
and tradition, and claims the right to receive, reject, or explain Scripture and 
heathen mythology according to its own judgment. Ammonias Saccas was the 
first professed believer in divine revelation who undertook to open this pit and 
attempt the explanation and consolidation of all religions; but Mahomet either 
usurped the control of this unfathomable source of mist and darkness when he 
formed the Koran to supersede the teachings of the Bible, or he was sent out by 
the influence of this abyss, as its angel or messenger, to destroy Polytheists, Jews, 
and Christians, or force them into a religion compromised from Judaism, Chris- 
tianity, and paganism, of truth and falsehood, virtue and vice, under the control 
of religious and civil despots. The Koran was composed from Jewish and Chris- 
tian writings and traditions, the new Platonic teachings, pagan rites, and false 
communications of oracles or angelic spirits, and the proposition to the nations 
was united reception of this Koran as the supreme rule of faith and practice, or 
tribute, leaving those tributaries to be forced or imperceptibly drawn into acqui- 
escence at a more favorable time, or to be immediately destroyed by the sword 
and other weapons. The same is true of popery, and though distinct and adverse 
religious powers, they belong to the same religious wild beast, and derive their 
pretensions from the same chaotic mixture of Judaism, Christianity, and paganism, 
and popery demands the submission of all, upon the penalty of death, unless 
policy dictates toleration. In the history of Mahomet and Mahometanism we find 
verified the characteristics predicted by John and by Daniel ; the Mahometan 
caliph was king of the Saracen Locusts just as the pope was king of the Latins. 
Mahomet's power did not perish in the decay of the Saracens, but passed over to 
the Turks and penetrated China and India and animated and controlled the 
Moors of Africa, and the pope survived the Frank empire and animated and 
controlled the German. Mahometanism is the eastern horn of Daniel's prophesy, 
and popery is the western horn of the same. 

2. Locality and Extent Of. — Mahometanism sprung up in Mecca and 
Medina'* in the west side of Arabia, and Ptolemy Eurgetes annexed portions of 
Ethiopia and Arabia to his dominions, ^^ and extended his dominion the whole 
length of the Red sea, on both sides. ^ Hence, the origin was in one of the four 
horns, or divisions of Daniel's he goat empire, and may be the little horn grown 
out of one of these four horns. "^ Though the Romans destroyed the political 
power of the Macedonians, yet from the Indus to the Adriatic and from the 
Crimea to the south boundary of Egypt the Greek language prevailed, at least 
among the educated and ruling classes. In Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt the 
infiuence of Hellenic thought continued one thousand years in full force — until 



(3) Chap. 132, §§ 1, 2. (4) Gbn. 2:11; 206. (5) Thai. Anct., p. 218, § 56. (6) Anct. Hist., Vol. 
I. ; p. 201. (7) Dan. 8; 9-12, 20-25. 



CHAPTER CXXXIX.: SECTION III. 641 

Mahomet and his successors set up their new Semitic empire. The wide diffusion 
of the Greek language in western Asia was among the important preparations for 
the spreading of Christianity. ^ Hence, we see Arabian Mahometanism is the 
radical successor of the Greek language and influence in the Egyptian division of 
the Macedonian empire, where it originated. But, according to Daniel, this 
little horn did not restrict its power and influence to the territory of its parent 
horn, but extended to the south and east of Jerusalem and to the land of desire. 
Jerusalem is the royal city of the kingdom of God and was the center of all of 
Daniel's conceptions and contemplation ; and making it our standpoint in the 
history, Mahometism became powerful south to Egypt and along the south coasts 
of the Mediterranean sea and penetrated unknown lengths into Africa, and estab- 
lished its dominion to the seas south of Asia along to India; all the countries east 
of Jerusalem to the Gangees, and from the Black and Caspian seas to the Persian 
gulf, bowed under its yoke ; Asia Minor, and Europe to the Adriatic sea, became 
and remained the head of its power, and though Palestine is the land of desire of 
Scriptures, this last division may, with all propriety, be called the Pleasant Land, 
or Land of Desire. All conquerers desired to possess it. Gibbon says: Their 
country was blessed by nature with every advantage of soil, climate, and situation. ^ 
When Baldwin was made emperor of Constantinople by the crusaders he invited 
the French to colonize in the provinces and promises them a magificent city and 
a fertile land, which would reward the labors of both the priest and the soldier, i 
This left the sea and countries west of Jerusalem and the promised land,* and of 
twenty east longitude to the dominion of the other little horn of Daniel's 
prophecy ; and these two horns grew on a Monotheistic religious wild beast and 
ruled the world. 

3. Exalts Himself. — Mahomet acknowledged the divine origin and authority 
of the Scriptures, but exalted himself above all patriarchs, prophets, and Christ 
Himself. Stars symbolize prominent characters in any sphere, but in what sphere 
must be determined by the subject ; here the subject determines them to denote 
luminaries in the kingdom of God, such as kings, patriarchs, and prophets, or 
apostles, and Christ Himself, is the Prince of the host. Mahomet taught that 
the chain of inspiration was prolonged from the fall of Adam to the promulgation 
of the Koran. During that period some rays of prophetic light had been 
imported to one hundred and twenty-four thousand of the elect, three hundred and 
thirteen apostles were sent to recall their country from idolatry and vice, one 
hundred and four volumns had been dictated by the Holy Spirit, six legislators 
announced to mankind six successive revelations of various rites, but of one 
immutable religion. The authority of Adam, IsToah, Abraham, Moses, Christ, 
and Mahomet rise in just gradation above each other ; but whoever rejects or 
hates any one of the prophets is numbered with the infldels.^ Hence, all reject- 
ing Mahomet are reckoned infidels and doomed to perdition. Of the myriads of 
prophets, Moses and Christ alone lived and reigned. Yerily, Christ Jesus, the 
Son of Mary, is the Apostle of God ; honorable in this world and in the world to 
come, and one of those who approach near the presence of God. The piety of 
Moses and of Christ rejoiced in the assurance of a future prophet more illustrious 
than themselves ; and the promise of the paraclete, or comforter, or Holy Ghost, 
was prefigured in the name and accomplished in the person of Mahomet, the 
greatest and last of the apostles of God. ^ Accompanied by Gabriel, he ascended 
through the seven heavens, received and returned the salutations of the patriarchs, 
prophets, and angels in their respective mansions. Beyond the seventh Heaven 
Mahomet alone was permitted to proceed ; he passed the veil of unity and 
approached within two bowshots of the throne of God, and his shoulder was 
touched by the hand of God. ^ The faith under the name of Islam, preached to 
his family and nation, is compounded of one eternal truth — that there is only one 

(8) Thai. Anct., p. 209, § 27. (9) Gbn. 2:14; 269. (1) 22: 371. (*) Ps. 106:24. Jer. 3:19. Ezek. 
20:15. Zech. 7:14. (2) 11; 202. (3) Gbn. 2:11; 203. 
—41 



642 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

God — and one eternal lie, or fiction, that Mahomet is the apostle of God.* 
Thus, Mahomet usurped the prerogatives of Christ, the Prince of princes, or of 
the Host of Heaven, and cast down to an inferior position, or rank, inspired 
patriarchs, kings, and prophets, and trod upon them. But if this can not be 
reckoned as casting down and trampling on the host, or stars of Heaven, the 
conquering of kings and prelates and their subjugation must be. He exalted 
himself against the Prince when he undertook to supersede by force the Chris- 
tian religion and crushed the ministers of it. He acknowledged God to be 
supreme and exalts himself above all but Him, and disputes the honors, and 
power, and universal kingdom with the Son of God. The pope acknowledges 
the divine mission of the patriarchs and prophets, but supersedes them by making 
himself the vicar of Christ and a god on earth, and exalts himself above Christ 
when he professes to create God in consecrating the wafer, ^ This usurpation is 
not so openly avowed in popery as in Mahometanism, yet they are evidently 
different horns of the same beast. Though the appearance of Mahomet was 
sudden, yet his system of religion had been maturing since the time of Ammoneus 
Saccas of the third century; and though the rebellion and usurpations of the 
pope were sudden, yet his principles and power had been progressing during the 
same time. They are twin brothers, and gave unity and animation to the 
political heads of the Monotheistic antagonism to the kingdom of God. 

4. Doctrine. — Mahomet certainly trampled on the host, or stars of 
Heaven, when he acknowledged the inspiration of their writings and yet degraded 
them to a level with apocraphal writings and legends, and superseded them with 
the Koran. He accused the Jews and Christians with corrupting the inspired 
records till no dependence can be placed on the copies in their possession. The 
materials of the Koran are wholly borrowed from the Jewish and Christian 
Scriptures, the Talmudical legends, the apocryphal gospels then current in the 
east, and from traditions and fables of Persian and Arabian mythology. ^ This 
new Platonic philosophy had been used by Jewish and Christian teachers in 
perverting, corrupting, and obscuring Christianity and Scripture truths, and they 
taught these pernicious theories, rites, and practices ; but Mahomet was com- 
missioned to enforce his. Among other doctrines out of this source, he borrowed 
the Unitarian idea of the Arians and denied the divinity of Christ, and taught 
that He was a mere mortal, and at the day of judgment His testimony will condemn 
the Jews who reject Him as a prophet, and the Christians who adore Him as the 
Son of God. Another of these heretical doctrines which he adopted was: That 
Christ did not suffer but ascended to Heaven, while a phantom, or a criminal, 
was substituted on the cross. ^ The doctrine of the eternal decrees and absolute 
predestination was strictly embraced by the Mahometans, and under the belief 
they could not be killed before the decreed time they were bold and fought with 
desperation. Though they destroyed idolatry, they retained and kissed the black 
stone, or caaba, which their ancesters worshipped. ^ Prayer will bring them 
half way to God ; fasting will bring them to the door of His palace, and alms will 
gain them admittance.^ Their notions of Heaven and hell are compounded of 
the facts of reward and punishments, adorned or mutilated with fictions calcu- 
lated to induce lasciviousness and fidelity to Mahometanism ; the hopes and 
terrors of the future state are carefully inculcated and presented, and constitute 
the secret source of Mahometan power over princes and people ; the lowest 
hell is reserved for hypocrits and apostates, and the highest Heaven for genuine 
Mahometans. Popery acknowledges all the Scriptures, adopts apocryphal 
writings, borrows and invents traditions, legends, and fables, and supersedes the 
Divine authority by claiming infallibility and to be the vicar of Christ, and derives 
his power over princes and people from his supposed power over the gates of 
Heaven and hell. 



(4) Idm., p. 201. (5) Dow., bk 4, chap. 2, § 23. (6) Encp. R. K., Koran, and Mohammedan 
Will., p. 246. (7) Gbn. 2:11; 202. (S) Idm., 198 and 204. (9) Idm. 



CHAPTER CXXXIX. : SECTION V. 64S 

5. Chaeaoter. — This little horn had a fierce countenance, though at first it 
appeared like the horn of a lamb. Conscious of his reason and his weakness, he 
asserted the liberty of conscience and disclaimed the use of religious violence, but 
called the Arabs to repentance. ^ But the prophet of Medina assumed, in his 
new revelations, a fiercer and more sanguinary tone. He was now commanded 
to propagate his religion by the sword, to destroy the monuments of idolatry, 
and, without regard to the sanctity of days or months, to pursue the unbelieving 
nations of the earth. ^ The sword, says Mahomet, is the king of Heaven and 
of hell. A drop of blood shed in the cause of God, a night spent in arms, is of 
more avail than two months of fasting and prayer. Whoever falls in battle, his 
sins are forgiven, and at the day of judgment his wounds shall be resplendent as 
vermilion and as odiferous as musk, and the loss of his limbs shall be supplied 
with the wings of angels. ^ Abu Obeidah addressed the customary summons to 
Jerusalem, after investing it : Health and happiness to everyone that follows the 
right way. We require of you to testify that there is but one God; that 
Mahomet is His apostle. If ye refuse this, consent to pay tribute and be under 
us forthwith ; otherwise, I shall bring men against you who love death better 
than you do drinking wine or eating hogs' flesh. I^Jor will I ever stir from you, 
if it please God, till I have destroyed those who fight for you and have made 
slaves of your children. ^ When the imperial army ofi'ered to purchase a peace, 
Calid answered : Ye Christian dogs, ye know your option : the Koran ! the 
tribute ! or the sword ! We delight in war more than in peace ; we despise your 
pitiful alms and shall speedily be masters of your wealth, your families, and your 
persons.^ The pope is even more intolerant to those refusing his authority, and 
promises plenary indulgence and the possession of Paradise to those fighting or 
falling in his cause and those going on his crusades. Daniel gives the character 
and origin of both the Mahometan and papal horns, while John gives the char- 
acter of the second beast in its relation to the first beast, the image of which it 
animated and controlled, and so used its horns, while its own appeared as harm- 
less as the horns of a lamb and used only for the salvation and welfare of people. 
John savs the surname of Mahometanism is, in both the Hebrew and Greek 
languages. Destroyer; and Daniel says he destroys both the mighty and the holy 
people. ^ John says that the Saracen locusts were forbidden to injure those 
having the distinguishing marks of the servants of the Living God. But the 
Saracen was only the first power used by Mahometanism in becoming great, and 
they were superseded by the Turks, who were not thus restricted by the caliph or 
by policy. Daniel says : The horn became mighty, not by his own power or by 
his preaching and doctrine. The sword of the Saracens first made Mahomet- 
anism formidable, and the Turkish sultans becoming the temporal vicars of the 
caliphs, consummated its power ; and though the Saracens may not have destroyed 
the sealed ones, the Turks did, and not a society of them or a true church of 
Christ could be found in their empire. And if the phrase, holy ones, or term, 
saints, is used in Daniel as it was applied to Israel, it denotes professed Chris- 
tians ; and they were destroyed in prodigious multitudes by Saracens and Turks, 
and so were the mighty Greek-Romans, the Persians, Hindoos, Africans, and 
Gothic Spaniards. Beside the slaughter in the field of thousands, part of 
Damascus was taken by assault. No quarter ! cried the rapacious and bloody 
Calid to the enemies of the Lord ! His trumpet sounded, and a torrent of 
blood poured down the streets of Damascus. Following those of the other 
quarter, who had left the city by capitulation with Abu Obeidah, Calid and Derar, 
with their cavalry, rushed upon the fugitives and believed that of either sex but 
one escaped. ^ Having conquered Africa westward to the sea, Akbah was checked 
by the prospect of a boundless ocean. He spurred his horse into the waves and 
exclaimed : Great God ! if my course were not stopped by this sea, I would still 

(l)Gbn. 2:11; 206. (2) Mm., 208. (3) Gbn. 2:12; 231. (4) Idm., 227. (5) Dan. 8:24. (6) 
&bn. 2:12; 227-8. 



644: THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

go on to the unknown kingdoms of the west, preaching the unity of Thy holy 
name and putting to the sword the rebelKous nations who worship every other 
god but Thee. '' But we shall see more of these slaughters, plunderings, enslave- 
ments, destructions, decays, and desolations by Saracens and Turks. 

He made craft to prosper, or by craft he succeeded in establishing his authority 
as a prophet and the apostle of God. The frankness of his manner concealed the 
artifice of his views. ^ This horn was little at first, and appeared like a lamb's; 
but it grew to the stars, and refusal to submit to its mandates, found it of a fierce 
countenance, as his history shows. But it was artful. When pressed for proof 
by miracle of his mission, he involves himself in the obscure boast of prophecy 
and visions, appeals to the internal proofs of his doctrine, and shields himself 
behind the Providence of God, who refuses these signs and wonders that would 
depreciate the merits of faith and aggravate the guilt of infidelity. But his 
followers claim miracles for him. ^ His friends united in his fraud. His wife, 
Cadijah, believed the words and cherished the glory of her husband; his servant, 
Zeid, was tempted by the prospect of freedom ; the illustrious Ali embraced the 
sentiments of his cousin with the spirit of a youthful hero ; the wealth, the mod- 
eration, and the veracity of Abubeker confirmed the prophet he was destined to 
succeed. ^ The voice of Mahomet invited the Arabs to freedom and to victory, 
to arms and rapine, to the indulgence of their darling passions in this world and 
the other, and the restraints he imposed were only those requisite to establish the 
credit of the prophet and the obedience of the people. ^ His promised reward to 
his followers was Paradise, and he coupled his disciples of opposite creeds and 
interests by the ties of brethren. ^ His paradise was a place of sensual pleasures, 
craftily pictured to ensnare and captivate the worst and most desperate and most 
licentious characters. ^ Thus, the gratification of animal propensities in lascivious- 
ness, wealth, and luxury, both in victory and death, were artfully and successfully 
presented to induce followers and incite them to daring actions. The use of fraud 
and perfidy, of cruelty and injustice, were often subservient to the propagation of 
this faith. ^ The establishing of himself as a prophet sent by God, and his Koran 
as the transcript of documents sent down to him from Heaven, was a great, 
incredible, and successful craft, or fraud. 

This little horn pretended to understand dark sentences, or obscure mysteries. ^ 
The materials of the Koran are borrowed from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, 
Talmudical legends, and apochraphal Gospels then current in the east, and from 
the traditions and fables of Arabia."^ Mahomet professed to give a clear, full, 
and physical description of Paradise and hell, and claimed to reveal as truth what 
could only be regarded as dark, incomprehensible fables or idle fictions, ^ and 
caused them to be received throughout the world as divine truths. The Koran 
itself is believed to be a transcript from the preserved table by God's throne, in 
which are recorded the divine decrees, past and future, revealed by Gabriel to 
Mahomet as the exigency of aff'airs required. ^ 

The time of his development had come; ^ for transgressors had filled up their 
rebellions against God and His Son. ^fhe Jews had utterly rejected Christ and 
persecuted His cause and name when and wherever they had the opportunity and 
power ; the empire, or Catholic, churches had persecuted every true church of 
Christ, perverted the very design of Christianity, obscured its teachings, rites, and 
duties, restored Polytheism in a new form, and disgraced the name of God and 
His Anointed by their ungodly characters and cruel and wicked practices. 

He took away the daily, and cast down the very place of God's sanctuary. ^ 
Jerusalem surrendered to the caliph, Omar, under a treaty. After signing the 
capitulation Omar entered the city, and by his command the ground of the Temple 
of Solomon was prepared for the mosque of Omar. The patriarch, Sophronius, 



(7) Idm., 240. (8) 11; 200. (9) Gbn., Vol. II., chap 11, p. 203. (1) Idm , 206. (2) 219. (3) 
207. (4) 205. (5) 213. (6) Dan 8. (7j Encp. R. K., Koran. (8) Gbn. 2:11; 102-8. (9) Encp. 
R. K , Koran. (1) Dan. 8. (2) 8:14. 



CHAPTEB CXXXIX. : SECTION V. 645 

bowed before his new master and secretly muttered in the words of Daniel: The 
abomination of desolation is in the holy place. ^ (A. D. 637). From that day to 
this the daily worship of Jews and Christians on the Holy Mount has been super- 
seded by the religion of Mahomet, excepting a short time during the crusades, 
when popery held and tyrannized over that sacred place. Mahometanism became 
the established religion of the Holy City of God, and Mount Zion became the 
throne of the Man of Sin, who, in the person of caliph or pope, has sat in the 
Palace of Jehovah, claiming all the prerogatives of God. This is true both literally 
and hguratively. The mosque has superseded the temple, and the caliph and the 
pope have possessed the mosque and dictated a false religion to the people of 
Jehovah and disciples of Jesus Christ, and the holy city has literally and figura- 
tively been possessed and trodden under foot by their nations and religions to this 
day, and both pious Jews and true Christians could not worship in Jerusalem 
without paying tribute. They are fined for their religion — the true religion. The 
daily worship of the Jews had been taken away by Antiochus, and the abomina- 
tion that had desolated Jerusalem was set up for three years. Again, the Romans, 
under Titus, destroyed the temple, stopped the daily worship, and dispersed the 
Jews; but soon Jews and Christians could worship again on Mount Zion and on 
the area of the temple. Again, Adrian dispersed the Jews, under pain of death 
if they returned to Jerusalem ; but Christian Jews, abandoning the rites of Moses, 
could still worship in Jerusalem and visit the area of the temple with devout 
reverence, and pray to Jehovah, the God of their fathers. Juhan attempted to 
rebuild the temple for the Jews, but failed. Still, that venerated spot was accessible 
to the devout worshipers, with some interruptions, till A. D. 637, when Omar, 
caliph, consecrated it for the mosque bearing his name, which at this date (A. D. 
1877) excludes, and has excluded, all the true children of God from daily or occa- 
sional worship. From A. D. 637 the holy city has been trodden and governed 
by the enemies of God, Christ, truth, and purity, and the true Sons of Oil must 
pay tribute, and if they witness must be killed. Jerusalem shall be trodden under 
foot by the nations till the time of the nations be fulfilled, and one thousand two 
hundred and sixty years from some noted time is the city to be thus trodden; and 
here is a noted time. A false prophet has taken possession of the city and Mount 
Zion, and has built his palace on the area of the Temple of Jehovah Jesus. The 
mosque was built A. D. 686-693, but the daily was taken away to set up this 
abomination and national religion A. D. 637, and one thousand two hundred and 
sixty years will bring us to A. D. 1897. But this Mahometan power, or religion, 
shall he broken without hands ;4 even now this religion sits lightly on the Arabs. 
This little horn is king of the locust and shall destroy many by peace. ^ The 
increasing myriads who acknowledged Mahomet as their king and prophet had 
been compelled by his arms or allured by his promises; the Polytheists were 
confounded by the simple idea of a solitary and invisible god ; the pride of the 
Christians and Jews disdained the yoke of a mortal and contemporary legislator. 
Their habits of faith and obedience were not sufficiently confirmed, and many of 
the new converts regretted the venerable antiquity of the law of Moses, or the 
rites and mysteries of the Catholic church, or the idols, the sacrifices, and festivals 
of their pagan ancesters. ^ One of the conditions of peace was the payment of 
tribute, which might be called the tail policy of the Saracens. This tribute might 
become oppressive, and by infi.uences on the youth many became Mahometans, 
were enslaved, or killed. Within fifty years after the expulsion of the Greeks a 
lieutenant of Africa informed the caliph that the tribute of the infidels was 
abolished by their conversion, and this pretense was founded on the rapid and 
extensive spread of the Mahometan faith, A. D. 749. In A. D. 837 a mission of 
five bishops of the Jacobites of Alexandria to Cairoan to revive the dying embers 
of Christianity, implies the dissolution of the African hierarchy. In A. D. 1053 
1076, the priest seated on the ruins of Carthage implored the alms and protectio 

(3)Gbn. 2:12; 231. (4) Dan. 8:25. (5) Rev. 9:11. Dan. 8:25. (6) Gbn. 2:12; 220. 



646 TflE KINGDOM OJ GOD DEVELOPED. 

of the Vatican, and his naked body had been scourged by the Saracens, and three 
bishops could not be found to consecrate a brother. In Spain, A. D. 1149, the 
Christians of Africa and Spain had long since submitted to circumcision and 
the abstinance from wine and pork, and the name of adopted Arabs was applied 
to their civil conformity, and the long province from Tripoli to the Atlantic has 
lost all memory of the language and religion of Rome. "' In Sicily the religion 
and language of the Greeks were eradicated, and such was the docility of the 
rising generation that fifteen thousand boys were circumcised and cloathed on the 
same day with the son of the Fatimite caliph. *^ As all could have peace by 
becoming Mahometans, those reduced to slavery could be elevated to free citizens 
by embracing the Koran, and those subject to tribute could be relieved. No doubt 
multitudes of Jews and Christians were thus destroyed from their faith, and others, 
exhausted by tribute and slavery, died in poverty. But after Mahometan victory 
was completed by the Turks, their whole policy reduced many to poverty, ignor- 
ance, and destruction. Of the Turk dwelling beyond the Oxus and Jaxartas, 
the robust youth, either taken in war or purchased in trade, were educated in the 
exercises of the field and the profession of the Mahometan faith, ^ and thus the 
children of those enslaved would be educated to Mahometanism. 

In the field, the forfeited lives of the prisoners were redeemed by the pro- 
fession of Islam; the females were bound to embrace the religion of their masters, 
and a race of sincere proselytes was gradually multiplied by the education of the 
Infant captives. But the millions of Asiatic and African converts who swelled 
the native band of the faithful Arabs must have been allured rather than con- 
strained to become Mahometans. By this change the subject, the slave, the 
captive, or the criminal, arose in a moment to be the free and equal companion 
of the victorious Moslem. ^ In the east, more especially, a prodigious number 
of Christian families embraced the religion of their conquerors ; many refused 
compliance in the face of persecution, but such were gradually reduced to a 
miserable condition, robbed of the best part of their wealth, and deprived of 
their worldly advantages ; they fell by degrees into deplorable ignorance and 
stupidity. ^ 

Three years were spent in the conversion of fourteen persons ; in seven years 
his proselytes numbered over one hundred. He asserted the liberty of conscience, 
disclaiined the use of religious violence, but called the Arabs to repentance A. D. 
609-622. But he soon found it expedient to annex civil sovereignty to his 
apostolic mission and wed the sword with the Koran. ^ But an independent civil 
government did not suit his purpose. It must be only an image of sovereignty, 
animated and controlled by a prophet for the service of his religion. A vizer, 
or lieutenant, may command the army, but the caliph must animate and control 
the empire. The civil sovereignty must be in subordination to the religious 
despot; but, armed with the sword and at the head of a faithful army, he may 
hold the caliph in awe and subjection, while the caliph, possessing the awe and 
veneration of the people, may excommunicate the sovereign, deprive him of 
paradise, incite rebellion against him, and instigate his assassination. The sov- 
ereigns and the caliphs have often had it rough and tumble for the supremacy, 
but Mahometanism teaches sovereigns that they are only the lieutenants of the 
vicar of the apostle and prophet of God. (Continued in Chap. 141; 4-15.) 



(7) Gbn. 2:12; 247-8. (8) 13; 260. (9) 263. (1) 12; 246. (2) Mosh. 9il; 2, § 1. (3) Gbn. 
2:11; 206-9. 



CHAPTER CXL. 



tHE PAPAL HORK A. M. M55-4732. A. D. 451-728. 
(Continued from Chap. 138.) 

1. Patriarchs of Constantinople and Rome Contend for Supremacy. — - 
The disputes about preeminence so long subsisting between the patriarchs of 
Constantinople and Rome proceeded in the seventh century to such violent 
lengths as laid the foundation of that schism which afterward separated the Greek 
and Latin churches. In the twenty-eighth canon of the council of Chalcedon, 
A. D. 451, the same rights and honors conferred on the patriarch of Rome were 
conferred on the patriarch of Constantinople. Leo the Great, patriarch of Rome, 
opposed this with vehemence, but the emperors threw their weight into the 
balance and confirmed the decree. In consequence of these decrees the patriarch 
of Constantinople contended obstinately for the supremacy with the Roman 
pontiff and to crush the patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria. ^ The patriarchs 
of Antioch and Alexandria, unable to prevail against him, often appealed to the 
patriarch, or pontiff, of Rome for succor, and the inferior order of bishops did the 
same when their rights were invaded by these same prelates, or patriarchs. So, 
by taking all these prelates alternately under his protection, the patriarch of Rome 
added influence and authority to his see and imperceptibly established his 
supremacy, and the declining power and influence of the emperors in the west 
left the authority of the bishop who presided in imperial Rome almost without 
control. ^ 

The patriarch of Constantinople claimed unrivaled sovereignty over the 
eastern churches and claimed equal dignity with the patriarch of Rome. In 
A. D. 588, Patriarch John, of Constantinople, by his own authority, assembled a 
council at Constantinople on the case of Peter, patriarch of Antioch, and on that 
occasion assumed the title of universal bishop. Gregory, pontiff of Rome, 
opposed with vehemence the pontiff of Constantinople, raised new tumults and 
dissensions among the sacred order, and aimed at no less than an unlimited 
supremacy over the churches. Eunnodius maintained that the Roman pontiff 
was constituted judge in place of God, which he filled as the vicegerent of the 
Most High. But the Gothic princes set bounds to his power in Italy; permitted 
none to be raised to the pontificate without their approbation; summoned councils 
and enacted spiritual laws, and the Roman pontiffs had still to respect the 
majesty of their kings and emperors and to submit to their authority. ^ As the 
inflaence of the emperor had inclined the balance in the council of Chalcedon in 
favor of Constantinople, so the Roman pontiff, Boniface III., engaged Phocas — 
that loathsome and cruel tyrant — to transfer the title, universal bishop, from the 
patriarch of Constantinople to himself,*^ and the circumstances were the most 
favorable for the purpose. When John of Constantinople had assumed that title, 
Gregory of Rome wrote to the Emperor Maurice to humble John, but without 
effect, s Maurice was assassinated by the cruel, ignorant, and infamous Phocas. 
Gregory wrote to the assassin, eulogizing his treason and murder, gives glory to 
God for the crime, and flatters the vilest of wretches as the pious messenger of 
God. 9 Though the clergy of Constantinople appeared to have acquiesced in the 



(4) Mosh. 5:2; 2, § 1. (5) Idm., § 6. (6) Mosh. 6:2; 2, §§ 1, 2. (7) 7:2; 2, § 1. (8) Dowl, 
bk, 1 , chap. 5, § 25, p. 54. (9) Dowl. 1 :6; 32, 61. 



64:8 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED* 

usurpation, yet the guilty conscience of Phocas must have convinced him that he 
was abhorred by all good citizens, as well as by the clergy and the patriarch, 
who gave the sanctuary protection to the wife and children of Maurice, ^ and he 
was prepared to degrade the witnesses of his crimes and advance the remote flat- 
terers of his success. So, Boniface III. obtained the sole title of universal bishop 
and the church of Rome was made the head of all other churches. ^ How much 
this grant was worth I do not know, but suppose it was never respected by the 
Greeks, for Heraclius avenged the death of Alaurice and delivered the empire 
from the odious tyrant. But when the popes obtained the power this grant served 
as a pretext to use it. Of much more importance was the influence, the states- 
manship, and the beneficence of the popes, or patriarchs, themselves. 

Leo. I. visited Attila at his camp and obtained the safety of Rome, ^ A. D. 
452-3, and again his authority and eloquence obtained from Genseric the promise 
to spare the unresisting multitude.* (A. D. 455.) The statesmanship of Leo 
lY. saved Rome from the Saracens^ A. D. 849. Gregory L, notwithstanding 
his unchristian character and inexcusable flattery of Phocas and sanction of his 
crimes, was a great statesman, and raised Rome out of her ruins and started her 
once more to become mistress of the world. (A. D. 590-604.) Rome had 
reached the lowest period of her depression about the close of the sixth century. 
By the removal of the seat of empire and the loss of provinces the sources of 
public and private opulence were exhausted. They shut and opened their gates 
with a trembling hand, and beheld from the walls the flames of their houses and 
heard the lamentations of their brethren, who were coupled together like dogs 
and dragged away into distant slavery beyond the sea and the mountains. A 
stranger contemplated with horror the vacancy and solitude of the city, and 
might ask: Where is the senate ? and where are the people ? Yet the number of 
the citizens exceeded the measure of subsistence. The nobles and matrons of 
Rome accepted without a blush the benevolence of the church. Gregory was of 
noble and pious parents and relations, and his birth and abilities had raised him 
to the ofiice of prefect of the city; but he renounced all, and with his ample 
patrimony he founded one monastery in Rome and six in Italy. When a deacon, 
as nuncio of the pontifi', he demanded, in the name of St. Peter, the interposition 
of the Emperor Maurice to deliver Rome from the Lombards. In the pontificate 
he was bi^iop, or patriarch, of Rome, primate of Italy, and apostle of the west. 
He was pathetic and eloquent in the pulpit. The bishops of Italy and adjacent 
islands acknowledged the Roman pontifi" as their special metropolitan. Even the 
existence, union, or translations of Episcopal seats was decided by his absolute 
discretion, and his inroads into the provinces of Greece, Spain, and Gaul might 
countenance the more lofty pretentions of succeeding popes. Under his reign 
the Arians of Italy and Spain were reconciled to the Catholic church. He con- 
quered Britain with an army of forty monks, and in two years baptized the king 
of Kent and ten thousand of his Anglo-Saxons. His temporal power arose from 
the calamities of the times. The church of Rome was endowed with ample pos- 
sessions in Italy, Sicily, and more distant provinces, and her agents, commonly 
sub-deacons, had acquired a civil and even a criminal jurisdiction over their 
tenants and husbandmen, and Gregory administered this patrimony of St. Peter 
with the temper of a vigilant and moderate landlord and a faithful stuart of the 
church and the poor. On the first of every month he distributed to the poor, 
according to the season, their stated portion of provisions, clothes, and money. 
The misfortunes of Rome involved him in the business of peace and war, whether 
piety or ambition prompted him to supply the place of his absent sovereign. 
Gregory awakened the emperor from a long slumber, exposed the guilt and 
incapacity of the exarch and his inferior ministers, encouraged the Italians to 



(1) Gbn. 2:7; 118. (2) Mosh. 7:2; 2, § 1. Dowl. 1:5; 25, 55. (3) Gbn., Vol. I., chap. 35, 
). 476-7. (4) 36; 480. (5) 2:13; 261. 



CHAPTER CXL. : SECTION 11. ^4:9 

guard their cities and altars, and in the crisis of danger he named the tribunes 
and directed the operations of the provincial troops. He preferred peace, and 
his mediation appeased the tumult of arms ; but, disappointed in the hope of a 
general and lasting treaty, he presumed to save his country without the consent* 
of the emperor or his exarch in Kavenna. The sword of the enemy was sus- 
pended over Rome ! It was averted by the mild eloquence and seasonable gifts 
of the pontiff, who commanded the respect of the heretics and barbarians, and in 
the attachment of a greatful people he found the purest reward of a citizen and 
the best rights of a sovereign. ^ He was a statesman, a patriot, and as good a 
Christian and head of the church as any of the emperors, and better than 
Mahomet, like whom he possessed civil power under the garb of a prophet, and 
commanded the emperor Maurice in the name of St. Peter. 

2. The Papal Horn, Consummated A. M. 4610-4732.— Boniface IH. obtained 
the title of Universal Bishop, but his pretentions were rejected by several emperors, 
princes, and whole nations. The Emperor Pogonatus did remit the sum which 
the bishops of Pome had been accustomed to pay into the treasury before his 
election could be confirmed. "^ The popes exempted the monks from the jurisdic- 
tion of the bishops, and they in turn devoted themselves to the interest of the 
pope, and represented him to the ignorant multitude as a God. ^ But Emperor 
Constans banished Pope Martin for treating the imperial laws with contempt, and 
the order was executed by the exarch of Ravenna ; this caused the popes to be 
more circumspect to the emperors.^ The eastern empire had fallen in the eighth 
century from its former strength and grandeur through the repeated shocks of 
dreadful revolutions and the consuming power of intestine calamities. The throne 
was become the seat of terror, inquietude, and suspicion ; nor was any reign 
attended with an uninterrupted tranquility. In this eighth century three emperors 
were dethroned, loaded with ignominy, and sent into banishment. Under Leo, 
the Isaurian, and his son, arose that fatal controversy about the worship of 
images, which weakened the empire ^ and occasioned the revolt of Italy. A ques- 
tion of popular superstition produced the revolt of Italy, the temporal power of 
the popes, and the restoration of the Roman empire of the west. The primitive 
Christians were possessed with an unconquerable repugnance to the use and abuse 
of images ; the use and worship of images was firmly established by custom, but 
not by law, before the end of the sixth century \^ but they were opposed in the 
eighth century by the murmurs of many simple, or rational. Christians, who 
appealed to the evidence of facts, texts of Scripture, and primitive times, and 
secretly desired the reformation of the church. The splendid devotion was fondly 
cherished by the levity of the capital and the inventive genius of the Byzantine 
clergy, while the rude and remote districts of Asia were strangers to this innova- 
tion of sacred luxury. The Emperor Leo III. was from the Isaurian mountains, 
and his education, reason, and perhaps intercourse with the Jews and Arabs, had 
inspired the martial peasant with a hatred of images. ^ Leo assembled a great 
council of senators and bishops, and enacted a decree for the removal of images 
in the churches. By an edict he proscribed the existence and use of religious 
pictures, and the churches of Constantinople and of the provinces were cleansed 
from idolatry. Six emperors supported this anti-image reformation, and the east 
was involved in a noisy conflict till the time of Theophilus and Theodora (A. D. 
726-846). 

The east abjured with reluctance the sacred images for a time, but they were 
fondly cherished' and vigorously defended by the independent zeal of the Italians. 
The Greek prelate was under the eye of the emperor, who now prevailed over 
the ecclesiastic influence ; but a distant and dangerous station amidst the barbarians 
of the west excited the spirit of freedom in the popes and Latin bishops, and in 



(6) Gbn. 2:6; 107-9. (7) Mosh. Cent. 7, pt. 2, chap. 2, § 2. (8) Mosh. 7:2; 2, § 3. (9) 5, 
7,8. {l)Mosh. 8:1; 2, § 1. (2) Gbn. 2:10; 172. (3)174. 



650 l-HE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the school of adversity the priest insensibly imbibed the virtues and ambition of 
a prince, and after the loss of her legions and provinces the genius and fortunes 
of the popes restored the supremacy of Rome. * Pope Gregory II. wrote an inde- 
pendent and insulting epistle to the Emperor Leo ; asserts the use of images from 
apostolic times ; asserts them to be the true likenesses of Christ, Mary, and the 
saints; asserts councils to be useful only under an orthodox prince, and recom- 
mends Leo to be at peace, silence, and implicit obedience to his spiritual guides 
of Constantinople and Rome. To the civil magistrate Gregory assigns the sword 
of justice ; to the clergy the more formidable weapon of excommunication, and a 
zealous son will not spare his offending father, and the pope may lawfully chas- 
tise the kings of the earth. After some arrogant talk, Gregory asserted a historical 
truth : The popes are the bond of union and the mediators of peace between the 
east and west : the eyes of the nations are fixed on our humility, and they revere, 
as a God upon earth, the Apostolic St. Peter, whose image you threaten to destroy ; 
the remote and interior kingdoms of the west present their homage to Christ and 
His vicegerent, and we now prepare to visit one of their most powerful monarchs, 
who desires to receive from our hands the sacrament of baptism. The barbarians 
have submitted to the yoke of the Gospel, while you alone are deaf to the voice 
of the Shepherd. The pious barbarians are kindled into a rage ; they thirst to 
avenge the persecution of the east. Abandon your rash and fatal enterprise! 
Reflect ! Tremble, and repent ! If you persist, we are innocent of the blood 
that will be spilled in the contest; may it fall on your own head. ^ Without 
depending on prayer or miracles, Gregory boldly armed against the emperor, and 
his pastoral letters admonished the Italians of their danger and duty. At this 
signal Ravenna and Venice, the cities of the exarchate and pentapolis, adhered to 
the cause of religion, and the spirit of patriotism and zeal was transfused into the 
mercenary strangers. The Italians swore to live and die in the defense of the 
pope and the holy images ; the Romans were devoted to their father, and the 
Lombards were ambitious to share in the holy war. The Greeks were overthrown 
and massacred; their leaders suffered an ignominious death, and the pope refused 
to intercede for these guilty victims. After some more obstinate battles, which 
deeply infected the waters with blood, the pope and images were triumphant. 
But the exarch was permitted to dwell in Ravenna as the minister of the empire 
and governor of Rome and Italy till the coronation of Charlemange^ (A. D. 800). 
The pope chose the sovereign of the west, and crowned Charles the Great, or the 
First. He acknowledged the emperor of the east till he saw proper to have an 
empire and emperor of his own. (Continued, Chap. 142.) 



(4)Gbn. 2:10; 175. (2) Gbn. 2:10; 176-7. (3)177-8. 



Period Nineteenth. A. M. 4600-5056. 

Third Seal; or, Black Horse Period. A. M. 4632-5056. 

CHAPTER CXLI. 



THE FIFTH TEUMPET. 

1. Heathen Philosopt. (Continued from Chap. 132.) — The credit of the 
Platonic philosophy did not prevent the doctrine of Aristotle from coming to 
light and forcing its way into the Christian churches. The Christian doctors 
imitated the heathen schools in theological discussions. When Origen was 
anathematized by Justinian and his council, to avoid his fate, many adopted the 
philosophy of Aristotle. The JSTestorian, Arian, and Eutychian controversies were 
managed on both sides by recourse to subtle distinctions and captious sophisms, 
for which it was adapted. Besides, the Pelagian doctrine bore a striking resem- 
blance of the Platonic opinions concerning God and the human soul, and for this 
reason many deserted the Platonic and assumed the name of Peripatetics. ^ The 
doctors of the famous school of Edessa not only instructed the youth in the 
Nestorian tenets, but translated into the Syriac language the books of ITestorius 
and his master, Theodoras of Mopsuestia, and the writings of Diodorus of Tarsus, 
and spread them abroad throughout Assyria and Persia;^ and it was from the 
depths of this Peripatetical wisdom that the Monophysites and Nestorians drew 
the subtilities to overwhelm their opponants. Both the Nestorians and the Mono- 
physites turned to Aristotle and translated his principal books into their native 
language of Syria and Persia. ^ It was thus that most of the Christian doctors 
disputed against the Nestorians, the Eutychians, and Pelagians with the weapons 
of reason and argument, and these metaphysical divines were called schoolmen 
and their writings schoolastic divinity. ^ The effects of this was confusion, con- 
tention, and the loss of the pure teachings of the Scriptures and the simplicity 
of Christianity in mystic labyrinths. ^ 

Controversies multiplied in the fifth century throughout the Christian world 
concerning the person and nature of Christ, the innate corruption and depravity 
of man, the natural ability of men to live according to the dictates of the Divine 
law, the necessity of divine grace in order to salvation, the existence and nature 
of human liberty, and such other intricate and perplexing questions. The sacred 
venerable simplicity of primitive times which required no more than a true faith 
in the word of God and a sincere obedience to His holy laws, appeared little 
better than rusticity and ignorance to the subtle doctors of this quibbling age. 
Instead of leading men into the paths of humble faith and genuine piety they 
bewildered them in labyrinths of controversy and contention, and rather darkened 
than illustrated the sacred mysteries of religion by a thick cloud of unintelligible 
subtilities, ambiguous terms, and obscure distinctions. Hence, arose new matters 
of animosities and disputes of bigotry and uncharitableness which flowed like a 



(5) Mosh. 5:2; 1, § 6. (6) Mm., 5, § 10, (7) 6:2; 1, §§ 4, 5. (8) Idm., 3, § 5. (9) Mosh. 
6:2; 3, § 6. 



652 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED 

torrent tbroiigli succeeding ages, and which all human efforts seemed unable to 
vanquish. In these disputes the heat of passion and the excessive force of relig- 
ious antipathy and contradiction frequently hurried the contending parties into 
the most dangerous extremes. If before this time the lustre of religion was 
clouded with supperstition and its divine precepts adulterated with a mixture of 
human inventions, the evil increased daily and the corrupt darkness was eclipsing 
the luster of primitive Christianity and deforming its beauty with the corrupt 
remains of paganism. ^ True piety and virtue were smothered under the 
enormous burden of ceremonies and lay groaning under them and degenerating 
into gaudy spectacle only proper to attract the stupid admiration of a gazing 
populace. - 

2. In the sixth century the number, credit, and influence of the monks 
increased daily in all parts of the Christian world. Cloistered monks and holy 
virgins sacrificed their capacity of being useful in the world to the gloomy charms 
of a convent. Ireland, Gaul, Germany, and Switzerland swarmed with these 
lazy orders and were in a manner covered with convents. The monastic orders 
in general abounded with fanatics in the east and profligates in the west. -^ 
Abuses were daily multiplied and superstition drew from its horrid fecundity an 
incredible number of absurdities, which were added to the doctrine of Christ and 
the apostles. The public teachers seemed to sink the multitude into the most 
opprobrious ignorance and superstition, and to substitute in place of religious 
principles a blind veneration for the clergy and a stupid zeal for a senseless 
round of rediculous rites and ceremonies. ^ Expositors, excepting a verj^ small 
number, scarcely deserve the name. One class simply collected the opinions 
and interpretations of ancient doctors ; another class, following Origen, over- 
looked the sense of words, lost themselves in spiritual reflnements and allegorical 
digressions, and drew from Scripture arguments in favor of every whim they 
thought proper to adopt. -^ Another class of theologians derived the knowledge 
of divine truth from inward feelings and mental contemplation and assumed the 
name of mystics. ^ In this sixth century the cause of true religion sunk apace 
and the gloomy reign of superstition extended itself in proportion to the decay 
of genuine piety, and this lamentable decay was supplied by a multitude of rites 
and ceremonies. ^ 

3. Nothing can equal the ignorance and darkness that reigned in the seventh 
century, the most impartial and accurate account of which will appear incredible 
to those unacquainted with the productions of this barbarous age. "^ Learning 
and philosophy, arts and sciences, true piety and theology, were sunk in fictions 
and obscurity. " The progress of vice among the subordinate rulers and minis- 
ters of the church was truly deplorable, and none — bishops, presbyters, deacons, 
nor cloistered monks — were exempt from the general contagion. In those very 
places consecrated to the advancement of piety and the service of God little else 
was to be seen than ghostly ambition, insatiable avarice, pious frauds, intolerable 
pride, and a superstitious contempt of the natural rights of the people, witli 
many other vices still more enormous, and in many places reigned the most 
bitter dissension between the bishops and the monks. ^ Religion lay expiring 
under a motly and enormous heap of superstitious inventions, and had neither 
the courage nor the force to raise her head or to display her native charms to a 
darkened and deluded world, and Christians of this century multiplied the 
objects of their devotion and paid homage to the remains of the cross, to the 
images of saints, and the spurious bones of martyrs or teachers, and they 
depended on purgatory to efface the stains of vice and purify their souls from 
corruption ; and they placed the whole of religion in external rites and bodily 
exercises. 



(1)5:2; 3, §§1,2. (2) Idm., 4, §^ 1, 2. (3) Mosh. 6:2; 2, § 5. (4) 6:2; 3, § 1. (5) §§ 4, 5. 
(6) 4, § 1. (7) Mosh. 7:2; 1, §§ 1-4. (8) Idm. 2, § 3. 



CHAPTER CXLI. I SECTION IV. 653 

The too great and irresistible arguments against all doubts were : tlie authority 
of the church, and the working of miracles, ^ or pious frauds. The moral writers 
of this century show too plainly to what a wretched state that noble and important 
science was now reduced ; ^ and the doctors who opposed the various sects are 
scarcely worthy of mention. Such was the smoke out of the abyss of heathen 
philosophy that darkened every source of light in the Catholic churches when 
the Saracens from Arabia came suddenly upon them like a swarm of locusts. 

4. Smoke and Distraction. — The fifth trumpet has called attention ! but 
before it blew an eagle, angel, or messenger is seen conspicuously flying through 
the air and proclaiming three woes, which should attend the sounding of the 
last three of the seven trumpets ; or, should follow the special events announced 
by them. These woes, or calamities, will be severe, particularly upon the inhab- 
itants of the earth, or upon the recognized citizens of the civil governments and 
the acknowledged devotees of the state religions ; and hence we infer the anath- 
ematized, excladed, and persecuted — who are not of the world, but chosen out of 
it and hated by it— may not suffer more than the common calamities attending 
such events. And in this class will be found the Sealed Servants of the Living 
God; the Sons of Oil, or Two Witnesses; the Seed of the Woman; and the 
Woman in the Wilderness. These woes will be as conspicuous as a messenger 
proclaiming it in the face of the blue sky; and every reflecting mind must notice 
these displays of divine wrath upon the established religions and governments 
which claim to be established by revealed authority from God, and authorized to 
force their religion and government on all men, or enslave, rob, and destroy 
those refusing compliance. 

The last trumpet scene closed at night, while moon and stars were eclipsed, 
and the sun had set eclipsed. This fifth scene is represented in day time, while 
the bright sun is shining in a clear sky. The trumpet sounds. A fallen star 
appears upon the earth, to which is given the key of a pit without bottom, or 
the pit of the bottomless. It opened the abyss! and smoke as from a great 
furnace fills the air and obscures the sun. So far we have considered the phe- 
nomena. The fallen star is Ammonius Saccas and his followers, who darkened 
the Scriptures — the source of all religious knowledge — by allegorizing them to 
accommodate the notions and mysterious teachings, which are smoke out of the 
abyss of heathen philosophy. Having darkened and perverted the Scriptures, 
they mixed up paganism, Judaism, and Christianity, according to their professed 
object of reconciling all religions into one empire or Catholic religion that was 
neither Christian, Jewish, nor pagan, as we have seen. They lost sight of the 
kingdom of God and knew not what it was, or what were its teachings, laws, 
and institutions, or its relation to civil governments and to people not in the 
kingdom. Civil government was perverted from its legitimate object to suppress 
evil doers, to defend the innocent and virtuous, and secure freedom to truth 
while it leavened society and rooted out the causes of individual, social, and 
civil "evils. Churches, instead of being the salt of the earth, light of the world, 
foundation and pillar bearing up the truth to every nation and person, and 
mutual aid society to exhibit the kingdom in miniature, and show its adaptation 
to secure human happiness, were perverted to be the only security to Heaven at 
death and sources of power and opulence to the clergy. 

Church and state were united, and hoarded up wealth that tempted invasion, 
indulged in luxury and idleness, and became so effeminate in body and mind that 
they could not repel invaders, and became so covetous, malignant, and con- 
tentious they could not unite against any evil. The empire that might have been 
a great auxiliary to the churches and blessing to the world became a curse to the 
kingdom of God and to the world, and brought more suffering on the Christian 
churches of all sects and denominations than they ever suffered from Polytheists 



(9) 3, §§ 1, 4, 6. 



654 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

or Jews. Both civil and ecclesiastical atmosphere is so filled with this snioke 
out of this abyss that all the heavenly luminaries are obscured to the Catholic 
church, in all its schisms and branches. But the Sons of Oil, having retained 
the primitive and pure simplicity of Christ and the apostles, and honestly studied 
the word of God when and where they could find it, and taken it in its plain, 
simple, and obvious meaning, have light and can see their sun and shield; while 
the Catholic church and state can not see through the smoke, but feel their way 
and rely on their images, while the locusts kill or torment them. Bight through, 
or out of this smoke came a prodigious swarm of locusts. While church and 
state are agitated in dark and contentious disputes, zealously observing obscure 
and foolish rites and trusting in dark and superstitious hopes and objects, these 
locusts light in swarms among them and commence their ravages without warning 
or preliminary introduction. So we read : In the last years of his life Heraclius 
lost to the Arabs the same provinces he rescued from the Persians.^ 

While the state was exhausted by the Persian war and the church was dis- 
tracted by the Xestorian and Monophysite sects, Mahomet, with the sword in 
one hand and the Koran in the other, erected his throne on the ruins of Chris- 
tianity and of Bome. 2 Instead of defending the sepulchre of Christ, Heraclius 
involved the church and state in a metaphysical controversy about the unity of 
Christ's will, and was tamely stripped of the most valuable parts of their inherit- 
ance;^ and when the Arabs first issued from the desert they must have been 
surprised at the ease and rapidity of their own success.* 

5. Conquests — King of the South. — These Arabs issued in swarms from 
the desert like its native locusts, with turbans on their heads like crowns of 
royalty; with long beards and mustaches on their faces, and long hair flowing 
down their backs like women; and they wore breast-plates of iron; and the horse- 
manship of the Arabs has ever been an object of admiration. ^ Symbolically, 
they destroyed with lion teeth, bore lotty, defiant heads, exhibited invulnerable 
breasts or dauntless courage, had the address and skill of men and the glory and 
luxury of women; and their policy to the vanquished was painful and degrading. 
Their military force was chiefly in cavalry and archers, and the engagements were 
often interrupted and renewed by single combats and flying skirmishes, and might 
be protracted many days; ^ and on a summons these swarms from distant parts 
would meet on the same spot the same day;*^ and like locusts, they returned not 
to their native desert, but ended their days in the countries they ravaged after 
depositing, or propagating, their seed there. They were notorious polygamists 
and established it wherever they went, and women fought in their ranks and 
sometimes secured the victory. ^ The Arabs, or Saracens, spread over the conti- 
nents from the confines of India and Tartary to the Atlantic ocean. The language 
and laws of the Koran .were studied with equal devotion at the Samarcand and 
Seville. The Moor and the Indian embraced as countrymen and brothers in the 
pilgrimage to Mecca, and the Arabian language was adopted as the popular idiom 
in all the provinces to the westward of the Tigris;^ and they penetrated into 
Hindoostan, China, Tartary, on the east and north, and into the tribes of Africa 
on the south and west. They devoured with lion teeth, defiant heads, and daunt- 
less courage, or iron breasts. With the same vigor and success they invaded the 
successors of Augustus and those of Artaxerxes, and the rival monarchs became 
at the same instant the prey of an enemy they had been accustomed to despise. 
In the ten years of the administration of the Caliph Omar, the Saracens reduced 
to his obedience thirty- six thousand cities, or castles, destroyed four thousand 
temples, or churches, and built fourteen hundred mosques. One hundred years 
after the fiight of Mahomet from Mecca, his armies and those of his succeeding 
caliphs had conquered Persia, Syria, Egypt, Africa, and Spain. One of their 



(1) Gbn. 2:7; 127. (2) 11; 193. (3) Chap. 12; 232. (4) Gbn. 2:13; 249. (5) Bush., p. 648. 
(6) Gbn. 2:12; 222. (7) Idm. 226. (8) 227. 230, 16; 262. (9) 13; 248-9. 



CHAPTER CXLI. : SECTION VI. 655 

first generals was Calid, called the Sword of God and Scourge of Infidels. In 
the first year he destroyed Anbar and Hira, on the Euphrates. Hira was the 
seat of a race of Arab Christian kings, who had reigned above six hundred years 
under the shadow of the throne of Persia ; but the king was slain by Calid, the 
nobles bowed before the caliph, and the people became Mahometans. In the 
same year, A. D. 632, Calid fought many signal battles, an immense number of 
infidels were slaughtered, and spoils infinite and innumerable were taken by the 
victorious Moslems. The Saracens uuited the dispatch and execution of des- 
potism with the equal and frugal maxims of republican government, ^ and the 
spoils of nations unknown to the caliphs were continually laid at the foot of their 
thrones; but their greatness must be attributed to the spirit of the nation and 
discord of their enemies rather than to the abilities of their caliphs, who remained 
on their thrones in their palaces, ^ as the popes did at Rome. 

6. Battles. — The danger of Persia united their factions and placed the crown 
on Yezdegerd, grandson of Chosroes. But with the rapid and locust-like march 
and swarms of the Saracens, their intrepid valor, dauntless courage, and devouring 
slaughters, Persia was overrun, conquered, despoiled, and occupied by the disciples 
of Mahomet; its former inhabitants were slaughtered, enslaved, or reduced to 
tribute, and the Magian religion was destroyed,^ A. D. 632-651. Like locusts, 
many of them were destroyed, but new swarms filled their ranks and still their 
march and devastation was onward. The first battle with the Koman empire was 
fought at Muta, A. D. 630, where three leaders of the Saracens fell. Zeid fell 
in the foremost ranks. The death of Jaafer was heroic and memorable; he lost 
his right hand, but shifted the standard to his left ; his left was severed from his 
body, but he embraced the standard with his bleeding stumps till he was trans- 
fixed to the earth with fifty wounds. Advance ! cried Abdala, stepping into the 
vacant place. Advance with confidence ! Victory or Paradise is our own ! The 
lance of a Roman sent him to Paradise, or some other place. Calid rescued the 
fallen standard; nine swords were broken in his hand, and he withstood and 
repulsed the superior numbers of the Christians. ^ When the forces divided for 
the conquest of Persia and Syria at the same time, Calid was assigned to com- 
mand in Syria, A. D. 632. After much hard fighting and the ramparts had been 
crowded with crosses and consecrated banners in expectation of Divine aid, Bosra 
was captured by the treachery of the governor, who, after Calid had imposed the 
terms of servitude and tribute, avowed his crime, or treason, and turned Mahom- 
etan. He said : I renounce your society in both this world and the world to come. 
I deny Him that was crucified, and whosoever worships Him. I choose God for 
my Lord, Islam for my faith, Mecca for my temple, the Moslems for my brethren, 
and Mahomet for my prophet, who was sent to lead us in the right way and to 
exalt the true religion in spite of those who join partners with God. ^ Such men 
filled the Catholic churches and could turn to anything their interest required. 
Perhaps he had been an Arian, but for interest professed Catholicism, but now 
joined his Unitarian brethren. 

Damascus was the next besieged. After many a lance was shivered and Calid 
had shown his strength, valor, contempt of death, and desire for a sensual Para- 
dise in an obstinate combat on the plain, the siege of this ancient capital of Syria 
was suspended to meet the royal army of the Emperor Heraclius, coming to succor 
the city. A combined force was needed in this emergency, and Calid wrote : In 
the name of the most merciful God, from Calid to Amrou, health and happiness : 
Know that thy brethren, the Moslems, design to march to Aizmadin, where is an 
army of seventy thousand Greeks, who purpose to come against us that they may 
extinguish the light of God with their mouths. As soon as this letter is delivered 
to thy hands, come, with those with thee, to Aizmadin, where thou shalt find us, 
if it please the Most High God. Forty-five thousand Moslems met on the same 



(1) Gbn. 2:12; 221. (2) Idm. 221-4. (3) Gbn.-2:11;- 211-12. (4) 12; 225-6. 



656 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

day, and ascribed the effect of their activity to the blessing of Providence. 
Werden, the Roman general, was surprised by the near approach of a fierce and 
naked warrior reconnoitering his position. The audacious Derar was inspired 
with hatred to the Christians, the love of spoil, and contempt of danger. The 
prospect of instant death could never shake his religious confidence, rufiie his calm 
resolution, or suspend the frank and martial pleasantry of his humor. His single 
lance maintained a flying fight with thirty Romans, and after killing or unhorsing 
seventeen, returned safe to camp. When reproved for his rashness, he said he 
was afraid God would see him turn his back. He fought in earnest, not doubting 
but God helped him. A venerable Greek offered to purchase peace. Calid 
replied : Ye know your option — the Koran, the tribute, or the sword. We are 
a people whose delight is in war rather than in peace, and we despise your pitiful 
alms, since we shall speedily be masters of your wealth, your families, and your 
persons. To his army Calid said : You see before you the united force of the 
Romans ! You can not hope to escape ! But you may conquer Syria in a day. The 
event depends on your discipline and your patience. Reserve yourselves till 
evening. In the evening the prophet was accustomed to conquer. 

After two engagements, the Saracens were victorious, and the remains of the 
imperial army fled to Antioch, or Csesarea, or Damascus. The Moslems acknowl- 
edge the loss of four hundred and seventy, but believed they had sent to hell 
above fifty thousand infidels. The spoil was inestimable ; many banners and 
crosses of gold and silver, precious stones, silver and gold chains, and innumerable 
suits of richest armor and apparel. Damascus fell before them after a courageous 
defence, and the slaughter of Christians was immense. The siege of Damascus 
was resumed with fresh vigor and confidence ; the courage of the city was rekindled 
by the example and authority of Thomas, a noble Greek, and the Christian hero 
employed the resource of superstition. In sight of both armies, at the principal 
gate a lofty crucifix was erected; the bishop, with his clergy, accompanied the 
march and laid a volume of the New Testament before the image of Jesus, and 
a prayer was offered that the Son of God would defend His servants and vindicate 
His truth. The battle raged with incessant fury, and the dexterity of Thomas 
was fatal to the boldest Saracens till their death was revenged by a female heroine. 
She grasped the manly weapon she was accustomed to wield in her native land, 
and sought the place where Thomas fought, in the thickest of the battle, who had 
slain her husband, Aban. Her second arrow wounded Thomas in the eye, and 
the fainting Christians no longer beheld their ensign or leader. Thomas refused 
to withdraw to the palace ; his wound was dressed on the rampart ; the fight con- 
tinued till evening ; the Syrians rested on their arms ; in the night from each gate 
an impetuous column sallied out upon the Saracens. Calid was first in arms; with 
four hundred horse he flew to the post of danger. Tears trickled down his iron 
cheeks as he ejaculated a prayer': O God, who never sleepest, look upon Thy 
servants and do not deliver them into the hands of their enemies. The valor and 
victory of Thomas was arrested, and after the loss of thousands he retreated with 
a sigh of despair, and the pursuit of the Saracens was checked by the military 
engines on the ramparts. -^ After a siege of seventy days, one hundred chosen 
deputies of clergy and people visited the tent of the venerable commander, Abu 
Obeidah, at midnight, and returned with a written agreement, on the faith of a 
companion of Mahomet, that all hostilities should cease ; that voluntary emigrants 
might depai't in safety with as much as they could carry away of their efl'ects, and 
that the tributary subjects of the caliph should enjoy their lands and houses, with 
the use and possession of seven churches. 

On these terms the most respectable hostages and the gate nearest to his 
camp was delivered into his hands and he observed the treaty. But this success 
had relaxed their vigilance, and the opposite quarter of the city was betrayed and 



(5) Gbn. 2:12; 224-7. 



CHAPTER CXLI. : SECTIONS VII. -VIH. 657 

taken by assault. A party of a hundred Arabs had opened the eastern gate to a 
more inexorable foe. No quarter! cried the repacious and sanguinary Calid — no 
quarters to the enemies of the Lord ! His trumpet sounded, and a torrent of 
(Jhristian blood poured down the streets of Damascus. Abu Obeidah interposed. 
Calid indignantly exclaimed : And am not I the lieutenant of the Commander of 
the Faithful ! Have not I taken the city by storm ? The unbelievers shall perish 
by the sword ! Fall on ! The Arabs would have obeyed and Damascus was lost! 
had not the benevolence of Obeidah been sustained by his firmness. After four 
days Calid pursued the fugitives, and rushing upon the promiscuous multitude 
encamped in a pleasant valley believed that not a Christian of either sex escaped. 
Without the knowledge or engines for sieging they took cities by storm and con- 
quered fields by fearless and desperate onsets. Infatuated with assurance of 
Paradise and a belief in predestination they were reckless and desperate, cruel 
and avaricious, strong and active — they dared everything. Another imperial 
army, collected out of Europe and Asia, opposed them dt Zermuk, but after a 
severe and doubtful battle it, too, was overthrown. In this battle the last line 
was occupied by the sister of Derar with the Arabian women enlisted in this holy 
war, who were accustomed to wield the bow and lance. The exhortation of the 
general was : Paradise is before you ! the devil and hell fire in your rear ! The 
right wing of the Arabs was broken and separated from the main army by the 
Roman cavalry. Thrice did the Arabs retreat in disorder, and thrice were they 
driven back to the charge by the reproaches and blows of the women, A. D. 696. 

7. Conquests. — Jerusalem was next besieged four months, and not a day 
passed without a sally or an assault. The patriarch, Sophronius, proposed to 
capitulate to the Caliph Omar in person. Omar was sent for and came and 
received the capitulation of the holy city, and by his order the area of the temple 
was cleared and consecrated for the mosque of Omar, A. D. 637.* Aleppo and 
Antioch were captured A. D. 638, and in A. D. 639 the conquest of Syria was 
completed, and the inhabitants were slaughtered, enslaved, or reduced to pay 
tribute. The sieges and battles of six campaigns had consumed many thousands 
of Saracens, but they died with the reputation and cheerfulness of martyrs. ^ 
Egypt fell under the Saracen locusts A. D. 638, then Africa A. D. 647, and 
Carthage was destroyed A. D. 692-698. They entered Spain A. D. 710; the 
Gothic monarchy was destroyed A. D. 711, and subjugated A. D. 714, and in 
A. D. 732 the Saracens were defeated in the middle of France by Charles Martal, 
or the Hammer, in the fearful battle of Tours, and their progress west and north 
was stopped ; but their standard had been planted on the walls of Tours and 
Poitiers. "^ A civil war, A. D. 746-750, resulted in the separation of Spain from 
the Saracen empire, with which it engaged in perpetual quarrels, and in the 
establishment of the Ommiadee caliphs on the throne of Cordova, and in an 
inclination to peace and friendship with the Christian sovereigns of Constan- 
tinople. ^ 

8. Asia Minor and Constantinople. — Forty-five years after the rise of 
Mahometanism his disciples besieged Constantinople, animated by a saying of 
luhe prophet that: The first army besieging the city of the Caesars would have 
all their sins forgiven ; the long series of Roman triumphs would be meritoriously 
transferred to the conquerors of new Rome, and the wealth of nations was 
deposited in this seat of royalty and commerce. But its solid walls were guarded 
by numbers and discipline, animated by the danger of their religion and empire. 
The fugitives from the provinces — from Syria, Egypt, Africa, Armenia, and 
Sythia"^ — renewed more successfully the defense ; the Saracens were dismayed 
by the strange and prodigious effects of the artificial Greek fire, and after seven 
summers and the loss of thirty thousand Moslems the siege was abandoned, 



(*) Chap. 139, § 5. (6) Gbn 2:12; 224-38. (7) 12 and 13; 233-53. (8) Gbn. 2:13; 255. (*) 
14; 269. 
—42 



658 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

though the countries had suffered by their ravages. This repulse of the Saracens 
revived the reputation of the Roman arms in the east and in the west, and cast 
a momentary shade over the Saracens and caused them to ratify a truce and pay 
a tribute to the emperor, A. D. 677. While one army was conquering Trans- 
Oxania and another subjugating Spain, a third army of Saracens overspread Asia 
Minor and threatened the capital of the empire, which prepared for their recep- 
tion; and Leo, the Isaurian, defended the capital and what remained to it of the 
empire. After the successful sieges of Tyana, Amorium, and Pergamus, one 
hundred and twenty thousand Arabs and Persians, and one thousand eight hundred 
ships invested Constantinople. The fire ships of the Greeks were launched 
against them, and the Arabs, with their arms and vessels, were involved in the 
same flames and lost their fleet, and the Caliph Soliman died. But his successor 
renewed the siege the next spring, aided by four hundred' transports and galleys 
from Alexandria and three hundred and sixty vessels from Africa. But the 
Greek fire and the desertion of the Egyptian mariners with their ships to the 
emperor, annihilated the force and freed the navigation. The Thracian peasants 
destroyed the stragglers, an army of Bulgarians destroyed twenty-two thousand 
Saracens, the Franks and Latin world was reported to be coming against them, 
and an army of his cut to pieces in Bythynia caused the caliph to permit the 
army to abandon the enterprise. But only five galleys returned to Alexandria 
to relate their disasters. ^ So, in A. D. 718, the Saracens had not obtained their 
object of devoting the Roman empire to the Koran, to the sword, tribute, or 
slavery; and while a Christian empire stands it will be bad policy to maltreat the 
sects persecuted by it, though the Catholics identified with the government may 
suffer more than if the empire were destroyed. During the civil wars of the 
Saracens the Greeks had avenged their wrongs and enlarged their limits. This 
was resented by Mahadi while Irene and her son Constantine were on the throne, 
and a reply to Nicephorus, who demanded a restoration of the tribute paid by the 
empress, was written in characters of fire and blood on the plains of Phrigia; 
Asia Minor was swept with an army of three hundred thousand as far as Tyana 
and Ancyra, and the ruin of Pontic Heraclea was completed, A. D. 781-805. ^ 
Crete was subdued A. D. 823. Sicily was lost by the superstitious rigor of the 
emperor, A. D. 827-878. Rome was invaded A. D. 846, but was defended by 
Pope Leo lY. and his auxiliaries, A. D. 849. 

Though Nicephorus was defeated A. D. 785, it was the beginning of offen- 
sive wars by the Greeks that resulted in victory to the empire, and, to some 
extent, the recovery of lost provinces. The wars of Theophilus were successful 
for a time. He marched five times against the Saracens in formidable battles and 
penetrated into Sj^ria. But he lost Amorium and thirty thousand slaughtered, and 
as many captives, who were treated as the most atrocious criminals; but the 
Saracens lost above seventy thousand in the siege and Motassam retired to Persia. ^ 
After this war, A. D. 838, the hostile transactions of the two nations were confined 
to some inroads by sea and land.^ Though these inroads bore no comparison to 
preceding hostilities, yet, beyond doubt, these Saracen locusts continued to torment 
all those favoring the interests and religion of the Roman emperor. Quarter was 
seldom given on the field, and those who escaped the edge of the sword were 
condemned to hopeless servitude or exquisite torture."^ The isle of Crete became 
a nest of pirates, who infested the sea coasts, A. D. 823-960. f 

9. ¥iYE Months. — The Saracens fought their first battle with the Roman 
empire A. D. 629-30, ^ and while Irene and her child were on the throne, A. D. 
780-782, ^ a tribute of seventy thousand dinars of gold were imposed on the Roman 
empire,^ and failure to pay caused depredations; and refusal by Nicephorus 
brought renewal of war, and a month's depredations was more costly than a year 
of submission and tribute.^ (A. D. 782-805.) The reign of Theophilus, A. D. 

(9) Gbn. 2:13; 249-51. (1) 259-260. (2) Gbn. 2:13; 259-62. (3) Idm., 265. (*) 2:13; 262. 
(t) Idm., 259-265. (4) 11; 211-12. (5) 9; 156. (6) 13; 259. 



CHAPTER CXLI.: SECTION X. 659 

829-84:2, "^ gave a turning blow to Saracen supremacy over the Greek-Roman 
empire, and with the Caliph Motassam the glory of his family and nation expired, 
A. D. 841-870.^ The revolt of the provinces and the fall of the caliphs into 
abject misery, exposed to blows and insults of a servile condition, was complete. 
(A. D. 936.^) About A. D. 960, the Greek-Roman emperors conquered, 
destroyed, and tormented the Saracens ^ till twenty-five years after the death of 
Basil, 2 or about A. D. 1050,^ when they met the Turks, under Togrul Bey. ^ 
While the Saracens were issuing in swarms out of the Arabian desert and 
spreading themselves over the Roman empire, which they intended to devour 
with lion teeth, they destroyed armies, cities, and churches; but they were not 
commissioned to extirpate the princes of the empire nor the prelates of the 
Catholic churches, but only torment them five months, or 150 or 152-3 years. 
N^ow, the first battle with the Roman empire was about A. D. 630, and 150 
or 152 years of slaughters enabled them to impose tribute on the Empress Irene, 
A. D. 780-782. Then, 150, or 152 or 3 years' tormenting princes and prelates 
will bring us to A. D. 930, or 934, 936. Now, in A. D. 936, the fall of the 
caliphs of the Abbasadees was complete; or, the Greeks began the final con- 
quest of the Saracens, A. D. 960. Deduct 150, or 152 or 3 years of tormenting 
princes and prelates, and we are bronght back to A. D. 810, or 808 or 7. Now 
Nicephorus' refusal to pay tribute and his punishment was A. D. 802-805, and 
he lost his life in Bulgaria, A. D. 811, and Haroun, the caliph who reimposed the 
tribute on him, died A. D. 813 ;S and I suppose the tribute ceased on or before his 
death, for his heirs were involved in civil war. ^ We may safely say the Arabs 
devoured the Roman empire with the voraciousness and rapidity of locusts, the 
fury and rush of horses, and the teeth of lions, from A. D. 630 till A. D. 780, 
or 782, or 783, and then tormented it till A. D. 936, according to Gibbon's 
history and dates, and he had no design to verify Revelation. 

10. Torments. — One great difficulty in determining the duration of the tor- 
menting influences is the fact that they followed the conquests and must have 
comrnenced at diff*erent places at different times. We can take only specimens, 
and have taken the empire itself, and state church as identified with it. For a 
time their onward march was irresistible and destructive, as their approaching 
appearance indicated, and their after policy and disposition of the vanquished was 
painful to the Christian states and churches, or to princes and prelates. Their 
proposition to the invaded was the Koran, or tribute, or the sword and slavery. 
If the Koran was accepted, the proselyte became an enemy and soldier against 
the Christian churches and states. If tribute was accepted, it was oppressive, ''' 
and to be relieved from it thousands apostatized to the faith of the prophet^ and 
became enemies to Christian princes and prelates. Prisoners of war could redeem 
their lives by becoming Mahometans, and the most abject slave could be elevated 
to freedom and citizenship by the same. Captive women were bound to embrace 
the religion of their masters and gratify their desires to produce half-breeds, and 
raise them to believe in Mahomet and hate and persecute Christians as dogs. 
Captive children were trained in the same faith, and taught to despise, hate, and 
persecute the religion of their ancestors and to wage war against the state and 
church of their fathers. Political invasions, plundering raids, and border wars 
tormented princes and prelates. ^ In the east more especially, a prodigious 
number of Christian families embraced the religion of their conquerors. Many 
refused compliance in the face of persecution, but such were gradually reduced to 
a miserable condition; robbed of the best part of their wealth, and deprived of 
their worldly advantages, they fell by degrees into deplorable ignorance and 
stupidity. ^ 



(7) 9; 158. (8) 2:13; 262-3. (9) Idm., 265, (1) 2:13; 265-6. (2) 18; 817. (3) 9; 163. (4) 
18; 817. (5) Thai., Vol. IL, §§ 64 and 66, pp. 40-1. (6) Gbn. 2:18; 259. (7) 12; 246, and 18; 255. 
(8) 12; 247. (9) Gbn. 2:12; 246. (1) Mosh. 9:1; 2, § 1. . 



660 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

11. The Hair of Women Characteristic. — Among these tormenting 
influences was their characteristic lust for women. This trait of character was as 
conspicuous as their defiant bearing, dauntless courage, devouring voraciousness, 
and desire for spoils. Caliph Omar said: If any of the Saracens have no family 
in Arabia, they may marry in Syria; and whosoever of them wants any female 
slaves he may purchase as many of them as he may have occasion for. ^ Abu 
Caab said to his soldiers : Your beauteous captives will supply the place of your 
wives, and in their embraces you will soon become the fathers of a new progeny. ^ 
They were notorious polygamists, and carried the practice wherever they went 
and established it wherever they settled. They were in this respect in direct 
opposition to all Christians, who rejected this debasing custom, mortified the lusts 
of the flesh, and many of them had become monks and nuns. They profaned as 
well as pillaged the monasteries and churches. At the siege of Salerno a chief 
spread his couch on the communion table, and on that altar sacrificed each night 
the virginity of a Christian nun. ^ The Paradise of Mahomet consists of a whole 
train of sensual and costly luxuries. Seventy-two black-eyed girls, of resplendent 
beauty, blooming youth, virgin purity, and exquisite sensibility, will be created 
for the use of the meanest believer ; a moment of pleasure will be prolonged to a 
thousand years, and his faculties will be increased an hundredfold to render him 
worthy of his felicity. ^ When we consider this brutalizing lust of the Mahometan 
Arab, we can not be surprised to find them venerate the hair of their women, and 
to be characterized by it in a divine programme. The Fatimite caliphs of Egypt 
had been degraded by their own weakness and the tyranny of their viziers. Their 
subjects blushed when the descendant and successor of the prophet presented his 
naked hand to the rude grip of a Latin ambassador ; they wept when he sent the 
hair of his women, a sad emblem of their grief and terror, to excite the pity of 
the sultan of Damascus. ^ The tail policy of the Saracens was the same as the 
craft of Mahometanism that prospered, and the peace that destroyed many.' 

12. Commission to Torment or Slaughter Limited. — These Saracens were 
forbidden to hurt trees, grass, or any green and useful herb, and in this they were 
unlike the locusts of their native country. The Caliph Abuebeker, in addressing 
the officers of the army of Syria, said : Remember, you are always in the pres- 
ence of God, on the verge of death, in the assurance of judgment and the hope 
of Paradise. Avoid injustice and oppression ; consult with your brethren, and 
study to preserve the love and confidence of your troops. When you fight the 
battles of the Lord, acquit yourselves like men without turning your backs ; but 
let not your victory be stained with the blood of women and children. Destroy 
no palm trees, nor burn any fields of grain. Cut down no fruit trees, nor do any 
mischief to cattle, only such as you kill and eat. When you make any covenant 
or article, stand to it and be as good as your word. As ye go you will find some 
religious people living retired in monasteries and serving God in that way ; let 
them alone; neither kill them nor destroy their monasteries. You will find 
another of the synagogue of Satan, with shaven crowns ; cleave their skulls, and 
give them no quarters till they turn Mahometan or pay tribute. ^ Both locusts 
and invaders destroy the subsistence of the invaded; but these Saracens are com- 
manded to spare the subsistence of the invaded and the persons who may be turned 
to their own use and advantage, and to depend for conquest on their own valor 
and the slaughter of resisting armies. They were forbidden to hurt any having 
the seal of the Living God on their foreheads.^ Those having the true Christian 
character would have every opportunity to escape. Not being in alliance with 
the empire state or church, but persecuted by them, and having no kind of images 
to provoke the fanatical zeal of the Arabs, they could pay the demanded tribute and 
receive protection, as the Nestorians and Jacobites did by treaty. The Saracens 
were received in Egypt as the deliverers of the Jacobite, or Monophysite, church, 



(2) Gbn. 2:12; 283. (3) 13; 260. (4) 17; 298. (5) Gbn. 2:11; 205. (6) 20; 248. (7) Chap. 
139, § 5. (8) Gbn. 2:12; 225. (9) Rev. 7:1-3. 9:4. 



CHAPTER CXLl.: SECTION XIlL 661 

and a secret and effectual treaty was opened during the siege of Memphis. 
Mokawkas said : It is impossible for us to embrace the revelations of jour prophet ; 
but we are desirous of peace, and cheerfully submit to pay tribute and obedience 
to his temporal successors. By this charter of security the ecclesiastical and civil 
tyranny of the Catholics, or empire prelates, were destroyed ; the sacred edifices, 
with the patrimony of the churches, were given, or restored, to the Jacobites, and 
their exiled patriarch, Benjamin, returned from the desert to Alexandria. ^ As 
they showed the same revengeful spirit as the Catholics, they can not be called 
the sealed ones ; but from these transactions we discover that the true followers 
of Christ could escape these ravages and slaughters. 

The condition of both the Nestorians and Monophysites was more flourishing 
under the Saracens, who were now lords of the whole east, than under the Chris- 
tian emperors, or even the Persian monarchs. These sects met with a distinguished 
protection from their new masters, while the Catholics suffered all the rigors of 
persecution and banishment. Jesuiabas, the sovereign pontiff, or patriarch, of the 
Nestorians concluded a treaty with Mahomet, and afterward with Omar, by which 
he obtained many signal advantages for his sect, and the caliphs in Persia employed 
the Nestorians in the most important affairs in the cabinet and provinces, and 
suffered the patriarch to reside in the kingdom of Babylon. The Monophysites 
enjoyed in Syria and Egypt an equal degree of favor and protection. Amrus, 
having made himself master of Alexandria A. D. 644, fixed Benjamin, the 
patriarch of the Monophysites, in the Episcopal residence of that noble city, and 
from that period the Catholics were without a bishop for almost a whole century. ^ 
There is extant a testamentary diploma from Mahomet, in which he promises and 
bequeaths to the Christians in his dominions the quiet and undisturbed enjoyment 
of their religion and their temporal advantages. ^ This was given when his empire 
extended north to a line from the Euphrates to Ailah at the head of the Eed Sea, 
and it was the interest of a conqueror to propose a fair capitulation to the most 
powerful religion on the earth, ^ and it was the dictate of a policy to be changed 
when his power became absolute ; for no such toleration was given to the Jews in 
Medina. He summoned them to embrace his religion or contend with him in 
battle. The Jews replied : We are ignorant of the use of arms, but we persevere 
in the faith and worship of our fathers. Why wilt thou reduce us to the necessity 
of a just defense? They were assassinated without mercy, and with implacable 
hatred he persecuted them to the last moment' of his life. ^ Toleration of the 
Nestorians and Monophysites continued throughout the power of the Saracens 
but in the first conquests of the Turks the Nestorians and Monophysites in Armenia 
and Georgia suffered slaughter, imposition, and degradation ^ (A. D. 1065-1068). 
They still lived in the tenth century under the Arabian government, but were 
more rigorously treated than formerly, and were often persecuted with the utmost 
injustice and violence. ^ Hence, we see, while the Saracen locusts did not hurt 
the sealed servants of the Living God, their king, who is the angel, or messenger, 
of the bottomless pit, may become a destroyer"^ of the holy ones, or saints, ^ by 
the Turks, in peace and war; and even under the Arabian government, in the 
eleventh century, when the provinces were in revolt and the power of the caliphs 
of Bagdad was fallen under insult and contempt and injuries of the Turkish 
guard, 9 the Nestorians and Monophysites suffered the woe accompanying the fifth 
trumpet, and the sealed ones may have done the same. 

13. The Men Seek Death.— One of the characteristics of these times is, 
the men will ardently desire death, but not obtained it. The desire of death to 
obtain Paradise was one of the desires of the fanatical Arabs ; » but they are 
locusts, and the context requires us to understand this desire to be induced by 
their tormenting stings. It may refer to the relation which the sufferers bore to 

(1) Gbn. 2:12; 235. (2) Mosh. 7:^; 5, § 3 (3) Gbn. 2:11; 212, and note K. (4) 12; 209-10 
248. (5) 2:18; 317. (6) Mosh. 10:2; 5, § 1. Gbn. 2:12; 248. (7) Rev. 9:11. (8) Dan. 8:24. (9 
Gbn. 2:11; 208-12, and 12; 226 and 248. ^ 



662 THE kliSTGDOM Oi' (^OD DEVELOI^ED. 

the empire; seeing the better condition of the Nestorians and Monoplijsites they 
might desire the death, or extinction, of the empire that the fear of its power 
might not agravate their ill-treatment. Afterwards, where the Saracen conquests 
were permanent, the Catholic, or empire, churches were tolerated. The churches 
of Egypt were shared with the Catholics, and all the oriental sects were in the 
common benefits of toleration ; ^ and under the iron yoke of the Latin papists the 
oriental Christians regretted the tolerating government of the Arabian caliphs. - 
But when the tail influence of exhausting tribute, hopeless slavery, the baneful 
influence of Mahometan education, inducements to apostacy, laciviousness, bloody 
cruelty, destruction of churches, and images were established, the Catholic, or 
empire. Christians would desire death for themselves and families in preference 
to present evils and future prospects. Give me liberty or give me death, said a 
patriot; and with all their falts many of the empire Christians believed them- 
selves the heirs of eternal life and preferred death to apostacy, and would rather 
see their families laid in the silent tomb than see them become Mahometans or 
be subjected to the cruel slavery, bloody passions, and lacivious lusts of the 
Saracens. Now, as Christ promised His people peace in Himself but tribulation 
in this life, we can not suppose that the sealed servants of the living God escaped 
the woes incident to these invasions, conquests, border wars, and tormenting 
influences; but the Saracen locusts would avoid injuring them, out of regard or 
policy, expecting to absorb them or their children by after influences. 

li. Their Mission. — The great mission of Mahometanism, and especially of 
the Saracen headship, was the destruction of Polytheism and idolatry. After 
the nations between Egypt and Assyria had been rendered inexcusable by the 
lessons given to Israel, God broke them and their idols to pieces by the Assyrians, 
the staff of his indignation; then the battle-ax, the Chaldeans, brokd to pieces 
Egypt and Assyria and all their tributaries; and then Persia smashed them up 
and their gods. And now the nations from the Atlantic to the Indus have 
rejected, or perverted, the Gospel of Christ Jesus and must be broken to pieces 
and their gods and images destroyed. The Catholic, or empire. Christians, who 
also coveted alliances with civil governments, had adopted a species of idolatry 
sustaining all their innovations and corruptions of Christianity by falsehoods, and 
the persecution of all who witnessed for the truth, purity, and simplicity of the 
primative Gospel. Bosra : With the loss of two hundred and thirty men, the 
Arabs remained masters of the field ; but in expectation of human or divine aid 
the ramparts of Bosra were crowded with holy crosses and consecrated banners.^ 
Pamascus: At the principal gate of Damascus a lofty crucifix was erected in the 
sight of both armies, the bishop with his clergy accompanied the march and laid 
a volume of the New Testament before the image of Jesus. The battle raged with 
incessant fury, and the dexterity of Thomas was fatal to the boldest Saracen.^ 
Both cities were captured by the Saracens. The Christian idols in the temples of 
St. Peter and of St. Paul were stripped of the costly offerings ; a silver altar was 
torn away from the shrine of St. Peter, and it required four thousand pounds of 
silver to repair the loss. ^ The tutelar saints, both Poitiers and Martin of Tours, 
forgot their miraculous powers in the defense of their own sepulchers. ^ 

The Mahometans have uniformly withstood the temptation of reducing the 
objects of their faith and devotion to a level with the senses and imagination of 
man. Belief in one God, and Mahomet as the apostle of God, is the simple and 
invariable profession of Islam. The intellectual image of the Deity has never 
been degraded by any visible idol. "^ After an exile of seven years Mahomet 
was enthroned as the prince and prophet of his native country, the three hundred 
idols of the Caaba were ignominiously broken, the house of God in Mecca was 
purified and adorned, and a perpetual law was enacted that no unbeliever should 
dare to set his foot on the territory of the holy city. ^ The deputies of Tayel 



(1) Gbn. 12; 248. (2) 2:19; 341 (3) 2:12; 225. (4) Gbn. 2:12; 227. (5) 13; 260-1. (6) Idm., 
253. (7) Gbn. 2:12; 219. 



OBtAPtEE CXLI. : SECTION XV. 668 

asked a truce of three years with the toleration of their ancient worship. Not a 
month ! not an hour ! was his reply. They submitted in silence ; their temples 
were demolished. The same sentence of destruction was executed on all the idols 
of Arabia, and the nation of Arabians submitted to the God and scepter of 
Mahomet. ^ The caliphs adopted the lessons of toleration that might disarm the 
resistance of the unbelievers, and after some acts of intolerance the Mahometan 
conquerors of Hindoostan spared the pagodas of that idolatrous and populous 
country. The disciples of Abraham, of Moses, and of Jesus were solemnly 
invited to accept the revelation of Mahomet ; but if they preferred the payment 
of tribute they were entitled to the freedom of conscience and religious worship. 
But the minds of the muiltitude were tempted by the invisible as well as the 
temporal blessings of the prophet. 

In the extensive provinces of Persia and Africa the national religion has been 
eradicated by the Mahometan faith. The temples of Persia were devoid of 
images, but the worship of the sun and of fire might be stigmatized as gross and 
criminal idolatry. At Herat a splendid temple of the sun was spared by the 
payment of tribute, but it was burnt down by the populace. The sovereign 
promised the injured Magi justice and relief, but four thousand responsible citizens 
swore the idolatrous fane never existed, and it was never rebuilt. But the greatest 
part of the temples of the Magi in Persia were ruined by insensible and general 
decay, without any memorial of the event, and from Shiraz to Samarcand the 
inhabitants imbibed the faith of the Koran, and the preservation of the native 
tongue reveals the descent of the Mahometans of Persia. But, a faint tradition 
of the Magian religion is kept alive in the province of Kirman and some other 
places by about eighty thousand families. ^ A tribute of two million pieces of 
gold was imposed on the infidel Turks of Transoxiana, their idols were burnt or 
broken, and the Turkish hords were driven back to the desert, A. D. 710. ^ Thus, 
from the Indus to the Atlantic, and from the north of the Caspian sea to the 
Southern ocean Polytheism had come to an end by the sword of the Arabs ; the 
predatory tribes of the north were still the servants of the Red Dragon, but the 
woe accompaning this trumpet broke their power and sealed the doom of their 
paganism. When Moses announced to the murmuring tribes of Israel in the 
wilderness the triumph of the name of Jehovah, such an immense territory as 
this embracing that great and fundamental truth was never thought of by any 
human being. The seed of Sarah preserved that great truth and disseminated it 
far and wide among the nations ; but the seed of Hagger and Ketura enforced it 
by the edge of the sword. 

15. The Fourth Headship of the Monotheistic Antagonism to the King- 
dom OF God. — The Saracen empire was now the leading empire in contact with 
the kingdom of God. It extended from the confines of Tartary and India to the 
Atlantic ocean. The Mahometan religion was difi*used over this ample region, 
and was the uniting, animating, and controlling spirit of this vast domain ; it pro- 
duced a general resemblance of manners and opinions ; the language and laws 
of the Koran were studied with equal devotion at Samarcand and Seville; the 
Moor and^ the Indian embraced as countrymen in the pilgrimage to Mecca, and the 
Arabian was adopted as the popular idiom in all the provinces to the westward of 
the Tigris. 3 (A. D. 718.) In Transoxiana, Persia, Syria, Asia Minor, Arabia, 
Egypt, Africa, and Spain it came in contact more or less with the kingdom of God, 
and interfered with its citizens, laws, and institutions. This fourth head of the 
Monotheistic wild beast was Unitarian, but tolerated, protected, and ruled the 
Trinitarian Catholics, Nestorians, and Monophysites, and though they were subject 
to tribute and baneful influences and impositions, it sustained their clergy in domi- 
neering over the members of their churches. The rank, the immunities, the 
domestic jurisdiction of the patriarchs, the bishops, and the clergy were protected 
by the civil magistrates.* (Continued in Chap. 144, §§ 1-5.) 

(8) 11; 210. (9) 11; 211. (1) Gbn. 2:12; 246-7. (2) Idm., 224. (3) 2:12; 248-9. (4) Idm. 



CHAPTER CXLII. 



DEFUNCT LATIN, OR FIRST HEAD OF THE FIRST BEAST RENO- 
VATED IN AND BY THE PAPAL HORN OF THE SECOND 
BEAST. ( Contiuued from Chapter 140. ) 

1. The Power of the Ecclesiastical Beast Seen in the Contest About 
Image Worship, etc. — While the popes established in Italy their freedom and 
dominion, the image worship was restored in the eastern empire. The idols, for 
such they were now held, were secretly cherished by the order and the sex most 
prone to devotion, and the fond alliance of the monks and females obtained a final 
victory over the reason and authority of man. The monks still continued to excite 
commotions in the state and to blow the flames of sedition and rebellion among 
the people. ^ During the life of her husband, Leo IV., the ambitious Irene could 
onlj labor to protect and promote some favorite monks whom she drew Irom their 
caverns and seated on the metropolitan thrones of the east. But as soon as she 
reigned in her own name and the name of her son, whom she assassinated, Irene 
restored the worship of images and the monks with a thousand legends of their 
sufferings and miracles. By the opportunities of death and removal the Episcopal 
seats were tilled by her flatterers, and the promotion of her secretary, Tarasius, 
gave her the patriarch of Constantinople and the command of the oriental 
churches. She called a council, with the eastern patriarchs and the legates of 
Pope Adrian at their head. The decrees were framed by her secretary, Tarasius, 
and ratified by acclamation by three hundred and fifty bishops, and the worship 
of images was pronounced agreeable to Scripture, reason, the fathers, and the 
councils, A. D. 787. During the five succeeding reigns the contest was maintained 
with unabated fury and various success, but the untractable spirit of the Catholics 
prevailed. The enthusiasm of the times ran strongly against the ati-image wor- 
shipers, and the emperors who stemmed the torrent were exasperated and punished 
by the public hatred. The final victory of the images was achieved by Theodora, 
widow of Theophilus and guardian of his son and empire. Stained, like Irene, 
with the blood of her son, guilty of a fiction of the repentance of her husband 
for his opposition to idols, she commuted the sentence of the opposition patriarch 
from the loss of his eyes to a whipping of two hundred lashes. The bishops 
trembled, the monks shouted, and Christian idolatry was triumphant, A. D. 842. ^ 

Thus, the ecclesiastical power in the hands of the monks triumphed over the 
emperor and the civil power, and shows the influence of a second wild beast. The 
Greek church has its rites, laws, and liturgies in the Greek language, and is gov- 
erned by the patriarchs of Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria, 
and all of them acknowledged the Greek- Rom an emperor for the head of their 
church. The Latin church has its rites, laws, and liturgies in the Latin language, 
and is governed by the pope, who claims to be the sole head of all churches and 
lord of all civil sovereignties. This ecclesiastical wild beast often feels the power 
of the civil wild beast, and had often to succumb to it, as the caliphs and the 



(5) Mosh. 8:2; 3, § 12. (6) Gbn. 2:10; 182-3. 



CHAPTER CXLIi. ' SECTION It. 665 

popes did to sovereigns, usurpers, and invaders. But the civil beast owes its 
present existence (A. D. 622-718) to the ecclesiastical patriarchs and clergy, and 
is often under their control. The patriarch of Constantinople, being under the 
eye of the Greek emperor, and his supremacy opposed by the patriarchs of 
Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria, could not aspire to political and ecclesiastical 
power — could not become a horn ; but his wealth and influence in the empire 
made him a powerful friend or dangerous foe to the civil sovereign. His influence 
was shown in binding Heraclius by oath to defend the empire while the church 
furnished, or loaned, the money, A. D. 610-622. '' Michael Curopalates dreaded 
the rage of the priests and monks that maintained the cause of images, and Theo- 
dora, fatigued with the importunities and solicitations of the monks, deluded by 
their forged miracles, and influenced by insolent threats, assembled a council and 
restored the images. ^ In the dispute about fourth marriages, the patriarch pre- 
vailed over the emperor, ^ and also in the excommunication of the Emperor 
Paleologus. ^ The power of the clergy is manifested also in rejecting the transfer 
of headship to the pope by the last Greek emperor ;2 but the patriarchs of 
Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Antioch being subjugated by the Saracens, and the 
patriarch of Constantinople soon coming under the Turks, the Greek church never 
furnished a horn to rule both church and state, but it remained an integral part 
of the body of the first and of the second Monotheistic wild beasts. Excommu- 
nication and anathema were the secret source of the power of the ecclesiastical 
wild beast, whether fulminated by a Catholic bishop or patriarch, a Latin pope, 
or a Saracen caliph. It deprived the victim of the name and privileges of Chris- 
tians, participation in the sacraments, the hope of Paradise, the common offices 
of life, and the decent rites of burial in the Catholic church. ^ 

2. The popes of Rome, by their ecclesiastical influence and political powers, 
united the sovereigns of the Latin empire and often dictated laws and treaties to 
them. The barbarous nations looked upon the pope as the successor of their 
Chief Druid, whose boundless authority had been treated with a veneration 
degenerating into terror, and they thought proper to confer upon the chief bishop 
the same honors and authority. The popes received these august privileges with 
delight, and strengthened his title to them by ancient history and religious argu- 
ment. This gave to the Roman see that high preeminence and despotic authority 
in civil and political matters that were unknown to former ages. Hence arose the 
opinion that persons excluded by him, or any of his clergy, forfeited their civil 
rights as citizens and the common claims of humanity. This horrid opinion, 
borrowed by the clergy from pagan superstition, was a fatal source of wars, 
massacres, and rebellions without number, and contributed to augment the papal 
authority.^ They absolved subjects from their oaths of allegiance and gave con- 
spirators the right to usurp thrones, and thus rendered sovereigns unsafe.^ As 
they were supreme over the clergy, the wealth and power of the churches 
increased the power of the popes. The endowments of the churches and monas- 
teries and the revenues of the bishops had been considerable, but in the eighth 
century an opinion, that future punishment could be prevented by donations to 
God, to the saints, to churches, and clergy, increased the wealth of the churches 
through succeeding ages. The great and opulent princes and people, guilty of 
every crime, sought expiation from rapine, perjury, theft, and murder by these 
donations. Emperors, kings, and princes conquered their neighbors and gave 
whole provinces to the sovereignty of the clergy. For conciliating the ecclesias- 
tical lords to their interest, chiefs and princes accumulated these donations till 
bishops were able to dispute empire with governors. ^ The influence of popes 
was so great in the advancement of emperors that they obtained extensive dona- 
tions and prerogatives from the successors of Charlemagne. "^ They diminished 

(7) Gbn. 7; 120-1. (8) Mosh. 9:2; 3, §§ 14, 15. (9) 10:2; 3, §§ 3, 7. (1) Gbn. 2:23; 387. (2) 
Chap. 149, §§ 1, 2. (3) Gbn. 1:20; 263. (4) Mosh. 8:2; 2, § 6. (5) Idm., ^ 7. (6) §§ 3, 4, 5. (7) 
9j2;2, §3. 



Q6^ THE EINaDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the power of bishops and of provincial and general councils, and claimed to be 
supreme legislators and judges of the universal, or Catholic church; and, there- 
fore, bishops and councils derived all their authority from the popes. ^ j 

3. The Latin Head of the Monotheistic Wild Beast Restored to Life. — | 
When the sovereignty of the Greek emperors was extinguished in Italy the ? 
ruins of Rome presented the sad image of depopulation and decay. Bj the neces- • 
sity of their situation the inhabitants of Rome were cast into the rough model of j 
a republican government, and they elected some judges in peace and some 
leaders in war. The nobles assembled to deliberate, but their resolves could not 
be executed without the union and consent of the multitude. The style of the 
Roman senate and people was revived, but the spirit was fled, and their new inde- 
pendence was disgraced by the tumultuous conflict of licentiousness and oppres- 
sion. The want of laws could only be supplied by the influence of religion, and 
their foreign and domestic councils were moderated by the authority of the bishop. 
His alms and sermons, his correspondence with the kings and prelates of the west, 
his recent services, and their gratitude and oath, accustomed the Romans to con- 
sider the pope as the first magistrate, or prince, of the city, and he was not 
ofi'ended with the name, Dominus. ^ The Lombards now (A. D. 730-752) deter- 
mined to conquer and absorb both Rome and Ravenna. Astolphus declared him- 
self the enemy of both the pope and the emperor. Ravenna was subdued by 
force or treachery, and this final conquest extinguished the series of the exarchs 
who had reigned in the name of the Greek emperor since the time of Justinian 
and the ruin of the Gothic kingdom. (A. D, 654—752.) Rome was summoned 
to acknowledge the victorious Lombard as her lawful sovereign. The Romans 
hesitated, entreated, complained, and the threatening barbarians were checked 
by arms and negotiations till the popes had engaged the friendship of an ally and 
avenger beyond the Alps. The Lombards were twice vanquished by Pepin and 
were finally subjugated by Charlemagne and absorbed in the Frank-Roman 
empire. ^ Astolphus relinquished his prey, the keys and hostages of the principal 
cities were delivered to the Frank ambassador, and he, in his master's name, 
presented them before the tomb of St. Peter. The ample measure of the exarchate 
might comprise all the provinces of Italy which had obeyed the emperor and his 
vicegerents, but its strict and proper limits were included in the territories of 
Ravenna, Bologna, and Ferrara, and its inseparable dependency was the Penta- 
polis, which stretched along the Adriatic from Rimini to Ancona, and advanced 
into the midland country to the ridges of the Apenines. This was Pepin's gift 
to the Roman pontifi" for the remission of his sins and the salvation of his soul. 
It was granted in supreme and absolute domain, and the world beheld for the 
first time, A. D. 754, a Christian bishop invested with the prerogatives of a tem- 
poral prince, the choice of magistrates, the exercise of justice, the impositiom of 
taxes, and the wealth of the palace of Ravenna. 

In the dissolution of the Lombard kingdom the inhabitants of Spolleto 
sought a refuge from the storm, shaved their heads after the Roman fashion, 
declared themselves the servants and subjects of St. Peter, and completed by 
this voluntary surrender the present circle of the ecclesiastical states. That mys- 
terious circle was enlarged to an indefinite extent by the donation of Charle- 
magne, who, in the first transports of victory, despoiled himself and the Greek 
emperor of the cities and islands which had formerly been annexed to the 
exarchate. But, in his life and death, Ravenna as well as Rome was numbered 
in the list of his metropolitan cities. The sovereignty of Ravenna melted away 
in the hands of the popes. They found in the archbishops of Ravenna a dan- 
gerous and domestic rival. The nobles and people disdained the yoke of a priest, 
but forged decretals, and the donation of Constantine before the end of the 



(8) § 8. (9) Gbn. 2:10; 178. (1) 2:10; 179. 



OtiAPtER dXLIl. : SECttON IV. ^6^ 

eighth century proved the two magic pillars of the spiritual and temporal mon- 
archy of the popes. The popes were delivered from their debt of gratitude, and 
the gifts of the Carlo vingians were the just and irrevocable restitution of a scanty 
portion of the ecclesiastical states, which, according to the forged donation of 
Constantine, was the free and perpetual sovereignty of Rome, Italy, and the 
provinces of the west. The sovereignty of Rome no longer depended on the 
choice of a fickle people, and the successors of Peter and Constantine were 
invested with the purple and prerogatives of the O^esars. The forgery was not 
detected nor the validity of the donation disputed for three hundred years. ^ 

ISTow, if the pope secured the imperial purple of the Csesars in the eighth 
century by this forgery, and wore it till the twelfth without detection or dispute, 
we must conclude the death wounded Latin head of the great Monotheistic wild 
beast was then healed by the popes; but, perhaps it was healed before, when the 
pope held these possessions by a donation from Pepin; and from that time these 
possessions were held by the popes and the Latin head was represented by them. 
(A. D. 754-800.) Then the beast must do, practice, or do something for twelve 
hundred and sixty years, which would terminate A. D. 2014, or 2060. But 
Gregory II. boasted the popes were the bond of union between the east and the 
west and threatened the Greek head of the Roman empire with war, and Gregory 
III. did defeat the emperor and dictated to Italy what to do, A. D. 728; then twelve 
hundred and sixty years would bring us to A. D. 1988, or, if it was healed when 
Gregory I. restored Rome to self-government and to a first-class city, A. D. 590- 
640, then the beast must do something till A. D. 1850-1864. 

4. The Little Hoki^ or Daniel. — Three of the original divisions of the 
Latin, or western empire, have ruled Italy and the city of Rome, and they have 
been superseded by the sovereignty of the pope. The Heruli dissolved the 
shadow and title of empire and governed Italy with a nominal regard to the Greek 
emperor. The Ostrogoths overthrew the Herlui and governed Italy, giving some 
respect to the Greek head. The Greek head vanquished the Goths and ruled 
Italy by a deputy residing in Ravenna, called the exarch. The Lombards con- 
quered the Greeks and ruled Italy till, by the pope's intercession, they were 
subjugated by the Franks, and then the popes become the sovereigns of Rome 
and the territories taken from the court of Ravenna. Honorius had made Ravenna 
the imperial capital of the western empire for fear of the barbarians, A. D. 404, ^ 
and there it continued till the imperial title and sovereignty was transferred to the 
Greek emperor of Constantinople; and from Ravenna, the Heruli, the Goths, and 
the Lombards governed Italy, either in the name of the Greek emperor or by 
usurpation in their own names, till superseded by the government of the popes. 
What became of the seven other original horns the prophecy does not isay ; but we 
shall count them after we see the consummation of the Frank empire. ^ The pope 
power must be the little horn of Daniel's old Latin beast: He shall make war 
with the saints and wear them out, and shall change times and customs; and they 
shall be given into his hands twelve hundred and sixty years. The beast himself, 
or his body, must continue in some condition or other till Christ's second advent, 
when the beast will be slain and given to the fiame. ^ If this horn arose with 
Gregory I., A. D. 590-604, then his power over the saints, or over times and 
laws, ended A. D. 1850 or 1864. Now, the civil governments have delivered the 
saints out of the pope's hands in diff'erent places at different times. 

Spain, the last of the papal nations to reform, delivered the saints out of the 
pope's hands and gave them the protection of citizens in A. D. 1869. But, in 
fact, the patriarch of Rome had obtained the power over the saints and prelates 
in the west before the time of Gregory I. (See §§1, 2.) But if his rise as a horn 
must be dated A. D. 728, or 754, then his power over them must be resumed and 
continue till A. D. 1988, or 2014. But his hornship and headship may not have 



(2) 2:10; 180-L (3) Gbn. 1:30; 409. (4) Chap. 143, § 7. (5) Dan. 7:11. 



668 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

been consummated at the same date. The pope most certainly became a powei* 
over the saints in the west A. D. 590-604.-, and in A. D. 606 the Emperor Phocas, 
who was the acknowledged head of the Catholic church, acknowledged the pope 
to be the universal bishop, and since A. D. 1869 the civil governments have left 
him his nominal universal ecclesiastical power over those who wish it, but have 
deprived him of the real power, or power in fact, to enforce his mandates. But 
if his headship dates from A. D. 728, or 754, then the Monotheistic wild beast, 
of which he became the restored Latin head, may pratice against the kingdom of 
God till A. D. 1988, or 2014.' This I take to be the correct solution of this com- 
plex representation. Now, everything that bears the stamp of popery must be 
examined with suspicion, for it changes the institutions of the kingdom of God 
and wears out the saints.*^ (Continued in Chap. 143.) 



CHAPTER CXLIII. 



FRANK HEAD, OR THIRD HEAD OF THE MONOTHEISTIC WILD 

BEAST, ESTABLISHED A. M. 4485-4800. (Continued 

from Chapter 138, §§ 1, 2.) 

1. Clovis was the first civil ruler who received the title of the Most Christian 
King, "^ A. D. 481-511. He was baptized A. D. 496 with three thousand of his 
subjects. On that memorable day he alone deserved the name and prerogatives 
of a Catholic king. The Greek emperor, Anastasius, was regarded unsound on 
the Divine Incarnation of Christ, and the barbarians of Italy, Africa, Spain, and 
Gaul were involved in the Arian heresy. As the Eldest, or Only Son, of the 
church — a title conferred on Louis Napoleon — Clovis was acknowledged by the 
Catholic clergy as their lawful sovereign and glorious deliverer, and his arms 
were strenuously supported by the zeal and favor of the Catholic faction.^ In 
A. D. 516 the Greek emperor, Anastasius, bestowed upon him the title of Roman 
Consul, and in A. D. 536. this important concession was more formally declared 
in a treaty between his sons and Justinian, when, by the imperial authority, 
Justinian yielded and confirmed to the Franks the sovereignty of the provinces 
they already possessed beyond the Alps and absolved the citizens from their 
allegiance to the Greek emperor, and thus established on a lawful foundation the 
Merovingian throne, ^ or Frank, or third head of the Roman, or Monotheistic, 
empire, A. D. 536-936, for a period of four hundred and twenty-six years. When 
Justinian contemplated the conquest of Italy, A. D. 538-9, he sent ambassadors 
to the kings of the Franks and adjured them by the common ties of alliance and 
religion to join in the holy enterprise against the Arians. i In A. D. 553-4 the 
Franks and Alemani invaded Italy, but were defeated by Narses, one of Just- 
inian's generals. 2 In A. D. 582-602, the Franks were induced, by the Greek 
Emperor Maurice and the pope of Rome, to aid Rome against the Lombards. 
The passes of the Alps were delivered to the Franks; they defeated the Lom- 
bards, capturing their troops and treasures, but they also desolated the country.^ 
Pope Gregory I. appears, A. D. 590-604, ^ the hope of Rome, and implored the 



(6) Dan. 7:25. (7) Will. Out. Hist., p. 255, § 41. (8) Gbn. 1:38; 510-13. (9) Idm., 516. (1) 
2:2; 41. (2) 2:4; 70-1. (3) 6; 104. (4) 2:6; 107-8. 



CHAPTER CXLIII.: SECTION II. 669 

aid of the Franks ; but Charles Martin, the mayor, or duke, was so engaged with 
the Saracens, whose victories in France he stopped, that he could not succor 
Kome; but his son Pepin assumed the othce of the champion of the Roman 
church. Pepin crossed the Alps with a Frank army and subdued the Lombards 
twice, and compelled them to restore the possessions and respect the sanctity of 
the Roman church, A. D. 754. 

In Pepin begins the Frank dynasty consecrated by the pope. Childeric was 
the last of Merovingian dynasty, or decendents of Clovis, on the throne of France. 
Pepin was only mayor, or duke, but he had the whole management of the gov- 
ernment. Pope Zachary absolved Pepin and the nobles from their oath of 
allegiance to Childeric, who was shaven and confined in a monastery. Pepin was 
chosen by the Franks for their king, and his coronation was twice performed 
by the sanction of the popes. The royal unction of the kings of Israel was dex- 
terously applied, and the successor of St. Peter assumed the character of divine 
ambassador; a German chieftain was transformed into the Lord's anointed, and 
this Jewish rite has been diffused and maintained by the superstition and vanity 
of modern Europe. The Franks were absolved from their ancient oath of 
allegiance, and a dire anathema was thundered against them and their prosterity 
if they elected a king except from the race of the Carlovingian princes ; and the 
secretary of Charlemange affirms that the French sceptre was transferred by the 
authority of the pope. ^ Thus, we see the pope at the head of the Latin empire, 
making kings and deposing dynasties. The prerogative of Jesus Christ, as the 
Lord's Anointed King, is bestowed on the western emperors as well as on the 
eastern; while the popes themselves usurp his prerogatives of Teacher, Savior, 
and Supreme Ruler. The son and successor of Pepin was Charlemagne, or 
Charles I. He reconquered the Lombards and reduced them to an integral part 
of the Frank empire, A. D. 774. The mutual obligations of the popes and Carlo- 
vingian family form the importantlink of ancient and modern, civil and ecclesiastical 
history. 

2. The Frank Empire Perfected by the Pope. — Under the Sacerdotal 
monarchy of St. Peter the nations began to resume the practice of seeking on 
the banks of the Tiber their kings, their laws, and the oracles of their fate. The 
decrees of the senate and people successively invested Charles Martel and his 
posterity with honors of patrician of Rome. The reign of the Greek emperors 
was suspended, and in the vacancy of the empire the Carlovingians derived 
a more glorious commission from the pope and the republic. The Roman ambas- 
sadors presented the patricians with the keys of the shrine of St. Peter, as a 
pledge and symbol of sovereignty; and a holy banner, which it was their right 
and duty to unfurl in the defense of the church and city. In the twenty-six years 
from the conquest of the Lombards to his coronation as emperor, Rome was 
subject to the sceptre of Charlemagne; the people swore allegiance to his person 
and family; in his name money was coined and justice administered, and the 
election of the popes was examined and confirmed by his authority. ^ As the 
Frank empire owes its origin to the bishops of the west and the emperor of the 
east, so its consummation, as a head of the Monotheistic empire, with all its 
titles, was achieved by the pope. And this Carlovingian dynasty of the Frank 
monarchy is the first dynasty, or head, of the pope's wild beast — the holy Roman 
empire — and the papal church was the uniting, animating, and controlling spirit 
of it, as Mahometanism was of the Saracen empire. The Franks, animated and 
aided by the Catholics in every province, vanquished the Arian, or Unitarian, 
sovereigns, and then protected and governed the Catholics in their religion ; and 
the Saracens, animated and aided by Mahometanism and schismatics, conquered 
pagans and Catholics, or Trinitarians, and then established Mahometanism, but 
protected and governed Trinitarians, both Catholics and schismatics. It was after 



(5) Gbn. 2:10; 179-80. (6) Gbn. 2:10; 179-80. 



670 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the Nicen synod the popes consummated the separation of Rome and Italy by 
the translation of the empire to the less orthodox Charlemagne. In four pilgrim- 
ages to the Vatican Charlemagne embraced the popes in communion of friendship 
and piety, knelt before the tomb and image of the apostle, joined without scruple 
in all the prayers and processions of the Roman Hturgy. '' On the festival of 
Christmas of A. D. 800, he appeared in the church of St. Peter, having changed 
the dress of his country for the habit of a patrician. After the celebration of 
the holy mysteries, Pope Leo placed a precious crown on his head. The dome 
resounded with the acclamations of the people: Long life to Charles, the most 
pious Augustus ! Crowned by God ! the great and pacific emperor of the 
Romans. His head and body were consecrated by the royal unction. After the 
example of the Csears, he was saluted or adored by the pontiff. His coronation 
oath represents a promise to maintain the faith and privileges of the church, and 
a Roman synod had pronounced it the only adequate reward of his great merit 
and service. ^ Thus, the pope and emperor of the west are united, as were Greek 
emperors and patriarchs. 

3. The Powee and Conquests of the First Frank-Roman Emperor. — His 
laws enforced the imposition of tiths ; he founded schools ; introduced arts ; and 
Europe dates a new era from his restoration of a western empire. He reigned 
over live countries — France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Hungary — and he 
crushed the resistance of the Christians against the emir of Saragossa. He extir- 
pated the idols of the Saxons and compelled them to embrace the Christianity of 
the empire. He conquered the Avars and Huns and despoiled them of the rapine 
and treasures of two hundred and fifty years, and extended his Frank-Roman 
empire to the boundary line of the Greek-Roman empire; and petty sovereigns 
regarded him as the sole and supreme emperor of the west. ^ Alter a war of 
thirty years the Saxons bowed under the yoke of Christ and of Charlemagne. 
The idols and their votaries were extirpated; the foundation of eight bishoprics — 
Munster, Osnaburgh, Pederborn, and Minden, on one side of the Weser, and of 
Bremen, Yerden, Hildesheim, and Halberstadt, on the other, define the ancient 
Saxony. 

These Episcopal seats were the first schools and cities of that savage 
land, and the religion and humanity of the children atoned in some degree for the 
massacre of the parents. ^ The subjugation of Germany exposed the islands of 
Scandinavia to the knowledge of Europe and awakened the torpid courage of 
their barbarous natives. The fiercest of the Saxon idolaters escaped to their 
brethren of the north, the ocean and the Mediterranean were covered with their 
piratical fleets, and Charlemagne beheld with a sigh the destructive progress of 
the Normans, who in less than seventy years precipitated the fall of his race and 
monarchy. 2 The imperial dignity of Charlemagne was announced to the east by 
the alteration of his style to the Greek emperors, whom he addressed as a brother 
instead of a father, and, perhaps, intended a treaty of marriage with the Empress 
Irene, who paid tribute to the Saracen caliphs. The Frank ambassadors were 
spectators of the conspiracy of Nicephorus against her, and had nearly fallen 
victims to it and to the national hatred. A treaty of peace and alliance was con- 
cluded between the two empires, and the limits of the east and west were defined 
by the right of present possession. During the short union of virtue and power 
the Greeks respectfully saluted the august Charlemagne with the acclamations of 
Basileus and emperor of the Romans. When both virtue and power were extinct 
they despoiled his son of these titles, though he claimed, from his ancestors and 
the pope, a just participation in the honors of the Roman purple. The same con- 
troversy was revived in the reign of the Othos, and in their last decline the 
Greeks refused to prostitute to the kings of Germany the title of Roman emperor. ^ 



(7) Gbn. 2:10; 183. (8) Idm., 183-4. (9) Idm., 185-6. (1) Gbn. 2:10; 186. (2) Idm., 186-7. 
(3)Gbn. 2:10; 187-8. 



CHAPTEE OXLIII. : SECTIONS IV. -VI. 671 

4. Carlo viNGiAN Dynasty. — The Carlovingian sceptre was transmitted from 
father to son in a lineal descent of four generations, and the ambition of the popes 
was reduced to the empty honor of crowning and anointing the hereditary princes 
already invested with their power and dominions — from A. D. 814 till A. D. 887 
in Italy, A. D. 911 in Germany, and A. D. 987 in France. After a war con- 
suming one hundred thousand Franks, the empire was divided by treaty between 
his three sons, and the kingdoms of France and Germany were separated forever; 
but, by the failure of the collateral branches the whole inheritance devolved on 
Charles, the Fat. He was the last emperor of the family, and his insanity author- 
ized the desertion of Germany, Italy, and France. He was deposed in a diet, 
and the term of seventy-four years may be deemed a vacancy in the imperial 
headship till the establishment of the Saxon Otho I., A. D. 962.^ These western 
emperors continued to exercise the powers of the Gothic and Greek princes in 
the election of the popes, and the importance of this prerogative increased with 
the increase of the temporal estate and spiritual jurisdiction of the papal church. 
The election of the pope by the cardinals and clamorous assent of the people was 
imperfect; nor could he be legally consecrated till the emperor had signified his 
approbation and consent, and till the emperor was satisfied he did not accept the 
pope's oath of fidelity, nor bestow his accustomed gift or confirm the donations 
which had successively enriched the patrimony of St. Peter. They decided on 
rival claims, and in a synod of bishops presumed to judge, condemn, and punish 
the crimes of a guilty pontiflf. Otho I. imposed an obligation on the senate and 
people of Rome to choose the candidate he preferred, and his successor antici- 
pated their choice and bestowed the Koman benefice, like the bishoprics of 
Cologne or Bamberg. ^ 

5. The Papal Wild Beast, or the Holy Roman Empire. — The Frank mon- 
archy under the Merovingian dynasty became the third Monotheistic head by the 
power and influence of the Catholic clergy and prelates, and was recognized and 
commissioned by the Greek emperor, who was acknowledged by all the Catholic 
patriarchs, bishops, and clergy to be the sole head of church and state. But the 
pope, having usurped the supremacy over all the patriarchs and churches, or 
received it from the infamous Phocas, and having rebelled against the emperor, 
chose the Frank monarchy for his own empire, and transferred the sovereignty 
from the Merovingian dynasty to the Carlo vingians, and he clothed it with all the 
titles of honor and reverence given to the Greek emperor, after he had obligated 
it to protect, advance, and respect all the assumed rights and prerogatives of his 
holy see. Under the Merovingian dynasty the Frank head belonged to the first 
wild beast, and was its third head; under the Carlovingians it was transferred to 
the image, animated and controlled by the Papal horn of the second wild beast. 
All actions, councils, and controllings spoken of in prophecy refer to the kingdom 
of God and His saints. In relation to other objects these emperors may be free 
to determine and act, and they may sometimes rebel against the pope, as he did 
against the Greek emperor.* 

6. The Ten Horns of Daniel's Wild Beast. ^ — According to Daniel, the 
Poman power had become a wild beast before he began to vanquish the Grecian 
and other wild beasts ; so, when we look for its horns we must find them on terri- 
tory that did not belong to the Macedonian empire. Now, this territory was 
occupied in the last of the eighth century by the pope, the Franks, the Saracens, 
and the Saxons, and the ten horns, or kings, must have been absorbed by them. 
The pope has superseded the Heruli, Ostrogoths, and Lombards in Italy, and 
caused the Lombards to be entirely subjugated and absorbed by the Franks.'^ 
The Yandalg of Africa and Yis-Goths of Spain have been superseded by the Sara- 
cens from Arabia and the Moors of Africa. ^ The Britons have been conquered 

(4) Mm,, 187. Chap. 144, §§ 7, 8. (5) Gbn 2:10; 188. (*) Continued, chaps. 158. 174, §§ 1, 2. 
(6) Dan. 7:7, 8, 24. (7) Gbn. 1:36; 494-5; Her. 31; 533-4; Goths. 2:10; 179. Lomb. (8) 2:2; 23-9; 
by Greeks. 2:12; 238-41; by Saracens. Id m. 242-5. 



672 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED 

by Saxons. 9 The Franks have absorbed the remainder of the Yis-Goths, 
and of the Lombards, and the Alemani, the Armoricans, and the Burgundians. ^ 
Thus, we have ten kingdoms occupying the territory of the ruined western empire, 
or the old Latin power, absorbed by four sovereignties. These horns must not 
be located on territory belonging to the Macedonian wild beast, or empire, and 
must have become powers before the papal horn, according to Daniel. (A. D. 754). 
Mesia, or the modern Servia and Bulgaria, and Macedonia, including the south 
part of Illyricum, belonged to Philip of Macedon.^ The European provinces 
were protected by the course of the Rhine and the Danube on the north. Rhetia, 
Noricum, Pannonia, and Dalmatia, ^ or Illyria, ^ the other northern provinces, 
had belonged to the Macedonian empire. Trajan did conquer Dacia on the north 
side of the Danube A. D. 105,^ which was contrary to the advice of Augustus to 
make the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates the boundaries of the empire,* 
but Aurelian restored it to the Goths and Yandals A. D. 270-5, and the Roman 
subjects removed south of the Danube,^ and so can not be regarded as a Roman 
territory. 

In the division of the Roman empire by Yalentinian, the western empire, 
which was divided into fragments, was bounded on the east by its Illjrian 
province; from the lower Danube to Persia was allotted to the Greek division.^ 
In the final division Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor, and Thrace, from the lower 
Danube to the confines of Persia and Ethiopia, were allotted to the eastern empire, 
while Italy, Africa, Gaul, Spain, and Britain belonged to the western, and the 
prefecture of Illyricum was divided between them. Noricum, Pannonia, and 
Dalmatia still belonged to the western, but Macedonia and Dacia, south of the 
Danube, were forever united to the eastern empire. "' After the transfer of imperial 
dignity from the western to the eastern empire, all the barbarian sovereigns of 
Italy, Spain, and Gaul acknowledged the superiority of the court of Constanti- 
nople, ^ and the Yandals of Africa were conquered by it. This gave a bond of 
union to them till popery and Mahometanism superseded Christianity and estab- 
lished an image of a political wild beast very unlike Daniel's. 

7. The Hoens. — The Huns can not be recognized as a horn, or power, of 
the Roman empire, either before or after the rise of the papal horn, or power. 
Though they enabled the usurper and perfidious Aetius to establish his authority 
in Rome as patrician and Pannonia was abandoned by him to them,^ their palace 
was north of the Danube and Pannonia was only a province of their Dacian 
empire^. (A. D. 455.) They were not allies, auxiliaries, coreligionists, nor in any 
sense a component part of the western empire. They invaded both empires; the 
west paid them tribute ;^ their possessions south of the Danube, from Pannonia 
to the Black sea, were obtained from the eastern empire A. D. 446. ^ They 
were pagans;* never became Christians till their empire expired with Attila, ^ 
A. D. 453. I^or can the Gepidae be a horn, for they occupied the territories of 
the eastern empire till extirpated by the Avars and Lombards, A. D. 527-465.^ 
Also, the Avars never formed an integral power of the western empire in territory, 
religion, or cooperation in government. They were not Huns, "^ but their Dacian 
empire occupied the same territory. ^ Pannonia was a province of it, ^ and Mesia, 
south of the Danube, from Pannonia to the Black sea ; but their throne was north 
of the Danube in the rustic palace of Attila. ^ They were always adversaries to 
the religion and government of Rome till Charlemagne retaliated on the Avars, 
or Huns of Pannonia, the same calamities which they had inflicted on the nations, ^ 



(9)1:28; 524-6. (1)31; 438. 38; 511-16. (2) Mitch. Anct. Gcog , pp. 139. 140. (3) Gbn. 1:1; 
20. (4) Idm., p. 14. Thai. Acct., p. 335. (5) Gbn. Ml: 110. Thai. Anct, p 343. (6) Gbn. 1:25; 
331. (7) 1:29; 395. (8) Thai. Mod., p. 19, § 10. (9) Gbn 1:34; 459 1:35; 469. (1) Idm. 477. 
(2) Idm., and 34; 458, 459. ^3) Idm. 463. (4) 459-60. (5) 1:35; 477, and Rev. Eurp.. Yol. I., 
ped. 1; chap. 2, p. 45. (6) Gbn. 2:3; 45-47. (7) Gbn., Vol. II., chap. 3, p. 49. (8) 2:6; 99-100. 
(9) 7; 120. (1) Idm. 114. (2) 10; 186. 



CHAPTER CXLIII.: SECTION VII. 673 

and added it to his empire. ^ He completely subverted the powerful monarchy 
of the Avars — Hungary, Transylvania, Sclavonia, Dalmatia, and Crotia^ — 
A. D. 791. 

T/ie Heruli: The name of the Bavarians does not occur in history before the 
middle of the sixth century. They are reckoned to be an association of the 
Heruli, Rugians, Turcilingians, and Scyrians, who occupied parts of Rhetia, 
Yandelicia, and Noricum. ^ These countries, with Pannoniaand parts of Illyri cum, 
embraced all the territory of the western empire* lying between the Danube and 
the Alps. ^ After the dissolution of the Hun empire, the dominion of Pannonia 
was usurped by the Ostrogoths. Confederate armies of the barbarians, forming 
the Hun empire, formed the defense and the terror of Italy. Among these the 
names of the Heruli, the Scyrri, Aleni, Turcilingi, and fiugians predominate. 
Orestes of Pannonia commanded one of these confederate armies, and these 
troops had long been accustomed to reverence the character and authority of 
Orestes, who was intimately connected with their national chieftains by long 
habits of familiarity and friendship. Refusing the dominion of the Goths, Orestes 
led an army of these confederates into Italy, dethroned the Emperor Kepos, and 
obtained the throne for his son Augustulus. These confederates demanded a 
third part of the lands of Italy. Orestes refused. Odoacer, a Herulian chief, 
offered to gain what they demanded. The confederate chieftains flocked to his 
standard; Orestes was slain; the western empire was extinguished; Odoaeer 
became a Roman patrician and reigned over Italy as king, but pretended to rule 
by authority of the Greek emperor. Odoacer was an Arian, but tolerated the 
Catholics, reveared the monastic and Episcopal characters, protected the election 
of the pope, acquired the maritine province of Dalmatia, rescued the remains of 
Noricum from the Rugians residing north of the Danube, and transplanted a 
numerous colony of captives and subjects into Italy.''' This horn, or power, is 
called the Herulic, but it might be called the Bavarian confederate transplanted 
horn, or power, A. D. 476-93.^ Bavaria never became an independent power; 
but a great part of Pannonia, Rhetia, J^oricum, and Illyria was governed by the 
Goths and Alemanni A. D. 493-553, ^ and they were governed by chiefs dependent 
on the Franks from A. D. 595 ^ till the hereditery dukes were abolished and the 
power was shared among the counts ;2 and it was absorbed in the Frank empire 
under Charlemagne. ^ 

Alemanni: The Germans were united in five confederations — the Saxons, 
Franks, Alemanni, Burgundians, and Goths. ^ From the source of the Rhine to 
its influx with the Mien and Moselle the formidable swarms of the Alemanni 
commanded either side of the river by right of ancient possession or recent victory, 
A. D. 496, and they had spread themselves into Gaul over the modern provinces 
of Alsace and Lorrain ; and their bold invasion of Cologne summoned the Salic 
prince, Clovis, to the defense of his Ripuarian allies. The Alemanni were defeated 
and their Gallice territories became the prize of the Franks.^ The Goths 
abandoned the nation of the Alemanni to interest the Franks in their cause against 
the Greeks. Clovis left part of their territories under hereditary chiefs who 
acknowledged the superiority of the Prankish kings. Such of them as Theodoric 
received into parts of Rhetia and E'oricum continued dependent on the Goths till 
the decay of that monarchy near the middle of the sixth century, when they 
became subject to the dominion of the Franks.^ In A. D. 553 they were still 
pagans and acted as allies to the Franks, '^ and were finally absorbed in the Frank 
empire. ^ They had been formidable enemies to the Roman emperors, and had 
also been treated as allies. ^ 



(3) Thai. Mod., p. 36, § 54. (4) Rev. Eurp., Vol. I., chap. 3, p 64. (5) Idrn., chap. 2, p. 51. 
(6) Mitch. Anct. Geujr. anu Atlas. (7) Gbn. 1:86; 493-6. (8) Chaps. 36. 39, pp. 494 and 533. (9) 
39; 533-6. and 2:4; 71. Rev. Eurp., Yol. I., p. 50. (1) Rev. Eurp. 1; 51, note 14. (2) Gbn. 2:10; 
186. (3) Thai § 51, p. 35. (4) Idm., § 8, p. 18. (5) Gbn , Vol. I., pp. 511-12. (6) Rev. Eurp., 
Vol. I., p. 51. Note 13 and 15. (7) Gbn. 2:4; 70. (8) 10; 186. (9) Idm., and 1:19; 247, and 249, 
and 1:25; 338-9. 

-43 



674 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Biirgundians: The Bnrgundians were neighbors to the Alemanni and were 
in frequent contests with them, which contests were often instigated by the 
Komans, who promised support and subsidies to the Burgundians. i In A. D. 
499 their kingdom, defined by the course of the Saone and the Rhone, extended 
from the forest of Yosges to the Alps and the sea of Marseilles. The sceptre was 
in the hands of Gundobald, who was an Arian. By the conspiracy of his brother 
and the Catholic bishops, Clovis was enabled to defeat and subject the Bur- 
gundians to his dynasty ; but 'they enjoyed their own national laws under 
obligation of tribute and military service, ~ and were finally absorbed in the Frank 
empire. 

Armoricans: In A. D. 407 the army of Briton revolted against the Emperor 
Honorius, elected and murdered two kings ; the third one was named Constan- 
tine, who conquered and possessed the western provinces of Europe from the 
walls of Antoninus to the pillars of Herculus.^ But he and other usurpers were 
defeated by the Boman general, Constantius, and the provinces restored to the 
empire A. D. 409-13. ^ In A. D. 409 the Britons, reduced to extremity, no longer 
relied on the aid of a declining monarchy, assembled in arms, repelled the 
invaders, and rejoiced in the discovery of their own strength. Afliicted by similar 
calamities and actuated by the same spirit, the Armoricans resolved to imitate 
the example of the neighboring islands. Their provinces comprehended the 
maritime countries of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire. They expelled the 
magistrates acting under the authority of the usurper, Constantine, and a free 
government was established among the people. The independence of Britain 
and Armorica was soon confirmed by Honorius himself, the lawful emperor of 
the west. After the usurpers of the west had fallen the maritime provinces were 
restored, yet their obedience was precarious and imperfect. But, as the emperors 
wisely acquiesced in the independence of a remote province, the separation of 
Britain was not embittered by the reproach of tyranny or rebellion. Briton was 
irrevocably lost to the empire, and Armorica was agitated by frequent and 
destructive revolts. ^ They were Celts, and were augmented by colonies of 
Britons expelled by the Saxons after A. D. 450 ; and the district allotted to them 
by the Armoricans was called Brittany. ^ They were an independent power after 
the extinction of the western empire, and though their slight repubhc had been 
repeatedly shaken, or overthrown, they guarded their domestic freedom, asserted 
the dignity of the Boman name, and bravely resisted the predatory inroads of 
Clovis, who labored to extend his conquests from the Seine to the Loire. Their 
successful opposition introduced an equal and honorable union A. D. 497. The 
Franks esteemed the valor of the Armoricans, and the Armoricans were recon- 

* 

ciled by the religion of the Franks."^ 

Britain, as we have seen above, became an independent nation wliile the 
empire was falling into dissolution, but they were conquered by the Anglos and 
Saxons about A. I). 450, who established the Anglo-Saxon horn, which has grown 
into an empire. The ancient Britons were driven into Wales, where they still 
remain; and numbers of them colonized in Gaul and mingled with the original 
Celtic inhabitants of America. Their home was called Brittany.^ Both Britons 
and their supplanters professed Christianity. 

Goths JP'ormed Two Horns — the Vis- Goths and Ostrogoths. Vis- Goths: 
Theodosius I. had given subsidies to the Goths. These being interrupted or 
diminished, their troops were irregularly spread from the woody shores of Dal- 
matia to the walls of Constantinople, and ruined the countries of Thrace, and the 
Dacia south of the Danube, called Mesia. Alaric traversed, without resistance, 
the plains of Macedonia and Tiiessaly. The fertile fields of Phocis and Bacotia 
were covered by a deluge of barbarians; the territory of Attica was blasted by 



(1) (;ba. 1:25; 339. (2) 38; 513-14. (3) 30; 413-14. (4) 31; 434-6. (5) Gbn. 1:31; 438-9. 
(6) Rev Eurp., Vol. I., chap. 2, p. 48. Thai., § 7, p. 17. (7) Gbn. 1:08; 513. (8) Rev. Eurp., 
1:2, p.^8. Thai., p. 17, § 7. 



CHArXER CXLIII. : SECTION" VII. 675 

his presence. Corinth, Argos, and Sparta yielded without resistauce. Stilicho, 
general of the west, crossed the Ionian sea into prostrated provinces of the east 
and defeated Alaric. Alaric escaped to and possessed Epirus, and secretly nego- 
tiated a treaty with the ministers of Constantinople. Stilicho retired from the 
territories of the east at the command of his haughty rivals in the court of Arca- 
dius, A. D. 395-7. An edict from Constantinople promoted Alaric to the rank 
of master-general of the eastern lUyricum ; the Gothic chieftains proclaimed 
Alaric king of the Yis-Goths. The provinces of the east in Europe were already 
exhausted and he determined to invade the western empire. He invaded Italy 
A. D. 400-3, spreading devastation and terror, till he was again defeated by 
Stilicho. 9 Renouncing the service of the eastern, Alaric concluded a treaty with 
the western empire, and was declared master-general of the Roman armies 
throughout the prefecture of Illyricum. ^ Alaric again invades Italy A. D. 408, 
and besieged Rome^ three times, and captures and pillages it, and then ravages 
Italy and dies. (A. D. 408-10. 2) His brother-in-law, Adolphus, was elected 
to the throne and made a treaty of friendship and alliance with the.Romans, and 
resolved to use the sword of the Goths to restore and maintain the prosperity of 
the Roman empire. As a Roman general Adolphus marched into southern Gaul, 
and soon extended his quarters from the Mediterranean sea to the ocean,* A. D. 
412. He turned his armies against the barbarians of Spain A. D. 414, and took 
Barcelona in the name of the emperor, and was assassinated A. D. 415. Wallia 
was elected to the Gothic throne and engaged to draw his sword in the service of 
the empire. He exterminated the Silingi, slew the king of the Alani, and oblit- 
erated the nation. The Yandals and Suavi yielded to the invincible Goths, and 
he restored his Spanish conquests to the obedience of the Emperor Honorius 
A. D. 415-18. s Theodoric, son of Alaric, succeeded Wallia and became ally to 
the empire, and the Goths, with the Roman army under Aetius, defeated the 
Huns and their allies under Attila, A. D. 451.^ Theodoric II. appeared for 
awhile to have extirpated the name and kingdom of the Suevi and carried his 
victorious armies to Merida, in Lusitania, without opposition. "^ He violated his 
recent treaty with the Romans and the ample territory of Narbonne was firmly 
united with his own dominion; and the design of extinguishing the Roman 
empire in Spain and Gaul was conceived, and nearly completed, by his brother 
and successor, Euric, who subdued the cities of Saragossa and Pampeluna, van- 
quished the martial nobles of the Tarragonese province, carried his victorious 
armies into the heart of Lusitania, and permitted the Suevi to hold the kingdom 
of Gallicia under the Gothic monarchy of Spain, and throughout the country, from 
the Pyrenees to the Rhone and the Loire. Berg and Auvergne were the only cities, 
or dioceses, which refused to acknowledge him for a master,^ A. D. 462-7*2. The 
kingdom of Euric covered all Spain and that part of Gaul bounded by the Loire 
on the north and the Rhone on the east, and Odoacer, the new sovereign of Italy, 
resigned to him all the Roman conquests beyond the Alps as far as the ocean. f 
His descendants were driven south of the Pyrenees, but their kingdom in Spain 
lasted two hundred years, till overthrown by the Saracens, A. D. 711. ^ They 
were a big horn. 

Alani and Suavi: They united with the Vandals before they entered the 
Roman empire, ^ and with them entered the empire under Radagaisus, A. D. 
406; after his defeat by Stilicho they invaded Gaul,^ and conquered Spain A. D. 
409, and parted it among them. The Yandals and Suevi possessed Gallicia ; the 
Alani were scattered over Carthagenia and Lusitania, from the Mediterranean to 
the Atlantic ocean; and Boetica was allotted to the the Silingi. ^ In A. D. 414 
the Yis-Goths under Adolphus restored Gaul to the empire and penetrated 
Spain. Under his successor, Wallia, A. D. 415-18, they exterminated the Silingi, 

(9) Gbn. 1:30; 408. (1) Gbn. 1:80; 414. (2) 81; 417. (3) Idm., 425-32. (4) Idm., 432. (5) 
437-8. (6) 1:35; 469, 472. (7) 36: 482 (8) Gbn. 1:36; 490. (f) Gbn. 1:38; 510. (9) Thai., Yol. 
II., p. 17, § 5 (1) Mitch. Anct. Atlas. (2) Gbn. 1:30; 410-12. (3) Idm., 436-7. 



676 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED, 

slew the king of the Alani, and his fugitives who escaped slaughter fled to the 
Yandals, with whom they were confounded forever. The Yandals and Suevi 
yielded to the invincible valor of the Goths, and the promiscuous multitude of 
barbarians were driven into the mountains of Gallicia, where they continued to 
exercise their domestic and implacable hostilities, and the vanquished territories 
of Spain were restored to the empire of the west. ^ Thus, the authority of Hono- 
rius had obtained a precarious establishment in Spain, except only in the province 
of Gallicia, where the Suevi and Yandals had fortified their camps in mutual 
discord and hostile independence. The Yandals prevailed; their rapid progress 
reconquered the master-general Castinus, with a numerous army of Romans and 
Goths. Castinus was defeated, and the Yandals took Seville and Carthagenia, 
A. D. 428. Genseric became king of the Yandals, and was about to invade 
Africa when he learned that the Suevi had presumed to ravage his abandoned 
provinces in Spain. Genseric pursued the Suevi to Merida and precipitated the 
king and his army into the river Anas, and "then returned to the sea shore and 
embarked for Africa. (A. D. 429. ^) After the departure of Genseric into Africa, 
the Suevi, who had fixed their kingdom in Gallicia, aspired to the conquest of 
Spain. Theodoric II., with his Goths, Franks, and Burgundians, in the name of 
the Roman emperor, Avitos, by a decisive victory appeared for awhile to have 
•extirpated the name and kingdom of the Suevi. (A. D. 456.^) But his suc- 
cessor, Euric, permitted the Suevi to hold Gallicia under the Gothic monarchy of 
Spain. '^ (A. D. 462-72.) Neither as friends nor foes can the Silingi, the Alani, 
nor Suevi in Spain be recognized as a horn, or independent power of the western 
Roman empire. Their independent nationality within the territory of that 
empire, was never recognized as friend or foe by the court of Rome, or the court 
of Constantinople, nor by the pope or Frank consul ; nor did any of them prove 
themselves, as enemies or allies, to be an independent power. 

Vandals: They invaded Africa by invitation of Count Boniface and the 
offer of an advantageous and perpetual settlement, A. D. 428-9, ^ and became a 
power formidable to both empires,^ sacked Rome A. D. 455, infested Italy A. D. 
461-7, and negotiated with the court of Constantinople A. D. 462, and proved 
a match for both empires A. D. 468. ^ They were Unitarians, or Arians, and 
persecuted the Trinitarians, or Catholics, A. i). 429-496, ^ and they continued a 
power till their monarchy was subverted by the armies of Justinian, and Africa 
remained a part of the Greek-Roman empire till it was subjugated by the Sara- 
cens, A. D. 647-709. ^ 

Ostrogoths: While a numerous colony of Yis-Goths were seated in Thrace, 
what remained of the Ostrogoths after their defeat on the Danube by Theodosius I., 
A. D. 336, were planted in Phrygia A. D. 383-95, in the sole possession of the 
villages and districts assigned to them. They still cherished and propagated their 
native manners and language, asserted in the bosom of despotism the freedom 
of their domestic government, and acknowledged the sovereignty of the emperor 
without submitting to the inferior jurisdiction of the laws and magistrates of 
Rome. The hereditary chiefs of the tribes and families were still permitted to 
command their followers in peace and war; but the royal dignity was abolished, 
and the generals of the Goths were appointed and removed at the pleasure of the 
emperor, and an army of forty thousand Goths was maintained for the perpetual 
service of the emperor of the east. * Two years after the death of Attila, Theo- 
doric was born; and a recent victory had restored the independence of the Ostro- 
goths, and that warlike nation had pitched their habitation in the fertile though 
desolate province of Pannonia, and the Huns threatening these rebellious subjects 
were repulsed. Theodoric was educated with care and tenderness, from his eighth 
year of age, in Constantinople, and he became an able general ; and at eighteen 



(4)31; 437. (5)Gbn. 1:33; 454. (6)36; 482. (7) Idm., 491. (8) 33; 454-7. (9)34; 461. (1) 
36; 489-90. (2) 37; 506. (3) Gbn. 2:12; 238-42. (4) 1:27; 368-9. 



CHAPTEK CXLIII. : SECTION Vli. 6t? 

he was restored to the Ostrogoths and became their king. They left Pannonia 
for the warm and wealthy neighborhood of the court of Constantinople, which 
already maintained so many bands of confederate Goths, received a donation of 
money and land, and were intrusted with the defense of the lower Danube under 
the command of Theodoric, A. D. 455-75. Theodoric, king of the Goths, was 
elevated by the Emperor Zeno to the rank of patrician and consul, command of 
the Palastine troops, and was enriched and honored, but became an enemy and 
spread desolation from Constantinople to the Adriatic, A. D. 475-88. The whole 
nation of the Ostrogoths becoming united under Theodoric, the Byzantine court sub- 
scribed an ignominious treaty. The western empire having become extinct, Odoacer 
reigned over Italy. Theodoric requested the emperor to commission him to 
dispossess the Heruli and reign in the name of the eastern emperor, who was now 
sole emperor of the whole Roman empire. The Goths migrated to Italy, subju- 
gated the Herculi, and estabJished the kingdom of the Ostrogoths in Italy A. D. 
489-93. ^ Theodoric reduced, under a strong and regular government, the countries 
of Rhetia, Noricum, Dalmatia, and Pannonia, from the source of the Danube and 
the territory of the Bavarians to the petty kingdom of the Gepidae on the ruins 
of Sirmium, and the Gothic sovereignty was acknowledged from Sicily to the 
Danube, from Sirmium, or Belgrade, to the Atlantic ocean. ^ Though the Goths 
were Arians, yet they tolerated the Catholics and protected and controlled the 
pope, or rather patriarch as yet, of Rome, and their kingdom continued till A. D. 
539, when it was overthrown by the armies of the Greek, or eastern, or Byzan- 
tine, empire. '^ Italy was governed by an exarch, or deputy, of the Greek emperor 
till the pope restored the Latin headship in himself and became a political power; 
but the exarchate of Ravenna can not be recognized as a horn of the western, or 
old Latin, beast ; for it was only the seat of the deputy of the Greek emperor, 
who was not a horn of the western, but the sole head of both the old Macedonian 
and of the old Latin beast. 

Franks: The Franks became a power in and out of the western empire under 
Clovis, and remained a power till it became a head of two of John's wild beasts.* 
The Franks, before the monarchy of Clovis, were in confederated tribes. ^ Clovis 
was chief of the Salian tribe. The kindred tribes were located along the Belgic 
rivers, the Scheld, the Meuse, the Moselle, and the Rhine, and were govern'ed by 
their independent chiefs, who were equal allies, and sometimes the enemies of the 
Salic prince. But these tribes, who obeyed their hereditary chiefs in time of peace, 
were free to follow the popular standard of a victorious general, and the superior 
merit of Clovis attracted the respect and allegiance of the national confederacy, 
and in a reign of thirty years he established the Frank monarchy in Gaul. None 
of these tribes were a power in and of themselves for or against the empire, and 
the Roman king or patrician first conquered by Clovis appears to have been a man 
of rank and property, whose personal merit commanded the respect and attach- 
ment of the remnants of desolated neighboring districts, and his loose bands of 
volunteers were incapable of contending with the national valor of the Franks. ^ 

Lombards: The Lombards first passed the Danube at the solicitation of 
Justinian, sole emperor of east and west, to reduce the cities of Noricum and the 
fortresses of Pannonia. ^ Having, with the Avars, extirpated the Gepidae, the 
Lombards descended into Italy, leaving their lands to the Avars, and conquered a 
great part of Italy A. D. 567-570, ^ and the conquest of the whole province was 
achieved A. D. 584-590. ^ The dukes of Beneventum were vassals to the Lom- 
bards, and held their domain as a Lombard fife^ when Charlemagne conquered 
Italy and subjected these dukes to tribute. ^ Beneventum was not a power before 
the rise of the papal power, and the maritime towns of Italy were possessed by 
the Greek emperor. ^ The papal horn arose after all these. (Chap. 147.) 



(5) 1:39; 531-6. (6) 586. (7) 2:2; 43. (*) Chap. 143, §§ 1, 2. (8) Gbn. 1:10; 98. (9) 38; 510- 
11. (1) 2:3; 47. (2) 6; 99-100. (3) 104-5. (4) 2:10; 186. (5) Rev. Eurp. 1:64; 3. 



CHAPTER CXLIT. 



THE FIRST WOE. A. M. 4940-5100. (Continued from Chap. 141.) 

1. Position. A. D. 800. — The second wild beast has fully developed two 
horns — Mahometanism and popery. The image of political sovereignty has been 
completed by means of these horns ; all under his authority are commanded to 
acknowledge, reverence, and obey the lieutenant of the caliph and the emperor 
of the pope upon pain of excommunication and its attendant consequences, and 
the second beast himself animates and claims the right to control this image. 
Thus far the caliph has exercised absolute control of his political image; but the 
pope has only established his. The Saracens establish Mahometanism in all their 
conquests, and the Franks establish popery wherever they subjugate a tribe or 
nation. The caliph has a vizier,"^ or lieutenant of the faithful, and the pope has 
crowned an emperor of his own. The genuine political wild beast, or first devel- 
opment of the Monotheistic antagonism to the kingdom of God, is still alive 
under his Greek headship, and his Latin headship has been revived in the pope 
himself. Harun is the orthodox caliph. ^ Leo III. is pope and Charlemagne is 
his emperor. "^ Irene, succeeded by JSTicephorus, rules the Greeks. These are the 
four heads of the Monotheistic wild beast, and the Red Dragon does not appear 
in the conspicuous heavens. Is the peace and happiness of the Monotheistic 
empire, or world, perfected with its triumphs? Are the swords beaten into plow- 
shares, and spears into pruning hooks? Do not any evils or invasions afflict this 
pseudo-holy empire ? Is this the kingdom of God consummated ? A woe accom- 
panied, or followed, the sounding of the fifth trumpet, and we must examine 
history and see what it is. 

2. Decline of the Saracens. — After the conquest of Persia, the Oxus river 
divided the Turks of Transoxiana from the Saracens (A. D. 710), and while one 
of his colleagues displayed the Mahometan banners on the Indus, the arms of 
Catiba reduced the specious regions between the Oxus, the Jaxartes, and the 
Caspian sea to the obedience of the prophet and of the caliph. A tribute of two 
million pieces of gold was imposed on the infidels; their idols were burnt or 
broken ; the Musselman chief pronounced a sermon in the new mosque of Carizme, 
and after several battles the Turkish hordes were driven back to tiie desert, and 
the emperors of China solicited the friendship of the victorious Arabs. ^ But 
with Motassem, the eighth of the Abassides, the glory of his family and nation 
expired. Of the Turks, the robust youth taken in war and purchased in trade 
were educated in the exercise of the field and the profession of the Mahometan 
faith. The Turkish guards stood in arms around the throne of their benefactor, 
and their chiefs usurped the dominion of the palace and the provinces. Motassem 
introduced into the capital above fifty thousand Turks; at the instigation of his 
son they burst into his apartment and cut him into seven pieces. In four years 
they created, deposed, and murdered three commanders of the faithfnl Mahom- 
etans, and the nations of of the east were thus taught to trample on the caliphs, 
the successors of the prophet. (A. D. 841-870. ^) Usurpations, a rival prophet, 



(*) 13; 265, note S. (6) Gbn. 2:13; 259. (7) 10; 183. (8) Gbn. 2:12; 224. (9) 13; 262-3. 



CHAPTEK CXLIV.: SECTION it 0T9' 

revolt of provinces, and luxury subdued the caliphs ; the language and genius of 
Persia revived, and the Arabs were deprived of the sceptre of the east four 
hundred and four years after the death of Mahomet (A. D. 870-936.)^ 

An Arabian preacher, named Carmath, assumed the lofty titles of the 
Director, the Demonstration, the Word, the Holy Ghost, the Camel, the Herald 
of the Messiah, who had conversed with him in human shape ; the representative 
of Mahomet the son of Ali, of John the Baptist, and of the angel Gabriel. 
He relaxed the duties of ablution, fasting, and pilgrimage, allowed* the use of 
wine and forbidden food, and nourished the favor of his disciples by the repetition 
of fifty prayers. These Carmathians vowed a blind and absolute obedience to 
their Imam, who was called to the prophetic office by the voice of God. After a 
bloody conflict, they prevailed in the province of Bahrein, on the Persian gulf. 
(A. D. 900.) Far and wide the tribes of the Arabian desert were subject to the 
sceptre and sword of Imam Abu Said and his son, Abu Taher. The mercenaries 
of the caliph were dismayed at their approach, for they neither gave nor accepted 
quarter. They were victorious in every action ; cities were taken and pillaged, 
Bagdad was filled with consternation, the caliph trembled behind the veils of his 
palace, while the camp of his array was surprised and his general chained with 
the Imam's dogs. They robbed pilgrims, and a caravan of twenty thousand 
devout Moslems were abandoned to a death of hunger and thirst on the burning 
sands. In a festival of devotion they stormed the holy city of Mecca, trampled 
on the most venerable relicts of the Mahometan faith. (A. D. 929. ) Thirty thousand 
citizens and strangers were put to the sword; the sacred precincts were polluted 
by the burial of three thousand dead bodies, and the temple robbed; the well 
Zemzem overflowed with blood, and they continued to invest the confines of 
Irak, Syria, and Egypt. But their enthusiasm withered at the root, they broke 
into factions, and were finally extirpated. ^ 

By a long and hereditary exercise of power, the lieutenants of the caliph 
assumed the pride and attributes of royalty; the alternative of peace and war, of 
reward or punishment, depended solely on their will, and the revenues of the 
government were reserved for local services or private magnificence. After the 
revolt of Spain from the temporal and spiritual supremacy of the Abbassides, the 
Lieutenant Ibrahim, in Africa, established the dynasty of the Aglabites, A. D. 
800-941. The Edrisites erected the kingdom of Fez, on the western ocean, A. D. 
829-907. In the east, the dynasty of the valiant Taher reigned in Chorasan 
A. D. 813-872, and were supplanted by the Safiarides A. D.' 872-902. Persia 
was subdued by them, and the residence of the caliph in Bagdad was threatened. 
The caliph invited the Samanides, who passed the Oxus, defeated the Sofl'arians, 
and restored Persia to the caliph, A. D. 874-999. The provinces of Syria and 
Egypt were twice dismembered by their Turkish slaves — of the race of Toulun 
A. D. 868-905, and of Ikshid A. D. 934-968— but were recovered by the Abbas- 
sides. Mesopotamia, with the cities of Mosul and Aleppo, was occupied by the 
Arabian princes of the tribe of Hamadan A. D. 892-1001. Their elevation and 
reign exhibit a scene of treachery, murder, and parricide. The Persian kingdom 
was again usurped by the dynasty of the bowides. A. D. 933-1035, by the sword 
of three brothers, styled the support and columns of the state, no tyrants but 
themselves were sufl'ered to reign from the Caspian to the ocean. ^ 

Thus, the caliphs, lords of the eastern world, were reduced to the most abject 
misery and exposed to the blows and insults of a servile condition. Under the 
mask of piety the rigid followers of Hanbal invaded the pleasures of domestic 
life, burst into the houses of plebeians and princes, spilt the wine, broke the 
instruments, beat the musicians, and dishonored with infamous suspicions the 
associates of every handsome youth. Professions were divided by the notaries 
and antagonists of Ali, and the Abbassides were awakened by the clamorous 



(1)263-5. (2)2:13; 263. (8)264. 



680 THE laNGDOM OF GOD DEVELOl^ED. 

griefs of the sectaries, who denied their title and cursed their progenitors. The 
African and Turkish guards drew their swords against each other, and the chief 
commanders imprisoned or deposed their sovereigns and violated the sanctuary 
of the mosch and haram. If the caliphs escaped to the camp or court of a neigh- 
boring prince their deliverance was a change of servitude till tliey were prompted 
by despair to invite the bowides, the sultans of Persia, who silenced the factions 
of Bagdad by their irresistable arms; and sixty thousand pounds was assigned 
for the private expense of the commander of the faithful. But at the audience 
of the ambassadors of Chorasan and in the presence of a trembling multitude, the 
caliph was dragged from his throne to a dungeon by command of the stranger 
and the rude hands of his dilemites ; his palace was pillaged, his eyes were put 
out, and the mean ambition of the Abbassides aspired to the vacant station of 
danger and disgrace. But they reformed and performed with zeal and knowledge 
the functions of this ecclesiastical character; the respect of nations still waited on 
the successors of the apostle, the oracles of the law, and the conscience of the 
faithful; and the weakness or division of their tyrants sometimes restored the 
Abbassides to the sovereignty of Bagdad. But the Fatimites extinguished in 
Egypt and Syria both the spiritual and temporal authority of the Abbassides, 
and the monarch of the Nile insulted the humble pontiff on the banks of the 
Tigris.^ All these vicissitudes were attended with atrosities and woes of every 
description and every degree. Bagdad was not the city of peace. 

3. The Greek Empire Reconquers Territory. — When the eastern world 
was convulsed and broken by civil wars among the Saracens, the Greek, or 
Greek-Roman, empire was roused by tlie hopes of conquests and revenge. In 
the subordinate of general, Nicephorus Phocas recovered the Isle of Crete and 
extirpated the nest of Saracen pirates, though often recruited by their brethren 
from Africa and Spain, who had so long defied with impunity the majesty of the 
empire; and the submissive people accepted, without resistance, the baptism of 
the conqueror. (A. D. 960.) During A. D. 963-975 Nicephorous Phocas and his 
assassin and successor, John Zimises, commanded two hundred thousand soldiers 
in a series of bloody combats. In Cilicia, two hundred thousand Moslems were 
devoted to death or slavery at Mopsuestia; Tarsus was reduced by famine and 
the Saracens were conducted to the confines of Svria, and the vacant habitations 
were replenished by a new colony, though part of the inhabitants were old 
Christians who had lived quietly under the dominion of the Saracens. The mosque 
was converted into a stable, the pulpit was committed to the flames, and many 
rich crosses of gold gems of Asiatic churches were made grateful offerings to the 
emperor's avarice. Antioch was recovered after the efforts of one hundred 
thousand Saracens of Syria and of the fleets of Africa were consumed without 
effect, and the empire reign and religion was restored. Aleppo, the royal city 
of Hamadan, was captured and spoiled, while the citizens and mercenaries were 
furiously charging each other; the men were exterminated, ten thousand youths 
were led into captivity, and the beasts were not able to carry the spoils. More 
than one hundred cities were recovered, eighteen pulpits of the principal mosques 
were burnt to expiate the sacrilege of the Mahometans. Zimisces encamped in 
the paradise of Damascus and accepted the ransom of a willing people, and pen- 
etrated to Bagdad. Satiated with glory and laden with spoils he returned to 
Constantinople. After the departure of the Greeks, the fugitive princes returned 
to their capitals, the subjects disclaimed their involuntary oaths of allegiance, the 
moslems again purified their temples and overturiied the idols of the saints and 
martyrs. The JNestorians and Jacobites preferred a Saracen to an orthodox 
master, and the Catholics, or empire Christians, called Melchites, were inadequate 
to the support of the church and state. Antioch, with the cities of Cilicia and 



(4)2:13; 265. 



OHAPTEE GXLIV. : SECTION IV. 68l 

the Isle of Cyprus, was alone restored permanently to the Eoraan empire,^ or 
Greek empire, A. D. 960-976.*^ These reconqiiests were attended with all the 
woes attendant on conquests and rehgious animosity. 

4. The Rise of the Turks — -The King of the I^orth. — The thrones of the 
east became occupied by slaves and soldiers of Turkish extraction ; a swarm of 
these Sythian shepherds overspread the kingdoms of Persia, and their princes of 
the Seljuk race erected a splendid and solid empire from Samarcand to the con- 
fines of Greece and Egypt. One of the greatest of these Turkish princes was 
Mahmud, the Gaznevide, who reigned in the eastern provinces of Persia A. D. 
1000. His father, Sebectagi, was a slave of the third degree. The lirst degree 
of^ servitude was filled by the sovereign of Transoxiana and Chorassan, who still 
paid a nominal allegiance to the caliph of Bagdad. The second was a minister 
of state, a lieutenant of the Samanides, who, by revolt, broke the bonds of political 
slavery, A. D. 874-999.''' The third step was a real domestic servitude in the 
family of that rebel from which, by his courage and dexterity, Sebectegi ascended 
to the supreme command of Gazna. The falling dynasty of the Samanides was 
at first protected,, and at last overthrown by their servants, and in these public 
dis'cords Mahmud continuously increased ; for him the title, sultan, meaning lord 
or master, was first invented, and his kingdom was enlarged from Transoxiana 
to the neighborhood of Ispahan, and from the shores of the Caspian to the mouth 
of the Indus. His conquests were extensive, rapid, and splendid over Cashmir 
and Thibit to the city Kinnoge on the upper Ganges ; he vanquished four thousand 
boats of the natives on a branch of the Indus ; Delhi, Labor, and Multan were 
compelled to open their gates : the fertile kingdom of Guzarat attracted his ambi- 
tion and tempted his stay. On payment of a tribute, the Pajahs preserved their 
dominions and the people their lives and fortunes, but to the religion of the 
Hindoos he was cruel and inexorable; many hundred temples, or pagodas, were 
leveled with the ground ; many thousand idols were demolished, and the Mahom- 
etans were rewarded by the precious materials of their composition. The rich, 
popular, and well fortified pagoda of Surnmat inspired its votaries to threaten 
Mahmud with a blast of divine vengeance if an impious stranger approached its 
holy precincts. Mahmud accepted the challenge ; fifty thousand worshipers of 
this Indian deity were pierced by Moslem spears ; the walls were scaled ; the 
sanctuary was profaned; the conqueror aimed a blow at the head of the idol; the 
Brahmins offered ten millions pounds sterling for its ransom ; Mahmud replied : 
Never in the eyes of posterity shall ^lahmud appear as a merchant of idols. He 
repeated his blows, and a treasure of pearls and rubies fell out of the statue, and 
the fragments of the idol were distributed to Gazna, Mecca, and Medina. Bagdad 
listened to the account, and Mahmud was saluted by the caliph with the title of 
guardian of the fortune and faith of Mahomet, ^ A. D. 997-1028. Thus, these 
Turkish sultans, supported and animated by religion, received their title and com- 
mission from the ecclesiastical wild beast represented by the caliph, or Mahometan 
horn, as the Latin emperor did from the pope, and they are placed at the head 
of the Mahometan power, mosque, and empire, and all the faithful under the 
Abbasside caliphs are commanded to recognize and worship them as guardians of 
the faithful, as the caliph is the commander. The Turks now become the sixth 
head of the Monotheistic wild beast, and their political sovereignty originated in 
their Monotheistic religion, and is animated and controlled by it, whatever may 
be the condition and influence of the caliphs. These sultans (masters) obtained 
blasphemous titles, as : The Shadow of God ; A God on Earth ; Brother of the 
Sun and Moon; Disposer of all Earthly Crowns;^ Imperator Imperatorum.'^ 

The Turkish usurpers encouraged the emigration of their wild native brethren 
from around the Caspian sea, and their conversion to the Moslem faith, and with 



(5)Idm. (6) 9; 162-3 (7) 13; 264, and note B, and 18; 314. (8) Gbn. 2:18; 313-14. (9) 
Guth. Geog., Vol. II., p. 464. (*) Gbn. 2:13; 265, note S.- 



6S2 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

them the J recruited their armies and overawed their subjects. These Turkomans 
overturned this dynasty of the Gaznevides, or rather their reign west of the Indus, 
A. D. 1038, and estabhshed the Seljuk dynasty, of which Togrul Beg was the 
first sultan. Togrul expelled the Gaznevides from east Persia into India, annihi- 
lated the dynasty of the bowide usurpers in the west of Persia, and the sceptre 
of Irak passed from the Persian to the Turkish nation. The princes bowed to 
the Seljuks, and by the conquest of Aderbijan and Media, Togrul approached the 
Poman confines and demanded tribute and obedience from the emperor of Con- 
stantinople; he delivered Persia from anarchy, was a zealous Mahometan, and 
reverenced the successor of the prophet. He delivered the caliph of Bagdad 
from his tyrants ; paid him the most devout and servile reverence ; received from 
him the commission of the temporal lieutenant of the vicar of the prophet. Two 
crowns were placed on his head, and two scimeters were girded to his side, as the 
symbols of a double reign over both sides of the Euphrates, A. D. 1055-63. 
His successor was his nephew, Alp-Arslan. i The reverence which Togrul paid 
to the caliph at Bagdad was equal to that paid by the Latin emperors to the popes 
at Rome ; the commission and honors received were very similar, and exhibit the 
same strategy of the two vicars ; both pardon the sins of their favorites and 
promise them Paradise, but doom all who offend them to perdition. Thus, we 
have the caliphs of Arabian blood as the successors, or vicars, of Mahomet and 
spiritual head of the Moslems, and the sultans of Turkish blood as the temporal, 
or civil, head of the Mahometans. The rise and fall of all these Mahometan 
dynasties were attended with terrible slaughters, cruel oppressions, wide devasta- 
tions, excruciating sufferings, and degrading abuse, and the sufferers and the 
inflictors of woes were worshipers of the One Only Living and True God. 

5. Turks Invade the Greek Empire. — Since the degeneracy of the caliphs, 
the discords and degeneracy of the Saracens had respected the Asiatic provinces 
of Pome, which Nicephrus, Zimices, and Basil had recovered as far as Antioch 
and the eastern boundaries of Armenia. Twenty-five years after Basil's death 
his successors were assaulted by Togrul Be^, with myriads of Turkish horse over- 
spreading a frontier of six hundred miles, from Tauris to Erzeroum, and the blood 
of one hundred and thirty thousand Christians was a grateful sacrifice to the 
Arabian prophet. But the Macedonian legions recovered the loss, and renewed 
the fame of the conquerors of Asia, A. D. 1050. The reign of Alp-Arslan, or 
Valiant Lion, A. D. 1063-72, accomplished the final conquest of Armenia and 
Georgia, A. D. 1065-1068. The Catholics were neither surprised nor displeased 
that a people so deeply infected with the Nestorian and Monophysite errors had 
been delivered into the hands of infidels. Those refusing to turn Mahometan 
were condemned to wear iron, or horseshoe, collars, and were sabjected to suffer- 
ings, outrages, and other indignities. The sultan's forces, commanded by Emirs, 
penetrated into Phrygia, but they were defeated and driven across the Euphrates 
by the Greek emperor with his heterogeneous army, A. D. 1068-71. But the skill 
and valor of Alp-Arslan and the desertion of the Franks and Uzi from the 
Emperor Diogenes' army gave the victory to the Turks after tremendous slaughter, 
and the Asiatic provinces of the empire were irretrievably sacrificed. Alp-Arslan 
lost his life by the dagger of a desperate captive Carizmian chief, A. D. 1072, and 
his son, Malek Shah, ascended the throne, after the defeat of an uncle, a cousin, 
and a brother, A. D. 1072-92. His success in this civil war was ratified by the 
caliph, and for the first time the title, Commander of the Faithful, was conferred 
upon a barbarian by the caliph. He conquered Turkistau and Cashgar on the 
extreme borders of China ; he adorned the cities of Asia with palaces and hospitals, 
mosques, and colleges, and he was the greatest monarch of that age. 

On the death of Malek Shah, his vacant throne was disputed by his brother 
and by his four sons, and after a series of bloody civil wars the treaties which 



(l)Gbn. 2:18; 315-17. 



CHAPTER CXLlV.t SECTlOlf Vt. 683 

reconciled the surviving candidates confirmed a lasting separation into four divis- 
ions, or sultanies — the Persian, the Kerman, on the shores of the Indian ocean, 
the Syrian, from which the Arabian princes of Aleppo and Damascus were 
expelled, and the Rouman, or the Roman provinces of Asia. The sultan of Persia, 
as the supreme head of the family and nation, commanded the obedience and 
tribute of his royal brothers, the thrones of Kerman, Roum, and Syria; the 
Atabeks and Emirs of Syria and Mesopotamia erected their standards under the 
shadow of his sceptre, and the hordes of Turkomans overspread the plains of 
western Asia, which were desolated by them. After the death of Malek Shah 
the bands of union and subordination were relaxed, and finally dissolved; the 
house of Seljuk invested their slaves with the inheritance of kingdoms, and a 
crowd of princes arose from the dust of their feet. 

That the conquest of the last remnant of the Roman empire was the design 
of these Turkish sultanies and of the Arabian caliphs is evident from the following 
anecdote. In A. D. 1074-1084 five sons of the royal Seljuk line, strong in arms, 
ambitious in power, and eager for revenge, unsheathed their scimeters against 
Malek Shah ; the two armies awaited the signal to strike. The caliph interposed 
his venerable mediation, saying : Instead of shedding the blood of your brethren 
in descent and faith, unite your forces in a holy war against the Greeks, the 
enemies of God and His apostle,. They listened to his voice ; the sultan, Malek 
Shah, embraced his rebellious kinsmen; their eldest brother, Soliman, accepted 
the royal standard, which gave him the free conquest and the hereditary command 
of the provinces of the Roman empire from Arzeroum to Constantinople and the 
unknown regions of the west. . Accompanied by his four brothers, he passed the 
Euphrates; his Turkish camp was pitched in Phrygia; his cavalry laid waste the 
country as far as the Hellespont and the Black sea; transported two thousand 
Turks into Europe on the pretext of aiding a party in the civil discords of the 
' palace for the throne of Constantinople. Asia Minor was conquered under Malek 
Shah; the passes of the rivers and mountains were fortified by the Turks as they 
progressed, leaving no hopes to the empire of repulsing them. ^ Before another 
pretext for further conquests arrived, Malek Shah was killed (A. D. 1092); the 
civil wars between his sons had occupied and consumed the Turkish veterans 
beyond the Tigris when the Crusaders first invaded Asia and captured Jerusalem 
(A. D. 1095-99). These civil wars, as we have seen, terminated in a lasting 
division of the Turkish empire into four sultanies, or dynasties, of which Persia 
was supreme, and these four became restricted to the Euphrates by the first 
crusade, the Fatimite caliphs of Egypt, and other restraints;^ and here we will 
leave them till the sixth trumpet sounds.* All these revolutions were attended 
with terrible woes from Constantinople to India and Cashgar, and all of them 
grew out of the conquests of the Saracens, and were inflicted and endured by 
those acknowledging only the One Living and True God. 

6. Woes in the Papal Dominions as in Those of the Caliphs', and the 
Greek Chukch and State Afflicted in Connection with Both. — These woes 
afilict the second wild beast in his Greek or Catholic body, and in both his 
Mahometan and papal horns. We can not say that these woes in the west were 
caused or occasioned by the events of the fifth trumpet, but they synchronize 
and become connected with them and have an influence on the destiny of the 
Greek head of the great Roman empire, which was the flrst wild beast develop- 
ment of the Monotheistic antagonism to the kingdom of God. All power in 
Heaven and earth were given to Christ,^ and He is the head of all things to the 
church^ and is ruling all these nations and systems with an iron sceptre,^ As 
the woes accompany the trumpets, they, come in answer to the prayers of the 



(2) Gbn. 2:18; 317-21. (3) 19; 339. (*) Chap. 148, § 1. (4) Matt. 28:18. I. Cor, 15:25-8. (5) 
Eph. 1:22. (6)Ps. 2. 



684 THE KINGDOM O'S' GOD DEVELOPED. 

saints, and must designate evils inflicted on the imperial and liierarchal usurpa- 
tions in and over the kingdom of God. The European Christians, notwith- 
standing their papal and Frank guides and protectors, endured the most cruel 
sufferings from the insatiable fury of the Norman swarms, comprehending Danes, 
Norwegians, and Swedes, inhabiting the coasts of the Baltic and accustomed to 
rapine and carnage. Their chiefs, subsisting by piracy and plunder, infested the 
coasts of the German ocean in the time of Charlemagne, who restrained them 
with vigilance and activity. In the ninth century they made eruptions into Ger- 
many, Britain, Friesland, and Gaul, carrying with them fire and sword, horror 
and desolation. Their impetuous fury spread desolation through the provinces 
of Spain and penetrated the very heart of Italy, sacked and pillaged cities in the 
most cruel manner, and then formed settlements in the countries which they had 
cruelly depopulated, and European princes were in no condition to oppose their 
usurpations. In A. D. 850 Charles the Bald was obliged to resign a considerable 
part of his domain to the powerful banditti ; and a few years after Charles the 
Gross, emperor and king of France, lost a whole province by the Norman chief 
Godofred. But such as settled among the Christians contracted a gentler turn of 
mind and gradually abandoned their primitive brutality. Their marriages with 
Christians contributed to civilize them, and induced them to abandon their super- 
stition and to embrace the Gospel. The proud conqueror of Friesland embraced 
the Christian religion after he received in marriage Gisela, the daughter of 
Lothair. '' During a great part of the tenth century the Normans committed the 
most barbarous hostilities in several parts of France, and involved the Christians 
in numberless calamities. .The Samaritans, Sclavonians, Bohemians, and others 
infested the adjacent countries where Christianity was professed, with fire and 
sword. The Danes molested the Christians till they were subdued by Otho the 
Great, and then they became Catholics or papists; and the Hungarians contributed 
their part to the sufi'erings of the Catholic church. These incursions of northern 
pagans induced the civil rulers in western Europe to convert them to the church 
by the s^^ord.^ 

Thus, Polytheists and corrupters of Christianity were mutual destroyers ; 
and, keeping each other employed, suffered the true churches of Christ 
and his witnesses to increase, spread abroad, and permeate society. Also, 
in the pagan inroads the Devil, who animated and controlled the Red Dragon, 
showed great wrath, but these pagan inundations were absorbed by the Catholic 
church and state. The swarms of savages who descended, between the seventh 
and twelfth centuries, from the plains of Sythia in transient or perpetual emigra- 
tions, were uncouth in their names, doubtful in origin, obscure in action, blind in 
superstition, brutal in valor, and the uniformity of their public and private lives 
was neither softened by innocence nor refined by policy. The greater part has 
disappeared, and the remnant continues to groan under the tyranny of the Turks 
in Europe.^ The Bulgarians, Servians, Bosnians, Rascians, Crotians, Walach- 
ians, etc., acquired by war or treaty provinces on the Danube, and from Euxine 
to the Adriadic overspread the land, in the state of captives or subjects, allies or 
enemies, of the Greek empire. The Emperor Nicephorus lost his fame in an 
Arabian war, and his life in a Sclavonian, A. D. 811. His head was exposed on 
a Bulgarian spear, and his scull, encased in gold, was used for a wine cup in their 
feasts of victory. The Sclavonian pirates were frequent and dangerous till the 
close of the tenth century, when the Venetian republic vindicated the freedom 
and sovereignty of the seas. But their savage manners were softened by peaceful 
intercourse with the Greeks, the possession of a cultivated region, and the intro- 
duction of Christian worship, i The emperor, Basil II., conquered the Bulgarians; 
robbed the palace of his Christian brother ; put out the eyes of fifteen thousand 



(7) Mosh. 9:1; 2, §§ 2, 3. (8) Mosh. Cent., 10 and 11, pt. 1, chap. 2, § 2. (9) Gbn. 2:16; 286-7. 
(1) Gbn. 2:9; 161, and 16; 288. 



CHAPTER CXLIV. : SECTION VI. * 685 

captives (one of each hundred were left with one eye to conduct the rest to their 
king, who expired of grief and horror). 2 (A. D. 640-1017.) Thus, the Cliristian 
Greeks and Bulgarians inflicted mutual woes. 

When the black swarm of Hungarions hung first over Europe, A. D. 884, 
they were taken for the Gog and Magog of Scripture ; their members are reck- 
oned not less than one million, and their military were two hundred and fifteen 
thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine. ^ All that is valued by mankind 
appeared vile and contemptible to these barbarians; whatever they saw they 
coveted; their desires were insatiate, and their sole industry was violence. Their 
native deadly weapon was the Tartar bow; they excelled in archery and horse- 
manship ; their arm was strong, aim sure, charge impetuous with horrific out- 
cries, and their evolutions sudden. After some experience they adopted the 
Roman use of the sword. In their use of victory they astonished Europe. Mercy 
they rarely asked, and more rarely bestowed. Both sexes are accused as devoid 
of pity — drinking the blood and feasting on the hearts of the slain. In A. D. 899 
they approached the common limits of both the Greek and Frank empires. 

Their first conquests and final settlements extended on both sides of the 
Danube above Vienna, below Belgrade, and beyond the measure of the Roman pro- 
vince Pannonia, or modern Hungary. They invaded Bavaria, and in one day they 
stripped and consumed a circuit of fifty miles. The confiagration spread over the 
provinces of Bavaria, Swabia, and Franconia, and forced the stoutest barons to 
discipline their vassals and fortify their castles. They laid in ashes monasteries 
and cities. Above thirty years the German kingdom was subject to tribute; 
resistance was disarmed by the menace of dragging the women and children into 
captivity and of slaughtering the males over ten years of age. The southern 
provinces of France were blasted by the tempest, and A. D. 900 Spain behiad 
the Pyrenees was astonished at the approach of these formidable strangers. In 
Italy twenty thousand Christians we're slaughtered; Pavia was in flames; forty- 
three churches were consumed. From the massacre they spared about two 
hundred wretches, who had gathered some bushels of gold and silver from the 
smoking ruins of their country. In these annual excursions from the Alps to 
the neighborhood of Rome and Capua, the remaining churches resounded with 
the fearful litany: O, save and deliver us from the arrows of the Hungarians! 
The saints were deaf or inexorable; the torrent rolled to the extreme land of 
Calabria, and Italy was redeemed with ten bushels of silver poured into their 
camp, A. D. 924. At this disastrous period of the ninth and tenth centuries 
Europe was afliicted with a triple scourge — from the north, east and south. The 
Norman, Hungarian, and Saracen sometimes trod the same ground of desola- 
tion, growling over the mangled carcass.^ The deliverance of Germany and 
Christendom was achieved by Henry the Fowler and Otho the Great, who, in 
two memorable battles, broke forever the power of the Hungarians. Said Henry, 
A. D. 935 : My companions, maintain your ranks ; receive on your bucklers the 
first arrows of the pagans; prevent the second discharge by the equal, or simul- 
taneous, and rapid career of your lances. They obeyed, and conquered. Twenty 
years after, A. D. 955, they invaded the dominion of his son, Otho the Great, 
with one hundred thousand horse. They were invited by domestic faction, and 
spread beyond the Rhine and the Muse. Otho dispelled the conspiracy. The 
German princes were made sensible that unless they were true to one another 
their religion and country were irrecoverably lost. They marched and fought in 
eight legions. The soldiers were purified with a fast; the camp was blessed with 
the relics of saints and martyrs ; the Christian hero girded on the sword of Con- 
stantine, grasped the invincible spear of Charlemagne, and waved the banner of 
St. Maurice, prefect of the Thebean legion. But his firmest confidence was in 
the holy lance, whose point was fashioned of the nails of the cross, which his 



(2) 16; 283-8. (3) Mm,, 288-9. (4) Gbn. 2:16; 289-90; 



686 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED 

father had extorted from the king of Burgundy by the threat of war and the gift 
of a province. The Hungarians were overthrown ; were encompassed by a river 
of Bavaria ; their past cruelties excluded them from the hope of mercy ; three 
captive princes were hanged; the multitude of prisoners were slain or mutilated, 
and the fugitives were condemned to everlasting poverty and disgrace. Still, the 
nation fortified and became civilized, A. D. 972. ^ The son of Geza and ISarlota 
was baptized with great pomp and solemnity; he perfected what his father and 
grandfather had begun — the entire conversion of the Hungarians. Bishoprics 
with large revenues were established, magnificent temples for divine worship 
were erected, and by the influence of instructions, threatenings, rewards, and 
punishments, he brought his subjects, almost without exception, to abandon the 
wretched superstitions of their ancestors.^ Thus, another flood out of the 
dragon's mouth was swallowed up by the civil and religious powers of the earth. 

The Russian name was first divulged in the ninth century by an embassy 
from Theophilus, Greek emperor, to Lewis, emperor of France ; they were brethren 
of the Swedes and JNormans, already odious and formidable to France. Wal- 
adimir had the honor of delivering his country, Russia, from a foreign yoke. 
His riches were insufficient to satisfy the demands of his subjects and he advised 
them to embark for Greece, where, instead of squirrel-skins, silk and gold would 
recompense their labors ; at the same time he admonished the emperor to dis- 
perse, employ, recompense, and restrain these impetuous children of the north; 
and these, with English and Danish exiles, formed the faithful guard of the Greek 
emperor A. D. 862-5. Commerce was opened up with Constantinople, but the 
riches of this imperial city tempted them to try its conquest A. D. 904. They 
infested Anatolia with piratical war and occupied the port of Constantinople in 
the absence of the emperor ; but the patriarch dipped the robe of the Virgin 
Mary into the sea and a tempest caused them to depart. In another attempt, the 
Greek fire destroyed two-thirds of their canoes, and those who escaped to the 
Thracian shore were murdered by the peasants and soldiers. In A. D. 1043 they 
invaded again with better success. A prophecy, engraved on a statue in Taurus, 
that in the last days the Russians should become masters of Constantinople, 
caused these invasions to make a deep impression of terror in the imperial city. '' 

So, it appears, predictions of Daniel, or Ezekial, were then understood as 
referring to Russia. Russia possessed by conquest the country from the Volga to 
the Danube. A. D. 955-73, Nicephorus, Greek emperor, hired them to conquor 
the Bulgarians. Swatoslaus vanquished the Bulgarians, but instead of retiring 
advanced to Adrianople and threatened Constantinople; but he was defeated with 
heavy loss, and eight thousand five hundred Russians were put to the sword. 
The Russians retreated to the Danube, were besieged and compelled into a treaty 
of evacuation, peace, and trade. This success was imputed to the Virgin Mary, 
whose image, with the Divine Infant in her arms and mounted on a car adorned 
with the spoils of war, enjoyed a triumph. The Princess Olga avenged the death 
of her husband, sailed from Kiow to Constantinople, and with her accompanying 
train were baptized. Her example and lessons made a deep, though secret, 
impression on her children and people. Her grandson, Wolodomir, devoted his 
youth and zeal to multiply and decorate the monuments of ancient worship; the 
Greek missionaries continued to preach, to dispute, to baptize; the Russian 
ambassadors and merchants compared the idolatry of the woods with elegant 
superstition of Constantinople. The conversion of Wolodomir was hastened by 
his desire of a Roman bride, and his baptism and marriage were celebrated at the 
same time. At his command, Peroun, the god of thunder, was dragged through 
the streets of Kiow; twelve sturdy barbarians battered the image and indignantly 
cast it into the river. The edict of Wolodomir had proclaimed that all rel using 
baptism should be treated as the enemies of God and their prince, and the rivers 



(5) Gbn. 2:16; 290-1. (6) Mosh. 10:1; 1, § 6. (7) Gbn. 2:16; 293-4. 



CHAPTER OXLIV.: SECTIONS VII. -VIII. 687 

'were instantly filled with many thousands of obedient Russians, and the bones of 
Wolodomir's brothers were taken from the grave and baptized.*^ Thus, Russia, 
too, was lost to the Red Dragon, but was transferred to the first wild beast. 

7. Woe of the Popes. — The popes were no more able to prevent woes from 
overtaking their adherents than the caliphs, and the popes suffered degredations 

^ as well as the caliphs. The competitor for the papal throne, who had been 
excluded by the cardinals, appealed to the passions or avarice of the multitude. 
The Vatican and the lateran were stained with blood, and the most powerful sen- 
ators, the marquises of Tuscany and the counts of Tusculum held the apostolic 
see in a long and disgraceful servitude. The Roman pontiffs of the ninth and 
tenth centuries were insulted, imprisoned, and murdered by their tyrants, and 
such was their indigence after the loss and usurpation of the ecclesiastical patri- 
monies that they could neither support the state of a prince nor exercise the 
charity of a priest. The influence ot two sister prostitutes, Morozia and Theodora, 
was founded on their wealth and beauty, and their amorous and political intrigues. 
The most strenuous of their lovers were rewarded with the Roman mitre ; the 
bastard son, grandson, and great-grandson of Marozia, a rare geneology, were 
seated in the chair of St. Peter. The second of these became head of the church 
at the age of nineteen. His youth and manhood were of a suitable complexion 
and the nations of the pilgrims could bear testimony to the charges urged against 
him in a Poman synod and in the presence of Otho the Great. As John XII. 
had renounced the dress and the decencies of his profession, the soldier may not, 
perhaps, be dishonored with the wine he drank, the blood he spilt, the flames he 
kindled, or the licentious pursuits of gaming and hunting; but the worthy grand- 
son of Marozia lived in public adultry with matrons of Rome, the lateran palace 
was turned into a school of prostitution; his rapes of virgins and wndows deterred 
the female pilgrims from visiting the tomb of St. Peter, lest in the devout act 
they should be violated by his successor. After a long series of scandal, the 

. apostolic see was reformed, A. D. 1073, by Gregory YII. John XII. was pro- 
voked by the Lombard princes to seek a deliverer for the church and the republic, 
and the service of Otho was rewarded with the imperal dignity A. D. 967. The 
consul, Crescentius, A. D. 998, oppressed, expelled, and created the popes and 
formed a conspiracy for restoring the authority of the Greek emperors.^ 

8. German Head. (Continued from Chap. 143, § 4. — The calamities on 
the pope led to the constitution and recognition of the fifth head of the first wild 
beast and second head of the third, or papal, beast. Jn the dissolution of the 
Carlovingian dynasty the kingdoms of France and Germany were forever sep- 
arated. According to their force, the governors, the bishops, and the lords 
usurped the fragments of the falling empire ; but some preference was shown to 
the female or illegitimate blood of Charlemange. ^ The only bond of union 
between the German and Frank empire was their Latin religion and subjection 
to the pope. In the beginning of the tenth century the royal authority in France 
was but little more than an empty honor. Four other princes in Gaul besides 
Charles the Simple bore the title of king; those were of Lorraine, Burgundy, 
Provence, and Brittany, while in other parts dukes and counts governed their 
dominions with absolute independence. In A. D. 987 Hugh Capet was pro- 
claimed king by his vassals, anointed and crowned in the cathedral at Rlieims by 
the archbishop of Paris. The rest of France took no part in this election, and 
several provinces refused to acknowledge his successors for three or four genera- 
tions. The aristocracy still monopolized all the prerogatives of royalty and the 
power of the nobles alone fiourished or subsisted in the state. From Hugh 
Capet to Louis IX., A. D. 987-1227, the authority of king was extinct, although 
the name continued to exist. ^ (A. D. 888-966.) Those who could appear with 
an army at the gates of Rome were crowned emperors in the Vatican ; but their 



(8) Idm., 295-6. (9) Gbn. 2:10; 188-90. (1) Idm , 187. (2) Will., pt. 2, chap. 2, §§ 7, 9. 



688 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

modesty was more frequently satisfied with the appellation of Kings of Italy, and 
the whole term of seventy-four years may be deemed a racancy in the imperial- 
headship, from the abdication of Charles the Fat to the establishment of Otho the 
Great. Henry the Fowler was elected by the Germans to save and institute the 
kingdom of Germany. Its limits were enlarged on every side by his son, Otho 
I., or the Great. In the north Christianity was propagated by his sword; he 
was the apostle and conqueror, of the Slavic nations of the Elbe and Oder; the 
marches of Braden berg and Sleswick were fortified with German colonies; the 
king of Denmark, the dukes of Poland and Bohemia confessed themselves his 
tributaries and vassals. At the head of a victorious army he passed the Alps, 
subdued the kingdom of Italy, delivered the pope, and fixed forever the imperial 
crown of Rome in the name and nation of Germany. From tliat memorable 
period two maxims of public jurisprudence were introduced by force and ratified 
by time. First: That the prince elected in the German diet acquired, from that 
instant, the subject kingdoms of Italy and Rome. Second: But he might not 
legally assume the titles of emperor and Augustus till he had received the crown 
from the hands of the po])e. ^ The holy Roman empire, thus revived, continued 
to be inseparable from the German kingdom ; and the emperors after Conrad II. 
received the German crown at Aix, the Burgundian at Aries, the Lombard or 
Italian iron crown at Milan, and the imperial golden crown at Rome. "^ The 
Saxon rulers of Germany were not the sovereigns of a vast empire, but the chiefs 
of a confederacy, reckoned of superior authority in matters of national concern, 
while the nobles managed their provincial administration mostly in their own 
way; they were little more than nominal sovereigns of Germany A. D. 900-1300. ^ 

9. Internal Woes. — The Monotheistic world was often afflicted by woes 
wholly within itself and originating among its own citizens. The broken provinces 
of the Greeks, Lombards, and Saracens were exposed to every invader, and every 
sea and land was invaded by the adventurous Scandinavian. After a long indul- 
gence of rapine and slaughter a fair and ample territory was accepted, named, and 
occupied in France by the Normans. They renounced their gods for the God of 
the Christians, and the dukes of Normandy acknowledged themselves the vassals 
of the successors of Charlemagne and Hugh Capet, A. D. 1016. The armies of 
the Greeks and Franks had reconquered, from the Arabian pirates, Benevento, 
Salerno, and Capua, A. D. 871, and the gi-eater part of Naples came under the 
eastern empire, A. D. 890. The Saracens cooperated with the Greeks against 
the Franks, A. D. 983, and provinces once flourishing were clouded with igno- 
rance, impoverished by tyranny, and depopulated by barbarian war, or civil war 
perpetuated by Norman allies.*^ (A. D. 1016-43.) Some Normans passed from 
France into Italy as pilgrims to Rome. They were invited and armed by Meto, 
chief of Bari, against the Greeks, and, being defeated, they wandered as robbers 
in the hills and valleys of Italy. They were employed alternately by the princes 
of Capua, Beneventum, Salerno, and Naples against one another. Victory fol- 
lowed their sword, gave them the balance of power, and secured to them Aversa 
and the surrounding fruitful district. Their success attracted yearly accessions of 
outlaws and fugitives. Five hundred Norman knights served in the Greek army 
in the recovery of Sicily from the Saracens, and in the discomfiture of sixty 
thousand Saracens showed the superiority of the Norman Christian over the 
Arab Mahometan. Insulted and maltreated by the Greeks in the division of the 
spoils, they dissembled their indignation till they obtained or stole a passage into 
Italy and obtained the sympathy of their brethren of Aversa; then they invaded 
the province of Apulia, and only Bari, Otronto, Brundusium, and Tarentum were 
saved to the wreck of the Grecian fortunes. The Norman power was established 
in Italy under twelve counts, A. D. 1010-3. On the verge of the Greek and 



I 



(3) Gbn. 2:10; 187. (4) Will. 2:2; § 4. Thai., p. 53, § 101, note *. (5) Will., pt. 2, chap. 2, 
§6. Gbn. 2:10; 191. (6)17; 298-9. 



CHAPTER CXLIV. : SECTION IX. 689 

Frank, or German, empires they accepted the investiture of their lands from 
either emperor, but depended on their right of conquest ; they neither loved nor 
trusted princes nor people, nor were they loved nor trusted by any. Every object 
of desire — a horse, a woman, or a garden — tempted and gratified thefee rapacious 
strangers, and the avarice of their chiefs was only colored by the names of ambi- 
tion and glory. 

The pope and the two empires were allied against them as the common 
enemy. The Greeks were defeated before the allies arrived and diverted 
from Italy by a Turkish war. Henry was feeble and irresolute ; Pope Leo IX., 
with seven hundred Swabians and a multitude of Italian priests and robbers, with 
pikes and crosses advanced to battle. The Normans knelt before their ecclesias- 
tical father, but death or exile was their only alternative. The Italians fled; the 
Germans were cut to pieces in their ranks ; the pope was captured ; the Normans 
kissed the pope's feet to implore his blessing and the absolution of their sinful 
victory ; a treaty was formed ; the pope deserted the alliance which he had pro- 
claimed to be the cause of God and ratified the past and future conquests of the 
Normans, ^ A. D. 1053. Mutual support with spiritual and temporal arms was 
stipulated. The pope conferred on the bold Norman robber, Robert Guiscard, 
and his posterity the ducal title with the investiture of Apulia and Calabria, a»d 
all the lands in Italy and Sicily which his sword could rescue from the schismatic 
Greeks and unbelieving Saracens; and Robert styled himself: Bj the grace of 
God and St. Peter, Duke of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily. After defeat, his for- 
eign enemies, the Greeks, Lombards, and Saracens, retreated with their broken 
forces to the strong and populous cities of the sea coast. Salerno held out eight 
months, and Bari lasted four years. ^ (A. D. 1054-80.) Sicily was conquered by 
his brother, Rogers, A. D. 1060-90, with a small band. Fifty thousand Saracens, 
horse and foot, were overthrown, and the captured banners and four camels were 
reserved for the pope. The island was restored to the pope ; new bishops were 
planted in the principal cities, and the clergy were satisfied by a liberal endow- 
ment of churches and monasteries. The Catholic hero asserted the rights of a 
civil magistrate, and appropriated to his own profit the papal claims. The 
supremacy of the crown was secured and enlarged by the singular bull, which 
declares the princes of Sicily hereditary and perpetual legatees of the holy see. ^ 

The Norman, Robert Guiscard, invaded the Roman empire of the east; in 
his new levies he exerted the influence of gifts and promises, the terrors of civil 
and ecclesiastical authority, and in some acts of violence might justify the 
reproach that age and infancy were pressed into the service of their unrelenting 
prince. Discipline, or thirteen hundred knights of Norman race, formed the 
sinews of his army of thirty thousand followers. The islands of Epirus and mari- 
time towns were subdued by his arms, or name. In the siege of Durazzo a 
sudden storm wrecked part of his fleet and covered the shore with fragments of 
vessels, arms, and dead bodies. The Yenetian navy, in the Greek service, by 
dexterity, javelins, and Greek fire, completed the naval victory, and a sall}^ from 
the town carried slaughter and dismay to the tents of the Norman duke. The 
camp was afflicted with a pestilential disease; five hundred knights perished, and 
ten thousand bodies were buried. The mind of Robert alone was firm and invin- 
cible. He collected new forces, and he battered, scaled, or sapped the walls of 
Durazzo in the west, while the Turks waged war on the empire in the east. A 
hasty peace was concluded with the Turks ; an army of seventy thousand was 
collected and marched against the Normans, and the evacuated cities of the 
empire were occupied by the Turks. The Greek army consisted of the Varan- 
gians of Russia, augmented by British and Danish exiles fled from Normal 
oppression. Franks or Latins, were added to the number; even the persecuted 
Paulicians and one thousand Turks increased the list. The Normans burnt their 



(7) Gbn. 2:17; 299-301. (8) Idm., 302^3. (9) 304. 
-44 



690 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

ships and luggage, leaving to themselves the only alternative of victory, death, 
or captivity. The battle axes of the Russians made a deep and bloody impression 
on the army of Robert, now reduced to fifteen thousand men. The Lombards 
and Calabrians fled ; their retreat was cut off by the river ; the Venetian galleys 
played their engines on the disorderly throng; the Varangians advanced before 
the line and exposed their flanks; eight hundred Norman knights stood firm and 
entire ; they couched their lances, and the Greek historians deplore the furious 
and irresistible shock of the French cavalry. Alexus cut his way through a Frank 
squadron and escaped. The plain of Durazzo was stained with noble and royal 
blood. Robert advanced into the heart of Epirus or Albania, traversed the first 
mountains of Thessaly, surprised Castoria, approached Thessalonica, and made 
Constantinople tremble. The revolt of the cities and barons of Apulia, the dis- 
tress of the pope, and the invasion of the German emperor, Henry, induced 
Robert to return to Italy, leaving his army, now exhausted to one-third its 
strength, under the command of the Norman counts and his son, Boheraond. 
The son trod in the footsteps of his father, won two battles over the Greek 
emperor, and besieged Larissa, containing the treasures and magazines of the 
Greek camp. Alexus, the Greek emperor, recruited his army with some Molda- 
vians and seven hundred Turks ; Bohemond was defeated, evacuated his con- 
quest, and returned to Italy A. D. 1082. i 

Here the Norman and Greek war blends with the disputes between the popes 
and the German head of the Roman empire. The most prompt and powerful 
ally to Alexis, of all the Latin princes, was Henry lY., a severe adversary to the 
Normans, who were the allies and vassals of Pope Gregory YII. Henry and the 
pope had degraded each other and were implacable enemies. Henry had created 
a rival pope, and Gregory had created a rival emperor. Henry descended into 
Italy to assume the imperial crown, and to drive from the vatician the tyrant of 
the Latin church. Alexis, Greek emperor and head of the Greek church, sent 
Henry a royal present and one hundred and forty-four thousand gold Byzantines, 
and the promise of two hundred and sixteen thousand more when Henry should 
have entered with arms the Apulian territories of Robert. The Roman people 
espoused the cause of Gregory, and were supported with men and money from 
Apulea during three sieges, A. D. 1081-4. In the fourth, Henry was successful ; 
Clement was consecrated pope in the lateran, and the grateful pontiff crowned 
Henry emperor in the vatician. Henry fixed his residence in the capital as the 
lawful successor of Augustus and Charlemagne, and brother to Alexis, the suc- 
cessor of Constantine. Robert was urged by the obligation of oath, interest, love 
of fame, and enmity to both emperors, to unfurl the holy banner and to fiy to the 
relief of the prince of the apostles. Henry's business required him in Germany, 
and in less than three years Robert delivered the pope, compelling both emperors 
to flee before his victorious arms. By the friends of Gregory the walls of Rome 
had been perforated or scaled, but the imperial faction was still powerful and 
active. On the third day a furious tumult arose, and a word of the conqueror was 
the signal of fire and pillage. The Saracens of Sicily, the subjects of Rogers and 
auxiliaries of his brother, Robert, embraced the occasion of rifling and pillaging 
the holy city of the Christians. Many thousands of the citizens, in the sight and 
by the allies of their spiritual father, were exposed to violation, captivity, or death, 
and a spacious quarter of the city was consumed by the flames and devoted to 
perpetual solitude. Robert resumed his design of conquering the eastern, or 
Greek, etnpire, and the zeal and gratitude of Gregory had promised to his valor 
the kingdoms of Greece and Asia. Alexius had prepared for an attack and 
covered the Adriatic with a Greek and Yenician fleet. Robert eluded them and 
disembarked his troops on the coast of Epirus, and then with twenty strong and 
well appointed galleys he sought the enemy. In two engagements the allies were 



(1) Gbn. 2:17; 304-7. 



CHAPTEK OXLIV. I SECTION IX. 691 

superior; in the third the Norman victory was complete; two thousand five 
hundred captives were slaughtered, and thirteen thousand subjects of the Greeks 
and Yenicians were lost. The winter suspended operations. In the spring Robert 
turned his forces against the Greek islands ; but his prospects were blasted by an 
epidemical disease, and he died in his tent, A. D. 1085, at the age of seventy; 
and without the appearance of an enemy his army dispersed, or retreated, in dis- 
order and consternation. Bohemond inherited his father's dominions, and the 
national tranquility was disturbed by his claims till the first crusade against the 
Turks gave a more ample field of conquest and glory. Robert's male line became 
extinct in the second generation, but his brother, Roger, became a father of a line 
of kings. 

Roger became possessed of the whole Norman conquests, and aspired 
to the title of king, and his coronation by the chiefs took place at Palermo ; but 
the nine kings of the Latin world might disclaim their new associate, unless he 
were consecrated by the authority of the supreme pontiff. Anacletus was pleased 
to confer the title, but his own title to the papal throne was disputed by a rival 
acknowledged by the sovereigns of Rome. The sword of Lothair II., of Ger- 
many, the excommunication of Pope Innocent, the fleets of Pisa, and the zeal of 
St. Bernard were united for the ruin of the Sicilian robber. Roger was driven 
from Italy, and a new duke of Apulia was invested by the pope and emperor, 
who asserted their rights and suspended their quarrel. The German armies van- 
ished by disease and desertion ; the Apulian duke, with all his adherents, were 
exterminated by a conqueror who seldom forgave the living or dead ; the feeble 
pope became the captive and friend of the Normans, and their reconciliation was 
celebrated by St. Bernard, who now revered the title and virtue of the king of 
Sicily. 3 

Thus, according to Gibbon, the pope's Latin beast, or holy Roman empire, has 
ten crowned horns, or kings, besides the German head: France, England, Scot- 
land, Castile, Arragon, Navarre, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, and Sicily. (A. D. 
1122-52.) Roger made conquests of the Moors and Saracens in parts of Africa; 
invaded the Greek empire, and shot a few arrows into Constantinople in the 
absence of the emperor and army, A. D. 1146 ; was repulsed by the Emperor 
Manuel, and his shipping destroyed, A. D. 1148-9. The Greeks recovered pro- 
vinces and cities in Italy, and encouraged them to resist and repulse Frederick 
Barbarossa, German emperor. During the quarrel between Pope Alexander III. 
and Frederick, the Greek emperor flattered the pope with a promise of the union 
of the Greek and Latin churches under the pope, and exhorted the pope to humble 
the savage insolence of the Germans to acknowledge the true representatives of 
Constantine and Augustus, A. D. 1155-74. But these Italian conquests and 
universal reign soon escaped from the hand of the Greek emperor. After the 
pope's reunion with Frederick, he spoke a peremptory language, confirmed the 
acts of his predecessors, excommunicated the adherents of the Greek emperor, 
Manuel ; pronounced the final separation of the Greek and papal, or Latin, 
churches, or, at least, of the empires of Rome and Constantinople. 

War broke out between the Greek emperor and the Yenicians and animosities 
were perpetuated ; nmtual conquests and defeats between Christian empires, king- 
doms, and provinces; rebellions and oppressions between subjects and rulers 
continued to the overthrow of the Greek empire. Henry YII. conquered the 
kingdom of Sicily, A. D. 1204, and united it to the German empire. In their 
wars with the pope the Emperor Frederick and his son were disgraced and 
strengthened by the service of the Mahometans he had transplanted into the heart 
of Italy. All the calamities anticipated by the historian, Falcandus, were surpassed 
by the avarice and cruelty of the German emperor : fear, desolation by slaughter, 
rapine, massacre, captivity, violation of females, and the castration of males ; and 



(2) Gbu. 2:17; 307-9, and note P. 



692 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

one hundred and sixty horses were laden with the gold and silver of Sicily. Ten 
years after this revolution by the Germans the French monarch annexed to his 
crown the duchy of Normandy in France ; and the adventurous Normans, who 
had raised so many trophies in France, England, Ireland, Apulia, Sicily, and the 
east, were lost in either victory or servitude among the vanquished nations. ^ In 
the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries the reign of the church was extended over 
Bulgaria, Hungary, Bohemia, Saxony, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland, and 
Russia,^ but they were Catholic, or empire Christians. Viewing these vicissitudes 
from a historical standpoint, they do not appear very strange in the revolutions 
of nations ; but when we view them as claiming to be integral parts, or provinces, 
of the kingdom of God, we can not find the character, prosperity, nor happiness 
predicted of that powerful, universal, holy, and happy institution. The Greek, 
papal, and Mahometan ecclesiastical and civil powers compounded are not the 
kingdom of God,* but they belong to the Monotheistic antagonism to it. (Chap. 
149, §§ 3, 5.) 



CHAPTER CXLV. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SECOND AND THIRD SEALS. A. M. 

MOO-5000. (Continued from Chap. 130.) 

1. Blending of the Second and Third Seals. — The second seal charac- 
teristics of the fourth century continue in this period till, blending with the third, 
it is superseded by the black horse and yoke. The events mentioned'^ were the 
principle sources of those most scandalous and deplorable discusions which 
divided the eastern church into various sects, and afterward separated it entirely 
from that of the west. These ignominious schisms flowed chiefly from the 
unchristian contentions for dominion and supremacy among the fathers of the 
church.* Chrysostom's austerity and declamation against vices and corruption 
of the court incurred the displeasure of many and the resentment and indignation 
of Empress Eudoxia. Pursuant to her orders, Theophilus, patriarch of Alex- 
andria, and the bishops of Egypt called a council, A. D. 403, in the suburbs of 
Chalcedon, and unjustly condemned Chrysostom. The people, attached to their 
worthy bishop, rose in a tumultuous manner and prevented the execution of this 
unrighteous decree. When the tumult was entirely hushed, these same unre- 
lenting bishops, to satisfy their vindictive rage and that of Eudoxia, renewed their 
sentence the next year under another pretext, and Chrysostem was exiled and 
died. This was followed by a terrible sedition of his voteries, which was calmed 
with much difficulty by the imperial edicts of Arcadius. Injustice, cruelty, 
resentment, rage, and malignity characterized these councils and clergy. ^ The 
same were the characteristics of the councils and clergy engaged in the Donatist 
controversy, and their decisions were enforced by the sword of the Emperor 
Honorius. ^ 



(3) Gbn. 2:17; 810-17. (4) Mosli. 5:2; 2, § 5. (*) Chap. 130, § 1. 135, §§ 5, 6. 137, § 9. (5) 
Mosh 5:2; 3, § 15. (6) Idm., 5, §§ 1-3. 



Chapter cxlv. : section i. 693 

The Arians, Oppfessed and persecuted by the imperial edicts enforcing 
the decrees of councils, took refuge among the fierce and savage nations over- 
turning the western empire and treated the Catholics with the same violence'^ 
in Africa. The characteristics of leadership, use of the sword, taking peace from 
the empire, and the fire-red moving force and energy by which everything was 
accomplished is fully developed in the Nestorian and Monophysite controversies, 
as we have seen. ^ Cyril was turbulent, imperious, jealous, and revengeful, and 
so were all conspicuous in the whole proceedings on both sides. What was 
characteristic of councils was also true to teacliings, and hence arose new matter 
of animosity and dispute, of bigotry and uncharitableness, which flowed like a 
torrent through succeeding ages, and all human efforts seemed unable to vanquish 
the evil. In these disputes the heat of passion and the excessive force of relig- 
ious antipathy and contradiction frequently hurried the contending parties into 
the most dangerous extremes. Jerome, the great monk of the age, assailed 
Yigilantius with such bitterness and fury that the honest presbyter found nothing 
but silence could preserve his life from the intemperate rage of bigotry and super- 
stition. 9 The same characteristics appear in the preferment of the clergy. The 
power of bishops was sometimes augmented and sometimes diminishe*d, and in 
all these changes the intrigues of the court and the political state of the empire 
had much more influence than the rulers of equity and wisdom. By the grasp 
at leadership of the bishops and patriarchs, especially the pontiffs of Constan- 
tinople, divisions were fomented, animosities were excited, the seeds of discord 
were sowed between the clergy and people, and ambitious quarrels produced the 
most bloody wars and the most detestable and horrid crimes. ^ 

In the eastern provinces, the monks, seconded by the bishops, defended the 
doctrines of Origen against all his adversaries with incredible vehemance and 
contention. The case caused an edict from Justinian, passing a severe condem- 
nation upon Origen and his doctrine and ordering its suppression. The effects 
of this edict were more violent and durable, and spread far and wide. This pro- 
duced another, carried on with still more excessive degrees of animosity and 
violence. 2 The Roman pontiff opposed the Constantinople pontiff and raised 
new tumults and dissensions among the sacred order. ^ In A. D. 498, two Roman 
pontiffs were elected by different parties. The contention was vehement and 
long; they obstinately maintained the validity of their respective elections and 
accused each other of the most detestable crimes, and Theodoric, the Gothic 
king, decided the dispute.^ The same traits of force and vengeance characterize 
conversions to the Catholic church. The Christian emperors, especially those 
who ruled the east, were active and assiduous in extirpating the remains of the 
ancient superstition. The fear of punishment, the prospect of honors and 
advantages, succor against enemies, were the prevailing motives that induced the 
greatest part to renounce the service of their impotant gods. ^ A vast multitude 
of Jews were added to the church by the persuasion and influence of Justinian, 
and in the west, by the zeal and authority of the Gallic and Spanish monarchs. 
The greater part were converted by the liberality of Christian princes or the love 
of truth. In Gaul, the Jews were compelled by Childeric to receive the ordi- 
nance of baptism; and the same despotic method was practiced in Spain. ^ The 
influence queens and ladies had over their husbands, the severe and rigorous laws 
enacted against idolaters, contributed much to the progress of the Gospel. 

Many of the missionaries discovered the most turbulant passions, and dis- 
honored the cause by their arrogance and ambition, their avarice and cruelty; 
usurped a despotic dominion over their obsequious proselytes and exercised a 
princely authority over the countries where their ministry had been successful. 
In many places, in this century, the Jews were barbariously compelled to profess 



(7) Mm., § 4. (8) Chap. 135. 137, § 9. Mosh. 5:2; 5, §§ 7-16. (9) Mosh. 5:2; 3, § 14. (1) 
Idm., 2, §§ 1-5. (2)6:2; 3, §§9, JO. (3) 2, § 2. (4) § 4. (5) 5d; 1, §§ 2, 7. (6) Mosh. 6:1; 1, 
§§ 3, 4. 



694 THE KINGDOM 01^ GOD DEVI&LOPED. 

Christianity. The emperor, Heraclius, ordered raany to be dragged into the 
church and baptized by violence; and the same method was practiced in Spain 
and Gaul by the monarchs of these nations. Such were the horrid and abomin- 
able practices to which ignorance of the true spirit of Christianity and the barbarous 
genius of the age led the heralds of that divine religion which was designed to 
spread charity upon the earth and render mankind truly and rationally free. "^ 
Charlemagne turned his arms against the Saxons to abolish their idolatrous 
worship and engage them to embrace the Gospel. By the allurements of rewards, 
the terrors of punishments, and imperious language of victory, they suffered 
themselves to be baptized, with inward reluctance. Also, the Huns of Pannonia 
were exhausted by war, and chose to be Christians rather than be slaves. To 
enrich the clergy with large and munificent donations, to extend the boundaries of 
the church, no matter by what method, was then considered as the highest merit, 
though Charlemagne sought and formed an alliance with the Unitarian Saracens 
that he might crush the Catholic Greeks. ^ From this onward the Christian 
conquerors imposed their religion upon the vanquished, and vassal kings and 
princes who had embraced the Christian religion imposed the same upon their 
subjects;^ and the reign of idolatry was terminated by the forcible conversion of 

. Lithuania, in the fourteenth century. ^ In the north, Christianity was propagated 
by the sword of Otho, the conqueror and apostle of the Sclavonians, of the Elbe 
and the Oder. ^ 

Godeschalcus was condemned by Hincmar in a council A. D. 849, barbar- 
ously whipped till he burnt his documents with his own hands, and then was cast 
into prison, where ended his miseries A. D. 868. ^ The terror of the penal laws 
had obliged the sects to seek safety in obscurity and to conceal their opinions 
from the public eye. ^ In the seventh century were sown the seeds of those fatal 
discords which rent assunder the Greek and Latin churches. ^ In the east arose 
the most violent dissensions and quarrels among the bishops and doctors of the 
church and threw the state into combustion by their clamors and scandalous 
divisions, and went so far as to imbrue their hands in the blood of their brethren 
who differed with them in opinion. ^ The sacred flame of divine charity was 
extinguished by the violent contentions and animosities which the progress of 
these superstitions occasioned in the church about images.'^ The most interesting 
and lamentable controversy that divided Christians in the ninth century was that 
which occasioned the fatal schism between the Greek and Latin churches. A 
vindictive and jealous spirit of animosity and contention had for a long time pre- 
vailed between the two bishops, or patriarchs, of Rome and Constantinople, and 
had sometimes broken out in acts of violence and rage and despoiled each other of 
provinces. ^ Miserable and trifling objects excited a fatal schism and kindled a 
furious war between the Greeks and Latins, who carried their animosities to the 
greatest lengths and loaded each other with reciprocal invectives and impreca- 
tions. ^ Such continued to be the cliaracteristics of all councils and controversies 

' till a yoke of bondage imposed silence and blind obedience : in the Latin churches, 
to a usurping pope and to the decrees of councils approved by them, and in the 
Greek churches the Mahometan conquests and poverty reduced the parties to 
submit to the Moslem yoke, or to whoever they upheld. Still, the red horse 
lives and cooperates with the black, and frequently appears till superseded by the 
pale yellow-green horse. That Christianity would ever have become so notor- 
iously contentious and take peace from the earth, so aspiring after leadership and 
contend for sacred offices by the sword, so imperious and enforce its doctrines by 
the sword, so blood-stained and persecute the primative purity and simplicity of 
the Gospel, was a sealed picture to all mankind when John received the reve- 
lation ; but now we see it recorded on the page of history. 



(7)7:1; 1, §§2, 4, 5. (8) 8:1; 1, §§ 6, 7. (9) Mosh. 9:1; 1, §§ 1, 3. 10:1; 1, § 3-9 (1) Gbn. 
2:16; 296. (2)2:10; 187. (3) Mosh. 9:2; 3. § 22. (4)7:2; 2,§2. ^5) 7:2; 3, § 6. (6)8:2; 2,§1. 
(7) Idm., 3,§ 1. (8j 9:2; 3, § 27-32. (9) 11:2; 3, § 9-11. 



CHAPTER CXLV.: SECTION 11. 695 

2. Black Horse, or Third Seal Characteristics. — The black horse is a 
war horse, also; but denotes more inexorable despotism and hopeless tyranny. 
The guiding intelligence is engaged in imposing a yoke of bondage on all who 
acknowledge but One — the Living and True God and His revelations to man — 
and the patriarchs and prophets inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the mission of 
His Son Jesus Christ. In the historic page of the sixth century we meet the 
yoke of servitude, or bondage, which the see of Rome was arrogantly imposing 
upon the Christian church. ^ In the apology of Eunodius, the reader will per- 
ceive that the foundation of that enormous power, which the popes of Rome 
afterward acquired, were now laid. ^ In the thirteenth century the Latin mis- 
sionaries solicited the Nestorians and Jacobites to receive the Roman yoke. ^ 
The Roman pontiffs persuaded many that they were constituted by Jesus Christ 
supreme lawgiver and judge of the universal church, and that bishops and councils 
derived all their authority from Him and could do nothing without His permis- 
sion and consent.^ The Irish and French divines in the eighth century refused 
that blind submission to the church of Rome, which Boniface was so zealous to 
propagate everywhere ; ^ but as the empire fell back into the greatest ignorance 
and darkness there scarcely remained any one capable of detecting odious 
impostures, or disposed to support the expiring liberty of the church. ^ In the 
preceding age, the pontiffs had acquired a great degree in religious matters and 
in everything relating to the government of the church; their credit and influence 
increased prodigiously toward the commencement of the eleventh century. In 
it they arose to their highest period, though they arose by degrees and had much 
opposition and many difficulties to conquer. They received the titles : Masters 
of the World ; Popes, or Universal Fathers. They presided everywhere in the 
councils of their legates, assumed the authority of supreme arbiters in all contro- 
versies concerning religion or church discipline, and maintained the pretended 
rights of the church against the encroachments and usurpations of kings and 
princes. The popes exhorted the monks to withdraw themselves and possessions 
from the jurisdiction of the bishops and place both under the inspection and 
dominion of St. Peter. The rights of princes, the interests and privileges of the 
Episcopal order were violated and trampled upon, or were engrossed to swell the 
growing despotism of the all-grasping pontiffs. ^ Their authority, however, was 
confined within certain limits by sovereign princes, to prevent civil dominion, 
and by bishops to prevent ecclesiastical despotism and the destruction of the 
liberties and privileges of synods and councils. From the time of Leo IX. the 
popes employed every method to remove these limits and to render their 
dominion both despotic and universal. They aspired not only to the character of 
supreme legislators in the church, to the sole distribution of all ecclesiastical 
honors and benefices as divinely authorized and appointed for that pnrpose, to 
an unlimited jurisdiction over all synods and councils, general or provincial, but 
they carried their insolent pretentions so far as to claim lordship of the universe, 
arbiters of the fate of kingdoms and empires, and supreme rulers over the kings 
and princes of the earth. ^ The election of the popes was restricted by the decree 
of Pope Nicolas 11. to the college of cardinals ; the rest of the people and clergy 
were excluded, and though they opposed this restriction they were vanquished. ^ 

Gregory YII. labored indefatigably to render the universal church subject to 
the despotic government and arbitrary power of the pontiffs alone, to dissolve 
the jurisdiction of kings and emperors over the various orders of the clergy, and 
to exclude them from all part in the management and distribution of the revenues 
of the church ; and the pope claimed jurisdiction over them also. ^ The face of 
the Latin church was entirely changed, its government subverted, and the most 
important and valuable of these rights and privileges, formerly vested in its 



(1)6:2; 2, §2. (2) §4. (3) 13:2; 5, § 1. (4) Mosh. 9:2; 2, § 7. (5) 8:2; 5, § 2. (6) 9:2; 2, 
9. (7) 11 :2; 2, § 21. (8) Mosh. .11 :2; 2, § 2. (9) Mm., § 6. (1) § 9. 



(396 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOl»:fel>. 

councils, bishops, and sacred colleges, were usurped by the greedy pontiff. Several 
of the provinces, however, preserved some remains of their ancient liberty and 
independence. ^ Thus, we see the papal yoke, with all its rites and ceremonies, 
prerogatives and impositions, successfully imposed on the churches in the eleventh 
century. The conflict for the subjugation of the civil sovereigns will be traced 
hereafter. ^ 

The clerical yoke is seen in the Greek church and empire, also. The eastern 
bishops had not adopted the dangerous maxims of ancient Rome, nor did they 
presume to enforce their censures by deposing princes, or by absolving nations 
from their oaths of allegiance. But the Christian who had been separated from 
God and the church became an object of horror, and in a turbulent and fanatic 
capital that horror might arm an assassin or inflame the sedition of the people. 
Michael Paleologus felt his danger, confessed his guilt, and deprecated his judge. 
The patriarch of Constantinople refused to announce any means of atonement or 
any hopes of mercy, but pronounced that for great crimes great must be the satis- 
faction. The emperor artfully insinuated that if still rejected at home he might 
seek in the Koman pontiff" a more indulgent judge ; but it was more easy to place 
that judge at the head of the Greek church. Ecclesiastical intrigue deposed and 
exiled Arsenius and elected another patriarch. The emperor was pardoned, but 
an obstinate schism lasted forty-eight years (A. D. 1262-1310). ^ Superstitious 
veneration for the decisions of these ecclesiastical prelates and synods, or councils, 
was the origin and strength of this yoke of bondage ; but in the Latin church the 
popes usurped the sole right of imposing and controlUng this yoke. 

The Apostle Paul uses the figure of a yoke to designate the bondage of the 
mosaic institutions ; but the institutions of these empire, or Catholic, churches 
are far more burdensome and enslaving than anything in tlie law of Moses. In 
the second seal the guiding intelligence used a sword to coerce ; in the third he 
imposes a yoke. In the second he is contending for dominion; in the third he 
has obtained it, and is obliterating everything like freedom in religion. Christ 
said : The truth shall make you free. But pious frauds and forgeries have imposed 
slavery of every kind, and these are so identified with the color of the horse that 
we must consider the characteristics of the moving force and energy as identified 
with the badge, or yoke, of the guiding intelligence ; and so it was in the second 
seal : Wherever we saw the vengeful character and contentious spirit, there we 
discovered the sword of the leader as the final arbiter of disputes. Show them 
the sword! If that don't settle the matter, use it. Show them the yoke! If 
they don't bow, put it on them. The anathema of the pope in the Latin church, 
or of a patriarch in the Greek church, is more terrible than the sword of the 
emperor. The prince and his sword fall before it. The yoke lias superseded the 
sword, but has not broken it nor put it into the scabbard. 

3. The Mahometan Yoke. — Ye Christian dogs! Ye know your option : The 
Koran, th« tribute, or the sword, ^ said Calid. Jerusalem was invested, and Abu 
Obeidah addressed the customary summons to the chief commanders and people: 
Health and happines to every one that follows the right way : We require of you 
to testify that there is but one God, and that Mahomet is His apostle; if you refuse 
this, consent to pay tribute and be under us forthwith. Otherwise I shall bring 
men against you ; nor will I stir from you till I have destroyed those that fight 
for you, and have made slaves of your children. ^ The lives of the prisoners 
were redeemed by the profession of Islam ; the females were bound to embrace 
the religion of their masters, and a race of proselytes was gradually multiplied 
by the education of the infant captives. By the repetition of a sentence and the 
loss of a foreskin the subject or the slave, the captive or the criminal, arose in a 
moment to be the free and equal companion of the victorious Moslems. Every 
sin was expiated, every engagement was dissolved.^ But the true servant of 



(1) Mosh. § 9. (2) Chap. 147. (3j Gbn. 2:23; 387. (4) Gbn. 2:12; 227. (5) Idm. 231. (6) 246. 



CHAPTEK CXLV. : SEC'TION W. 69? 

Christ and faithful witness for the truth has to choose tribute and its train of evils 
or suffer death. The black and inexorable despotism of Mahometanisni and its 
black immoral character are displayed in all its conquests and government, and 
are set forth in its rewards and enjoyments of Paradise as the greatest attainment 
of soul and body. The Paradise of Mahometanism'^ would be a hell to every 
Heaven-born soul. The moving force and energy of Mahometanism is black, and 
the guiding intelh'gence is despotic subjugation. 

4. Inexorable Despotism and Blackness of Character and Intelli- 
gence. — Conversions were principally effected in the sixth century by pretended 
miracles and force. The principal injunctions on the proselytes were to memorize 
certain summaries of doctrine, and pay to the image of Christ and of the saints 
the same religious service they had formerly offered to the statues of their gods. 
These missionaries looked upon it as lawful and meritorious to deceive an ignorant 
and inattentive multitude.^ In the seventh century Christians multiplied the 
objects of devotion and paid homage to the remains of the true cross, images of 
saints, and spurious bones of martyrs ; talked of nothing else but a certain fire, 
which effaced the stains of vice and purified souls from their corruption ; excluded 
from Heaven such as had not contributed to augment the riches of the church, 
and placed the whole of religion in external rites and bodily exercises. The two 
irresistible arguments against all doubts were : the authority of the church, and 
the working of miracles. ^ The solitude of the monastic life, though accompanied 
with no marks of solid and genuine piety, was deemed sufiacient to atone for all 
sorts of crime. ^ The number of festivals under which the church groaned was 
now augmented, and churches became places of refuge to all who fled thither, 
though guilty of the most enormous crimes and abandoned licentiousness. ^ 

In the eighth century Boniface was the apostle of the Germans, and his zeal 
for the authority of the Roman pontiff equaled or surpassed his zeal for the service 
ot Christ and the propagation of His religion ; and he often employed violence 
and terror, and sometimes artifice and fraud, to multiply his converts. ^ The cor- 
rupt discipline then prevailing admitted of those fallacious strategems called pious 
frauds; nor did the heralds of the Gospel think it unlawful to terrify or allure to 
the profession of Christianity, by fictitious prodigies, those they could not subdue 
by argument. ^ That corruption of manners which dishonored the clergy in the 
former century increased in this and discovered itself under the most odious char- 
acters in both the eastern and western provinces. The clergy abandoned them- 
selves to their passions without moderation or restraint ; they were distinguished 
by their luxury, gluttony, and lust ; they gave themselves up to dissipations of 
various kinds, and to hunting and military studies and enterprises. They had 
extinguished every principle of fear and shame ; were incorrigible and unreclaim- 
able by civil laws. Notwithstanding their corruption, they were venerated and 
honored as a sort of deities by the submissive multitude, who transferred their 
slavish veneration for their pagan priests to these Christian ministers ; and the 
clergy used their dexterity to secure to themselves and successors the authority 
which the ministers of paganism had usurped over an ignorant and brutish people. 
The opinion prevailed at this time that rich donations to God, to the churches, 
the saints, and the clergy, atoned for the most flagitious crimes ; and this opinion 
caused immense treasures to flow in upon the clergy, and they became scandalous 
spectacles of worldly pomp, ambition, and splendor, and became civil rulers, 
commanding their own armies in battle.^ Among other unhappy circumstances, 
arose that most monstrous and pernicious opinion that such persons as were 
excluded from the church by the pope, or any of his bishops, forfeited thereby 
not only their civil rights and advantages as citizens, but even the common claims 
and privileges of humanity. This was a galling yoke of bondage to princes and 



(7)11:205. (8)Mosh. 6:1; 1,§4. (9) 7:2; 3, § 1. (1) Idm., § 4. (2) 5, § 2. (3) 8:1; 1, § 4. 
(4) §8. (5)8:2; 2, §§1-4. 



698 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

people, and shows the black character of the moving force and energy of the 
empire, or Catholic, church, and by absolving subjects from their oath of allegiance 
proved the character of the religion of that day to be most diabolical. ^ 

The monks constituted at this time an important portion of the moving force 
of the Catholic, or empire, church, and the monastic discipline was extremely 
relaxed in both the eastern and western provinces and fallen into total decay at 
this time ; and at length they submitted to no other discipline than that of intem- 
perance, voluptuousness, and sloth, that imperial edicts could not cure. "^ In 
doctrine we find celestial truth choked by monstrous and incredible quantities of 
noxious weeds. The simplicity of the Christian worship was corrupted by an 
idolatrous veneration for images and other superstitious inventions. The absurd- 
ities and superstitions, invented to flatter the passions of the misguided multitude 
to increase, at the expense of religion and Christianity, the opulence and authority 
of a licentious clergy, would swell a history to an enormous size. The piety in 
vogue during this and succeeding ages consisted in building and endowing churches, 
chapels, and monasteries; hunting relics of saints and martyrs, and treating them 
with excessive veneration ; procuring the intercession of the saints by rich obla- 
tions or superstitious rites ; worshiping images ; pilgrimages, and such like absurd 
and extravagant practices and institutions, which were looked upon as of the 
highest efficacy to attain eternal salvation, or expiate enormous crimes. The true, 
genuine religion of Jesus, if we except a few doctrines contained in the creed, was 
utterly unknown in the eighth century to the general multitude and to the most 
eminent doctors, and the consequences of this corrupt ignorance was fatal to the 
interests of virtue. All orders of men rushed headlong into all sorts of vice and 
wickedness with perfect security from the delusive hopes that by the intercession 
and prayers of the saints and the credit of the priests at the throne of God, they 
would easily obtain the remission of their enormities and render the deity pro- 
pitious. This dismal account of the religion and morals of the eighth century is 
confirmed by the unanimous testimony of all historians.® A cup of poison 
administered to the Greek emperor by his wife rendered the worship of images 
triumphant, by the cooperation of Pope Adrian, A. D. 780-6. ^ The religion of 
this century consisted almost entirely of a motley round of eternal rites and cere- 
monies ; solitary masses for souls in purgatory were traced, and superstition and 
darkness sat brooding over the church and disfigured the religion of Jesus. ^ 

The best conversions were by the Greek missionaries, and their religious 
system was corrupted with a variety of superstitious rites and a multitude of 
absurd inventions. ^ Among the Mahometans in the east they fell by degrees 
into such incredible ignorance and stupidity that in process of time there were 
scarcely any remains of Christianity to be found among them, beside the mere 
name and a few external rites and ceremonies.^ The impiety and licentiousness 
of the greatest part of the clergy arose at this time to an enormous height, and 
stand upon record in the unanimous complaints of the most candid and impartial 
writers of the ninth century. In the east, tumults, discords, conspiracies, and 
treason reigned uncontrolled, and all things were carried by violence and force. 
In the western provinces the bishops were become voluptuous and effeminate to 
a very high degree. They passed their lives amidst the splendor of courts, the 
pleasures of a luxurious indolence which corrupted their taste, extinguished their 
zeal, and rendered them incapable of performing the solemn duties of their func- 
tions, while the inferior clergy were sunk in licentiousness, minded nothing but 
sensual gratification, and infected with the most heinous vices the fiock they 
should have preserved and delivered from the contagion of iniquity. The bishops 
and heads of monasteries took the field ol battle at the head of their own troops, 
and priests and monks abandoned themselves to violence, fraud, and all sorts of 
crime. ^ The popes employed some of their most ingenious and zealous partisans 

(e^iie, 7. (7) § 13. (8) 8:2; 3, §§ 1, 2. (9) § 13. (1) 8:1; 5, § 1. (2) 9;1; 1, § 5. (3) Mosh. 
9:1; 2, §1. (4)9:2; 2, §§ 1, 2. 



CHAl^fER dXLV.: SECTION IV. 699 

in forging conventions, acts of councils, epistles, and such like records, to make 
it appear that they, in the first ages of the church, had been clothed with the same 
spiritual majesty and supreme authority which they now possessed. ^ The 
monastic life was now universally in the highest esteem, and nothing could equal 
the veneration paid to those devoting themselves to the sacred gloom and indolence 
of a convent. ^ Barbarism and ignorance brought in their train a prodigious multi- 
tude of devout follies, odious superstitions, and abominable errors, encouraged and 
propagated by the spiritual guides of a deluded people, since much was to be gained 
both in authority and opulence, from the progress of superstition. Christianity 
among the Greeks and orientals was almost in the same declining and deplorable 
condition, though from time to time, in the eastern provinces, men of superior 
abilities arose who endeavored to support the cause of true religion and to raise 
it from the pressures under which it labored. The savage and unnatural lives of 
the monks, whose members were prodigious and whose authority was consider- 
able, haunting the woods and deserts, the gloomy scenes of their extravagant 
devotion, contributed much among other causes to the decay of solid and rational 
piety. The ignorance and corruption that dishonored the Christian church in 
this ninth century were great beyond measure. The stupid veneration of bones 
and carcasses of departed saints was now considered the most sacred and 
momentous branch of religion ; nor did any hope the favor of God till they had 
assured themselves of the protection and intercession of some one. of the saintly 
order. Every church and individual had their patron saint; this required a pro- 
digious number, but some one, having the care of too many sinners, might neg- 
lect some. The priests and monks invented names and histories of saints that 
never existed, and many chose for their guides phantoms of their own creation 
or distracted fanatics who lived like madmen. This facility of manufacturing 
saints was stopped and the business was restricted to bishops in councils, and in 
the tenth century the pope monopolized the whole business. Lying wonders were 
invented, and all the resources of forgery and fable were exhausted to celebrate 
exploits never performed, and to perpetuate the memory of persons who never 
existed. These same imposters embellished, with false miracles and various other 
forgeries, the histories of the genuine martyrs. The bones, clothes, and furni- 
ture of saints, the ground they walked on or touched, or their putrid carcasses 
laid on, were treated with stupid veneration, and were supposed to heal all dis- 
orders of the body and mind and to defend against all the assaults and devices of 
Satan. Relic hunting became the mania of the times; many traveled long jour- 
neys, suffered great deprivations, and paid large sums for legs, arms, skulls, and 
jawbones of spurious saints and martyrs. Some took these relics by violence, 
some stole them, and considered any means of getting them acceptable to the 
Supreme Being. ^ 

The teacher of theology was more contemptible than the commentators, and 
the Greeks, as well as the Latins, were extremely negligent in unfolding the 
nature and proving the truths of Christian doctrines. ^ After a controversy of 
one hundred and ten years the cause of idolatry triumphed over reason and Chris- 
tianity. The whole east, except the Armenians, bowed down before the 
victorious images; nor did any of the succeeding emperors attempt to cure the 
Greeks of this superstitious frenzy or to restrain this childish worship.^ Toward 
the conclusion of this century the Galilean clergy paid religious homage to the 
saintly images, and the Germans and other nations followed. ^ Feasts and days 
were appointed that every saint might have his peculiar worship by rites and 
ceremonies. 2 Doubtful accusations were determined by binding the accused and 
casting them into the water; by single combat; by holding or walking on burning 
iron, and by the cross. The pontiffs and inferior clergy accompanied these bar- 
barous rites of paganism with the celebration of the Lord's supper.^ 

(5) §8. (6) §10. (7) Mosh. 9:2; 3, §§ 2-6. (8) § 10. (9) Idm., §§ 14, 15. (1) § 16. (2)4, 
§2. (3)§3. 



?00 THE KJ:NGt)OM OF GOt) DEVELOPED. 

To those who consider the primitive dignity and solemn nature of the minis- 
terial character, the corruption of the clergy in the tenth century must appear 
deplorable beyond expression. These corruptions were mounted to the most 
enormous height in this dismal period of the cliurch. In both the eastern and 
western provinces the clergy were for the most part composed of a most worthless 
set of men; shamefully illiterate and stupid; ignorant, especially in religious 
matters; equally enslaved to sensuality and superstition, and capable of the most 
abominable and flagitious deeds. This dismal degeneracy of the sacred order was 
principally owing to the pretended chiefs and rulers of the Universal church, who 
indulged themselves in the commission of the most odious crimes; abandoned 
themselves to the lawless impulse of the most licentious passions without reluc- 
tance or remorse ; confounded all difference between justice and injustice to 
satisfy their impious ambition; and their spiritual empire was such a diversified 
scene of iniquity and violence as was never exhibited under any of those temporal 
tyrants who have been the scourges of mankind. We may form some notion of 
the Greek patriarch from the single example of Theopliylact, who made the most 
impious traffic of ecclesiastical promotions, and expressed no sort of care about 
anything but his dogs and horses. Still, these Greek patriarchs were less licen- 
tious, profligate, and indecent than the Koman pontiffs, who were so many 
monsters, and not men, and exhibited a horrible series of the most flao^itious, 
tremendous, and complicated crimes. * The influence of the prostitutes, Marozia 
and Theodora, was founded on their wealth and beauty, their political and 
amorous intrigues, and the most strenuous of their lovers were rewarded with 
the Roman mitre. The bastard son, the grandson, and the great-grandson of 
Marozia (a rare genealogy !) were seated in the chair of St. Peter. ^ The clergy 
and monks lived with concubines, and squandered the revenues of the chnrch in 
luxurious living with mistresses ; and ecclesiastical offices were sold without 
shame to the highest bidder. ^ 

The state of religion was such as might be expected in times of prevailing 
ignorance and corruption, and was disfigured and perverted in the most wretched 
manner. Both Greeks and Latins placed the essence and life of religion in the 
worship of iuiages and departed saints and in hunting relics. Scarcely did any 
Christian dare to approach the throne of God without first rendering the saints 
and images propitious by a solemn round of expiatory rites and lustrations. The 
fears of purgatory were now carried to the greatest height and exceeded by far 
the terrifying apprehensions of infernal torments, for they hoped to escape the 
latter easily by the prayers of the clergy or by the merits and mediation of the 
saints, while from the pains of purgatory there was no exemption; but the clergy 
professed great influence in that region. '^ The pope now monopolized the saint 
making.^ Expositors and commentators were too mean in their abilities and too 
unsuccessful in their undertakings to deserve notice, and the science of theology 
was absolutely abandoned, and the important science of morals was still more 
neglected in this wretched age. ^ A yearly feast of all souls was instituted to 
deliver souls out of purgatory, i The profound ignorance and stupidity produc- 
tive of so many evils in the tenth century, prevented the rise of new sects or new 
commotions of a religious kind. ^ Great crowds resorted on Monday to all the 
churches dedicated to St. Michael, because they believed that he celebrated mass 
in Heaven in the presence of God on that day. ^ 

The character of the clergy of all ranks in the eleventh century was either 
black or a gangrene. ^ Ignorance, licentiousness, frauds, debaucheries, dissensions, 
and enormities dishonored the greatest part, by far, of the monastic order, not 
to mention their dissolution and impiety. ^ The licentiousness and corruption that 
had infected all other ranks and orders of the clergy were also remarkable among 



(4) Mosh. 10:2; 2, §§ 1. 2. (5) Gbn. 2:10; 189. (6) Mosh. 10:2; 2, § 10. (7) 3, § 1. (8) 
(9) §§5, 6. (1)10:2: 4, §2. (2) Mosh. 10:2; 5, § 1. (3) § 4. (4) 11:2; 2, § 1. (5) § 22. 



§4. 



CHAPTEE CXLV. : SECTION V. 701 

the canons, a niiddle sort of order between the monks and secular priests, and in 
some provinces surpassed all other orders of ecclesiastics and monks in the scan- 
dalous dissolution of their manners. ^ In the trial of Berenger we see force and 
dissimulation ; and some required him to prove his sincerity by lire. ^ The 
Roman ceremonies were introduced everywhere in the Latin world, and though 
the Gothic liturgy of Spain triumphed in single combat, and in the tire, yet the 
Latin superseded it. Thus, five liturgies of Christendom were performed in the 
dead languages, and the people did not understand them. The western empire 
church had its liturgy in Latin, the eastern in Greek, the l^estorian and Jacobite 
y in Syriac, the Egyptian in Coptic, and the Abyssinian in the old Ethiopic. ^ The 
' attentive reader may form a just idea of the deplorable state of religion in both 
the eastern and western world at this period, and will see in this dreadful schism 
the true origin of the various sects that multiplied the different forms of super- 
stition and error in these unhappy times. ^ We shall not follow these corruptions 
any farther at present ; nor am I certain but the characteristics have degenerated 
into those of the fourth seal. But surely the moving force and energy of all 
churches under a hierarchy is black enough; and the guiding intelligence has 
imposed a clerical yoke, a supreme pontiff's yoke, a superstitious yoke, or bondage 
to rites, to ceremonies, and to suffering to obtain pardon and salvation. This 
yoke is ten times more grevious than circumcision and the law of Moses, or even 
of the Pharisee. 

5. Voice from the Aggressive Force of the Kingdom of God. — When 
iniquity abounds the love of many waxes cold. While we contemplate this black 
ignorance, superstition and crime, accompanied with ecclesiastical and spiritual 
bondage, we wonder if any child of God and servant of Jesus Christ could live 
in such scenes ! Could they find any good for their souls to keep the Christian 
life from expiring ? Could anything like hope for the triumph of the Gospel and 
consummation of the kingdom of God rejoice their hearts; and could they enjoy 
the communion of the Holy Spirit and the fellowship of kindred souls born of 
God ? Could they possess the graces of the spirit and make their light shine to 
the glory of God and the good of men ? Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ? 
Come and see. While musing over the dark and threatening picture, a voice from 
the aggressive force of the kingdom of God exclaims: A day's food of the best 
quality for a day's labor, and twice that quantity of the second grade, at the same 
price, to strengthen the whole system; the oil of gladness that makes the face 
shine in cheerfulness, and the wine of consolation that stimulates and strengthens 
the source and impelling force of action, ^ hurt thou not. ^ Is this voice to me, or 
to the rider on the black horse? If it is to ijae, I can yet find spiritual food 
by diligent labor, and must not neglect the communion and fellowship of the 
spirit, nor let the animating joys of hope expire; nor must I forget to develop 
the true Christian character and let the light of truth and righteousness shine 
before men, to show them the way of life and lead them to God; and a faint 
light will appear bright in so dark a night. Still the Word of God can be obtained 
by labor, and expositions, instructions, and lives of Christians of a better age can 
be read or heard. ^ These evil times have been foretold; so why despair of final 
success and injure that hope which imparts joy, cheerfulness, and animation to 
the soul ! as wine does to the heart and whole constitution of man. The com- 
munion of saints and fellowship of the spirit that transform into the image of 
God, can not be prevented by the despotism, crimes, and character of others ; 
therefore, grieve not the Spirit that communicates the shinning grace of the true 
children of God. But, is this voice to the guiding intelligence who is imposing a 
yoke and establishing superstition, ignorance, and immorality, in the kingdom 
of God ? Then, it imposes a limitation to His innovation. 



(6) Mosh. § 29. (7) 3, §§ 14, 16. (8) 11:2; 3, § 11. (9) 4, §§ 1, 2. (1) Ps. 104:15. (2) Rev. 
6:6. (3) Matt. 23:2-4. 



702 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

The aggressive force of the kingdom of God, with the patient labor and 
endurance of the ox, the strength and boldness of the lion, the soaring and swift- 
ness of the eagle, and the intelligence and dignity of man, will withstand the 
corrupting and guiding despotism, and will perpetuate spiritual nourishment, 
enjoyment, and genuine Christian character, though it be accomplished in the 
face of persecution. In the world ye shall have tribulation ; but in Me ye shall 
have peace. 4 Not only the witnesses perpetuate these, but Christ Himself, 
who has all things under His control, ^ may induce kings and princes to interpose 
restraints and perpetuate these inestimable privileges. The greatest effort of 
such a corrupting and enslaving power would be to expel the Scriptures from the 
churches, or to obscure and pervert them; and next to the Scriptures would be 
the religious and historical writings of the first Christians, which showed what 
was primitive Christianity. Now, as these ecclesiastical despots forged docu- 
ments to sustain their usurpations and teachings, they would suppress all that 
opposed their innovations and corruptions. But this voice prohibits them. The 
Scriptures are the wheat; the writings of the fathers of the first and second 
centuries may be the barley. The divine influences of the Holy Spirit are the 
heart cheering wine, and the genuine Christian character is the oil that makes 
the Christian shine and commands the respect of the world and the protection of 
rulers possessed of common sense. 

Charlemagne excited and encouraged the more learned among the clergy to 
direct their pious labors towards the illustration of the Holy Scriptures; had faults 
in the Latin translation corrected. Some attribute the first German translation 
to him, but others give this honor to his son, Lewis the Meek. He confirmed 
the practice of reading and expjaining certain portions of Scripture to the people 
in the public assemblies. The opinions and authorities of the fathers of the first 
six centuries were collected by some divines, and the Irish and Scots exercised 
their own judgment in illustrating the truths and doctrines of religion. ^ The 
fundamental doctrines of Christianity, as yet, were respected and preserved in the 
theological writings of both the Greeks and Latins. "' The French bishops per- 
ceived the chains forged for them and the church and opposed the spurious 
decretals and other ficticious monuments and records, and protested against their 
being received among the laws of the church ; ^ and Lewis the Meek employed 
Benedict to reform the monks. ^ We find some writers of the ninth century 
whose productions show that the luster of true erudition and theology was not 
yet totally eclipsed,^ and there arose among the Greeks from time to time in the 
eastern provinces, men of superior abilities who endeavored to support the cause 
of true religion and to raise it from the pressures under which it labored. ^ Claudius 
of Turin opposed the worship of images or of the cross, treated relics with con- 
tempt, censured pilgrimages to the holy land and to the tombs of the saints, and 
he maintained his ground triumphantly and gained new credit. Hence, the city 
of Turin and ajacent country remained less infected by superstition than other 
parts long after the death of this learned and venerable prelate. ^ Robert, abbot 
of Moleme in Burgundy, having in vain employed his most zealous efforts to 
revive the decaying piety and discipline of his convent, retired with about twenty 
monks who had not been infected with the dissolute turn of their brethren. ^ 

The more learned in the eleventh century retained still some notions of the 
truth, which, however, they obscured and corrupted by a wretched mixture of 
ludicrous and pernicious opinions destitute of truth and utility. 'No doubt there 
were in several places judicious and pious men who would willingly have lent a 
supporting hand to the declining cause of true religion, but the violent prejudices 
of a barbarious age rendered all such attempts not only dangerous but even des- 
perate. And those chosen spirits who had escaped the general contagion lay too 

(4) John 16:33. (5) Matt. 28:18. (6) Mosh. 8:2; 8, §§ 4-6. (7) § 1. (8) 9:2; 2, § 9. (9) 3, §1. 
(1)§17. (2)11:2; 2, §25. 



CHAPTER CXLVI. '. SECTION I. 703 

mucli concealed, and, therefore, had too little influence to combat with success the 
formidable patrons of impiety and superstition, who were extremely numerous in 
all ranks and orders from the throne to the cottage. Notwithstanding all this, 
we find, from the time of Gregory YII., proofs of the zealous efforts of those 
called witnesses of the truth, who adhered to the pure religion, of the Gospel 
and remained uncorrupted amidst the growth of superstition, deplored the mis- 
erable state of Christianity, opposed popes and bishops, and, privately in some 
provinces and openly in others, attempted the reformation of a corrupt and 
idolatrous church and of a barbarious and superstitious age. iNotwithstanding 
the darkness of the times and general ignorance of true religion in all ranks and 
orders, yet the very fragments of the Gospel, which were still read and explained 
to the people, were sufficient to at least convince the most stupid and illiterate 
that the religion imposed on them was not the religion of Jesus. ^ Thus, we see 
the servants of Christ could, speaking figuratively, have wine, which to the heart 
of man doth cheerfulness impart; oil, that his face makes shine; and bread, that 
strengtheneth his heart. ^ The unsubdued missionary spirit and their unyielding 
firmness still produced fragments of the Scriptures and expositions of them; the 
inward influences of the spirit no power of men or devils could prevent; fellow- 
ship of kindred spirits could be enjoyed in private places, and the graces of the 
Holy Spirit would penetrate the eyes of princes and people. (Continued in 
Chap. 146 and in Chap. 153.) 



CHAPTER CXLYI. 



WOMAN IN THE WILDERNESS ; HER SEED AND TWO WITNESSES. 

A. M. 4500-5000. (Continued from chap. 128^ § 6.) 

1. The Woman in the Wilderness. — To form a right conception of the 
character and condition of the kingdom of God, we must bear in mind that eccle- 
siastical and pohtical historians are so occupied with innovations, changes, and 
establishments that they seldom notice the humble, retired, and unobtrusive chil- 
dren of God, and that the characteristics of the times are taken from leading 
men, churches, cities, and provinces. When Israel was so apostatized that 
Elijah thought himself to be the only prophet of Jehovah left, more than seven 
thousand Israehtes had never acknowledged the divinity of Baal. Michaiah had 
always offended Ahab with his bold truths; and Obediah, an high officer in court, 
had protected and fed the persecuted prophets of Jehovah. So, in these dark 
ages of corruption and bondage the witnesses of Christ and sealed servants of 
the Living God may number myriads of hidden ones ; but true churches of 
Christ are not conspicuous on the pages of history during the periods of the second 
and third seals. But the invasions, dismemberments, and reconstructions of the 
Roman empire, the confiicts between rival emperors, kings, and princes, and the 
contests between civil and ecclesiastical powers for supremacy, must have afforded 
opportunities for the woman, or true churches, to shelter, propagate, and prosper 
in obscure or retired places, and for her seed to publish the commandments of 
God and spread the testimony of Jesus Christ throughout the distracted and 
agitated empire. 

(3) Mosh. 11:2; 3, §§ 1-3. (4) Ps. 104:15. 



704 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

The Novatians and Donatists, who separated from the universal, or confed- 
erated, church before it became the empire church, have disappeared from history. 
Tiiey have been forced into the empire church, or dispersed by persecution and 
driven into the wilderness. In the sixth century we discover a band of ancient 
Christians in Britain or Wales, and their history may teach us the fate of the 
primitive churches in other parts of the world. The apostles and apostolic men 
had planted churches in most nations of the world ; but, after the establishment 
of the empire church, we lind bishops^ patriarchs, and popes sending missionaries 
into these same regions and converting whole tribes and nations ; but what 
became of the primitive churches planted in these same regions, we are not told. 
In Britain the Anglo-Saxons, having conquered the natives, involved a multitude 
of them, who professed Christianity, in the deepest distress and tormented them 
with all that variety of suffering which the spirit of persecution could invent. ^ 

Gregory the Great sent (A. D. 596) Augustine, at the head of forty Bene- 
dictine monks, to perfect what the pious Queen Bertha had begun with the clergy 
that followed her. They converted the king of Kent, Ethelbert, and the greatest 
part of the inhabitants, and laid anew the foundations of the British church. ^ 
These conversions, like all others of the time, were nominal and productive of 
but little good reformation, and were effected by the usual means of pious frauds.*^ 
Augustine invited the ancient Christian inhabitants to unite in the customs and 
authority of the Roman church, and to convince them of his divine mission 
restored sight to a blind man; but they were not convinced and refused to 
comply. Augustine reduced his commands to three things : To follow Rome in 
the celebration of Easter, in the administration of baptism, and to unite with 
Auo-ustine and his monks in preaching to the English, or Anglo-Saxons. They 
asserted their independence of the pope and refused to comply with his innova- 
tions, and for this refusal they were slaughtered by the Saxons at the instigation 
of the pope and his missionaries.^ Whether a true church, or churches, of Christ 
were preserved during these periods of corruption must be proved from their 
history and conformity to the apostolic faith and practice. There were primitive 
churches, and churches reformed from empire churches ; but whether they 
adhered to or adopted the primitive faith and practice, or departed from or had 
not adopted the pure and apostolic simplicity, we can not determine from the 
narrative ; but it shows what was probably the fate of the primitive churches 
which refused to be merged into the empire churches. That Christ had true 
church all this time, I believe, because the divine programme so teaches ; but, as 
it is in the wilderness I may not.be able to find them, or any of them, on the 
page of history. They may be in Wales, in Germany, in Armenia, in Africa, or 
in any other place, or in many places. But, when I find any of them, I must 
measure them, and everything about them, by the Scriptures; for primitive 
churches may have apostatized and reformed churches may not have adopted 
all truths and practices. But, though I may not find the woman herself, I expect 
to find her seed persecuted by those occupying the throne of the Red Dragon 
and exercising his power and great authority. 

2. The Seed of the Woma.n. — While ever the Scriptures are accessible, 
whether read or proclaimed, and the Spirit of God is free, there will be genuine 
Christians and faithful witnesses. The word and Spirit of God generate the 
Christians. Where these are associated together in the service of Christ there is 
a church of Christ, though they may not be able to trace a succession of prede- 
cessors to the apostles. The church of Rome can trace back Its origin to apostolic 
times, and yet it is the loathsome strumpet of Babylon and mother of all abom- 
inations, in all the controversies of this period we find some -witnesses for some 
truths, though they may not be perfect in knowledge or practice. While these 



(5) Mosh. 5:1; 2, § 3. (6) 6:1; 1, § 2. (7) § 4. (8) Milnr. 6:7; 519-20. Ben., pp. 343, 347-351, 



CHAPTER OXLVI. I SECTION II. 705 

witnesses were obscure persons, or dwelt in remote provinces, they were unno- 
ticed; but when thej come in contact with leaders of in novations, or their testi- 
mony is adopted by prominent persons, then they are brought to light. The 
worship of images was opposed by many simple, or rational Christians, who 
appealed to the evidence of facts, texts of Scripture, primitive times, and secretly 
desired the reformation of the church; and the rude and remote districts of Asia 
were strangers to this innovation of sacred luxury. Many large congregations of 
Gnostics and Arians maintained, after their conversion, the simple worship which 
had preceded their separation, and the Armenians were not reconciled to the 
sight of images in the twelfth century. These were of small account in the vil- 
lages of Anatola or Thrace, but in a soldier, a prelate, or a eunuch they might 
often be connected with the powers of the church and of the state. Of such 
adventurers was the Emperor Leo III., whose education, reason, and, perhaps, 
intercourse with Jews and Arabs, had inspired the martial peasant with a hatred 
of images. ^ The elevation of Leo III. to the imperial throne brought to light 
the opposition to image worship, and his efforts to suppress it brought on the 
image war. An individual, layman, or clergy without the power of Leo or the 
influence of Claudius of Turin, was more easily managed by imprisonment or 
death before their testimony made them formidable, as Clement of Ireland, Felix 
of Urgella, 1 and Berenger of Tours. ^ We cannot justify the want of firmness 
in Berenger, but bis case shows how witnesses for truth could be disposed of 
without their testimony being known or their influence felt in the community. 
But sometimes these witnesses gained such influence before discovered by the 
ecclesiastical tyrants that they could not be put down without convulsing the 
empire. Such was the case with the Faulicians. In the neighborhood of Samo- 
sata a reformer arose, esteemed by the Paulicians as a chosen messenger of the 
truth. In his humble dwelling of Mananalis, Constantino entertained a deacon, 
returned from Syrian captivity, and from him received the inestimable gift of the 
'New Testament — or two manuscripts containing the gospels and the epistles of 
Paul 3 — which were already concealed from the vulgar by the prudence of the 
Greek, and, perhaps, of the Gnostic clergy. These books became the measure 
of his studies and the rule of his faith, and the Catholics who disputed his inter- 
pretation acknowledged his text to be genuine and sincere. Constantine attached 
himself with peculiar devotion to the writings and character of Paul, and his dis- 
ciples, Timothy, Titus, Sylvanus, and Tychicus, were represented by Constantine 
and his fellow laborers. The names of apostolic churches were applied to the 
congregations they gathered in Armenia and Cappadocia, and this innocent alle- 
gory revived the memory of the first ages. 

In the Gospels and the epistles of Paul, his faithful followers investigated the 
creed of primitive Christianity. The objects of devotion transformed by the magic 
of superstition appeared to the eyes of the Paulicians in their genuine and naked 
colors: Images were only the work of men ; relics were only bone and ashes; the 
true cross was only a piece of sound or rotten wood; the symbols in the supper 
were only bread and wine ; Mary was degraded from her honor as the mother of 
God, and the saints and angels were no longer solicited to mediate in Heaven and 
earth. ^ The remnant of the Gnostics, and especially the Manicheans of Armenia, 
were united under their standard, and Catholics were converted by their argu- 
ments. 5 They complained of the injustice of imposing on them the name of 
Manicheans, whose opinions they condemned. ^ Like all other reformers and 
witnesses for the truth, they are charged with many errors, which may be true of 
some of them, but may be entirely false. The ecclesiastical hierarchy being 
founded on the Levitical priesthood, and the civil power interfering with the 
sword, while the Paulicians' doctrines were derived from the Gospels and epistles, 
may have induced them to deny the authority of the Old Testament ; or, their 

(9) Gbn. 2:10; 174. (1) Mosh. 8:2; 5, §§ 2, 3. (2) 11:2; 3, §§ 13-18. (3) Orch., p. 127. (4) 
Gbn. 2:15; 281-2. (5) Gbn., p. 282. (6) Orch., p. 129. 
—45 



706 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

rejecting the Levitical institutions as authority in regard to Gospel institutions 
may have caused their enemies to charge them with rejecting the Old Testament 
altogether. 

Again, the corruption and tyranny of the empire church, or clergy, 
would induce many of different opinions and practices to join any reformer, and 
this would give enemies a pretext to accuse the genuine reformers with these 
opinions and practices. We may not be able to decide whether they were the 
true churches of Christ or not, but can decide that they did witness for truths of 
the Gospel, and kept the lamps of truth, holiness, and righteousness burning 
before the churches and the world so that the sincere inquirer could find the way 
of life and happiness. We can also tell if the beast is using his delegated authority 
of the dragon in making war upon the seed of the woman who have the witness- 
bearing of Jesus Christ and keep the commandments of God. These Paulicians 
were reformers, who were originated bv, and deduced their principles and practices 
from, the word of God, and do not pretend to have existed in an unbroken suc- 
cession, or to have preserved their doctrines unchanged, from the time of the 
apostles. They are not the woman that fled into the wilderness and hid from the 
face of the dragon, but they are some of her seed, against which the dragon insti- 
tuted perpetual war. Their claim to be the seed of the woman and witnesses for 
Jesus Christ is indisputable. Their elders, deacons, or companions in travel were 
not rabbi, nor fathers, nor leaders, as in the empire churches, but brethren and 
fellow-laborers, or fellow-pilgrims, or companions in the journey of life. They 
recommend to the people without exception, and with most ardent zeal, the con- 
stant and assiduous perusal of the Scriptures, and expressed their indignation 
against the Greeks who restricted access to these fountains of divine knowledge 
to the priests alone. '^ 

3. Spread and Extent. — They spread over Armenia and the provinces of 
Asia Minor to the westward of the Euphrates;^ and the Greek emperor, Con- 
stantine Copronymus, transplanted many of them from the banks of the Euphrates 
to Constantinople and Thrace, and by this emigration their doctrine was intro- 
duced and diffused in Europe. The Paulicians of Thrace resisted the storms of 
persecution, corresponded with their Armenian brethren, and gave aid and com- 
fort to their preachers in Bulgaria. They occupied a line of villages and castles 
in Macedonia and Epirus, and many native Bulgarians were associated in their 
arms and heresy. They spread over Bulgaria, Crotia, Dalmatia, and had con- 
gregations in Italy and France. They were frequently transported into the 
Greek provinces of Italy and Sicily. In peace and in war they freely conversed 
with strangers and natives ; and their opinions were silently propagated in Rome, 
Milan, and the kingdoms beyond the Alps ; and many thousand Catholics of every 
rank and sect embraced the heresy; and the Bulgarians spread their branches 
over the face of Europe. In the eleventh century those in Thrace and Bulgaria 
were restored and multiplied by a colony transplanted from the Chalybian hills to 
the valleys of Mount Hemus. The oriental clergy, who would have preferred 
their destruction, sighed for the absence of the Paulicians; the warlike emperor, 
John Zimisces, felt and esteemed their valor; their attachment to the Saracens 
was pregnant with mischief to the empire ; but on the side of the Danube, against 
the barbarians of Sythia, their service might be useful, and their loss would be 
desirable. Their exile in a distant land was softened by a free toleration; their 
voluntary bands were distinguished in the armies of the empire ; but they were 
easily provoked by caprice or injury. In midst the Norman war two thousand 
five hundred Paulicians deserted the standard of Alexus Comnenus, A. D. 1081. 
He dissembled till the moment of revenge; invited the chiefs to a friendly con- 
ference, and punished the innocent and guilty by imprisonment, confiscation, and 



(7) Orch., pp. 132-3. (8) Gbn. 2:15; 



CHAPTER CXLVI. I SECTIONS IV. ' 707 

baptism. By arguments and rewards he converted many; he robbed, imprisoned, 
and banished the contumacious leaders, but afterward they resumed their civil and 
religious laws.^ 

4. Persecution and Defense. — Instead of regarding the Faulicians as a sect 
originated by one man, I regard them as a contiguity of witnesses against the 
usurpations and corruptions of the Catholic church and clergy. Among them were 
the true churches of Christ, which had been nourished in obscure retreats unob- 
served by the hierarchy till the Paulicians aroused attention by their reformation. 
Among them were true Christians and genuine witnesses of Christ begotten by 
the Word and Spirit, and reformed from the Catholic churches. With these were 
many associated, whose only bond of union, or attachment, was opposition to the 
despotism and corruptions of the church and empire; and while the Catholics 
were compelled to acknowledge the piety and soundness of the former, they 
reproached them with the errors and practice of the latter. Did we have to 
depend on the writings of the papists for our knowledge of the Protestant reforma- 
tion, we might find it not much better than the Paulician reformation. Our 
knowledge of the true churches of Christ, the seed of the woman, and the wit- 
nesses is derived from and through their enemies and persecutors. 

The great Monotheistic first wild beast, in his second, or Greek, headship, 
with the commission, power, and authority of the Red Dragon, made war upon 
the Paulicians. After a mission of twenty-seven years. Con stan tine Sylvanus, 
having gone beyond the tolerating government of the Saracens, fell a sacrifice to 
Poman persecution, A. D. 687. The laws of the pious emperors, which seldom 
touched the lives of less odious heretics, proscribed without mercy or disguise the 
persons of the Paulicians. Their books were delivered to the flames, and all who 
should presume to secrete such writings, or to profess such opinions, were devoted 
to an ignominious death. A Greek minister, named Simeon, armed with legal 
and military power, appeared at Colonia to strike the shepherd and reclaim the 
sheep. By a refinement of cruelty Simeon placed the pastor, Sylvanus, before 
a line of his disciples, who were commanded, as the price of their pardon and 
proof of their repentance, to massacre their spiritual father. They turned aside 
from the impious ofiice ; the stones dropped from their filial hands, and ot the 
whole number only one executioner could be found — styled by the Catholics: A 
new David, who boldly overthrew the giant of heresy. This apostate Justus 
found means to again deceive and betray his unsuspecting brethren, and as many 
as were treacherously ascertained and could be collected were massed together 
into and immense pile and consumed to ashes by order of the emperor. 

The officer, Simeon, struck with astonishment at their readiness to die for their 
religion, examined their arguments, became a convert, renounced his honors and 
fortune, and sealed his testimony with his blood, A. D. 692. ^ They were not 
ambitious of martyrdom, but in a calamitous period of one hundred and fifty years 
their patience sustained whatever zeal could inflict, and power was insufiicient to 
eradicate the obstinate vegetation of fanaticism and reason. From the blood and 
ashes of the first victims a succession of teachers and congregations repeatedly 
arose. They preached, disputed, and sufiered ; and the virtues of Sergus — who 
was converted by reading the sacred records and epistles of Paul, on the recom- 
mendation of a Paulician woman^ — are reluctantly confessed by the orthodox 
historians. The native cruelty of Justinian 11. was stimulated by a pious cause, 
and he vainly hoped to extinguish the name and memory of the Paulicians in a 
single conflagration. ISTicephorus relaxed in their favor the severity of the penal 
laws. Michael I., and Leo, the Armenian, were foremost in the race of persecu- 
tion ; but the prize must be adjudged to the sanguinary devotion of Theodora, 
who restored the images to the oriental churches. Her inquisitors explored the 



(9) Gbn. 2:15; 284-5. Mosh. 11:2; 5, §§ 1-4. (1) Orch:, pp. 134-5. Sect. 5, § 10- (2) Idm. 135. 



708 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED 

cities and mountains of Asia Minor, and the flaterers of that empress affirmed 
that in her short reign one hundred thousand Paulicians were extirpated by the 
sword, the gibbet, or the flames. 

The doctrines of the Paulicians were received bj officers in the imperial aruiy^ 
whose profession of war accustomed them to defend their rights and vanquish 
their foes, and the impalement of his father by the Catholics caused the revolt of 
Carbeas, who was commander of the guard of the general of the east. Five 
thousand of his brethren were united bv the same motives. Thev renounced their 
allegiance to anti-Christian Rome. A Saracen emir introduced Carbeas to the 
caliph. The commander of the faithful extended liis scepter to the implacable 
enemy of the Greeks, and Paulician fugitives reconciled the use of the Bible and 
the sword. During more than thirty years Asia was afflicted by the calamities of 
foreign and domestic war (A. D. 845-80), and in their hostile inroads the disciples 
of Paul were joined with those of IMahomet, but the victories were ascribed to 
Carbeas, and after him to his successor, Chrysocheir. ^ After successful wars and 
victories, Chrysocheir was slain, and the Paulicians learned by experience that 
they who take the sword perish by the sword. But they continued for more than 
a century to defend their religion and liberty, to infest the Roman limits, and to 
maintain their perpetual alliance with the enemies of the empire and of the Gospel. ^ 
They sent colonies into almost all the provinces of Europe and formed gradually 
a considerable number of religious assemblies, who adhered to their doctrine and 
were afterward persecuted with the utmost vehemence by the Roman popes, who 
are the restored first, or Latin, head of the first beast, and the Trinitarian horn of 
the second. 

The case of the Paulicians will serve for an example to explain other cases 
that have occurred in regard to the Donatists, and may again occur in the history 
of the witnesses and of the true churches. These calamities were very severe on 
the Greek empire, and belong to the first woe, already considered.^ We see the 
teachings, piety, and sufi'erings of the seed of the woman attract statesmen and 
warriors to their faith, as Christianity did from the first. These statesmen and 
warriors are made to suffer with the witnesses, and some exercise their civil rights 
and powers; and never was self-defense and the destruction of enemies more 
justifiable. These civil and military characters draw the sword, as on other occa- 
sions; defend their cause and brethren successfully for a time. They are at last 
defeated and their armies dispersed ; then the crime of self-defense is charged 
upon the witnesses for the truth, who never took part in the war nor approved of 
propagating or defending their religion by force or by inflicting injury on their 
persecutors. 

The Donatists were charged with the self-defense and revenge of the Circum- 
cellians, ^ although it is acknowledged that Donatists disapproved of their conduct. ^ 
In the purer days of Christianity many professed discipleship who apostatized in 
time of trials; and can we expect any set of successful reformers, or schismatics, 
to be entirely composed of such devoted martyrs that the inhuman and brutal 
treatment of dearest relations will not arouse to self-defense and the chances of 
war the trained warriors among them ? But Christ promised no victories to the 
sword, but said: They that take the sword shall perish by the sword. So those 
noble heroes fell in battle, and all protected under their shadow were persecuted 
for their religion and transported to other countries under the pretext of the rights 
of war. But this expatriation difi'nsed their principles over all Europe, and gave 
the popes employment in after ages.'' The modern Paulicians have lost the 
memory of their origin; they worsliip the cross and practice bloody sacrifices.^ 
(Contiuued, Chap. 152.) 



(3) Gbn. 2:15: 283-4. (4) Idm. Mosh. 11:2; 5. §§ 1-4. (*) Chap. 144. f5) Mosh. 5:2: 5, § 1. 
(6) 4:2j 5, §§ 5, 8. (7) Orch , p. 138. (8) Mosh. 10:2; 5, § 2. 11:2; 5, §§ 1^. Gbn. 2:15; 284. 



CHAPTER CXLYII. 



THE LITTLE HORN BECOMES STOUTER THAN ANY OF HIS FEL- 
LOWS ; OR, THE POPES AND SOVEREIGNS CONTEND 
FOR SUPREMACY. A. M. 4964-5254. 

(Continued from Chap. 142, and Chap. 145, § 2.) 

1. Contest with Princes. — Having aspired to the position of a wealthy 
sovereign, the pope must conquer and be conquered, receive tribute and pay 
tribute, give protection and receive protection, like other potentates. The pope's 
power and wealth increased in his conflict with kings and emperors, while the 
caliphs' decreased and he became dependent on the sultans whom he crowned 
and commissioned. The unparalleled profligacy of the popes and their rivalry 
brought them under the oppressive yoke of Italian princes, and the marquises of 
Tuscany and the Count of Tusculum held the apostolic see in a long and dis- 
graceful servitude (A, D. 800-1060), like that of the vicar of the prophet in the 
decline of the Saracen power. In A. D. 960, Otho the First, or the Great, restored 
the pope, as the sultan, Togrel Beg, did the caliph, and secured by papal grant 
the headship of the holy Roman empire to the German emperor's power, and 
exercised the imperial right of calling councils, trying popes, confirming or 
annulling their elections.^ He also published an edict prohibiting the elec- 
tion of any pontiff without the previous knowledge and consent of the emperor. 
He, his son, and grandson maintained, without interruption, their right of 
supremacy over the city of Rome and its territory and the pope. The bishops of 
Germany, France, and Italy perpetually guarded against the legislative assump- 
tions of the pope during the tenth century, but the pope, by open violence and 
fraudulent strategems, augmented their influence, encroached on the privi- 
leges of the bishops, and also upon the right and jurisdiction of kings and 
emperors 1 Bishops followed the example and aimed after civil jurisdiction over 
the cities and territories of their ecclesiastical dominion, ^ and were clothed with 
the honors of dukes, marquises, counts, and viscounts. 

In the eleventh century the popes received the titles. Master of the World, 
Universal Father, or Pope; presided every where in the councils, by their legates; 
assumed the authority of supreme arbiters in all controversies of religion and 
discipline; maintained the pretended rights of the church against the encroach- 
ments and usurpations of kings and princes. But their authority was confined 
within certain limits, being opposed by princes and bishops. They aspired to 
supreme legislators and unlimited jurisdiction over everything about the church; 
claimed to be lords of the universe, arbiters of the fate of kingdoms and empires, 
supreme rulers over the kings of the earth ; and Leo IX. gave the lands and 
territories of the Greeks and Saracens to the Norman robbers. ^ Under the 
administration of Gregory YIL the emperors were deprived of the privilege of 
ratifying by their consent the election of the pope, a privilege of no small impor- 
tance and one they have never yet recovered. They also demanded tribute of 
all kings and sovereigns and obtained it from many. They gave thrones to 
kings, and their own territory was enlarged by Matilda's donation of Tuscany. ^ 



(9) Mosh. 10:2; 2, §§ 5-7. (1) § 8. (2) § 9. (3) lL-2j 2, § 2. (4) Mosh. 11:2; 2, §§ 10, 11. 



^10 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVJELOPED. 

2. From the time of Gregory YII. the face of Europe underwent a consider- 
able change, and the prerogatives of the emperors and other sovereign princes 
were much diminished. Still, Gregory applied to the Emperor Henry TV. to 
convene a general council, but neither Henry nor the German bishops would 
permit the pope's legates to assemble a council in Germany. This exasperated 
Gregory, who convened one in Rome A. D. 1075 and excommunicated several 
German and Italian bishops and favorites of Henry; and in a formal edict 
anathematized whoever received the investiture of a bishopric, or abbey, from the 
hands of a layman, and those who performed the rite of investiture. This struck 
the emperor, kings, and princes, who were accustomed to confer the government 
of monasteries, convents, and Episcopal dioceses by the ensignia of the ring and 
staif, or crosier. ^ This involves the question: Which shall have the supreme 
power — the empire, or the pope? the first wild beast, or the second? These 
investitures involved and controlled the immense wealtii of the clergy, their 
political titles, positions, and incomes ; they could not possess both civil and 
ecclesiastical emoluments without the consent of both sovereignties. Hitherto 
the civil government controlled both; and so, the ecclesiastical beast was 
dependent on the civil beast. Bat now the second beast has arisen to such 
eminence in the west that his papal horn can dispute empire with the first beast, 
or his image ; or, the little horn of Daniel's wild beast has become stouter than 
his fellows. 

Henry refused to resign his right to create bishops and abbots and the 
right of investiture; but a number of German princes were the secret or 
avowed enemies of Henry, and Gregory took advantage of this discord to insult 
and depress the emperor. Henry resented his imperious command, assembled 
a council of German bishops, impeached and deposed Gregory, and ordered an 
election for another pope. Gregory thundered his anathemas at the head of the 
prince, excluded him from the church and from the throne of his ancestors, and 
dissolved the oath of allegiance which his subjects had taken to him as their 
lawful ruler. The Swabian chiefs and Saxon princes, the dukes of Bavaria and 
Carinthia, the bishops of Wurtzburg and Worms, and others revolted against 
Henry and elected Rodolph, duke of Swabia, emperor in his place. ^ In Italy 
the Normans and the armies of Matilda maintained the cause of the pope against 
the Lombards, who espoused the cause of Henry, and the flames of war involved 
Germany and Italy in calamities for a long time. Gregory crowned Rodolph 
emperor and anathematized Henrj^ a second time. Henry deposed Gregory a 
second time, and raised to the pontificate Guibert, archbishop of Ravenna. "^ 
Rodolph was killed; Gregory died; but the contest for supremacy went on. 
Pope Urben forbid the bishops and the rest of the clergy to take the oath of alle- 
giance to their respective sovereigns. (A. D. 1075-99.^ In the twelfth century 
the popes labored strenuously to enlarge both their opulence and authority, and 
the emperors and princes used their utmost endeavors to check their strides to 
universal power. Pope Pascal renewed, A. D. 1102, the decrees against investi- 
tures by laymen, and the excommunication of Henry opposed with skill and firm- 
ness, till his unnatural son, under the pretext of religion, took up arms against 
him, seized him in the most treacherous manner, obliged him to abdicate the 
empire and retire to Liege. Here, deserted by all his adherents, he died A. D. 
1106. Pope Pascal 11. dissolved the oath of fidelity and obedience this treach- 
erous son, Henry Y., had taken to his father, Henry IV. ^ But Henry Y. main- 
tained the cause of the empire till the pope proposed that the emperor should 
renounce the right of investing with the ring and crosier, and the bishops and 
abbots should renounce the grants of royalty received from Charlemagne to raise 
tribute, to coin money, to possess independent lands and territories, with other 
immunities of like nature. To this Henry Y. agreed, but the German and Italian 
bishops objected in strongest terms. A tumult arose A. D. 1111, and the pope 

(5) Mosh. §§ 12, 14. (6) Mosh. 11:2; 2, § 16. Note *. (7) § 17. (8) § 20. (9) 12:2; 2, § 2. 



Ohapter cxlVii.: section hi. 711 

was confined in the castle of Yiterlo till he restored the right of investiture to the 
emperor. ^ But Pascal called another council A. D. 1112, and disannulled it. 
The emperor was excommunicated in many councils in both France and 
Germany, was placed on the black list of heretics, and saw German princes 
revolting from his authority and taking up arms against him. War followed; 
Pope Pascal II. died A. D. 1118. ^ Two popes were elected; one dies; Callixtus 
II. is made pope ; he fought with the ecclesiastical sword and the arm of flesh ; 
mastered Rome, threw Henry's pope into prison, and was ready for a compro- 
mise A. D. 1122. Bishops and abbots must be elected by monks and canons, but 
the election must be inspected by the emperor or his deputy. If the electors dis- 
pute, the decision is left to the emperor, who must consult with the bishops. 
The bishop or abbot elected must take the oath of allegiance to the emperor, 
receive from him the regalia and do him homage for them. The emperor must 
no more confer the regalia by the ring and crosier, but by the scepter. This con- 
vention was confirmed in the general council of Lateran, and still remains in 
force. ^ If the emperor has power he can force obedience ; and if the pope has 
the power he can dissolve the oath of obedience. In A. D. 1130 the cardinals 
split and elected two popes. Germany, England, France, and Spain supported 
one pope, and Italy, Sicily, and Scotland supported the other. ^ 

3. Under the pontificate of Adrian TV. the contest between the popes and 
emperors was renewed by Frederick I., surnamed Barbarossa. To stop the 
enormous opulence of the popes, bishops, and monks, the emperor enacted a law 
to prevent the transferring of fiefs without the knowledge and consent of the 
superior, or lord, in whose name they were held, and he turned the whole force 
of his arms to reduce the little republics of Italy under his dominion. Adrian 
died A. D. 1159,^ and after defeats and victories Frederick concluded a treaty of 
peace at Yenice with Pope Alexander III. and a truce with the rest of his 
enemies A. D. 1177. In this contest Alexander used the pope's big gun, deposed 
the emperor, loaded him with curses, dissolved the oaths of allegiance, exhorted 
the subjects to rebel against his authority and shake off his yoke. ^ Thus, we see 
where the subordinates are proof against the pope's bulls, emperors and kings 
can rule; but where they are dupes to the popes, civil sovereigns have no power. 
This we see in the contest between Archbishop Becket of Cante;rbury and Henry 
II. of England. Becket refused obedience to the laws and was assassinated, 
Henry was considered as prompter of the crime, and the pope subjected Henry 
to severe penance. "^ 

Alexander III. maintained the pretended rights of the church and extended 
the authority of the popes. In A. D. 1179 he obtained decrees: 1. That the 
election of the popes be confined to the cardinals, and that two-thirds of their 
votes constituted a lawful choice. 2. A spiritual war was declared against 
heretics. 3. The canonization of saints was consigned to the popes alone. The 
power of creating or erecting new kingdoms, claimed by popes from the time of 
Gregory YII.. was not only assumed but also exercised by Alexander IIL; and 
in A. D. 1179 he conferred the title of king with the ensigns of royalty upon 
Alphonso I. of Portunal, who had made his province tributery to the Roman 
see. ^ Pope Celestine III. thundered his excommunication against the Emperor 
Henry YI. and Leopold of Austria, for seizing and imprisoning Richard I., king 
of England, returning from the crusades; also, against Alponso X, of Gallicia 
and Leon, and he commanded Philip Augutus, of France, to receive back his 
divorced queen. ^ The history of the popes of the thirteenth century presents a 
lively and horrible picture of the complicated crimes that dishonored the min- 
isters of the church. The Sacerdotal order advanced to authority in the church, 
behaved like tyrants rather than rulers, and showed in all their conduct that they 



(l)Mosh. 12:2; 2, §3. (2) § 4. (8) §§ 5, 6. (4) § 7. (5) 12:2; 2, § 9. (6) §§10, 11. (7) § 12. 
(8) §§ 13, 14. 



?12 tME KINGDOM Oi^ GOt> DEVEtOPfiD. 

aimed at an absolute and unlimited dominion. The popes more especially incul- 
cated the maxim : That the pope is supreme lord of the universe, and neither 
princes nor bishops have any lawful power in church or state but what they derive 
from him. This maxim, considered the sum and subtance of papal jurisprudence, 
the popes obstinately maintained and left no means unemployed that perfidy or 
violence could suggest to give it the force of universal law; and they claimed the 
right of disposing of ecclesiastical benefices, and of conferring civil dominion, and 
of dethroning kings and emperors according to their pleasure. The opposition, 
and it was large, placed the authority of councils above the popes. Some kings 
asserted their rights with dignity and success, excluded the popes from all con- 
cerns in their civil transactions, and reserved to themselves the supremacy over 
the churches in their dominions. But the opposition needed discretion on account 
of the influence these ecclesiastical tyrants had usurped over the minds of the 
people, and of the power of alarming princes by exciting their subjects to rebellion 
and absolving their oaths of allegiance. ^ 

The papal horn had now as much power as the first caliphs of Mahomet- 
anism, and, like the caliphs, they could abide in their palaces and send armies on 
crusades to do their bidding. The caliph ordered the Turks to desist from mutual 
slaughters and unite against the Christians, and was obeyed. He commissioned 
and blessed their armies in the name of the true God and of Mahomet as His 
apostle. The pope commissioned and blessed the armies of the crusades in the 
name of the true God, of Jesus Christ, and of St. Peter; and between them they 
destroyed the second, or Greek, head of the Monothestic wild beast, and sub- 
jected the Greek church to the dominion of the sultans seated on the throne of 
the Greek Csesars. The popes' legates executed their orders in the provinces 
and imitated the avarice and insolence of their masters. ^ Pope Innocent III. 
reduced, under his jurisdiction, the prefect of Rome, hitherto subject to the 
emperor by his oath of office; seized upon Ancona, Spoletto, Assisi, and several 
cities and fortresses. JNicolas lY. refused to crown the Emperor Rodolph I. till 
he acknowledged and confirmed by treaty all the pretentions of the Roman see; 
and then he reduced under his temporal dominion several cities and territories in 
Italy annexed to the imperial crown, particularly Romania and Bologna. Thus, 
by force and artifice, the pontificate arrived at its high degree of grandeur and 
opulence. 2 Innocent III. gave a king to Armenia in Asia, conferred the regal 
dignity upon Primislaus, duke of Bohemia, upon Johanicius, duke of Bulgaria 
and Walacia, and Peter II. of Arragon. In the dispute about the imperial crown, 
Innocent espoused the cause of Otho TV. and crowned him, but excomnmnicated 
Philip. Philip died, and Otho, not being sufficiently obsequious to the pope, 
Innocent excluded him and raised Frederick II. to the imperial throne A. D. 
1212. ^ John de Grey was regularly elected archbishop of Canterbury and confirmed 
by King John. The pope consecrated Stephen Langton, and by menaces engaged 
the monks of Canterbury to receive him. The king threatened the pope's 
authority in England. The pope ordered the bishops of London, Worcester, and 
Ely to lay the kingdom under an interdict. All divine services were stopped; the 
churches were shut; all sacraments but baptism were suspended; the dead were 
buried in the highways without funeral rites ; some protested ; the king was 
excommunicated, his subjects were absolved from their oath of allegiance to him, 
and all persons were ordered to avoid him on pain of excommunication. In 
A. D. 1212, in a council of cardinals and prelates. Innocent deposed John, declared 
the throne of England vacant, wrote to Philip Augustus (who he had compelled 
to restore his divorced queen to his bed and to her dignity), to execute this sentence 
and conquor England and annex it to his French dominions forever. Another 
bull exhorted all Christian princes to contribute whatever was in their power to 
the expedition, promising them the same indulgence as to the crusaders. Both 



(9) Mosh. 13:2j 2, §§ 2, 3. (1) 13:2; 2, § 4. (2) § 5. (3) § 7. 



OSAPtEK CXlVli.: SECTION IV. tl3 

kings prepared for war. The pope's legate terrified King John hj an exaggerated 
account of Philip's forces and the disafiection of the English. John submitted, 
yielded his throne and kingdom to the pope, received his crown back from the 
legate and became tributary to the pope. Indignation was expressed, but the 
pope was triumphant. The emperor, Frederick II., resolved to reduce Italy 
again to the emperors and circumscribe the immense influence and opulence of 
the popes, but was baffled by Pope Honorius III. When Gregory IX. became 
pope, A. D. 1227, he excommunicated Frederick for not marching on crusade to 
the holy land, being sick. In A. D. 1228 Frederick went, and in his absence 
Gregory labored to arm all Europe against him. Frederick returned, defeated 
the papal army, regained his possessions, and forced the pope to a peace and to 
give Frederick public and solemn absolution. Again the war was renewed. 
Frederick conquered, and Gregory anathematized till he died, A. D. 1242. ^ 
Pope Innocent lY. fled to Lyons, assembled a council, deposed Frederick, and 
declared the imperial throne vacant. Seduced by their blind superstition, the 
German princes venerated this insolent measure and elected another emperor; 
but Frederick persevered heroically till he died by a dysentery, A. T>. 1250. ^ 
Pope Clement IV. conferred the kingdom of Naples upon Charles Anjou, and 
Conradin, the last desendent of Frederick, was beheaded by Charles with the 
consent of the pope. ^ Gregory X., claiming lordship over the whole world, and 
especially over the Roman empire, A. D. 1271, wrote a letter to the German 
princes ordering them to elect an emperor without delay, and assuring them if 
they did not do it immediately that he would do it for them. An electoral diet 
was assembled at Frankfort, and Rodolphus, count of Hapsburg, was raised to 
the imperial throne. ^ Martin lY. excommunicated the Greek emperor, Michael 
Palaeologus, head of the Greek church, and also Peter, king of Arrigon, whose 
kingdom, fiefs, and possessions he gave to Charles, son of Philip the Bold of 
France. ^ 

4. We have found this little horn of Daniel's wild beast much stouter than 
any other power that arose out of the old Latin government; and it has eyes, 
seeing into any project for power or interest, ecclesiastical or political. It has a 
mouth that can do big talking, and thunder out big bulls with horns. His inter- 
dicts, anathemas, and absolving oaths of a;llegiance made nations tremble and 
thrones totter. Although the empire is but the image of civil sovereignty, while 
princes and crowned heads are in his hands, yet the pope can no more do without 
that image of civil government than the Mahometan caliph can. The papal horn 
of John's second wild beast animates and controls this holy Poman empire in 
the west as much as the caliph does the Mahometan Unitarian empire in the east. 
It makes the civil sovereigns issue edicts, decrees, and orders, and makes them 
act them out, as the caliphs did. And when emperor, king, or prince of any 
grade is crowned or consecrated by it, it makes all persons reverence and obey 
them under the penalty of excommunication and its consequences; and when it 
excommunicates a sovereign, then all must curse and kill him. The pope and 
the caliph are the two horns of John's second beast and the two little horns of 
Daniel's beasts. 

The German emperors were the acknowledged heads of this papal empire, 
as the Turkish sultans are of the Mahometan world. The emperor was chief of 
the German princes. The hereditary monarchs of Europe confessed the preemi- 
nence of his rank and dignity. The emperor was the first Christian prince, the 
temporal head of the great republic of the west. To his person the title of 
majesty was longer appropriated. He disputed with the pope the sublime pre- 
rogative of creating kings and assembling councils, and his seven German electors 
were equal to kings. ^ ' While the prerogative of conferring crowns and erecting 



(4) Mosb. 13:2; 2, §§ 9, 10. (5) Mosh. § 11. (6) Mosh. § 12. (7) Mosh. § 13. (8) Mosh. § 15. 
(9) Gbn. 2:10; 192. 



714 tHE KINGDOM OE GOD DEVELOPED. 

kingdoms belonged to the emperor, he could strengthen and weaken powers by 
this policy; but now we find the pope playing the same game. Italy belonged to 
the emperor by virtue of his coronation; but the pope conferred the dukedom of 
Naples and a royal crown on Charles de Anjou, ^ and thus wrested provinces from 
Germany, the Greek empire, and France, and gave tbem rulers who acknowledged 
themselves vassals to the see of Rome. ^ (Continued in Chaps. 151, 157, 158.) 



Period Twentieth. A. M. 5056-5652. 
Fourth SeaL or Pale Horse. Period. 



CHAPTER XLYIII 



CRUSADES AND THE SOUNDING OF THE SIXTH TRUMPET. 

A. M. 5100-5295. (Continued from Chap. 144, §§ 4, 5.) 

1. The Position of Contending Powers. — We have now (A. D. 1100) two 
supreme religions, ruling the nations from the Indus to the Atlantic, established 
on the ruins of Polytheism, and claiming jurisdiction over Jerusalem and the Holy 
Land. The one is represented by the caliphs from Arabia, and the other by the 
popes of Rome. The caliphs claim to be the successors of Mahomet, and were 
once supreme in religion and politics; but in the eleventh century the civil power 
has passed into the hands of the Turkish sultan, while the caliph enjoys super- 
stitious veneration and influence, The popes were once patriarchs under control 
of Roman emperors, but in this century it is rough-and-tumble with them for 
supremacy. The Christian emperors have the same relation to the popes that the 
sultans have to the caliphs. The empires of both are only an image of the absolute 
sovereignty of the Constantine empire; but they are animated and controlled by 
the second Monotheistic wild beast, the power of which is concentrated in the 
Mahometan and papal horns. But the second beast exercises all the power of the 
first, and has the dragon's voice. Between these two collossal powers is wedged 
in, in their north side, the remnant of the Greek-Roman empire, in which the 
emperor is acknowledged to be the head of the church and of the state, and it is 
the genuine first beast under its second headship, and is now circumscribed by 
the eastern and western little horns of Daniel's prophecy. ^ 

The Mahometan horn has become powerful, not by the innate influence of 
its religion, but by the savage power of the Saracens from Arabia and the Turks 
from the north. The papal horn has gradually grown into power by the super- 
stition of the barbarians, his own sagacity, and bold talk; but he must still depend 
upon the heads and horns of the western Roman empire. All the powers of 
Polytheism from the east and north have spent their forces against Constantinople, 
but still it stands unpolluted by pagan gods and temples. The Bulgarian and 
Norman Christians have imbrued their hands in the blood of their Greek brethren 
and attempted the subjugation and despoliation of this city, but still it stands in 
strength and makes its power felt in Europe and respected in Asia. The pope 



(1) Mosh. 13:2; 2, § 12. (2) §§ 6, 8. Gbn. 2:10; 185. (3) Dan. 7:8, 20-22, 24-27. 8:9-12,23-25. 



osaptEr oXLViii. : sficTioN it. ?15 

gave the Greek empire to the Normans, hoping to gain the church to himself, 
and sealed the donation with the spurious keys of St. Peter; but the deed proved 
worthless, and its western provinces are still under the scepter of the city of 
Constantine. 

The Saracens from Arabia have pushed this Greek-Roman empire to the 
walls of the royal city, as foretold by Daniel, ^ and become the fourth head of the 
Monotheistic wild beast seen by John \^ but their power was broken and rolled 
back to the Euphrates, leaving Syria, Persia, Egypt, and Africa in their possession. 
Constantinople has seen the Latin-Roman empire destroyed by the barbarian 
invaders and the eternal city of Rome sacked, pillaged, and reduced to a common 
city, and has recovered that ancient city and half the provinces of the empire 
back to the Caesars of the Greek headship; and again it has lost them, and more, 
by the Latin Christians and the Mahometans. The pagan Avars and Persians 
once environed it on every side, and made a treaty between themselves for the 
conquest of the city and partition of the provinces; but it has seen both these 
pagan monarchies disappear from the map of nations while she is still able to 
give battle to their extirpaters. Again, the Turks have mapped it off as a part 
of their empire, and have decreed and attempted its subjugation. A civil war 
among the sons of Malek Shah has consumed the veteran army and divided the 
Turkish empire into four permanent divisions, and bound them in the territories 
of the Euphrates, while this remnant of the Greek-Roman empire resists the 
Mahometan horn on the east and the papal horn on the west. The hostile fronts 
of these two horns have met in collision in Spain and on the sea, and they are 
watching an opportunity to exterminate this remnant wedged in between their 
territories ; but the divine programme tells us that four messengers, bound in the 
dominion of the Euphrates, or caliphate of Bagdad, shall destroy this last of the 
three geographical divisions of the Roman empire, and former prophecies have 
been so manifestly fulfilled that they are as obvious as if written on the pages of 
an opened book. 

While we muse upon the obvious fate of this wonderful city of imperial 
royalty, one of those glorious messengers from Heaven descended and took 
possession of the earth and sea, and called attention, with a voice like thunder 
that all might hear, and was answered by seven thunders. In his hand was a 
little book, opened so as all having eyes could read its contents. It contained 
the mysteries of God foretold by former prophets, and for the encouragement of 
Christ's servants he swore by the Living God that these mysteries should be 
fulfilled when the seventh angel begins to sound the seventh trumpet, and the 
promised time should not be any longer delayed. What the angel cried we are 
not told; what the thunders said John was not permitted to write, and the contents 
of the little book are not given; yet this revelation was given to inform Christ's 
servants what was about to come to pass. When Christ's servants have their 
attention aroused they can easily discover the import, and it is not designed that 
others should understand. We shall not stop now to read the little book, ^ but 
shall look after the thunders. 

2. Import of the Figure. — Thunders break forth without warning — peal, roll, 
echo, reecho, and die away. They demolish obstacles, ignite combustible matter, 
shake the ground, and terrify animals, but die away without making any revolu- 
tions in countries and nations, while earthquakes upheave, engulf, and perma- 
nently revolutionize the earth itself, and change the foundation of production and 
improvement. The catastrophes announced by the trumpets are represented by 
voices, lightnings, thunders, and earthquakes ;'' those of the sixth seal, and those 
at the resurrection of the witnesses, ^ by earthquakes without the voices and thun- 
ders, and the grape harvest is gathered by an angel out of the temple. ^ These 
judgments take the nations without warning. Thunders denote latent power let 



(4) Dan. 11:40. ■ (5) Rev. 13:1. C6) Chap. 150. (7) Rev. 8:5. 11:19. (8) 6:12. 11:13. (9) 14:15, 



tl() TflEJ KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPEI). 

loose, which may scatter destruction around and over nations like civil wars, without 
effecting permanent revolutions or changes in government or religion, while earth- 
quakes denote revolutions, or permanent changes. These may go in company, or 
they may act independently of each other. Here the tliunders are not accompanied 
with revolutions in religion or government, nor the subversion of any nation. 
The crusades broke upon the Monotheistic world like a peal of thunder, rolled all 
over Europe and to the Euphrates in Asia, shattered the Greek empire to the 
center, and scattered destruction on every side of their tracts, but rolled away, 
leaving the Mahometan, the Greek, and papal empires and religions in the same 
relative positions. They were civil wars in the Monotheistic empire. 

3. Prospective Yiew. — Peter the hermit went through all Europe sounding 
the alarm of a holy war against the infidel nations, and exhorted all Christian 
princes to draw the sword against the tyrants of Palestine. He put the spirits of 
the people everywhere into a ferment, and kindled in their breasts a vehement 
zeal for that holy carnage which the church had so long been meditating, i An 
extraordinary event, the offspring of that superstitious age, served still more to 
increase the power of the popes, and that was the crusades which the nations of 
Europe undertook, at their request and by their orders, for the conquest of Pales- 
tine, or the Holy Land. The lamentable accounts of the pilgrims excited general 
indignation, and generated the romantic notion of expelling the infidels from the 
Holy Land. ^ It was decreed in the council of Clermont, A. D. 1093, that all 
crusaders should wear a red cross on their right shoulder, enjoy plenary indul- 
gence, and obtain remission of all their sins. From that time the pulpits of 
Europe resounded with exhortations to the crusades. ^ Six grand crusades suc- 
ceeded to the first, all of which were either fruitless, or at best without any 
important and durable success. The seventh and last grand crusade was under- 
taken by Lewis IX., A. D. 1248.^ The council of Clermont was held in the open 
fields, and there were present two hundred bishops, four thousand ecclesiastics, 
and three hundred thousand laymen. The first army was an innumerable multi- 
tude of all ranks and orders in the nation — monks, prostitutes, artists, laborers, 
lazy tradesmen, merchants, boys, girls, slaves, malefactors, profligates, and 
debauchees — animated by the prospect of spoil, plunder, etc., to the number of 
eight hundred thousand. ^ The Princess Anne, daughter of the Greek emperor, 
Alexsius, said Europe was loosened from its foundations and hurled against Asia. 
Hungaria and Bulgaria were whitened with their bones ; the vanguard was cut off 
by the Turks, and the loss of the first adventurers by climate, fatigue, and sword, 
was three hundred thousand;^ and a pyramid of their bones on the plain of 
Nice informed their companions of the place of their defeat. '^ 

One consequence of these crusades was the aggrandizement of the Roman 
pontiffs, who during the whole period played the part of supreme chiefs and sov- 
ereign masters of Christendom. At their request these religious wars were 
undertaken, and they directed them by their legates, who compelled emperors 
and kings, by the terror of their spiritual arms, to march under the banner of 
the cross. They taxed the clergy at their pleasure to defray the expenses of 
these expeditions, took under their immediate protection the persons and effects 
of the crusaders, and by special privileges emancipated them from all depend- 
ence on any power, civil or judiciary. The wealth of the clergy was increased 
by numerous endowments and by immense landed property which the owners 
sold to them on assuming the badge of the cross. ^ It was during this period 
that the power of the emperors in both Germany and Italy were sapped to the 
very foundation and sunk under the determined efforts of the courts of Rome. ^ 

These crusades show the second beast to be in power and the empire to be 
but the image of sovereignty animated and controlled by the pope ; and the dark 
ignorance, black immoralities, and abject bondage of the third seal is conspicuous 

(l)Mosh. 11:1; 1, §§4, 5. (2) Rev. Eurp., Vol. I , p. 115. (3) Idm., p. 116. (4)118-19. (5) 
Mosh. 11:1; 1, §§ 5, 6. (6) Gbn. 2:19; 334. (7) Idm., 329. (8) Rev. Eurp., 1:119. (9) Idm., 120. 



CHAPTER CXLVIII. : SECTION IV. 717 

everywhere and almost merged into the more horrible characteristics of the fourth 
seal. Thundering bulls from the pope was the order of the day, and Frederick 
II. was excommunicated for delaying his expedition in these crusades, i The 
number and dates of these crusades against the Turks, which eifected or accel- 
erated the downfall of the Roman empire, are given bv Gibbon thus : First, 
A. D. 1095-1101; second, A. D. 1147; third, A. D. 1189; fourth, A. D. 1203; 
fifth, A. D. 1218; sixth, A. D. 1248; seventh, A. D. 1270.3 Mosheim divides 
the fifth of Gibbon's into three expeditions; but they accomplished nothing but 
what Frederick did by treaty.^ In these classifications I prefer those made by 
infidels, as they can not be impeached with making a classification to accommo- 
date the divine programme. But six principal crusades followed the first great 
movement, and all these were excited by some recent or impending calamity to 
Palestine.^ 

4. First Crusade Got Up. — When the patriarch of Jerusalem capitulated 
with Caliph Omar, he stipulated for the inhabitants the assurance of their reli- 
gion and property. But the articles were interpreted by a master against whom 
it was dangerous to dispute, and in the four hundred years of the reign of the 
caliphs, the political climate of Jerusalem was exposed to the vicissitudes of 
storm and sunshine; but the sepulchre of Christ with the Church of the Resur- 
rection was still left in the hands of his votaries, and a crowd of pilgrims from 
the east and the west visited the holy sepulchre of Christ and the adjacent sanc- 
tuaries. The Greeks and Latins, the E^estorians and Jacobites, the Copts and 
Assyrians, the Armenians and Georgians, maintained the chapels, ciergy, and the 
poor of their respective communions. The harmony of prayer in so many various 
tongues, the worship of so many nations in the common city of their religion, 
might have afibrded a spectacle of edification and peace; but the zeal of the sects 
was embittered by hatred and revenge. ^ The revolution that transferred the 
scepter from the Abbaside caliphs of Bagdad to the Fatimite caliphs of Egypt 
was a benefit to the Holy Land and a free toleration was granted and maintained, 
except under Hakem, whose cruel and wanton persecutions made some martyrs 
and many apostates; but he was assassinated and the toleration restored. ^ 

When the Turks conquered the Saracens, Jerusalem came under the sultans 
and emirs. (A. D. 1076-1096.) The Turks insulted the clergy of every sort; 
the patriarch was dragged along the pavement by the hair and cast into the dun- 
geon to extort a ransom from the flock, and the divine worship in the Church of 
the Resurrection was often disturbed by the savage rudeness of these masters. 
The pathetic tale excited the millions of the west to march under the standard of 
the cross to the relief of the Holy Land. A nerve was touched, and the sensation 
vibrated to the heart of Europe. "^ About twenty years after the conquest of Jeru- 
salem by the Turks, A. D. 1095, Peter the hermit, incited by his own injuries 
and the oppression of the Christian name, and informed by the patriarch of Jeru- 
salem that no relief could be hoped for from the Greek emperor, exclaimed : I 
will rouse the martial nations of Europe in your cause. The astonif^hed patriarch 
dismissed him with epistles of credit and complaint, and Peter hastened to the 
Roman pontiff. Peter possessed that vehemence of speech which seldom fails to 
impart persuasion to the soul and excelled in the popular madness of the times. 
The people were impetuously moved by his call to repentance and to arms, and 
Christendom expected with impatience the counsels and decrees of the supreme 
pontiff. ^ In a council called by Urben 11. at Placentia, composed of two hun- 
dred bishops, four thousand clergy, and thirty thousand laity, the ambassadors 
of the Greek emperor, Alexius Comnenus, showed not only the danger of Con- 
stantinople, but also the sound statesmanship of vanquishing the Turks in Asia, 
and not waiting till they invaded Europe; and in the council of Clermount, A. D. 
1095, the first crusade against the Turks was inaugjurated. 

(1) Mosh. 13:1; 1, § 5. 2; 2, § 10. (2) Gbn. 2.19, 20. (3) Mosh. Cent., 11, 12, 13. pt. 1, chap. 
1. (4) Will., 284, IT 24. Rev. Eurp , pp. 118-19. Gbn. 2:20; 346. (5) 2:18: 322. (6) Gbn. 2:18; 
323. (7) 19; 324. (8) Idm. 



718 THE KINGDOM OP GOD DEVELOPED. 

5. First Division. — In A. D. 1096, Peter started with above sixty thousand 
of both sexes, followed by Godescal with fifteen thousand or twenty thousand; 
and many thousands of Jews were pillaged and massacred by these in 
the trading cities of the Moselle and the Rhine. From Austria to Con- 
stantinople they traversed the wild and desolate countries of Hungary 
and Bulgaria, about six hundred miles, where a scanty supply of pro- 
visions was rudely demanded, forcibly seized, and greedily consumed; and 
on the first quarrel they gave a loose rein to their indignation and revenge, 
and the retaliation on the pious robbers was unrelenting and bloody. Peter, 
with about one-third of his naked fugitives, escaped to the mountains of 
Thrace, and were conducted by the Greek emperor to Constantinople. They 
stung their benefactor, and neither gardens nor palaces nor churches were safe 
from their depredations. Alexius allured them to the Asiatic side of the Bos- 
phorus ; they rushed against the Turks; separated in quest of prey; fell an easy 
prey to the arts of the sultan ; and a pyramid of their bones informed their com- 
panions of the place of their defeat. Three hundred thousand of the first 
crusaders perished before a single city was rescued from the Turks or their more 
rational brethren had completed their preparations for the enterprise. ^ 

6. Second Division. — The second division was composed of valiant soldiers 
and able officers, and their invasion of Asia was conducted as prudently and as 
honorably as the customs of war require; but they were an unchristian set of 
missionaries for the conversion of a nation of Unitarians, and the Greek and 
Latin Trinetarians, by their mutual jealousies, murders, and robberies, show that 
they were not the disciples of Christ. Their place of rendezvous was Constan- 
tinople, and Alexius, the Greek emperor, was astonished at the multitude of 
powerful chiefs and frantic nations and distrusted their purpose, and indeed, his 
old Norman adversary, Bohemond, did urge the attack and conquest of Constan- 
tinople ; but Godfrey resisted such perfidy and abuse of hospitality. Alexius 
dissembled, resisted, gave gifts, and exacted homage. High on his throne the 
emperor sat, mute and immoveable. His majesty was adored by the Latin princes; 
they submitted to kiss either his feet or his knees. His vanity obtained an oath 
of homage and fidelity and a solemn promise to restore their Asiatic conquests 
to him, or to hold them as the humble and loyal vassals of the Roman empire. 
The vessels of Alexius transported them to the Asiatic shore, and they were 
reviewed on the plains of Bythinia A. D. 1097. The force of the crusaders con- 
sisted in their cavalry of one hundred thousand, completely armed with helmet 
and coat of mail, and six hundred thousand pilgrims able to bear arms, and the 
priests, monks, women, and children. If all had marched that took the cross 
and made the vow, above six million would have migrated from Europe to Asia. ^ 
A small remnant of those pilgrims who passed the Bosphorus was permitted to 
visit the holy sepulchre. The climate, imprudence of wasting their stores of 
provisions and water, the country exhausted by their numbers, the distance from 
the sea, the unfriendly disposition of the Greeks, and the mutual enmity of the 
sects, combined in their destruction; and it is said that the dire famine induced 
them to eat their captive adults and children. 

7. The Turks Driven to the Euphrates and Rebound There. — The Turkish 
kingdom called Roum extended from the Hellespont to the confines of Syria and 
barred the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The reigning sultan was Killidge, Arslan, 
or Soliman, son of the first Seljuk conqueror, and his capital was Nice. Nice was 
besieged by land by the crusaders; on the waters by the Greeks, who transported 
their boats on sledges to the lake, and in the moment of victory the city was sur- 
rendered to the Greeks, whose banner guarded it from pillage and massacre. The 
murmurs of the western chiefs were stifled by honor or interest, and after nine 
days the crusaders marched towards Phrygia, guided by a Greek general. The 



(9) 2:19; 329. (1) Gbn. 2:19; 330-4. 



CHAPTER CXLVIII. I SECTION VIII. 719 

wife and servants of the sultan were restored without ransom by Alexius. His 
generosity was called treason to Christianitjs and the guide was suspicion ed of 
connivance with the sultan, A. D. 1097. Soliman, who retired to the mountains 
before the siege of Nice, collected his emirs and Turkman hordes of two hundred 
thousand or three hundred thousand horse. Hovering on their flanks, he observed 
their careless and confident progress in two columns separated out of view, he 
attacked, confused, and overwhelmed one division, which was sustained by the per- 
sonal valor of Bohemond, Tancard, and Robert of Normandy. Godfrey, with the 
other column, flew to the rescue. An obstinate battle was fought between Turks 
and Franks ; four thousand Christians were pierced with Turkish arrows ; besides a 
nameless and unaccountable multitude, three thousand pagan knights were slain 
in the battle and pursuit, and the camp of Soliman was pillaged. With ten 
thousand guards Soliman evacuated his kingdom of Roum, and hastened to 
implore the aid and kindle the resentment of his eastern brethren. In a march 
of 'B.ve thousand miles through Asia Minor the crusaders traversed wasted land 
and deserted towns without finding a friend or an enemy, and they suffered 
greatly. ^ 

The Norman standard was the first planted on the walls of Tarsus and 
Malmistra. Baldwin accepted the character of a son and companion of the 
Armenian tyrant of Edessa, who the Tuks had, for a heavy tribute, permitted to 
reign over the Christians there. But he inflamed the people to massacre their 
father, occupied the throne and treasures, extended his conquests over the hills 
of Armenia and the plains of Mesopotamia, and founded the first principality of 
the Franks, or Latins, and it subsisted fifty-four years, beyond the Euphrates. 
After deeds of incredible strength and valor in attacks and defenses, Antioch 
was betrayed to the crusaders by some Christians within. Then the victors were 
in turn besieged by Herboga, prince of Mosul, with twenty-eight emirs. Twenty- 
five days the Christians spent on the verge of destruction, deserted by some of 
their leaders, with the choice of servitude or death. In their extremity, stimu- 
lated by pious frauds, they collected the relics of their strength, sallied from the 
town, and in a single day annihilated or dispersed the host of Turks and Arabs, 
A. D, 1098. ^ In the meantime, while the sons of Malek Shah were engaged in 
civil war and the crusaders advancing, the Fatimite caliph of Egypt, or his sultan, 
Aphdal, reconquered Jerusalem and promised the Christians a safe and hospitable 
reception if they would lay aside their arms. The crusaders would not recognize 
any claim of any Mahometan to Jerusalem, and only a timely surrender of the 
city and province could deserve their alliance, or deprecate their impending and 
irresistable attack. 

8. The Consummation. — This attack was delayed ten months after the defeat 
of Kerboga at Antioch, on account of want of strength and subordination. Their 
cavalry was annihilated ; many thousands of every rank had been lost by famine, 
sickness, and desertion; few were able to command, none were willing to obey. 
Envy was excited among the leaders ; the bravest knights were enlisted for the 
defense of their own principalities, and Count Raymond exhausted his troops and 
treasures in an idle expedition into the heart of Syria. In May, the relics of the 
mighty host proceeded from Antioch to Laodicia, and of about forty thousand, no 
more than one thousand five hundred horse and twenty thousand foot were 
capable of immediate service. Their march was easy ; their wants were supplied 
by the coasting traders of Genoe and Pisa, and they drew large contributions 
from the emirs of Tripoli, Tyre, Sidon, Acre, and Csesarea, who granted a free 
passage and promised to follow the example of Jerusalem. When they descried 
the Holy City, the crusaders forgot their toils and claimed their rewards. Aladin, 
or Iftikhar, was the caliph's lieutenant, entrusted with the defense of Jerusalem. 
His policy strove to restrain the native Christians by the dread of their own ruin 



(2) Idm., 335-6, (3) Idm., 336-8. 



720 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

and that of tlie liolj sepulchre, and to animate the Moslems by the assurance of 
temporal and eternal rewards. The assault was furious and the defense des- 
perate, and time and labor were found necessary to accomplish the object. The 
crusaders suffered deprivations and the want of engines; but fanaticism and skill, 
ingenuity and perseverance provided all that was necessary. On Friday, at three 
in the afternoon, the day and hour of the passion, Godfrey of Bouillon stood 
victorious on the walls of Jerusalem. His example was followed on every side by 
the emulation of valor; and about four hundred and sixty years after its conquest 
by Caliph Omar the Holy City was rescued from the Mahometan yoke. The 
spoils of ihe great mosque of Omar, seventy lamps, and massive vases of gold and 
silver, rewarded the diligence and displayed the generosity of Tancred. A bloody 
sacrifice was offered to Christ by the false professors of His name; neither age 
nor sex could mollify their implacable rage during three days of promiscuous 
massacre. Seventy thousand Moslems were put to the sword, and the harmless 
Jews were burnt in their synagogue. The holy sepulchre was now free and the 
bloody victors prepared to accomplish their vow. Bareheaded and barefooted, 
with frantic hearts and in humble posture — on their knees^ — they ascended Cal- 
vary amidst the anthems of the clergy, kissed the spurious stone which had 
covered the Savior of the world, and bedewed with tears of joy and penitence 
the monument of redemption. 

Baldwin was established at Edessa, Bohemond at Antioch, and Godfrey 
accepted the kingdom of Jerusalem, A. D. 1099. The sultan of Eo^ypt came too 
late to save Jerusalem, and his total overthrow in the battle of Ascalon sealed 
the establishment of the Latins in Syria. The revenues and jurisdiction of the 
lawful, or Greek, patriarch were usurped by Daimbert, archbishop of Bisa; and 
long trained in the secret policy of Rome, he grasped the scepter acquired by the 
toil and blood of the victorious pilgrims; and both Godfrey and Bohemond sub- 
mitted to receive at his hands the investiture of their fudal possessions. Diambert 
claimed the immediate property of Jerusalem and Jaffa. A quarter of either 
city was ceded to the church, with the eventual reversion of the rest on the death 
of Godfrey without children, or on the future acquisition of a new throne at Cairo 
or Damascus. Under the iron yoke of their deliverers, the oriental Christians 
regretted the loss of the tollerating government of the Arabian caliphs. By the 
arms of Godfrey and the Baldwins, the Latins equaled, A. D. 1099-1187, in the 
extent of their dominions, the ancient kingdoms of Judali and Israel, and more. 
After the reduction of the maritime cities of Laodicea, Tripoli, Tyre, and Ascalon, 
by the aid of the powerful fleets from Yenice, Genoa, Pisa, and others, the range 
of sea coast from Scanderon to the borders of Egypt was possessed by the 
Christian pilgrims. If the prince of Antioch disclaimed his supremacy, the 
country of Edessa and Tripoli acknowledged themselves vassals to the king of 
Jerusalem. The Latins reigned beyond the Euphrates ; and the four cities of 
Hems, Hamah, Damascus, and Aleppo were the only relics of Mahometan con- 
quests in Syria. The laws and language, the manners and titles, of the French 
nation and the Latin church were introduced into these colonies.^ 

9. The Greek Empire and the Christian View. — The dexterity and vigilance 
of Alexius secured the crusaders' first conquest of Nice, and the Turks were 
compelled to evacuate the neighborhood of Constantinople. When the emirs 
were called to the standard of the sultan, Soliman. the Turks were driven from 
the isles of Rhodes and Chios. The cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Sardis, Phila- 
delphia, and Laodicea were restored to the empire, which Alexius enlarged from 
the Hellespont to the banks of the Meander and the rocky shores of Pamphylia. 
The churches resumed their splendor ; the towns were rebuilt and fortified ; tlie 
d«sert country was repeopled by colonies of Christians gently removed from the 
more distant and dangerous frontier. The Seljukian dynasty of Roum, after the 



(4) Will, pt. 2; chap. 2, § 22. (5) Gbn , Vol. U., pp. 339-41, chap. 19. 



CHAPTER OXLVIII. : SECTION X. 721 

loss of Nice, removed their throne to Cogni or Iconium, three hundred miles from 
Constantinople. ^ Thus, the Turkish power was rolled back toward the Euphrates 
by the first crusade, and the Greek-Roman empire revives in strength and 
importance for a time. Of the coast of Anatolia it possessed the entire circuit 
from Tribazond to the Syrian gates. ^ 

To the servants of CJhrist and children of the Living God, this contest with 
all its enormities, are astounding as peals of thunder. According to the professions 
of the parties and emblems they displayed, it was the sword of Christ at the head 
of the apostles, saints, and martyrs, against the sword of the Only One Living 
and True God at the head of a prophet or apostle of God, with his lascivious and 
cruel followers, for possession of the temple, city, and land of Jehovah and 
the churches and memorials of the Son of God. This is not the hope of Israel, 
nor are the believing gentiles made joint partakers in it by Jesus Christ. The 
Crusaders said they would conquer the holy city with the sword of Christ and keep 
the same. ^ 

10. Condition of the Turks. — Under the first three sultans the kingdoms 
of Asia were united, and the innumerable armies, led in person, were equal in 
courage and superior in discipline to the barbarians of the west. But at the time 
of the first crusade the inheritance of Malek Shah was disputed by his four sons, 
whose private ambition was insensible of the public danger. The royal vassals 
were ignorant or regardless of the object of their allegiance. The twenty-eight 
emirs who marched with the standard of Kerboga to the relief of Antioch were 
his rivals or enemies; their hasty levies were drawn from the towns and tents of 
Mesopotamia and Syria, and the veterans were employed or consumed in the civil 
wars beyond the Tigris, ^ and Soliman evacuated the kingdom of Roum to implore 
their aid and kindle their resentment, ^ but in vain. His capital was removed to 
Iconium, an obscure inland town three hundred miles from Constantinople, and 
his dominion was surrounded by the Greek empire, which possessed the seacoasts 
from Tribesond, on the southeast of the Black sea, around to the Syrian gates on 
the Mediterranean sea, and the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem cut it off from the 
Turks on the east. ^ 

Thus, we see the four sultanies bound in the Euphrates by civil discord and 
the first crusade. After the loss of Jerusalem the Syrian fugitives diffused their 
consternation and sorrow beyond the Euphrates. Bagdad mourned in the dust; 
the cadhi of Damascus tore his beard in the presence of the caliph, and the whole 
divan shed tears at his melancholy tale. But the caliphs, the commanders of the 
faithful, could only weep; they themselves were captives in the hands of the 
Turks, the temporory sovereigns. Some temporal power was restored to the last 
age of the Abbasside caliphs; but their humble ambition was confined to Bagdad 
..and the adjoining provinces. Their tyrants, the Seljuk sultans, had followed the 
the common law of the Asiatic dynasties. The unceasing round of valor, greatness, 
discord, degeneracy, and decay, and their spirit and power, were unequal to the 
defense of their religion. ^ But now the sixth trumpet sounds the alarm, and a 
voice from the four horns of the golden altar, where the prayers of the saints are 
daily offered before God, ^ commands to loose the four angels, or messengers, 
bound in the Euphrates country by discord, decay, and the first crusade. These 
four sultanies were loosed for the purpose of destroying the last third part of the 
great Roman empire, for which they had been appointed by the Arabian caliph 
A. D. 1074,^ but had commenced the work permanently A. D. 1065.^ This 
work will take some time, which is divided into an hour, a day, a month, and a 
year. They were prepared already, and had determined to exterminate the Greek 
empire; had extended their conquests to the Hellespont under the command of 
Soliman, and called his kingdom Roum. ^ 

(6) Gbn., Vol. II , pp. 343-4, chap. 20. (7) Will., pt. II., chap. 2, § 20. (8) Gbn. 2:19; 339. 
(9) 336 (1) 20; 344, (2) Gbn. 2:20; 347. (3) Chap. 110, § 2. (4) Gbn. 2:18; 321. Chap. 144, § 5. 
(5) Gbn. 2:18; 317. (6) Chap. 144, § 5. 

-46 



722 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

11. Angels Unbound. — While the sultans were indulging in the luxuries of 
the harem, the pious task of defending their religion and empire by their slaves 
called forth the Atabeks, or patricians. Ascansar, who was a favorite of Malek 
Shah and stood at the right hand of the throne, lost, in the civil wars of his sons, 
his head and the government of Aleppo. But his domestic emirs persevered in 
their attachment to his son, Zenghi, who proved his first arms against the Franks 
in the defeat of Antioch, and thirty campaigns in the service of the caliph and 
sultan established his military fame, and he was invested with the command of 
Mosul as the only champion that could avenge the cause of the prophet. The 
public hope was not disappointed. After a siege of twenty-five days he stormed 
the city of Edessa; recovered from the Franks all their conquests beyond the 
Euphrates; the material tribes of Curdistan were subdued by him, and he estab- 
lished a well disciplined army, A. D. 1127-45. At the head of these veterans 
his son, Noureddin, gradually united the Mahometan powers, added the kingdom 
of Damascus to that of Aleppo, waged a long and successful war against the 
Christians of Syria, spread his ample reign from the Tigris to the Nile, and the 
Abbassadae caliphs rewarded their faithful servant with all the titles and prerog- 
atives of royalty, A. D. 1145-74. The Latins acknowledged his wisdom and 
courage, though an implacable adversary, and in his life and government this 
holy warrior revived the zeal and simplicity of the first caliphs. By the arms of 
the Turks and Franks the Fatimite caliphs had been deprived of Syria, A. D. 
1163-69; yet in Egypt they were still revered as the servants and successors of 
the prophet, and their person was seldom violated by the profane eyes of subjects 
or strangers. '^ The storming of Edessa and reconquest of the provinces beyond 
the Euphrates was another peal of thunder that shook Christendom, and rolled 
over all Europe, and called forth the second crusade. 

12. Second Crusade. — In a period of two centuries after the council of Cler- 
mount, each spring and summer produced a new emigration of pilgrim warriors 
from Europe for the defense of the Holy Land; but the seven great armaments, or 
crusades, were excited by some impending or recent calamity. The nations were 
moved by the authority of the popes and the example of the kings. Their zeal 
was kindled and their reason confounded or silenced by the voice of their holy 
orators. Among these St. Bernard, the monk, may claim to be the successor of 
Peter, the hermit. It was in the proclamation of the second crusade that Bernard 
shone as the prophet and missionary who called the nations to the defense of the 
holy sepulcher. Louis YIL, with his nobles, received crosses from his hand; 
the Emperor Conrad III. and the Germans were conquered by his eloquence and 
gestures. He afiirmed that cities and castles were emptied of their inhabitants, 
and computes that but one man was left to seven widows. After the calamitous 
event he was accused as a false prophet, and the author of the public and private, 
mourning. But he justified his obedience to the pope, expatiated on the myste- 
rious ways of Providence, and attributed the misfortunes of the pilgrims to their 
own sins. ^ The second crusade was led by Conrad III., emperor of Germany, 
and Louis YIL, king of France, A. D. 1147. Each took a diff'erent road with a 
numerous army; but before they arrived in the Holy Land the greatest part of 
their host had melted away and perished miserably by the sword of Mahometans, 
by famine and shipwreck, and a considerable number by the perfidious cruelty of 
the Greeks, who looked upon the western nations as more to be feared than the 
Mahometans. The poor remains of this mighty host that reached Palestine 
joined the Christians there in a fruitless siege of Damascus. In A. D. 1148 the 
emperor and king returned with a miserable handful of troops. ^ 

13. Turkish Power Recovered. — The Frank king, Amaury, of Jerusalem, 
violating his treaty with the infidels, attempted the conquest of Egypt. In this 
emergency the Moslems turned their eyes toward the sultan of Damascus, and 



(7) Gbn. 2:20; 347-8. (8) Gbn. 2:20; 346-7. (9) Mosh. 12:1; 1, §9. Will., p. 285. Rev. Eurp., 
Vol. I., p. 118. 



CHAPTER CXLVIII. ! SECTION XIII. 723 

the Franks were intimidated and retired into Palestine. But this deliverance by 
N'oureddin precipitated the fall of the Fatimite caliphs in Egypt. The caliphs of 
Egypt had been degraded by their own weakness and by the tyranny of their 
viziers, and now sent the heir of his women to excite the pity of the sultan of 
Damascus. By the command of Noureddin and the sentence of the doctors, the 
holy names of Abubeker, Omar, and Othman were solemnly restored; the caliph 
of Bagdad was acknowledged as the legitimate commander of the faithful; and 
the green livery of Ali was exchanged for the black color of the Abbasside 
caliphs of Bagdad, which remains the orthodox traditition of the Moslems. ^ 
Thus, the schism in Mahometanism about the legitimate successor of Mahomet, 
their prophet, was healed, and the caliph of Bagdad was acknowledged the pope, 
or ecclesiastical head of Islamism in, Egypt, as well as in the four sultanies of 
the Euphrates ; and the Fatimite hostility that cooperated in binding these four 
messengers of destruction to the Euphrates is now annihilated, but Jerusalem is 
still held by the crusaders. 

The dynasty of Zenghi, the Atabek, was superseded by the usurpation of 
Saladin, the Curd. Saladin despoiled the Christians of Jerusalem and the Atabeks 
of Damascus, Aleppo, and Diarbekir; and Mecca and Medina acknowledged 
him for their temporal protector. His brother subdued the distant regions of 
Yemen, or Happy Arabia, and at the hour of his death his empire spread from 
the African Tripoli to the Tigris, and from the Indian ocean to the mountains of 
Armenia, and the caliph, the source of all legitimate power, had decorated him 
with every title that could sanctify his usurpation. While the descendants of 
Seljuke and Zenghi held his stirrups and smoothed his garments, he was aifable 
and patient with the meanest of his servants. The kingdom of Jerusalem was 
supported by the discord of the Turks and Saracens, and both the Fatimite 
caliphs and the sultans of Damascus were tempted to sacrifice the cause of their 
religion to the meaner considerations of private and present advantage. But the 
powers of Egypt, Syria, and Arabia were now united by a hero, whom nature 
and fortune had armed against the Christians, A. D. 1187. Now, all without 
bore the most threatening aspect, and all was feeble and hallow in the internal 
state of Jerusalem. ^ After the usual amount of perfidy, dissension, and suf- 
fering Tiberias was captured. From all the cities of the sea coast and inland the 
garrisons had been withdrawn to this fatal field. Tyre and Tripoli alone could 
escape the rapid inroad of Saladin. In three months after the battle of Tiberias 
he stood in arms before Jerusalem, and had sworn to avenge the patience and 
long suflfering of the prophet. But the desperate valor of the Franks obtained a 
capitulation. The Greeks and oriental Christians were permitted to live under 
his dominion, which they preferred to the Latin yoke. But the Franks and 
Latins must, in forty days, be safely conducted to the sea ports of Syria and 
Egypt, at a ransom of ten pieces of gold for each man, five for each woman, and 
one for each child ; and those unable to pay must be detained to perpetual 
slavery. Seven thousand poor were redeemed, two thousand or three thousand 
were dismissed without ransom, and from eleven thousand to fourteen thousand 
were reduced to slavery. The sultan entered triumphantly into Jerusalem A. D. 
1187. The great mosque of Omar was restored to Mahometanism; the golden 
cross was cast down and dragged through the streets amid the lamentations of 
Christians and the shouts of Moslems (the crosses, vases, and relics were, 
after this, redeemed by Richard of England) ;3 but the final expulsion of the 
Latins was delayed above a century after Saladin's death. The siege of Tyre 
becked his victories. The troops and garrisons which capitulated were impru- 
dently conducted to one port; their numbers were adequate to its defense; the 
arrival of Conrad of Montferrat inspired the crowd with union and confidence ; 
one thousand Turks were slain in one sally, and Saladin, after burning his engines 
retreated to Damascus. ^ 



(1) abn. 2:20; 348. (2) Gbn. 2:20; 348-9. (3) Ibid B49-S0. (4) Gbn. 3:20; 349-50.. 



724 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

14:. Third Thunder. — The capture of Jerusalem was the third thunder that 
startled the world and aroused Europe. The pathetic narratives and pictures, 
representing' in lively colors the servitude and profanation of Jerusalem, awak- 
ened the torpid sensibilities of Europe. ^ The loss of the Holy City filled all 
Europe with consternation, and new expeditions were fitted out for its recovery.^ 
The third crusade, A. D. 1189, was headed by the German emperor, Frederick I., 
Barbarossa, Philip Augustus of France, and Ttichard the Lion-hearted, of Eng- 
land;"' and the tardy magnitude of their armaments was anticipated by the 
maritime states of the Mediterranean and the ocean. The Italians, first in the 
ships of Genoa, Pisa, and Venice, were speedily followed by the most eager 
pilgrims of France, l^ormandy, and the western isles. The powerful succors of 
Flanders, Frise, and Denmark filled near one hundred vessels. These numbers 
could not be confined within the walls of Tyre, or remain obedient to the voice 
of Conrad. Ptolemais, or Acre, was besieged nearly two years, and consumed 
in a narrow space the forces of Europe and Asia. (A. D. 1189-90.) The Mos- 
lems of Egypt, Syria, Arabia, and the oriental provinces assembled under the 
servant of the prophet. Nine battles were fought near Mount Carmel, with such 
vicissitudes that in one attack the sultan forced his way to the city and the 
crusaders penetrated to the royal tent; and the thinned ranks on both sides were 
often replenished.^ 

The Emperor Frederick L, with a prodigious army of Germans, marched 
through several of the Grecian provinces; overcame innumerable difficulties 
and obstacles; defeated the sultan of Iconium, compelling him to sue for 
pardon and peace; penetrated into Syria, and was drowned in a river of Cilicia; 
and numbers of his troops returned to Europe. Under command of his son, 
Frederick, the remainder continued the war, but the most of them, including the 
son, perished by a pestilential disease at the siege of Acre, A. D. 1191, and but 
few returned to their own country.^ The Christians at Acre were more dismayed 
than encouraged at the sight of the duke of Swabia with his five thousand way- 
worn remnant of Germans. 

In the spring the royal fleets of France and England cast anchor in the bay 
of Acre, and the siege was prosecuted with more vigor by the youthful emulation 
of Philip Augustus and Richard Plantagenet. The defenders, after every 
resource had been tried and every hope exhausted, submitted to their fate. A 
capitulation was granted ; their lives and liberties were ransomed at 200,000 
pieces of gold, the deliverance of one hundred nobles and fifteen hundred 
inferior captives, and the true wood of the cross. Some delay in the execution of 
the capitulation caused Richard to behead three thousand Moslems. In the cap- 
ture of Acre the Latin powers acquired a strong town and convenient harbor, 
but the advantage was most dearly purchased. Alore than one hundred thousand 
Christians were slain, a far greater number were lost by disease or shipwreck, 
and but a small portion of six hundred thousand returned to their native land ; 
and how many Moslems fell in the battles have not been computed. ^ (A. D. 
1189-190.) After the surrender of Acre, Philip returned to France and Richard 
led the crusaders to the recovery of the sea coast, and the cities of C^sarea and 
Jafifa were added to* the fragments of the Latin kingdom. The march from Acre 
to Ascalon was a great and perpetual battle of eleven days, but the progress of 
the Christian idolaters was irresistible and Ascalon was demolished by the sultan 
to prevent its becoming a strong fortress and good winter quarters for the Latins. 
In the spring the Franks advanced within a day's march of Jerusalem under the 
leading standard of Richard, king of England. The city was struck with con- 
sternation, remembering the fate of Acre. But the laurels of Richard wer^ 
blasted by envy; he was deserted by the French and Italians, ^ and he returned 
to Acre. Treason at home against Richard Plantagenet, the cries of the suffering 



(5) Idm. 351. (6) Will. 285. (7) Rpv. Eurp. 1:5; 118. f8) Gbn. 2:20; 351. (9) Mobh. 12:1; 
1, § 11. Gbn. 2:20; 345-6. (1) Ibid 351-2. (2) Mosh. 12:1; 1, § 12. 



CHAPTER CXLVtiI. : SECTION XV. ^25 

people and soldiers of the Turks, induced the king of England and the sultan to 
make a treaty, which was condemned by both the pope of Eome and the caliph 
of Bagdad. According to this treaty, Jerusalem and the holy sepulcher should 
be open to the pilgrims without tribute or vexation ; after the demolition of 
Ascalon they should inclusively possess the sea coast from Jaffa to Tyre. The 
count of Tripoli and the prince of Antioch were included in the truce, and during 
three years and three months all hostilities should cease. Richard embarked for 
Europe, to meet a long captivity and a premature grave; and in a few months 
Saladin concluded his life. The unity of his empire was dissolved; his sons were 
oppressed by the strong arm of their uncle, Shaphadin ; the hostile interests of 
the sultans ^f Egypt and Damascus and Aleppo were revived; and the Franks, 
or Latins, stood and breathed and hoped in their fortresses along the Syrian 
coast. 3 

These* bloody wars between the Catholics and Mahometans gave rise to three 
famous military orders, whose office was to destroy the robbers on the roads, to 
harass the Moslems by perpetual inroads and warlike achievements, to assist 
the poor and sick pilgrims to the holy sepulcher, and to perform several other 
services that tend to the general good. The revenues of these orders were pro- 
digiously increased by liberal contributions till they became powerful, cruel, and 
corrupt. The world was surprised with the sudden and strange transformations 
of a devout fraternity into a valiant and hardy band of warriors. These were the 
Knights of St. John, the Knights Templars, and the Teutonic Knights of St. 
Mary. ^ 

15. Fourth Crusade. — Constantinople Captured and Pillaged : The caliph 
of Bagdad, as the successor of Mahomet, claimed Jerusalem for the One 
Only Living and True God, and for Mahomet as His prophet, or apostle. The 
pope of Kome, as successor of Simon Peter and vicar of Jesus Christ, claims the 
Holy City for the True God and Jesus Christ, and for the images of saints under 
the control of the Roman pontiff; and the Catholic Greeks, Nestorians, Mono- 
physites, and the Jews must pay tribute to pope or caliph for the full and free 
enjoyment of their religion and devotions. The sultan of Turkey and king of 
England have made a treaty for the protection of Moslem and Catholic in their 
devotions in the Holy Land and Holy City of Jehovah. Both the vicars were dis- 
pleased with, this humane and reasonable treaty, and either vicar was willing to 
sacrifice the happiness and lives of their beloved sheep for the sole possession of 
the city of God. This produced the fourth thunder. The pope had nothing 
more at heart than the renewal and prolongation of these sacred expeditions; 
therefore Pope Innocent IlL sounded the charge, but the greatest part of the 
European princes and nations were deaf to the voice of the holy trumpet. ^ 

About ten or twelve years after the loss of Jerusalem, the nobles of France 
were again summoned to the holy war by the voice of a third prophet, not less 
extravagant than Peter the hermit, but far below St. Bernard as an orator and 
statesman. This was Fulk of JNeuilly, whose fame for sanctity and miracles was 
spread over the land. Pope Innocent III. proclaimed, A. D. 1X98, the obligation 
of a new crusade. He eloquently described the ruin of Jerusalem, the triumph 
of paganism, and the shame of Christendom ; and he proposed the redemption 
of sins and a plenar}^ indulgence to all who would serve in Palestine one year in 
person or two by a substitute; and among his legates and orators who blew the 
sacred trumpet Fulk of Neuilly was the loudest and most successful. The situ- 
ation of the principal monarchs was averse to the pious summons, but the preacher 
was heard and obeyed by the great vassals, or princes, of the second order. ^ It 
was resolved to seek the deliverance of Palestine by the conquest of Egypt, 
which, since the death of Saladin, was almost ruined by famine and civil war. 
The maritime states of Italy alone possessed the means of transporting the holy 



(3) Gbn, 2:20; 352-3. (4) Mosh. 12:1; 1, §§ 13-15. (5) 13:1; 1, § 3. (6) Gbn. 2:21; 360. 



726 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

warriors with their arms and horses, and the republic of Venice was soUcited to 
furnish the transportation. The flight of many from the fallen cities of the con- 
tinent and their obscure shelter in the chain of islands that line the extremity of 
the Adriatic gulf, when Attila invaded Italy, has been mentioned. "^ In the midst 
of the waters free, indigent, labors, and inaccessible, they gradually coalesced 
into a republic, and were considered by themselves, by strangers, and by their 
sovereigns, as an inalienable portion of the Greek empire.'^ The eloquence of 
the words and tears of the deputies, their martial aspect, and suppliant attitude 
were applauded by a universal shout of the Yenicians, as it were the sound of an 
earthquake, says jeffery. The first hostilities of the fleet and army were directed 
against Zara, on the Slavonian coast, which had renounced its allegiance to 
Venice. It was compelled to surrender at discretion, was pillaged and 
demolished, but the lives were spared. The pope excommunicated the false 
crusaders who had pillaged and massacred their brethren instead of the infidels; 
only the Marquis Boniface and Simon of Monfort escaped these spiritual thun- 
ders — the one being absent from the siege, the other by his final departure from 
the camp. The pope might absolve the penitent and submissive Franks, but he 
was provoked by the stubborn reason of the Yenitians who refused to confess 
their guilt, to accept a pardon, or to allow a priest to interpose in their temporal 
concerns. 

Usurpation and cruelty in Constantinople had put out the eyes of, and 
imprisoned the emperor, and caused the exile of the young prince, Alexius; but 
he obtained the interposition of these crusaders. Though many abandoned the 
crusade on that account, envey, jealousy, and a desire for plunder incited the 
Yenitians to urge this pretext to despoil the empress of the seas;^ and the 
perfidy of the Greeks in the former crusades may have induced others to comply. 
Alexius I. had promised to assist the first crusade in person, or at least with his 
troops and treasures, and they had sworn fidelity to his throne ; but his base 
retreat from these obligations dissolved their oath, and the sword, which had been 
the instrument of their victory, was the pledge and title of their just inde- 
pendence. Bohemond leaving Antioch, because unable to resist both Greeks 
and Turks, returned secretly to Europe, raised an army, and attempted the con- 
quest of the Greek empire in revenge; but he failed in the efibrt and died.i 
The Emperor Manuel was accused by his own subjects of giving seasonable intel- 
ligence to the sultan of Iconium and treacherous guides to the Latins; and coined 
base money for trading with the pilgrims, and thus secured the destruction of the 
second crusade before it reached Palestine. He sold to the hungry armies bread 
mixed with chalk. The French king, Louis, was kept inactive by the false assur- 
ances of Manuel ; while Conrod lost most of his army in glorious but unsuccessful 
actions on the banks of the Meander, and many led into the deserts by false 
guides, perished. 2 The western monarchs had stipulated a safe passage and free 
market in the country of their Christian brethren ; the treaty had been ratified 
by oaths and hostages, and the poorest of Frederick's army was provided with 
three marks of silver to defray his expenses on the road. But every engagement 
was violated by treachery and injustice; the gates of the cities in both Europe 
and Asia were barred against them, and the scanty pittance of food was let down 
in baskets from the walls. In every step of their march they were mislead. The 
governors had private orders to break down the bridges and fortify the passes 
against them, the stragglers were pillaged and murdered, the soldiers and horses 
were pierced in the woods by arrows from invisible hands, the sick were burnt 
in their beds, and the dead were hung on gibbets along the highways. These 
injuries exasperated the champions of the cross, who were not endowned with 
evangelical patience. ^ Now the conquest of the Greek empire is determined 
on as the surest way of subjugating the Turks. 



(7) Chap. 184, § 6. (8) Gbn. 2:21; 361. (9) Gbn. 2:21; 362-3. (1) 20; 345. (2) Thai. 67, § 17. 
Gbn. 2:20; 345. 



CHAPTER CXLVIII. : SECTION XV. 727 

By the negligence, presumption, or cowardice of the usurper, the approaches 
to the city were not defended. The city was defended by the Yarangian guards, 
composed of Danes and English exiles ; twenty ships, the relics of the Greek 
navy, were either sunk or taken ; the Yenician navy was led by the great 
standard of St. Mark ; ^ the usurper escaped in the night with ten thousand 
pounds of gold ; the noble Greeks sought pardon and peace in the dungeon where 
Isaac, the blind emperor, expected the executioner. Again Isaac, in his imperial 
robes, sat on his throne ; hostilities were suspended ; the Latin chiefs were sur- 
prised by a message from the lawful emperor, who was impatient to embrace his 
son and to reward his generous deliverers. The conditions imposed were hard to 
accept and difficult to perform. They were : The submission of the eastern 
empire to the pope ; the succor of the Holy Land ; and a present contribution of 
two hundred thousand marks of silver. The son was introduced to the palace, 
and Alexius was solemny crowned with his father in the dome of St. Sophia. 
And the liberality of Alexius silenced the importunities of the crusaders and 
supplied their wants. ^ The Greeks were awakened from a dream of nine 
centuries that the capital of the Roman empire was impregnable to foreign arms; 
the strangers of the west had violated the city and bestowed the scepter of Con- 
stantine. The well known vices of Isaac were contemptible, and the young 
Alexius was hated as an apostate from the manners and religion of his country ; 
and every convent and shop resounded with the danger of the church and the 
tyranny of the pope. The crusaders discovered a mosque, which they set on fire, 
:and attacked the infidels with the sword; during eight days and nights the con- 
flagration spread over the most populous regions of the city. Churches and palaces 
were reduced to smoking ruins, and families were involved in the common 
destruction. In the eyes of both nations Alexius became contemptible, and was 
assassinated by another usurper, Mourzoufle, who refused to sacrifice the Greek 
♦church to the safety of the state. 

Constantinople was again besieged and more ably defended. A divine image 
of the Yirgin, the imperial standard, was lost in a nocternal sally, and was pre- 
sented to the Cistercian monks, the disciples of St. Bernard, as a trophy and 
relic. A desperate battle was fought with swords, spears, and battle axes; 
attacks and defenses were repeated for days. In the third assault the bishops of 
Troyes and Soissons led the van ; the auspicious names of pilgrims and Paradise 
resounded along the line; the Episcopal banners were the first displayed on the 
walls; the city was taken. In a few hours a third conflagration consumed a 
measure of three of the largest cities in France. The barons checked their troops 
and fortifled their stations, and in the morning a procession with crosses and 
images announced the submission of the Greeks. The usurper escaped ; the 
palaces of Blacherne and Boucolean were occupied by the count of Flanders and 
the marquis of Montferrat; the empire of Constantine with the title of Roman 
was- subverted by the arms of the Latin pilgrims ; the horrid scenes of lust and 
cruelty were perpetrated in open day, though forbidden by the two chiefs; and 
plunder and rapine despoiled the first city of Christendom of its immense wealth. 
The smiles of the Latins were transient and fallacious; the Greeks forever sighed 
and wept over the ruins of their country, their real calamity was aggravated by 
sacrilege and mockery, and three fires annihilated a vast portion of the buildings 
and riches. After stripping the churches of their gems and pearls, they con- 
verted the chalices into drinking cups; the tables on which they gamed and 
feasted were covered with the pictures of Christ and the saints, and they trampled 
under foot the most venerable objects of the Christian worship. In the cathedral 
of St. Sophia, the ample veil was rent for the golden fringe, and the altar — the 
monument of art and riches — was broken in pieces and shared among the captors; 
wrought silver and guilt carvings were torn down from the doors and pulpit. A 



(3)Gbn. 2:21; 364-5. (4)366. 



^28 "THE KINGDOM OF Oot) t)EV£LO^Et) 

prostitute was seated on the throne of the patriarch; she sung and danced in the 
church to ridicule the hymns and processions of the orientals. The tombs were 
rifled, the curse intemperance of tiieir feasts insulted the sobriety of the east, 
and the works of art were destroyed. An immense supply of heads and bones, 
crosses and images, were scattered over the churches of Europe ; many writings 
of antiquity were lost, and libraries perished in the triple fires of Constantinople. ^ 
This was the most astounding thunder of all the crusades, and none but the 
true servants of Jesus Christ could comprehend its shock and vibrations. The 
image of the first beast, under the German head, animated and controlled by the 
papal horn of the second beast; against the genuine first beast under the Greek 
head, animated by the Greek, or genuine Catholic, church. Both persecutors of 
pagans, Mahometans, heritics, schismatics, and true Christians ; both boast of the 
Gospel of Jesus Christ, and yet violate all its precepts, and rival or surpass the 
heathen in crime and cruelty; and these western Christians are the descendents 
of the barbarians who destroyed the western Koman empire ; but they are now 
united into the Latin empire, under the leadership of the pope of Rome : 
emperors and kings are his vassals. 

16. A Latin Kingdom Erected and Subverted. — A Latin kingdom was 
erected in the subjugated Greek provinces. Baldwin was crowned by the pope's 
legate, but the Venetian clergy filled the ecclesiastical thrones and employed 
every art to perpetuate the Greek church in their own nation. Baldwin invites 
the Franks to colonize the country, congratulates the pope on the restoration of 
his authority in the east, invites hiin to extinguish the Greek schism by his 
presence in a general council, and implores his blessing and forgiveness for the 
disobedient pilgrims who conquered the Greek Christians instead of the Turkish 
Mahometans. Pope Innocent's answer shows ingenuity and strategy. In the 
subversion of the Greek empire he arraigns the vices of men and adores the 
providences of God. The conquerors will be absolved or condemned by their, 
future conduct; the validity of their treaty depends on the judgment of St. Peter; 
but he inculcates their sacred duty of establishing a just subordination of obedience 
and tribute from the Greeks to the Latins, from the magistrates to the clergy, and 
from the clergy to the pope, ^ A. D. 1204. Thus, the pope has had his usurped 
throne erected in Rome, Jerusalem, and Constantinople, but never in Bagdad, 
Mecca, or Medina. The caliph will subvert his throne in Jerusalem and Constan- 
tinople, but not in Rome. After the usual amount of action and reaction, alliances, 
conquests, and defeats, the Latin empire expired, A. D. 1261. A Greek estab- 
lished his throne at Nice and prospered till he recovered the city of Constantine. "^ 
Adversity is the school of heroes and statesmen. Difi'erent chieftains established 
governments in difi'erent parts of the empire and prospered. These coalesced 
with, or were absorbed by, the government at Nice; the provinces were wrested 
from the Latin emperors; finally the city of Constantinople was retaken; the 
Greek-Roman empire was restored, and the Greek patriarch established his 
authority again. 

17. The Fifth Crusade. — The diversion of the fourth crusade from Palestine 
to Constantinople occasioned the fifth thunder. Auvother sacred expedition was 
undertaken, A. D. 1217, under Pope Honorius III., by the confederate armies of 
Italy and Germany, in consequence of the decrees of the council of lateran, 
A. i). 1215. The allied army was commanded in chief by Andrew, king of 
Hungary, who was joined by Leopold, duke of Austria, Louis of Bavaria, and 
several other princes. Andrew returned in a few months. The other chiefs 
carried on the war with vigor, and in A. D. 1220 made themselves masters of 
Damietta, the strongest city in Egypt. But the next year their fleet was totally 
ruined by the Saracens; their provisions cut off', army reduced to the greatest 
difficulties, and Damietta was lost. ^ They hoped to subdue Palestine in Egypt, 

(5)Gbn 2:21; 367-70. (6) Gbn. 2:22; 371. (7) 22; 372-9. (8) Mosh. 13:1; 1, § 4. Rev. Eurp. 
1; p. 118. 



CHAP'rER CXLVItl. : SECTION xvili. t29 

the seat and storehouse of the sultan, and this was the policy decided upon for 
the fourth crusade. ^ But the army was ruined by the pride and insolence of the 
pope's legate, Pelagius, who in the pope's name assumed the character of general. 
The sickly Franks were encompassed by the waters of the Nile and the oriental 
forces, and it was by the evacuation of Damietta they obtained a safe retreat, 
some concessions for the pilgrims, and the relic of the true cross. ^ According to 
Mosheim and Koch, this constituted the fifth crusade; but according to Gibbon, 
Willson, and others, it was only a part of it. This appears the more plausible, 
for the Emperor Frederick II. started A, D. 1228, and had delayed the execution 
twelve years, which carries back to A. D. 1216, one year before the other started, 
and one year after the council had decreed it, A. D. 1215; hence, Frederick must 
have been awakened by the fifth thunder. ^ 

The legates and missionaries of Rome still continued to animate the languishing 
zeal of the European princes in behalf of the Christian cause in Palestine. At 
length, in consequence of their lively remonstrances, a new army was raised and 
a new expedition undertaken, which excited great expectations and drew the 
attention of Europe, as it was believed Frederick II. would command ; for he had 
obligated himself by an oath to the pope to take the direction of this expedition, and 
in A. D. 1223 he had acquired the kingdom of Jerusalem by marriage with Jolanda, 
daughter of John, the nominal king of the holy kingdom. ^ Frederick II. was 
grandson of Frederick L, or Barbarossa, and was the pupil, the enemy, and the 
victim of the church. At the age of twenty-one, in obedience to his guardian. 
Pope Innocent III., he assumed the cross. The same promise was repeated at his 
royal and imperial coronation, and his marriage with the heiress of Jerusalem 
forever bound him to defend the kingdom of Conrad. But experience taught 
Frederick to despise the crowns of Asia, to distrust the popes, to defend his rights 
in Italy and Sicily, and to reduce the popes to their primitive simplicity, and for 
twelve years he delayed his departure. At length he prepared and hoisted sail 
with a fleet of forty thousand, but returned in three days, on account of grievous 
indisposition, or for some other reason. 

' 18. Discord Between the Emperor and the Pope. — For suspending his 
vow Frederick II. was excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX. ; for presuming to 
accomplish it next year he was excommunicated again by the same pope. While 
he served under the banner of the cross a crusade against him was preached in 
Italy, and after his return he was compelled to ask pardon for the injuries which 
he suifered. The clergy and military orders of Palestine were previously instructed 
to renounce his communion and dispute his commands, and in his own kingdom 
the emperor was forced to consent that the orders of the camp should be issued 
in the name of God and of the Christian republic. Frederick entered Jerusalem 
in triumph, and with his own hands took the crown from the altar of the sepulcher 
and placed it on his own head. The patriarch cast an interdict on the church which 
his presence had profaned, and the knights of the hospital and temple suggested 
to the sultan the ease of his assassination. In such a state of fanaticism and faction 
victory was hopeless, defense was difiicult ; but the conclusion of an advantageous 
peace may be attributed to the discord of the Mahometans and the personal 
esteem for the character of Frederick. He obtained from the sultan of Egypt 
the restitution of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Tyre, and Sidon ; the Latins 
were allowed to inhabit and fortify the city, and an equal code of civil and religious 
freedom for the Christians and Mahometans was ratified; and while the one wor- 
shiped at the holy sepulcher, the latter might pray and preach in the mosque of 
the temple. The clergy deplored this scandalous toleration ; the weaker Moslems 
were gradually expelled, but every rational object of the crusade was accomplished 
without bloodshed; the churches were restored, the monasteries were replenished, 
and in the space of fifteen years th^ Latins of Jerusalem exceeded the number of 



(9) Gbn. 2:21; 361. (1) 20; 353. (2) 352. Will., pt. 2, chap. 2, § 28. (3) Mosh. 13:1; 1, § 5. 



730 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

six thousaDd> The troops which he had sent expected with impatience his 
arrival ; but no sooner did he land in the disputed kingdom than, instead of 
carrying on the war with vigor, he turned all his thoughts toward peace without 
consulting the other princes and chiefs of the crusade. Having thus settled mat- 
ters in Palestine, he returned without delay into Italy to appease the discords and 
commotions which the vindictive and ambitious pope had excited there in his 
absence. 5 The expeditions that followed this were less important and less 
successful. The issue of two expeditions in A. D. 1239 was not answerable to the 
preparations for success. The first failed through the influence of the emperor's 
ambassadors in Palestine, who renewed the truce with the Mahometans, while on 
the other hand a considerable body of Christians were defeated at Gaza, and such 
as escaped the carnage returned to Europe. This was owing to the discords 
between the Templars and the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. All the second 
expedition under Richard, of Cornwall, England, could do, was, with consent of 
the allies, to enter into a truce with the sultan of Egypt, A. D. 1240. ^ 

19. Sixth Crusade. — In the early part of the thirteenth century Gengis Kan 
raised himself to be lord of all the pastoral nations throughout the vast plains of 
Tartary. At the head of seven hundred thousand warriors he overran the domin- 
ions of the sultan of Persia, and among the tribes driven from their original seats 
by this great Tartar inundation were the Corasmins, or Corizmians, A. D. 1243, 
attached to the sultan of Persia. They now precipitated themselves upon Syria 
and Palestine ; they massacred indiscriminately the Turks, Jews, and Christians 
that opposed them; Jerusalem was taken, and it is said that every soul in it was put 
to the sword. ^ The unions of the Franks with the sultans of Aleppo, Hems, 
and Damascus were insufficient to stem the violence of the torrent. Whatever 
stood against them was cut off by the sword or dragged into captivity ; the military 
orders were almost exterminated in a single battle; the city was pillaged, and the 
holy sepulchre was profaned. '' This devastation belongs to the woe accompanying 
the sixth trumpet, and caused the sixth thunder. 

The ravages of the Corasmins in Palestine called forth the sixth crusade, led 
by Louis IX., king of France. ^ For the invasion of Egypt, France was exhausted 
of her troops and treasures. Louis covered the sea of Cyprus with one thousand 
eight hundred sail and fifty thousand men; or, if we may credit his own confession, 
he disembarked nine thousand five hundred horse and one hundred and thirty 
thousand foot, who performed their pilgrimage under the shadow of his power. 
Damietta was the first and last of his conquests. After a ruinous delay, that 
introduced the seeds of an epidemical disease, the Franks advanced from the sea- 
coast toward the capital of Egypt and strove to surmount the unseasonable 
inundation of the Nile. Under the eye of their intrepid monarch, the barons and 
knights of France displayed their invincible contempt of danger and discipline. 
His brother, the count of Artois, stormed with inconsiderate valor the town of 
Massoura, and the carrier pigeons announced to the inhabitants of Cairo that all 
was lost. But a soldier rallied the flying troops of the sultan. The main body of 
the Christians being far behind the vanguard, Artois was overpowered and slain. 
A shower of Greek fire was poured on the invaders. The Nile was commanded 
by the Egyptian galleys, and the open country by the Arabs. All provisions were 
intercepted ; each day aggravated the sickness and famine, and about the time a 
retreat was found to be necessary it was found to be impracticable. Louis was 
made a prisoner, with the greatest part of his nobles, and all that could not redeem 
by their service or ransom were inhumanly massacred, and the walls of Cairo 
were decorated with a circle of Christian heads. The king was loaded with chains, 
but his deliverance, with that of the soldiers, was obtained by the restitution of 
Damietta and the payment of four hundred thousand pieces of gold. This victory 



(4) Gbn. 2:20; 353-4. (5) Mosh. 13:1; 1, §§ 5, 6. (6) Will., p. 287. (7) Gbn. 2:20: 354. (8) 
WiU. Outl. Hist., p. 288. 



CHAPTER CXLVIIl. I SECTIONS XX.-XXI. T31 

of tbe sultan of Egypt was achieved by Ms Mamaluke slaves, the hardy natives 
of Tartary, who at a tender age had been purchased of the Syrian merchants and 
were educated in the camp and palace of the sultan, and the rage of these ferocious 
animals let loose upon the strangers was provoked to devour their benefactors. 
In the pride of conquest Touran Shah, the last of Saladin's race, was murdered 
by his Mamalukes. The firmness of Louis commanded respect; their avarice 
prevailed over their cruelty and zeal ; the treaty was accomplished, and the king 
of France, with the relics of his army, was permitted to depart to Palestine. He 
wasted four years within the walls of Acre, unable to visit Jerusalem, and unwil- 
ling to return to his native land without glory. ^ Louis returned to France with 
a handful of men, the miserable remains of his formidable army.i Koch calls 
this the seventh and last grand crusade, but he divides the fifth into the fifth and 
sixth. 2 

20. Seventh Crusade. — The memory of his defeat excited Louis, after 
sixteen years of wisdom and repose, to undertake the seventh and last crusade. 
His finances were restored, his kingdom was enlarged, a new generation of war- 
riors had arisen, and with confidence he embarked at the head of six thousand 
horse and thirty thousand foot. The loss of Antioch had provoked the enter- 
prise, or occasioned the wild thunder ; a wild hope of baptizing the king of 
Tunis tempted him to steer for the African coast, and the report of an immense 
treasure reconciled his troops to the delay of their voyage to the Holy Land. ^ 
He proposed to begin in that part of the world his operations against the infidels, 
that he might convert them to the Christian faith or draw from their treasures 
the means of carrying on more effectually the war in Asia. He soon took the 
fort of Carthage ; but a pestilential disease broke out in the fleet and in the 
harbor of Tunis, which carried oft' the greatest part of the army. It siezed 
the monarch himself, who fell a victim to its rage, A. D. 1270. 

Louis was the last of the European princes that embarked in the holy war. 
The dangers, difficulties, calamities, disorders, and enormous expenses disgusted 
the most zealous and discouraged the most intrepid promoters of these fanatical 
expeditions. In consequence of this the Latin empire in the east declined apace, 
notwithstanding the eftbrts of the Roman pontiffs to maintain and support it, 
and in A. D. 1291, after the taking of Ptolemais, or Acre, by the Mahometans, 
it was entirely overthrown. ^ 

21. The Result. — The Mamalukes began in Egypt, A. D. 1250, and con- 
tinued to A. D. 1517. Antioch was finally occupied and ruined by Bondocdar, 
or Bibars, sultan of Egypt and Syria, A. D. 1268. The Latin principality was 
extinguished, and the first seat of the Christian name was depopulated by the 
slaughter of seventeen thousand and the captivity of one hundred thousand of her 
inhabitants. The maratime towns, Laodicea, Gabala, Tripoli, Beritus, Sidon, 
Tyre, Jaffa, and the stronger castles of the Hospitalers and Templars, successively 
fell, notwithstanding the occasional aid of some warlike pilgrims after the time of 
Louis IX., A. D. 1270-95. The whole existence of the Franks was confined to 
the city and colony of St. John, of Acre, or Ptolemais. This city became most 
corrupt and insubordinate, and the perpetual jealousies often burst forth in acts 
of violence and blood. The plundering of villages and lynching of Syrian 
merchants justified Sultan Kalil, of Ham ah, with sixty thousand horse and one 
hundred and forty thousand foot, in besieging it thirty days. The Mamalukes 
made a general assault. The city was stormed, and death or slavery was the lot 
of sixty thousand Christians. The convent, or fortress, of the Templars was 
captured, the great master was pierced with an arrow, and of five hundred 
knights only ten were left alive. The king of Jerusalem, the Latin patriarch, 
and the great master of the hospital effected their retreat to the shore. The sea 



(9) Gbn. 2:20; 354-5. (1) Mosh. 13;lj 1, § 7. (2) Rev. Eurp. 1, p. 119. (3) Gbn. 2:20: 355. 
(4)Mosh. 13:1; 1, § 8. 



732 THE KINGDOM Oi' GOt) DEVELOPED. 

was rough, the vessels were insufficient, and great numbers were drowned before 
they could reach the isle of Cyprus. By the command of the sultan the churches 
and fortifications of the Latin cities were demolished. A motive of avarice or 
fear still opened the holy sepulcher to some devout and defenseless pilgrims, and 
a mournful and solitary silence prevailed along the coast which had so long 
resounded with the world's debate. ^ 

The crusades occupied a period of nearly two centuries, led two million 
Europeans to find graves in eastern lands, and yet none of the objects of the expe- 
ditions were accomplished. A sad commentary upon the folly of the age. ^ There 
was no longer any talk about crusades to the east, and all the attempts of the 
court of Rome to revive them proved ineffectual.'^ The thunders have startled 
the nations, awakened the attention of the servants of Christ to notice transpiring 
events and to distinguish Christian and anti-Christian characters; laid open the 
anti-Christian and ungodly characters of popery and Mahometanism ; strewed 
death and devastation around ; and rolled and died away, leaving the respective 
boundaries, positions, and relations of the three great contending religious forces 
in about the same condition as they were before the first peal. The papal and 
Mahometan powers, or horns, of Daniel's prophec}^, have their hostile fronts 
closed in deadly hate and strife in Spain and on the seas, while the Greek-Roman, 
or the remnant of the great Constantine empire, is still wedged in between them 
on the north. But there is nothing revolutionized in church or state ; there has 
been no upheaving earthquake; but the names of the True God, of His Son, of 
the Holy Spirit, ot His kingdom, and of His saints have been disgraced, scandal- 
ized, and blasphemed by the Monotheistic wild beast, in both his political and 
ecclesiastical development. (Continued, chap. 149, §§ 3-8.) 

However, the internal and vital condition of the Greek empire is not the 
same. The fifth trumpets had reduced its boundary and decreed its destruction; 
but the seventh thunders have shattered it into the very heart. Its prestige and 
veneration is gone! its wealth has been plundered; its churches have been 
despoiled ; its works of art have been destroyed or stolen, and its libraries burnt 
b}^ brother Christians ! The capital was pillaged and partly burnt ; the provinces 
were separated and ruled by different chieftains while the Latins held the throne 
and governed part of the provinces. But, A. D. 1237-1261, the chieftain of Nice 
became supreme, and Yataces reigned, without a competitor, from the Turkish 
borders to the Adriatic gulf The princes of Europe revered his merit and power, 
and, had he subscribed an orthodox creed, it would seem the pope would have 
abandoned, without reluctance, the Latin throne of Constantinople. ^ 

In A. D. 1261 Constantinople was recovered by the Greeks and once more 
became the capital of the provinces. ^ Michael Palaeologus wrested from the 
Franks several of the noblest islands ol the Grecian archipelago, as Lesbos, 
Chios, and Rhodes. His brother, Constantine, was sent to command in Mal- 
vasia and Sparta; and the eastern side of the Morea, from Argos and JMapoli to 
Cape Tenarus, was repossessed by the Greeks. This profusion of Christian 
blood was loudly condemned by the patriarch, and the insolent priest interposed 
his fears and scruples between the arms of princes. But in the prosecution of 
these western conquests, the countries beyond the Hellespont were left naked to 
the Turks. Andronicus sat on the throne at the close of the crusades, A. D. 
1273-1332, 1 and the Greek empire appeared to be restored. When a boy, I was 
hoeing corn in a bottom on Chartier's creek, Pennsylvania; above the bottom 
stood a timber; a thunder storm came up and spent its force ; two white oaks 
were marked with a blue streak on each, from up among the limbs to the roots, 
and two holes were in the ground ; the leaves soon wilted; in time the bark hung 



(5) Gbn ?:20; 355-6. (6) Will , 2:2, § 82. (7) Rev. Eurp. 1, p. 119. (8) Gbn. 2:22; 378 
(9) Ibid, 379. (1) 23; 388. 



CHAPTER CXLIX. : SECTION I. 733 

loose and then dropped off; the white sap-wood looked sound, except some very 
small cracks ; one was as twisted in the grain as a wire-barreled shotgun ; about 
eight feet from the ground it broke, and its top laid on the ground ; it was shat- 
tered and riven into splinters through the very heart. Such was the condition of 
this remnant of the Constantine-Roman empire. Outside it appeared restored, 
but it was riven to the heart. 



CHAPTER CXLIX. 



GREEK-ROMAN EMPIRE DESTROYED. A. M. 5278-5465. (Continued 
from Chap. IM, §§2, 4, and Chap. 148, §§ 1, 9, 21.) 

1. Power of Second Beast in the Greek Empire. (Continued from chap. 
138, §4.) — The pope preached a crusade with plenary indulgence against the 
Greeks A. D. 1274-77, because the Latin emperor, Baldwin, had been driven 
from the throne of Constantinople by Michael Polaeologus. He excommunicated 
the allies and adherents of the schismatical Greeks, and he demanded the tenth 
of the ecclesiastical revenues of France and England for the service of the holy 
war. But Michael, the Greek emperor, soothed the hostility of the pope by sup- 
pliant embassies and respectful letters, and insinuated that the establishment of 
peace must prepare the reconciliation and obedience of the eastern church. The 
approach of danger and the importunity of Gregory X. compelled him to enter 
on a more serious negotiation, and he alleged the example of the great Yataces, 
to reconcile the Greeks, who declared the Latins to be heretics in fact, though 
not in form. The letters of union and obedience were subscribed by the emperor, 
his son, Andronicus, thirty-five archbishops and metropolitans with their synods, 
and the Episcopal list was swelled by many dioceses already annihilated by the 
Mahometans; but the patriarch Joseph withdrew to a monastery. With tears 
the pope embraced his long-lost and repentant children ; accepted the ambassa- 
dors who abjured the schism in the name of the emperor and his son. 

To consummate this pious work, the pope's nuncios went to Constantinople 
to absolve the schismatical clergy, who should swear their abjuration and obe- 
dience ; to establish in all the churches the use of the perfect creed ; to prepare 
the way for a cardinal-legate with the full power and dignity of his office; and to 
instruct the emperor in the advantages he might derive in the temporal protection 
of the pope. When threatened with danger by the king of the two Sicilys, by 
the voice of the pope the sword of Charles was bound to its scabbard, and the 
Greek ambassadors saw Charles of Anjou biting his ivory scepter in a transport 
of fury because the pope refused to enfranchise and consecrate his arms against 
the Greeks. The nuncios found a country without a friend in it, where the name 
of Rome and union were pronounced with abhorrence. The patriarch Joseph 
was supplanted by Yeccus ; a sentence of excommunication was pronounced 
against the obstinate schismatics and executed by the sword of the Emperor 
Michael Polaeologus. But the two Greek chieftains still reigned in Aetolia, 
Epirus, and Thessaly, with the appellation of despots. They yielded to the sov- 
ereigns of Constantinople, but they refused the chains of the Roman pontiif and 
supported their refusal with successful arms. . Under their protection the fugitive 



734 THE KINGDOM OF (K)D DETELOPED. 

monks and bishops assembled in synod and retorted the name of heretic, with the 
addition of apostate. The combinations were too strong for the emperor, but he 
proved his sincerity to the pope b}^ showing to the nuncios a list of confiscations 
and punishment of many persons who were dearest to the emperor and most 
deserving of his favor. But, while his violence was abhorred at Constantinople, 
at Rome his slowness was arraigned, his sincerity suspected, and at length Pope 
Martin lY. excommunicated the emperor. No sooner was Michael dead, A. 1). 
1283, than the union of the Greek and Latin churches was dissolved and 
abjured by the unanimous voice of the Greeks, the churches were purilied, and 
the penitents reconciled. ^ Thus, we discover the pope is superior and stouter 
than any sovereign in the west, and the Greek church triumphed over the state. 

The patriarch of Constantinople was a venerable name, and the factious 
nobles were seduced or oppressed by the ascendant of his genious. Conscious of 
the influence of the clergy, Michael labored successfully to secure the suffrage of 
that powerful order. ^ The heads of the Greek church were ambitious and 
fanatic monks, and their vices or virtues, their learning or ignorance, were equally 
mischievous or contemptible. Driven from his seat by the universal clamor, 
Athanasius composed a private codicil, breathing the direst anathemas against 
the authors of his disgrace and excluding them forever from the communion of 
the Holy Trinity, the angels, and the saints. At the end of four years it was 
found. The Emperor Andronicus felt himself touched and bound by his excom- 
munication, and he trembled on the brink of the abyss so treacherously dug 
under his feet. As the knot 'could not be untied by any hand but the one that 
bound it, and that hand was now deprived of a crosier, this decree appeared irre- 
vokable by any earthly power. The emperor on foot led the bishops and monks 
to the cell of Anathasius, and, after some resistance, the saint consented to 
absolve the prince and govern the church of Constantinople."^ Patriarch John 
of Apri produced an obsolete epistle from Andronicus, which bequeathed the 
young prince and people to his pious care, and he assumed the state and temporal 
claims of the Roman pontiff. 

By the powerful confederacy of the Patriarch John, the Empress Anne of 
Savoy, and the duke, or admiral, Apocaucus, the Great Domestic was assaulted, 
at first with clandestine and at length with open arms, and provoked a civil war 
by anathemas, confiscations, imprisonments, and injustice. ^ Though the patri- 
archs of the Greek church never had the power over sovereign princes that the 
pope of Rome possessed, yet they had a superstitious reverence, interfered in 
civil government, and animated the subjects of the empire for or against the civil 
rulers. This Greek ecclesiastical power in the hands of the patriarchs of Alexan- 
dria, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Constantinople, is properly the Catholic church, 
and constitute the body of the second wild beast, although the great power is now 
concentrated in the papal and the Mahometan horns. The ecclesiastical power 
may yet be restored to the patriarch, or to patriarchs, under some civil sover- 
eignty and become formidable to pope and caliph, and also to the witnesses of 
Jesus Christ. They are all modifications of the Monotheistic antagonism to the 
kingdom of God, and though they fight with one another, they all combine 
against the Lord Jesus Christ and will be destroyed by him. 

2. The Last Resoukces of the Greek Empire. — After some ages of oblivion, 
Greece proper was awakened to new misfortunes by the arms of the Latins. In 
the two hundred and fifty years between the first and last conquests, A. D. 1204- 
1456, that venerable land was disputed by a multitude of petty tyrants. Without 
the comforts of freedom and genius, her aged cities were again plunged into for- 
eign and intestine wars, and if servitude be preferable to anarchy, the inhabitants 
might repose with joy under the Turkish yoke. But I shall not pursue the obscure 
and various dynasties that rose and fell on the continent or in the islands.® 

(2)Gbn. 2:23; 388-9. (3) Idm. 385. (4) Gbn. 2:24; 393. (5) Idm. 396. (6) Gbn. 2:23; 392. 



CHAPTER CXLIX.: SECTION II. 735 

From the close of the crusades, A. D. 1300, Constantinople and the whole 
empire began to fall to pieces and decay, so the Turks had not much to conquer. 
The citizens were not allowed to practice in the use of arms, and the mercenary 
troops exhausted all the revenues that oppression could raise ; then they turned 
their arms to waste and destroy the cities and provinces. ^ The allies obtained 
privileges, assumed authority, and usurped possessions,^ and civil discords wasted 
its feeble strength and destroyed cooperation. The Koman world was now (A. D. 
1352-91) contracted to a corner of Thrace, between the Propontis and the Black 
sea, \bout fifty miles in length and thirty in breadth, and to restore the public 
peacu it was found necessary to divide this small remnant of the empire.^ In 
this deplorable state the successor of Constantine looked to the west for succor, 
acknowledged the supremacy of the pope, and engaged to impose the same 
spiritual yoke on the Greek clergy. Should he fail in the measures of persuasion 
or force, lie will transfer to the pope (A. D. 1355) all regal and paternal authority 
and invest Innocent YI. with power to regulate the family, the government, and 
the marriage of his son and successor. Pope Urben V. allowed and encouraged 
the pilgrimage of the Greek prince, and in the same year enjoyed the glory of 
receiving into the Vatican the imperial shadows which represented the majesty of 
Constantine and Charlemagne. The Greek monarch kissed the feet and hands, 
and at length the mouth, of the holy father, who celebrated holy mass in his 
presence and allowed him to lead the bridle of his mule. On his return the 
emperor was detained in Yenice, for a debt of borrowed money, till his son arrived 
with the amount, which was raised by mortgage on all he possessed. ^ Again 
(A. D. 1400) the Greek emperor wandered among the Latin Christians as an exile, 
imploring aid against the Mahometan conquerors, ^ and this was their last resource. ^ 

The Greek and German shadows, or images, of empire and the animating 
and controlling popery met in council at Ferara and Florence. The Greek patriarch 
claimed and obtained the same honors in the council as the popes. The throne 
of the Greek emperor and the thrones of his clergy were opposite and equal to 
the thrones of the west. The throne of the pope was raised and the first in the 
Latin line. The throne of the emperor of the west was the second, was opposite 
that of the Greek, and was empty. In this council the patriarchs of Alexandria 
and Jerusalem were represented by themselves or by deputies. The primate of 
Russia represented a national church also.^ The union of the Greek and Latin 
churches was consummated, and the pope's supremacy over the Greek emperor 
and patriarchs, as well as the Latin, was established, A. D. 1438. ^ Thus, the 
second beast has an acknowledged right to exercise, in his papal horn, all the 
prerogatives of the first beast. The emperor himself transferred his headship of 
the Catholic, or empire, church to the pope, and acknowledged the subordination 
of his civil sovereignty to the ecclesiastic. If this agreement stands, the Mono- 
theistic world has nothing but the image of the first beast development, animated 
by an ecclesiastical wild beast with two horns. 

In the council, the Greek deputies were forced by the emperor to subscribe 
the decision ; but on his return to Constantinople the power of the state had to 
submit to the influence of the church, A. D. 1440. In the council the pope was 
revered as the true vicar of Christ, who, after a separation of six hundred years, 
had reconciled the Catholics of the east and west into one fold and under one 
shepherd ; the act of union was subscribed by the pope, the emperor, and the 
principle members of both churches. The deputies of Armenia, the Marronites, 
the Jacobites of Syria, the Kestorians, and the Ethiopians successively kissed 
the feet of the pope, announced the obedience of the east to him, and their 
orthodoxy. 6 The last hope of the fallen city and empire was placed in the 
maternal tenderness of Rome and the filial obedience of Constantinople. But 
the baseless fabric of the union vanished like a dream. So soon as they landed 



(7)Idm.891-2. (8) 24; 399^01. (9) 25; 412. (1) Gbn. 2:27; 226-7. (2) Ibed.; 428. (3)480. 
(4)432. f5 1433. (6) Gbn. 2:27: 433-4. 



736 THE EXN^DOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the emperor and deputies were assailed with a general murmur of discontent; 
and they, instead of justifying their conduct, deplored their own weakness. The 
cross-bearer abdicated their service, and the new patriarch discharged some eccles- 
iastical thunders without effect. The eyes of the Greeks were turned to Mark 
of Ephesus, who had resisted the council. Secure under the Mamaluke scepter, 
the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem assembled councils, dis- 
owned the representatives, condemned the creed and council of the Latins, and 
threatened the emperor of Constantinople with the censure of the Greek church. 

The Russian bishops refused the Roman yoke, the title, the pomp, and the 
Latin cross of the legate; and Isadore was condemned by a synod, imprisoned in 
a monastery, and with difficulty the cardinal escaped out of their hands. In the 
Greek empire the pope's party was contracted to the walls of the palace. "^ Thus, 
the ecclesiastical power triumphed over the civil in the Greek empire; but in 
Russia both cooperated in rejecting the authority of the pope and his council, 
and refused a passage for his missionaries to the heathen, A. D. 1448. After the 
council at Florence and the departure of the Greek brethren, the pope, appre- 
hensive that the Turks might invade Italy, endeavored to raise a crusade against 
them, but the Franks, Germans, and English could not be moved. But under 
Ladislaus, king of Hungary and Poland, some opposition was made, and thirteen 
Pashaws, nine standards, and four thousand captives were unquestionable trophies, 
and the slaughtered were variously estimated at two thousand, six thousand, or 
three hundred thousand — and Servia was restored. The frontier of Hungary 
was evacuated by the Turks A. D. 1444, and a truce for ten years was concluded. 
But the cardinal legat claimed for the pope the sole right to promise or to perform, 
and absolved the Christians from their oath and treaty ; the treaty was violated, 
and war was declared on the spot where peace had so lately been sworn. ^ The 
Turks were at first defeated, but afterward gained the victory ; ten thousand 
Christians were slain, and the loss of the Turks was greater, A. D. 1444. ^ Thus, 
we see the protection of popedom induced some of the Latin princes to oppose 
the Turks; but the Greeks found the name of Christianity was no bond of union 
nor source of sympathy ; it never secured them from the ravages of their Latin 
neighbors, from allies, mercenaries, nor from the Turks. The pope, and not 
Christ, was the bond of union ; and with the caliph it was Mahomet, and not 
the One Only Living and True God. 

3. The Mogul Woe. — The sultans of the Seljuke dynasty were destroyed 
by the Mamalukes and Moguls. The sway of the Mamalukes extended over Egypt, 
Nubia, Arabia, and Syria, A. D. 1250-1517;^ and the patriarchs of Alexandria, 
Jerusalem, and Antioch were tolerated under their scepter A. D. 1440-8.2 The 
Moguls approached Egypt, but, being driven back across the Euphrates by the 
Mamalukes, they overflowed with irresistible violence the kingdoms of Armenia 
and Anatolia. The sultan, Azzadin of Iconium, sought refuge among the Greeks 
of Constantinople, and his feeble successors, the last of the Seljukian dynasty, 
were finally extirpated by the Mogul Kans, of Persia, A. D. 1242-1272. ^ The 
Mogul invasion was a storm of hail and fire, mingled with blood, from the north 
regions that burst upon Christendom, broke to pieces and burnt up kingdoms 
and provinces, and dyed them in blood. When the Red Dragon was cast out 
of the Roman empire a woe was pronounced upon the inhabiters of the earth, or 
those honored with citizenship in the nations, because the Diabolus had come 
down to them in great wrath, knowing his time to be short. Polytheism has 
fallen before the arms of the Saracens in Asia and Africa and before the Franks 
and Germans in Europe, and the devil continues inflicting wrath on those 
nations because they have rejected the ostensible worship of the dragon; but 
they have not become the obedient servants of the true God nor the faithful 



(7) 28: 441-2. (8) Gbn. 2:28; 442-3. (9) Idm. 443-4. (1) 20; 355-6. {2j 28; 441. (3) Idm. 
404-5. 



CHAPTER CXLIX. : SECTION III. 737 

followers of Jesus Christ, and this wrath becomes very severe during the sounding 
of the last three trumpets. Thus, while the woman is nourished in the wilder- 
ness her seed are subjected to continued persecutions, and the two witnesses are 
clothed in sackcloth; those honored with citizenship in the Monotheistic empire 
suffer woes. These woes fall upon them because they are citizens and are 
identified in the interest and support of the government, while those disfran- 
chised and exiled on account of their fidelity to Christ may escape. 

From the spacious highlands between China, Siberia, and the Caspian sea 
the tide of emigration and war has been repeatedly passed. These ancient seats 
of the Huns and Turks were occupied in the twelfth century by many pastoral 
tribes of the same descent and of similar manners, which were united and led 
to conquest by the formidable Zingish, or Tim u gin. The sphere of his attraction 
was continually enlarged by the ruin of the proud and the submission of the 
prudent, and the boldest chieftains might tremble when they beheld encased in 
silver the skull of the kan of the Keraites, who, under the name of Prester John, 
had corresponded with the Roman pontiff and the princes of Europe.^ Prester 
John was a l^estorian priest, who, with uncommon valor and success, conquered 
the mightest kingdom of Asiatic Tartary. In his letters to Frederick I. of 
Germany, and Emanuel of the Greeks, he vaunts his victories over the nations, 
describes the splendor of his riches, the grandeur of his state and the extent of 
his dominions, and exalts himself above all other earthly monarchs. All this 
was easily believed, and the ISTestorians were zealous in confirming the boasts 
of their prince. He was succeeded by his son, David, called Prester John also, 
who was deprived of his life and dominions by Genghiz Kan toward the end of the 
twelfth century.^ If presbyters take the sword they may expect to provoke 
conquerors and perish by the sword. Under the covenant of Sinai the people of 
Jehovah were promised great victories by the sword ; but Christians have no 
such promises, and the sword will devour one as well as another. The Tartars 
and Moguls were addicted to the idols of their peculiar tribes, but many of them 
had been converted by the foreign missionaries to the religion of Moses, of Christ, 
and of Mahomet. These various systems in freedom and concord were taught 
and practiced within the precincts of the same camp. ^ The Christian cause lost 
much of its authority' and credit in the provinces of Prester John, and continued 
to decline until it sunk entirely under the weight of oppression, and was succeeded 
in some places by Mahometanism and in others by paganism — except in Tangut, 
bis chief residence, where his posterity persevered in the profession of Christ- 
ianity and maintained for a long time a sort of tributary dominion.'*' 

China was desolated by Tartar wars and domestic faction, and the five northern 
provinces were added to the empire of Zingis, A. D. 1210-14. Carizma, Trans- 
oxiana, and Persia, under the Sultan Mahomet, were conquered with terrible 
slaughter. From the Caspian to the Indus a tract of many hundred miles was 
ruined so that five centuries have not repaired the ravages of four years. His 
successor ravaged China, north and south, and attempted to conquer Japan, A. D. 
1234-79. The conquest of Hindoostan was reserved for the house of Timour, 
but the conquest of Persia was achieved by Hologu Kan, grandson of Zingis, 
A. D. 1258, and a crowd of sultans, emirs, and Atabeks were trampled into dust, 
and all but the name of the assassins were extirpated. Since the fall of the 
Seljukian tyrants the caliphs had recovered their lawful dominion of Bagdad and 
the Arabian Irak. After a siege of two months Bagdad was stormed and sacked 
by the Moguls, and the Caliph Mostasem, the last of the temporal successors of 
Mahomet, was put to death. Thus, the Abassides became extinct after a reign in 
Asia of over five hundred years. The holy cities of Mecca and Medina were 
protected by the Arabian desert ; but the Moguls spread beyond the Tigris and 
Euphrates, pillaged Aleppo and Damascus, and threatened to join the Franks in 



(4) Gbn. 2:25; 401. (5) Mosh. 12:1; 1, § 7. (6) Gbn. 2:25; 402. (7) Mosh. 12:1; 2, § 3. 
—47 



738 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the deliverance of Jerusalem. The Mamalukes defended Egypt. They were 
equal in valor and superior in discipline, and after many well-fought battles they 
drove the Moguls north and across the Euphrates. On the north of Syria the 
Moguls vanquished Armenia, held by the Christians, and Anatolia, or Roum, 
held by the Turks, A. D. 1242-72. Baton led an army north of the Caspian and 
Black seas, and ravaged Kipzak, Turkistan, Astracan, Cazan, Russia, Poland, and 
Hungary, A. D. 1235-45. These Moguls and Tartars ravaged with equal fury 
the countries they hoped to possess and those they were hastening to leave. The 
whole country north of the Danube was lost in a day and depopulated in a summer, 
and the ruins of cities and churches were overspread with the bones of the natives. 
Fugitives were allured from the woods under the promise of peace and reconcilia- 
tion, and after gathering the harvest and vintage they were coolly slaughtered. 
The Latin world was darkened by this cloud of savage- hostility. The Roman 
pontiff tried to appease and convert these invincible pagans, and was answered: 
The sons of God and of Zingis were invested with a divine power to subdue or 
extirpate the nations, and the pope would be involved in the ruin unless he visited 
the royal horde as a suppliant. Frederick 11. wrote to France, England, and the 
prince of Germany, representing the common danger, and urged them to arm. 
The Tartars were awed by the fame of the Fredericks. Newstadt in Austria was 
bravely defended, and the Moguls raised the siege on the approach of the German 
army. After wasting the kingdoms of Servia, Bosnia, and Bulgaria, Baton slowly 
retreated from the Danube to the Yolga to enjoy their spoils. Still, there was 
toleration, and we find Caracorun contained one JNestorian church, two mosques, 
and twelve idol temples. Constantinople and her provinces escaped this wreck 
of nations. ^ 

While China, Syria, and Poland were invaded at the same time by the 
Moguls and Tartars, the great Kans, the authors of the mischief, were content to 
know and declare that their word was the sword of death. Like the first caliphs, 
the first successors of Zingis seldom appeared in person at the head of their 
victorious armies. The ambassadors and princes of Europe and Asia were com- 
pelled to take the distant and laborious pilgrimage of the Onon and Selinga rivers, 
and the life and reign of the great dukes of Russia, the kings of Georgia and 
Armenia, the sultans of Iconium, and the emirs of Persia were decided by the 
frown or smile of the great Kan, A. D. 1227-59. One hundred and forty years 
after the death of Zingis his degenerated race was expelled by the native Chinese; 
but before this they had lost their supremacy over the dependent branches of their 
house, the Kans of Kipzak and Russia, of Zagatai or Transoxiana, and of Iran 
or Persia, A. D. 1259-1300. According to their situations they maintained their 
former habits, or adopted those of Asia; but the princes and their Kans were 
disposed for the reception of a foreign worship. After some hesitation between 
the Gospel and the Koran, they conformed to the religion of JNIahomet and 
renounced all intercourse with the ancient Moguls and idolaters of China. 

A general, Nogo, married the daughter of the Greek emperor and guarded 
the dominions of his friend and father, and some thousand of Alani and Comans 
were reclaimed and enlisted in the service of the empire;^ and as the European 
and Asiatic enemies were weakened by this Mogul wave of desolation, so the Greek 
empire was strengthened for a time. The first terror of their arms secured rather 
than disturbed the peace of Roman Asia. The sultan of Iconium solicited a 
personal interview with John Yataces, and he encouraged the Turks to defend 
their barrier against the common enemy; but that barrier was soon overthrown 
and the Seljuk dynasty was ruined. The formidable Ilologou threatened to march 
four hundred thousand men against Constantinople ; but he was diverted by the 
conquest of Bagdad and a long vicissitude of Syrian wars. The hostility of the 
Moguls to the Moslems inclined them to unite with the Greeks and Franks, and 



(8) Gbn. 2:25; 401-6. (9) 2:25; 401-6. 



CHAPTER CXLIX. I SECTION IV. 739 

they offered the siiltany of Anatolia to an Armenian vassal, A. D. 1242-72.1 
Thus, the four sultanies of the Euphrates, who were prepared and had decreed 
the destruction of the last third part of the Roman empire, were crushed in their 
respective places, instead of being bound to the Euphrates, A. D. 1242-99; but 
the decline of the Mogul empire gave free scope to their rise under the Ottoman 
dynasty, A. D. 1299-1326. (Continued, § 5.) 

4. The Ottoman empire is nothing else than the Turks united under the 
dynasty of Athman, or Othman. The permanent division of the Turkish empire 
took place among the sons of Malek Shah; but subdivisions and subversions took 
place after they were unbound to the Euphrates. Hence, in Syria we find sultans 
of Aleppo, Hems, and Damascus ;2 but the sultany of Roum, now reduced to 
Iconium, is destined to become the head and bulwark of all the Turks. Othman's 
fathers were among the Carizmians, or Corasmins, driven from their country by 
the Moguls under Zingis. After the retreat of Zingis, Gelaleddin, sultan of 
Carizme and son of Mahomet, returned from India to the possession and defense 
of his Persian kingdom ; fought fourteen battles ; led his cavalry from Tiflis to 
Herman (one thousand miles) in seventeen days. He was oppressed by the 
jealousy of the Moslem princes and the innumerable armies of the Moguls, and 
after his last defeat he perished in the mountains of Cardistan. His veteran army 
of Carizmians and Turkomans was dissolved. The bolder and more powerful 
chiefs invaded Syria and violated the holy sepulcher. The less ferocious engaged 
in the service of Aladdin, sultan of Iconium, and among these were the obscure 
fathers of the Ottoman line. 

Othman possessed the virtues of a soldier, and the circumstances of time and 
place were propitious to his independence and success. The SeJjuk dynasty was 
destroyed by the Mamalukes and Moguls, and the decline of the Moguls left him 
uncontrolled by a superior. The Koran sanctified his holy war with the Christians, 
and their political errors unlocked the passes of Mount Olympus and invited him 
to descend into the plains of Bythynia. Till the reign of Paleologus these passes 
had been guarded by the militia of the country, who were repaid by their own 
safety and an exemption from taxes. This emperor abolished their privilege and 
assumed their office. The tribute was rigorously collected ; the custody of the 
passes was neglected, and (A. D. 1293) Othman I. invaded the territory of Nico- 
media. The annals of his twenty-seven years' reign exhibit a repetition of the 
same inroads. His troops were multiplied in each campaign by the accession ot 
captives and volunteers. He fortified the towns and castles which he had pillaged, 
and renounced the pastoral life for the baths and palaces of his infant capitals. ^ 
From the conquest of Prusa by his son, Ocran, we may date the true era of the 
Ottoman empire, A. D. 1326. Ocran subdued the whole province of Bythinia 
as far as the shores of the Bospliorus and Hellespont, A. D. 1326-39. The 
maritime country from the Propontis to the Meander and the Isle of Rhodes, so 
long threatened and so often pillaged, was finally lost to the Greek empire in the 
thirtieth year of Andronicus, A. D. 1303. These conquests were made almost 
without resistance during civil discord in the Greek empire, and the same discords 
encouraged the emirs of Lydia and Ionia to build a fleet and pillage the adjacent 
islands and the seacoast of Europe. 

To aid the great domestic Cantacuzine, Amir, prince of Ionia, with a fleet of 
three hundred vessels and an army of twenty-nine thousand men, cast anchor at 
the mouth of the Hebrus river, and with a chosen band of two thousand Turks 
marched along the banks and rescued the empress besieged in Demotica by the 
Bulgarians. Leaving nine thousand five hundred men to guard the fleet, he 
searched for Cantacuzine in vain, but embarked loaded with spoils and captives. 
Twice during the civil wars Amir returned to Europe, joined his arms with those 
of the emperor, besieged Thessalonica, and threatened Constantinople. Ocran 



(1) Gbn. 407. (2) Idrp. 2:20; 354. (3) 2:25; 407. 



740 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED 

promised to fulfill the duties of a subject and a son if he could obtain the daughter 
of Cantacuzene. The Greek clergy connived at the marriage. Without the rites 
of the church Theodora was delivered to her barbarous lord ; but the preservation 
of her religion in the harem of Boursa had been stipulated beforehand. For a 
time all was well; but Ocran joined the Genoese without a blush in a war against 
Cantacuzine. By treaty with the Empress Anne the Turks could sell the European 
prisoners in Constantinople or transport them to Asia. A naked crowd of 
Christians of both sexes and every age, of priests, monks, matrons, and virgins, 
was exposed in the public market. The whip was frequently used to quicken the 
charity of redemption, and if not redeemed they were led away to temporal and 
spiritual bondage. 

At the conclusion of the civil and foreign wars Europe was completel}^ evac- 
uated by the Moslems of Asia. It was in the last quarrel with his pupil, the 
young emperor, that Cantacuzine inflicted the deep and deadly wound that could 
never be healed by his successors. Soliman, son of Ocran, with ten thousand 
horse, was transported in the vessels and entertained as the friend of the Greek 
emperor. In the civil wars of Romania, or Thrace, he performed some service 
and perpetrated more mischief. The Chersonesus was insensibly filled with a 
Turkish colony, and the emperor solicited in vain the restitution of the fortresses 
of Thrace; and when an earthquake shook the walls of the cities and provinces 
the dismantled places were occupied by the Turks, and Galliopoli, the key of the 
Hellespont, was rebuilt and repeopled by the policy of Soliman. The abdication 
of Cantacuzine dissolved the alliance. Soliman was killed by the fall of his horse, 
and the aged Ocran wept and expired on the tomb of his son. ^ 

Reign of Amurath, A. D. 1360-89. — The Turkish cimeter was wielded 
with the same spirit by Amurath I., son of Ocran and brother to Soliman. He 
subdued without resistance the whole province of Romania, or Thrace, from 
the Hellespont to the Balkins, and the verge of the capital, and Adrianople 
was chosen for the royal seat in Europe for his government and religion. 
In the lapse of one thousand years Constantinople had often been assaulted 
by the barbarians of the east and west, but never to this fatal hour had the 
Greeks been surrounded in Asia and Europe by the arms of the same hostile 
monarch. Yet, Amurath postponed the easy conquest of the city and was satis- 
fied with the frequent and humble attendance of the Emperor John Faleologus 
and his four sons, who followed at his summons the court and camp of the 
Ottoman prince. He marched against the Sclavonian nations between the Danube 
and Adriatic — the Bulgarians, Servians, Bosnians, Albanians — who were repeat- 
edly broken by his destinactive inroads. The natives, distinguished in every age 
for their hardiness of body and mind, were converted into the firmest and most 
faithful supporters of the Ottoman greatness. According to the Mahometan law, 
the fifth part of the spoils and captives belonged to the sultan. The stoutest and 
most beautiful Christian youth were selected. Many thousands of the European 
captives were educated in religion and arms, and were consecrated by the vizier 
and named Janizaries. At the time of this institution they possessed a decisive 
superiority in war, for a regular body of infantry in constant service, exercise, 
and pay, was not maintained by any prince of Christendom. The Janizaries 
fought with the zeal of proselytes, and in the battle of Cossova the league and 
independence of the Sclavonian tribes were finally broken and crushed. As the 
conqueror walked over the field flattered by the vizier, a Servian soldier started 
from the crowd of dead bodies and inflicted a mortal wound on Amurath. He 
was a lover of learning and virtue, but the Moslems were scandalized at his 
absence from public worship and he was corrected by the Mufti, who dared to 
reject his testimony in a civil cause. 



(4) Gbn. 2:25; 409. 



CiflAPTEK CXLIX. 1 SECTION IV. 74l 

Amiirath was succeeded by his son^ Bajezet, surnamed the Ligthning, A. D. 
1389-1403. He incessantly moved at the head of his army from Boursa to 
Adrianople, and from the Danube to the Euphrates ; and though he strenuously 
labored to propagate the law, he invaded with impartial ambition the Christian 
and Mahometan princes of Asia and Europe. The northern regions of Anatolia, 
from Angora to Amasia and Erzeroum, were reduced to his obedience. He 
stripped his brother emirs of Gerraian and Carmania, of Aidin and Sarukhan, 
of their heriditarj possessions, and after the conquest of Iconium the ancient 
empire of the Seljukians again revived in the Ottoman dynasty. He extended 
his kingdom across the Danube into the heart of the Moldavia. Whatever yet 
remained or adhered to the Greek empire in Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly 
acknowledged a Turkish master. A bishop let him through the gates of Ther- 
mopyle into Greece ; he stationed at Galliopoli a fleet of galleys to command the 
Hellespont and intercept the Latin succorers of Constantinople. He indulged 
in a boundless range of cruelty and injustice, and accepted the title of sultan from 
the caliph of Egypt; he turned his arms against the kingdom of Hungary, the 
perpetual theater of Turkish victories and defeats. In the battle of Nicopolis, 
Bajezet defeated a confederate army of one hundred thousand Christians, and 
the greater part were slain or driven into the Danube. He threatened to subdue 
Germany and Italy and to feed his horse a bushel of oats on the altar of St. 
Peter, but was stopped by a fit of the gout. In another battle with the French 
army of one thousand knights and squires, the first line of Asiatic troops were 
dispersed, the rampart of stakes was forced, and after a bloody battle the Janizaries 
themselves were broken ; but at length numerous squadrons issuing from the 
woods overwhemled the French, and all the captives, but twenty-five who were 
redeemed, were beheaded, for they would not abjure their religion, A. D. 1396-8. 

Thus, the great Roman empire was contracted to a corner of Thrace, between 
the Propontis and the Black sea, about fifty miles in length and thirty in breadth. 
It was cut off from all Christian nations by the invincible Mahometans, or Turks, 
and it was torn with discord and governed by incompetent emperors. At length 
Bajazet resolved on the conquest of Constantinople. In his epistle to the Emperor 
Manuel, he said: By the divine clemency our invincible cimeter has reduced to 
our obedience all Asia, with many and large portions of Europe, excepting only 
the city of Constantinople ; for beyond its walls thou hast nothing left. Resign 
that city, stipulate thy reward, or tremble for thyself and thy unhappy people at 
the consequences of a rash refusal. But this demand yielded to a truce of ten 
years at an annual tribute of thirty thousand crowns of gold. But Bajazet vio- 
lated the truce. In the cause of a rival emperor the Ottoman army threatened 
the city. Manuel's plantive embassy secured a little help from France, and Mar- 
shal Boucicault sailed with four ships, forced a passage through the Hellespont 
guarded by seventeen galleys, and landed at Constantinople six hundred men at 
arms and one thousand six hundred archers. His presence caused the blockade 
by sea and land to be raised, and several castles in Europe and Asia were stormed 
by the em-peror and the marshal fighting side by side with equal valor. But the 
Ottomans soon returned with an increase of numbers; and the intrepid Bouci- 
cault resolved, after a year's struggle, to leave a country that could no longer 
afford pay or provisions for his soldiers. The marshal proposed to conduct 
Manuel to the French court, where, in person, he might solicit men and money; 
and to extinguish discord, the emperor should leave his competitor on the throne. 
The proposal was embraced. The prince of Selybria was introduced to the capital, 
and the lot of the exile seemed more fortunate than that of the sovereign. Instead 
of applauding the success of his vassal the sultan claimed the city as his own, and 
on the refusal of John of Selybria Constantinople was more closely pressed by 
the calamities of war and famine ; and the savage Bajazet would have devoured 
his prey if, in the fatal moment, he had not been overthrown by another savage 
stronger than himself. ^ 

(5) Gbn. 2:25: 412. 



742 THE KINGDOM OJ* GOB DEVELOPED. 

5. The Tamerlane Woe. — Another of these waves of desolation belonging 
to the woes accompanying the sixth trumpet came rolling from the east over the 
Turkish and Mahometan dominions, and swept away Bajazet and his invincible 
army. The conquest and monarchy of the world was the first object of the 
ambition of Timour, or Tamerlane. In the eyes of the Moguls who held the 
succession of the house of Zingis, Timour was a rebel subject, yet he sprang from 
the noble tribe of Berlass. He was born forty miles south of Samarcand, in the 
village of Sebzar in the fruitful territory of Cash, of which his fathers were the 
hereditary chiefs. His first adventure was to restore the patrimony of Zagatai 
and reunite the dependent countries of Carizme and Candahar, A. li. 1361-70:^ 
then he turned his eyes toward Persia, or the kingdoms of Iran, A. D. 1380-93. 
From the Oxus to the Tigris that extensive country was left without a lawful 
sovereign, and peace and justice had been banished from the land above forty 
years. The petty tyrants might have opposed him with confederate arms, but 
stood separately and fell successfully ; and the difference of their fate was marked 
only by the promptitude of submission or the obstinancy of resistance. From 
Shiraz to the Persian gulf his troops advanced, and the riches or weakness of 
Ormuz were displayed in the annual tribute of six hundred thousand dinars of 
gold. The whole course of the Tigris and Euphrates, from the mouth to the 
sources, were reduced to his obedience. He entered Edessa, and the Turks of 
the black sheep were chastised for pillaging a caravan of Mecca. In the moun- 
tains of Georgia the Christians still braved the law and sword of Mahomet, and 
by three expeditions he obtained the merit of a holy war, and the prince of Tiflis 
became his proselyte and friend. He conquered Turkistan A. D. 1370-83, Kipzak 
and Russia A. D. 1390-96. The city of Tana, or Azoph, at the mouth of the 
Don, or Tanais, was reduced to ashes because well fortified; the Moslem citizens 
were pillaged and dismissed, but all the Christians who had not fled to their 
ships were condemned to death or slavery. 

Hindoostan was conquered A. D. 1338-9. The Moguls entered Delhi, the 
capital, a great and flourishing city, which had subsisted three centuries under 
the dominion of the Mahometan kings of the Afghan dynasty. He resolved to 
purify his soldiers in the blood of the idolaters, or gentoos, who numbered ten to 
►one of the Moslems. On the banks of the Ganges, Timour was informed of the 
disturbance on the confines of Georgia and Anatolia, of the revolt of the Chris- 
tians, and the ambitious designs of Bajazet. After enjoying some tranquil months 
in the palace of Samarcand, he proclaimed a new expedition of seven years into 
the western countries of Asia. His soldiers of the Indian wars had their choice 
of remaining at home or of following their prince, but the troops of all the 
provinces of Persia were commanded to assemble at Ispahan and await the 
arrival of the royal standard. The Christians of Georgia were overcome, and 
the citizens submitted to tribute or the Koran ; but the prisoners had to abjure 
their religion or suffer death. The Mogul and Ottoman conquerors touched each 
other's conquests in the neighborhood of Erzeroum and the Euphrates, and in 
their victorious career Timour was impatient of an equal, and Bajazet was igno- 
rant of a superior, and in their correspondence they manifest the greatest arro- 
gance, insolence, and contempt for each other. Timour disparages the conquests 
of Bajazet and attributes them to his obedience to the precepts of the Koran 
in waging war against the infidel Christians, and for this sole reason Timour had 
not destroyed his kingdom, which Timour acknowledges to be the frontier and 
bulwark of the Moslem world. Thou art no more than a pismire ! Why wilt 
thou provoke the elephants? Alas ! they will trample thee under their feet. In 
reply, Bajazet poured forth the indignation of his soul, deeply stung by such 
unusual contempt; retorts the greatest reproaches on the thief and rebel of the 
desert; boasts of his own victories, bids defiance, and promises to restore to him 



(6)Gbn. 2:26; 413-14. 



OHAPtER CXLiX.: SECTION V. ?43 

his wives after they had thrice endured the embraces of a stranger. This last 
threat was the deepest insult and most unpardonable offense that could be per- 
petrated on an Asiatic sovereign. 

Before they met, Timour besieged and destroyed Sebaste, and buried four 
thousand Armenians alive for the brave discharge of their duty. As a Mussul- 
man he seems to respect the pious work of besieging Constantinople, and turned 
aside to invade Syria and Egypt, now under the Mamalukes. Timour's front 
was covered with a line of Indian elephants, whose turrets were filled with 
archers and Greek fire. The Syrians were disordered and fell back in crowds on 
each other. Many thousands were stifled and slaughtered in the entrance of the 
great street; the Moguls entered with the fugitives; after a short defense, the 
citadel of Aleppo was surrendered by cowardice or treachery. Timour was a 
zealous Mussulman, but of the sect of Ali and Hosein, while those of Syria and 
Egypt were of Omar and the Abbassides. Having the doctors among his sup- 
pliants, Timour inquired : On whose side were the martyrs who fell in the battle ? 
A doctor of Aleppo answered : The motive, and not the ensign, constitutes the 
martyr; and the Moslem of either party who fight only for the glory of God may 
deserve that sacred appellation. Timour claimed that Ali alone was the lawful 
successor of the prophet, that Moawizah was a usurper, and Yezid a tyrant. A 
prudent explanation restored tranquility. Timour said that he was not a man of 
blood and never was the aggressor. 

During this peaceful conversation the streets of Aleppo, streamed with 
blood, reechoed with the cries of mothers and children and the shrieks of violated 
virgins. Their cruelty was enforced by the peremptory command for an adequate 
number of heads, which, according to his custom, were curiously piled in columns 
and pyramids. The Moguls celebrated the feast of victory, while the surviving 
Moslems passed the night in tears and chains. (A. D. 1400.) 

From Aleppo the destroyer advanced to Damascus, where he was rudely 
encountered and almost overthrown by the Mamalukes of Egypt. Abandoned by 
their prince, the inhabitants still defended the walls, and Timour consented to 
raise the siege for a ransom. But no sooner had he got into the city under color 
of a truce than he perfidiously violated the treaty, imposed a contribution of ten 
millions of gold, animated his troops to a general massacre, and Damascus was 
reduced to ashes. 

Losses and fatigues of the campaign obliged Timour to renounce the con- 
quest of Palestine and Egypt, but in his return to the Euphrates he delivered 
Aleppo to the flames. On the ruins of Bagdad he erected a pyramid of ninety 
thousand heads of the slaughtered citizens;^ again visited Georgia, and prepared 
to meet Bajazet. (A. D. 1400-1.) He collected his forces, from every quarter 
and province, to the number of eight hundred thousand and ten thousand horse, 
and he delivered their pay and arrears for seven years out of the immense riches 
obtained in the pillage of Syria. Bajazet had collected four hundred thousand 
horse and foot. Of these, forty thousand were Janizaries, a national cavalry, the 
spahis of modern times ; twenty thousand cuirassiers of Europe, clad in black, 
impenetrable armor; the troops of Anatolia, and a colony of Tartars. Timour 
moved from the Araxes through Armenia and Anatolia, avoided the Ottoman 
camp, occupied Csesarea, traversed the salt desert and the river Halys, and 
invested Angora, where was fought a memorable battle. For various motives 
the greatest part of Bajazet's troops failed him in the decisive moment; he was 
vanquished and taken prisoner, and kept in an iron cage till he died. The 
Asiatic. provinces to the Hellespont and Bosphorus were subjugated, but the con- 
queror of the east and master of myriads of horse had not a single galley. The 



(*) Gbn. 2:26; 417; Rev. Eurp. 1:6, note 25. 



744 THE SiNGDOM Ot GOD DEtrJELOT^ED 

Turks and Christians forgot their difference of religion; acted in union and firm- 
ness in the common cause; the double straits were guarded with ships and forti- 
fications. Timour's demand for transports were denied by both, while his pride 
was soothed by gifts and suppliant embassies. 

Soliman, son of Bajazet, was granted the kingdom of Roumania, or Thrace 
in Europe, which he then occupied. The Greek emperor agreed to pay the same 
tribute which he had paid to the Turkish sultan; the sultan of Egypt submitted 
to the Mogul conqueror, and thus his career was bounded on the west. But the 
torrents of Mussulman blood which he shed could not be expiated without shed- 
ding an equal amount of that of infidels, and as he now stood at the gates of 
Paradise he could only best secure his glorious entrance by demolishing the idols 
of China, founding mosques in every city, and establishing the faith of One God 
only, and of Mahomet as His prophet. 

Before he evacuated Anatoha, Timour, or Tamarlane, dispatched a numerous 
army beyond the Sihoon to open a road to the pagan Calmuks and Mungals. In 
A. I). 1404, he enjoyed his victories in the palace of Samarcand. In his march 
to conquer China, A. D. 1405, he expired in his last camp, three hundred miles 
from his capital, and in the seventy-seventh year of his age. '^ Whole nations were 
crushed under his footsteps. The ground once occupied by flourishing cities was 
often marked by his abominable trophies of columns or pyramids of human 
heads. Astrakhan, Carizme, Delhi, Ispahan, Bagdad, Aleppo, Damascus, 
Boursa, Smyrna, and a thousand other places were sacked, burnt, or utterly 
destroyed in his presence or by his troops. His most destructive wars were 
rather inroads than conquests. He invaded Turkistan, Kipzak, Russia, Hin- 
doostan, Syria, Anatolia, Armenia, and Georgia without a hope or a desire of 
preserving them. He departed laden with spoil, and left behind neither troops 
to awe the contumacious, nor magistrates to protect the obedient natives. He 
broke the fabric of their ancient government and then abandoned them to the 
evils caused and aggravated by his invasion. After his death the scene was 
again involved in darkness and blood, and before the end of the century Trans- 
oxania and Persia were trampled by the Uzbeks from the north and the Turco- 
mans of the black sheep. ^ (Chap. 166:8.) 

6. Constantinople. — When Timour had entirely evacuated Anatolia he left 
the cities without a palace, a treasure, or a king. The open country was over- 
spread with hordes of shepherds and robbers of Tartar or Turcoman origin. The 
recent conquests of Bajazet were restored to the emirs he had conquered, and 
his five sons were eager to consume in civil wars and discord the remnant of 
their patrimony. (A. D. 1403-21.) These civil wars resulted in the ascendancy 
of Mahomet the First, who obtained Anatolia by treaty, and Romania, or Thrace, 
by arms, and his reign was employed in banishing the vices of civil discord and 
restoring the Ottoman monarchy on former basis. Had the Christian powers 
united and occupied the straits with a confederate fleet, the Ottomans must have 
been speedily annihilated, at least in Europe. But the schisms of the west and 
the factions and wars of France and England diverted the Latins from the enter- 
prise and permitted Anatolia and Roumania to become united, A. D. 1421, under 
Amurath II. A colony of Genoese at Phocaea, on the Ionian coast, transported 
Amurath into Roumania. Two thousand Italians, with lances and battle-axes, 
accompanied him to the conquest of Adrianople, and this venal service was soon 
repaid by the ruin of the colony and commerce of Phocaea.^ 

On hearing of the Ottoman subversion by the Moguls, the exiled emperor of 
Constantinople, Manuel, returned to his throne; dismissed his competitor, who 
he had seated there on his departure to France ; received the ambassadors of the 
humbled sons of Bajazet; formed alliance with Soliman, who restored Thessa- 
lonica, with the most important places along the Strymon, the Propontis, and 



(7) Gbn. 2:26; 413-21. (8) Tdm. 421. (9) 2:26; 422-3. 



dfiAPl'ER CXLiX. : SECTION V. ^4-5 

Black sea, and Mousa was repulsed by sea and land in Asia. Instead of perpet- 
uating the division in the Ottoman powers by aiding the weaker side, Manuel 
concluded a treaty with Mahomet and transported his troops over the Bosphorus, 
which was the first step to the conquest ot Komania and the reunion of the Otto- 
man monarchy, A. D. 1402-22. Amurath II., son of Mahomet, commenced the 
siege of Constantinople A. 0. 1422. The religions merit of subduing the city 
of the Caesars attracted a crowd of volunteers from Asia, who aspired to the 
crown of martyrdom. Their military ardor was inflamed by the promise of rich 
spoils and beautiful females, and the sultan's ambition was consecrated by the 
presence and prediction of Said Becher, a descendant of the prophet. ^ The 
strength of the walls resisted an army of two hundred thousand Turks. The 
assaults were repelled by the sallies of the Greeks and their foreign mercenaries. 
The old resources of defense were opposed to the new engines of attack. A 
dervish was snatched up to Heaven in visionary converse with Mahomet, and the 
Christians beheld the Virgin Mary, in a violet garment, walking on the rampart 
and animating their courage. After a two months' siege Amurath was recalled 
to Boursa by a domestic revolt, which ended in the death of a brother, and while 
he had led his Janizaries to new conquests in Europe^ and Asia, the Greek empire 
enjoyed a servile and precarious respite of thirty years (A. D. 1425-48.) In the 
meantime Manuel sunk into his grave, and John Polaeologus was permitted to 
reign for an annual tribute of three hundred thousand aspers and dereliction of 
almost all that he held beyond the surburbs of Constantinople. ^ 

On the decease of John Polaeologus, four years after the Hungarian war, the 
royal family was reduced to three princes, sons of Manuel. Of these Constantine 
was crowned emperor, A. D. 1448-53. Amurath deceased and was succeeded 
by his son, Mahomet II. To all the ambassadors he spoke the language of mod- 
eration and peace. The confidence of the Greek emperor was revived by the 
solemn oaths and fair promises and assurances with which he sealed the treaty. 
The Papilians may not keep faith with infidels or heretics, ^ and the Mahometans 
have pronounced that no promise can bind the faithful against the interest and 
duty of their religion, and that the sultan may abrogate his own treaties and those 
of his predecessors. Mahomet resolved to build a formidable castle on the narrow 
pass of the Bosphorus, opposite the one on the Asiatic shore. The emperor 
attempted to divert him from his purpose, as it would intercept the Latin trade in 
the Black sea, and perhaps annihilate the subsistence of the city. The sultan 
replied : I form no enterprise against the city, but the empire of Constantinople 
is measured by her walls. -^ ^ ^ Peturn in safety, but the next who delivers 
such a message may expect to be flayed alive. Constantine determined to 
unsheath the sword and resist the establishment of the Turks on the Bosphorus; 
but he was dissuaded by the advice of his civil and ecclesiastical ministers, and 
in A. D. 1452 the impregnable fortress was erected. The ruins of stately churches 
and marble columns, consecrated to St. Michael, the archangel, were employed 
without scruple by the profane Moslems. Some opposing Christians suflered 
death, and other outrages were perpetrated. The emperor's last message was 
pathetic and sublime. Since neither oaths, nor treaties, nor submission can secure 
peace, pursue your impious warfare. My trust is in God alone. If it should 
please Him to mollify your heart, I shall rejoice in the happy change. If He 
delivers the city into your hands, I submit without a murmur to His holy will. 
But till the Judge of the earth pronounce between us it is my duty to live and die 
in the defense of my people. 

The sultan's reply was hostile and decisive. His fortifications were completed, 
and he stationed four hundred Janizaries to levy tribute on the ships of every 
nation that passed within reach of his cannon. A Yenitian vessel refusing was 
sunk with one shot. The crew escaping in boats were dragged in chains to the 



(1) Gbn. 2:28; 442-47. (2) Idm. 26; 423. (3) DowL, p. 400. Chap. 149, § 2. 



^46 'rflE Kingdom oi^ god developed. 

porte. The master was impaled and the rest beheaded and thrown to the wild 
beasts. The Greeks and Turks passed an anxious and sleepless winter — the one 
by fears and the other by hopes. The sultan said : In arms we are superior, and 
with the aid of God and the prayer of the prophet we shall speedily become 
masters of Constantinople. A brass cannon was cast and its power tested. Thirty 
wagons, drawn by sixty oxen, conveyed it one hundred and fifty miles in two 
months, poised by two hundred men on both sides. The emperor, with fervent 
prayer, implored the assistance of Heaven and earth, but to no effect. Christendom 
beheld with indifference the fall of Constantinople. The pope was exasperated 
by the falsehood and obstinacy of the Greeks and predicted their ruin, and his 
honor was engaged to the accomplishment of his prophecy. Perhaps he was 
softened by the last extremity of their distress; but his compassion was tardy, 
his efforts were faint and unavailing, and Constantinople had fallen before the 
squadrons of Genoa and Venice could sail from their harbor. A plebian crowd 
and some nobles withdrew from their country, and the avarice of the rich denied 
the emperor the secret treasures which might have raised in their defense whole 
armies of mercenaries. The indigent and solitary prince prepared to sustain the 
formidable adversary; but if his courage was equal to the peril, his strength was 
inadequate to the contest. In the spring the Turkish vanguard swept the towns 
and villages as far as the gates of Constantinople. Submission was spared and 
protected. Whatever resisted was exterminated with fire and sword. 

Mahomet planted the imperial standard before the gate of St. Romans, April 
6, A. D. 1453. The besieging army was estimated at from two hundred and fifty 
thousand to three hundred thousand or four hundred thousand, and the navy at 
three hundred and twenty sail. The besieged were four thousand nine hundred 
and seventy Komans, and two thousand strangers under John Justinian, a Genoese 
nobleman. A chain was drawn across the mouth of the harbor, supported by 
some Greek and Italian vessels of war and merchandise, and all arriving from 
Christian nations were detained for service. Asia and Europe were open to the 
besiegers, but the strength and provisions of the Greeks must decrease. With 
the demand of temporal aid Constantine promised spiritual obedience. His 
neglect of the church was excused by the ardent cares of the state. A legate was 
more easily granted than an army, and about six months before the capture of the 
city the Cardinal Isidor, of Russia, appeared in that character with a retinue of 
priests and soldiers. The emperor saluted him as a friend and father, respectfully 
listened to his public and private sermons, and with the most obsequious of the 
clergy and laymen subscribed the act of union as it had been ratified in the council 
of Florence. 

On the 12th of December, A. D. 1452, the two nations in the church of St. 
Sophia joined in the communion of sacrifice and prayer, and the names of the 
two pontiffs were solemnly commemorated: the name of Kicolas Y., the vicar of 
Christ, and of the Patriarch Gregory, who had been driven into exile by a rebel- 
lious people. 4 But, as formerly, this reunion was rejected by the holy virgins 
and the greatest part of the clergy and people. ^ But the last Constantine 
deserves the name of a hero ; his noble band of volunteers were inspired with 
Roman virtue, and the foreign auxiliaries supported the honor of the western 
chivalry. The incessant volleys of lances and arrows were accompanied with the 
smoke, the sound, and the fire of musketry and cannon. Each day added to the 
science of the Christians, but their inadequate stock of power was wasted in the 
operations of each day. Their ordnance was not numerous nor powerful, and 
if they had heavy cannon they feared to plant them on the aged walls, lest the 
explosion should shake or tumble them down. 

The same destructive secret had been revealed to the Moslems, by whom it 
was employed with the superior energy of zeal, riches, and despotism. The 



(4) Gbn., Vol. II., chap. 29, p. 452. (5) Idm., 453. 



CHAi*TER CXLIX. ! SfiCtlO]^ V. 747 

great cannon of Mahomet was flanked bj two fellows of almost equal magnitude; 
fourteen batteries thundered at once on the most accessible places; one of these 
is supposed to mount one hundred and thirty guns. By a Christian were the 
Moslems taught to direct their aim. The union of ancient and modern artillery 
distinguished the siege of Constantinople. The cannon, the engines for hurling 
stones and darts, and the battering ram were directed against the same wall; nor 
had the discovery of gunpowder superseded the use of the unextinguishable liquid 
fire. The attacks were incessant and powerful, the resistance was vigilant and 
successful. The sultan was astonished, disappointed, and grieved. Constantine 
had negotiated in the isles of tlie Archipelogo, the Morea, and Sicily for the most 
indispensable supplies. As early as April five great ships equipped for mer- 
chandise and war would have sailed from the harbor of Chios had the wind 
permitted. One bore the imperial standard, the other four belonged to the 
Genoese. They were ladened with provisions, soldiers, mariners, and military 
stores for the capital. With a strong south wind they forced through the Helles- 
pont and the Propontes ; but the city was invested by sea and land. 

The Turkish fleet of three hundred ships, stretched from shore to shore in 
crescent form, guarded the entrance of the Bosphorus. The five Christian ships 
continued to advance with joyful shouts and a full press of sails and oars. The 
rampart, the camp, the coasts of Europe and Asia were lined with spectators. 
The five lofty and stout ships were guided by skillful pilots and manned with the 
veterans of Greece and Italy; their weight was directed to sink or scatter the 
Turkish vessels; their artillery swept the waters, their liquid fire was poured on 
the heads of their adversaries who approached with the design of boarding. 
The imperial vessel, almost overpowered, was rescued by the Genoese. The Turks 
in both a distant and closer attack were twice repulsed with loss. Mahomet, on 
horseback on the shore, was frantic with rage. By voice and gestures, promises 
and threats, he urged the Ottomans to a third attack, more fatal and bloody than 
the previous two. 

The Turks lost twelve thousand men in one day and fled to the shores of 
Europe and Asia. The Christian squadron, triumphant and unhurt, steered 
along the Bosphorus and securely anchored within the chain of the harbor. The 
introduction of these supplies revived the hopes of the Greeks and accused the 
supiness of their western allies against a common foe. A rational and moderate 
armament of the maritime states might have saved the relics of the Roman 
empire, or name, and maintained a Christian fortress in the heart of the Ottoman 
empire. Yet this was the sole and feeble attempt for the deliverance of Con- 
stantinople. The more distant powers were insensible of its danger while the 
ambassador of Hungary, or at least of Huniades, resided in the Turkish camp to 
remove the fears and direct the operations of the sultan. ^ These great Christian 
establishments are destitute of Christianity; they would conspire with the devil 
to ruin one another. 

Mahomet transported ten miles, on rollers by land, eighty galleys and brig- 
antines and launched them in the higher part of the harbor in shallow water, safer 
from the deeper vessels of the Greeks and Genoese. Here he formed a floating 
battery and approached the most accessible side of the city which had been 
stormed by the Latin crusaders. The sultan massacred youths of Italy and 
Greece; the emperor retaliated and exposed from the walls the heads of two 
hundred and sixty Mussulmen. After the siege of forty days the fate of Con- 
stantinople could no longer be averted. The diminutive garrison was exhausted 
by a double attack; the aged and often assailed fortifications were dismantled on 
all sides by the Ottoman cannon ; many breaches were opened ; near the gate of 
St. Romanus four towers were leveled to the ground; to pay his soldiers, the 
churches were despoiled with the promise of four-fold restitution. This sacrilege 



(6)Gbn. 2:29; 455. 



t4:8 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

offered a new reproach to the enemies of the union with the pope, and discord 
impaired the remnant of the Christian strength. The Genoese and Yenitian 
auxiliaries asserted the preeminence of their respective service. Justinian and 
the great duke actused each other of treachery and cowardice. A. crowd of 
dervishes visited the tents of the Turkish soldiers and instilled the desire of 
martyrdom, with the assurance of spending an immortal youth amidst the rivers 
and gardens of Paradise and in the embrace of black-eyed virgins. Double pay 
was promised to the victorious troops. The city and buildings Mahomet claimed; 
the captives and spoils, treasures of gold and beauty he resigned to the soldiers, 
and promised the government of his fairest province to the soldier who first 
ascended the walls of the city. 

Such motives diffused among the Turks a general ardor — regardless of life 
and impatient for action — and the camp reechoed with shouts of: There is but 
one God, and Mahomet is the apostle of God. Far different was the state of the 
Christians in the city, who, with loud complaints, deplored the punishment of 
their sins. The celestial image of the Virgin had been exposed in the solemn 
procession, but their divine patroness was deaf to their entreaties ; they accused 
the emperor for refusing a timely surrender, anticipated the horrors of their fate, 
and sighed for the repose and security of Turkish servitude. The example of 
their prince and the confinement of the siege had armed the warriors with the 
courage of despair. They wept, and embraced, and devoted their lives, and each 
commander departing to his station maintained a vigilant and anxious watch all 
night on the rampart. The emperor and some companions entered the dome of 
St. Sophia, the last Christian assembly in it, and devoutly received, with tears 
and prayers, the holy communion, which was the last Christian rite performed 
in it. He reposed some minutes in the palace, which resounded with cries and 
lamentations, mounted on horseback to visit the guard, and explored the motions 
of the enemy. 

In the morning, May 29, A. D. 1453, the embattled hosts of Turks made 
the assault by sea and land. A common impulse drove them on to the wall. 
The most audacious to climb were instantly precipitated, and not a dart nor a 
bullet of the Christians was idly wasted on the accumulated throng; but their 
strength and ammunition were exhausted in this laborious defense. The ditch was 
filled with the slain; they supported the footsteps of their companions, and of 
this devout vanguard the death was more serviceable than the life. Under their 
respective bashaws and sanjaks the troops of Anatolia and Romania were led to 
the charge; their progress was various and doubtful. After a conflict of two 
hours the Greeks still maintained and improved their advantage, and the voice 
of the emperor was heard encouraging his soldiers to achieve by a last effort the 
deliverance of their country. In that fatal moment the Janizaries rose, fresh, 
vigorous, and invincible. The sultan, with ten thousand domestic troops reserved 
for the occasion, directed and impelled the tide of battle; his troops in the last 
assault numbering two hundred and fifty thousand. From the lines, the galleys, 
and the bridge the Ottoman artillery thundered on all sides. The camp and the 
city, the Greeks and the Turks, were involved in a cloud of smoke which could 
be dispelled only by the final deliverance or destruction of the Roman empire. 
All is confusion, blood, and horror, of which the actors could form no just or 
adequate conception. 

John Justinian was wounded and fled the city through one of the breaches. 
His example was followed by the greatest part of the Latin auxiliaries, and the 
defense began to slacken when the attack was pressed with redoubled vigor. The 
Ottomans numbered fifty, or one hundred to one Christian. The city was taken 
by storm. The emperor fell, and his nobles fought around him till he was buried 
under a mountain of their dead bodies. After the capture, two thousand citizens 
were put to the sword, and the outrage and horrors of a city taken by storm fol- 
lowed. Citizens forsook the houses and crowded into the streets; they fled to 



CHAPTER CXLIX. : SECTION V. 749 

the dome of St. Sophia, expecting deliverance by a miracle. Youth, beauty, and 
the appearance of wealth attracted the choice of the captors. The male captives 
were bound with cords, and the females with their veils and girdles. The senators 
were linked with their slaves; the prelates with the porters of the church; young 
men of plebian birth with noble maids whose faces had been invisible to the sun 
and to their nearest kindred. The ties of nature were cut assunder, and the 
inexorable soldiers were careless of the fathers' groans, the tears of nothers, and 
lamentations of children. No church or sanctuary could secure protection to the 
Greeks. 

Above sixty thousand were transported to the camp and flee , and were 
exchanged or sold, and dispersed in remote servitude throughout the Ottoman 
empire. The outward harbor was still occupied by the Italian ships. While the 
Turks were pillaging the city they departed. The beach was covered with a 
lamenting crowd, but the means of transportation were scanty and the ships 
selected their own countrymen.'^ Thus fell the city of Constantine, built 
expressly for the religion and government of the first Monotheistic empire 
known on the page of history, except the diminutive sovereignty af Israel, and 
is second in interest to no city in the kingdom of God but to Jerusalem. Its 
first emperors were sometimes Trinitarian, and sometimes Unitarian. The Trin- 
itarian became absolute and permanent till now, it has passed into the hands of the 
Unitarian Monotheists. But Polytheism never swayed a scepter within its walls. 

7. Constantinople Under Unitarian Rule. — The church of St. Sophia 
was transformed into a mosque, and so remains to this day. The city was 
repeopled by Mahomet. The Greeks returned in crowds when they were assured 
of their lives, liberties, and the free exercise of their religion. In the election 
and investiture of a patriarch the ceremonial of the Greek court was revised and 
imitated. The sultan delivered the crosier, or pastoral staff, to him, and pro- 
vided him with a palace, etc. Thus, the sultan made himself the imperial head 
of the Greek church, as well as enjoyed from the caliph of Egypt the office of the 
defender of the faithful. The other patriarchs were under the Mamalukes. The 
churches were shared between the two religions. Their limits were marked, and, 
until it was infringed by Selim, the Greeks enjoyed the benefits of this equal 
partition. 

The Morea was taken into possession by the sultan A. D. 1460. The 
emperor of Trebizond yielded his dominions to the sultan A. D. 3461; and this, 
according to Gibbon, terminates the Greek division of the Roman empire. ^ 
Thus, we see the last third of the Roman empire was destroyed by the Turks 
under the Ottoman dynasty. (A. D. 1453-61.) The first invasion of the 
Turks was A. D. 1050, but no permanent conquest or subjugation was effected 
till A. 1). 1065-68. 9 From this date, A. D. 1065, till A. D. 1461, the destruc- 
tion of the Greek empire was persistently kept in view till accomplished in a 
period of three hundred and ninety-six years and some days; or, as in the divine 
programme, a .year, month, day, and an hour = 396 years and 15 days. ^ 

The Greek empire being subverted and Mahomet II. dead, A. D. 1481, 
Bajazet carried on war with the Hungarians, Venetians, Persia, and Egypt. 
Selim I. conquered Diarbeker Algezira beyond the Euphrates, A. D. 1514, over- 
turned the powerful empire of the Mamalukes, and incorporated Egypt and Syria 
in the Ottoman empire, A. D. 1517, and the sheriff of Mecca submitted to him. 
His son, Soliman the Great, extended the empire to its utmost boundary, subju- 
gating Bagdad and Irak-Arabia on the Tigris and Euphrates, and the isle of 
Rhodes, Wallachia, Moldavia, and the greater part of Hungaria, A. D. 1534. ^ 

The decline of the Ottoman empire began with the death of Soliman, A. D. 
1566,^ about three hundred and ninety-six years after Nouraddin reunited the 
Turks under the Seljuk dynasty, A. D. 1145-1174. ^ The power of the caliphs 



(7) Gbn. '2:29; 445. (8) 2:29; 460-1. (9) Char). 144, § 5. (1) Rev. 9; 15. (2) Rev. Eurp. 
Yol. I., p. 280, period 6, chap. 7. (*) Guth. Geog., Vol. II., p. 480. (3) Gbn. 2:20; 347. 



750 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

was extinguished by the Ottomans after many a struggle.^ The sheriff of Mecca 
submitted to Selim I., and conferred the office of caliph upon the sultans of 
Turkey; and the standard of the prophet, or sacred banner, called the Sanjak- 
Scheriif, is in the Ottoman sultan's possession, and to be unfurled by him in holy 
wars, s The sheriff of Mecca is chosen by the direct descendants of Mahomet, 
called sheriffs, and their choice is invariably confirmed by the Ottoman sultan. 
They have the sovereignty of their native land and the custody of the temple at 
Mecca. ^ The influence of the sheriff is seen at the present day. 

The porte, after the sheriff's demand for a civil war against Russia, deem 
settlement impossible.'^ The Ottoman sultan is both the civil and ecclesiastical 
head of Mahometanism, and is so recognized at the present day in India. ^ The 
Tartars north of the Black sea continue to acknowledge the religious supremacy 
of the sultan as successor of the prophet. ^ The new Turkish constitution 
declares the sultan is the caliph of the Mussulmans and sovereign of all the Otto- 
mans. 1 The title of caliph renders his person sacred in the eyes of all Moslems. 
The Softas required the late sultan to relinquish the title of caliph, which ren- 
dered him inviolable. The sultan abdicated the throne, and died by some means. ^ 
The caliph and the pope now (A. D. 1534) rule the Monotheistic world from the 
Ganges to the Atlantic ocean, from Russia to Babbel-Mandel, and from the Baltic 
to the desert of Sahara. They control and animate a civil sovereignty, but it is 
only an image of the genuine Constantine empire which it has superseded. The 
pope occupies the throne of the Latin Cgesars, and the caliph is on the throne of 
the Greek Csesars, and the title of emperor they give to their vassals. 

8. Characteristics of the Tctrks. — Horsemen predominated in their inva- 
sions. I have no means of ascertaining the number of cavalry employed and 
wasted during their inroads and conquests, but it must have been immense. 
Mahmud boasted that the sight of his bow would bring two hundred thousand 
horse into the field. ^ Myriads of Turkish horse overspread a frontier of six 
hundred miles in Armenia, under Togrel-Beg. ^ All the troops of Othman con- 
sisted of loose squadrons of Turcoman cavalry, who fought without pay and 
served without discipline. But a regular body of infantry was first established 
byOcran.^ Soliman, with ten thousand horse, was transported to Europe in 
vessels of the Greek Emperor.^ Timour. the Mogul Mahometan, had ninety-two 
thousand horse. '' As the subject nations marched under the standard of the 
Turks, their cavalry, both men and horse were proudly computed by millions. 
One of their effective armies consisted of four hundred thousand soldiers. ^ The 
army of Timour against Bajazetis stated at eight hundred thousand men and five 
thousand or ten thousand horse ',9 and Bajazet's, four hundred thousand.* But, in 
numbers as in dates, writers difier, and all we can come at are estimates. Besides, 
the numbers may be figurative for vast multitudes or indefinite periods. I have 
followed Gibbon because he does not believe in divine revelation or inspired pro- 
grammes. 

Another Characteristic: Their breastplates were fire-red, hyacinth-blue, or 
purple, and brimstone-yellow. They brought immense armies into the field, 
composed principally of horse, and from their first appearance on the great political 
stage of nations their costume has been peculiarly distinguished by the colors of 
scarlet, blue, and yellow, which are here denoted by the terms fire, jacinth, and 
brimstone. Rycaut's Present State of the Ottoman Empire will satisfy the reader 
on this point. ^ But, as the breastplate is defensive armor, these terrible breast- 
plates may denote their dauntless, irresistible, and invincible charges and inevitable 
devastations. Regardless of self-preservation, they only aimed at destruction; 
and their defensive armor was their destructive force, compared to fire, smoke, 



(4) Lipp. Gaz. Arab. Hist. (5) U P.. May 24, 1877. (6) Gbn 2:11; 218 Lipp.. Mecca. (7) 
Chgo. Weekly Trib., March 7. 1877. (8) Idtn.," Oct. 26, 1877. (9) Thiii., p 841, § 194. (1) Chgo. 
Trib., Dec. 27, 1876 (2) Ch^o. Weekly Trib., May 31. 1876. (3) Gbn. 2:18; 315. (4) Ibid 317. 
(5) 25; 408. (6) Ibid 409. (7) 26; 415. (8) 3; 49. (9) 26; 417. (1) Bush. Rev. 9:17, 18. 



CHAPTER CXLIX. : SECTION V. Y51 

and brimstone, issuing out of their terrible mouths. Such destructive beasts 
needed no other protection. In the battle of Doryleumit was confessed on both 
sides that the Turks and the Franks were the only nations entitled to the appella- 
tion of soldiers. Their encounter was varied and balanced bv the contrast of 
arms and discipline, the direct charge and wheeling evolutions, the couched. lance 
and the branished javelin, and weighty broadsword and a crooked saber. ^ Their 
mouths were destructive, as their breasts were invulnerable and inaccessible. 

The Arabian locusts had heads of horses and teeth of lions ; but the Turkish 
horses had the savage heads of lions and mouths of destruction. To pierce their 
breasts was dangerous; to escape their fiery charge was hopeless; and by these 
invulnerable and irresistible squadrons were the Greek provinces destroyed till 
Ocran established a regular infantry, A. D. 1326-39. ^ Mahomet II. adopted an 
unusual mode of destruction, and by it was the capital of the last third natural 
division of the Roman empire destroyed. This gunpowder artillery so literally 
verifies the prediction it will be hard to divert the mind to a figurative import; 
but I give the preference to the figurative. ^ Their approach produced consterna- 
tion and their assault was destruction. (Chap. 150.) 

The empire is destroyed, and the divine programme intimates the reason. 
The churches remained under the Greek, or Catholic, hierarchy, but repented not 
of the innovations and corruptions introduced and established by their own hands 
and councils. They still continued — in both the Greek and Latin churches — to 
worship demons, or the spirits of the dead saints and martyrs ; venerated their 
bones and relics; made images of them out of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood. 
These images had been used, and those saints and martyrs had been invoked in 
crusades and defenses against the Turks, but to no purpose. They could neither 
see their distress, hear their cries, nor come to their deliverance. The churches 
are not reformed,"^ and the evil is not over yet. If the head, mouth, and breast 
of these horses were onward destruction, their tail policy was most pernicious. 
The locusts had stings in their tails that tormented all they struck; but these 
horses' tails had serpent heads, and eyes, and teeth, and could see, devise, and 
act of themselves. They could select their object and choose their occasion. The 
laws, institutions, and regulations after the devastations were pernicious in the 
extreme. On the hard condition of tribute and servitude the Greek Christians 
might enjoy the exercise of their religion ; but their most holy churches were 
profaned; their priests and bishops were insulted; they were compelled to sufier 
the triumph of Unitarian lasciviousness and the apostacy of brethren ; many 
thousands of children were circumcised, and many thousand captives were devoted 
to the service or pleasure of their masters. ^ 

After the power of the original Turks was gone the Ottoman was maintained 
by the ofi'spring of Christians. Women and children have been regarded as the 
property of the father or husband; when he fell his wife and children were 
claimed by the conqueror by the right of conquest. The widows of the slain were 
given to the conquerors for wives or concubines, and became mothers of a mixed 
race, which was educated in the belief and service of Mahometanism and hatred 
to the mother's religion. Ocran introduced the custom of educating the young 
captives as soldiers of the prophet. f Many thousand European captives were 
educated into the Mahometan faith and arms. These Janizaries were the terror 
of nations, and sometimes of the sultans themselves. ^ 

When the royal fifth was diminished by conquests, an inhuman tax of the 
fifth child, or child of every fifth year, was rigorously levied on the Christian 
families. At the age of twelve or fourteen years the most robust youths were 
torn from their parents, their names were enrolled in a book, and from that 
moment they were clothed, taught, and maintained for the public service, and 
when they were well trained they were drafted into the chambers and companies 



(2) Gbn. 2:19; 336. (3) 25; 408. (4) Chap. 149, § 6. (*) Chap. 145, § 4. 153. (5) Gbn. 2:18; 
321-2. (t) Gbn. 2:25; 408. (6) Ibd. 410. 



752 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

of the Janizaries and severely trained in the military or monastic discipline of the 
order. The other youths were disposed of in other services of the palace or 
prince. ^ Most of Mahomet's Bashaws and Janizaries were the offspring of 
Christian parents, but the glories of the Turkish name were perpetuated by 
successive adoption, i and by these were'the Turks enabled to conquer Constanti- 
nople and wage war with the Latin empire. By different habits were the citizens 
distinguished from the peasants, and the Moslems from the infidel. ^ Thus, we 
see the Christians not slaughtered in the subjugation of their countries are mor- 
tally wounded by the after policy of the Turks. Tribute was exorbitant. 
Daughters of Christians were taken by force and disposed of according to the 
licentious and cruel disposition of the sultan and his subordinates. Their sons 
were educated into Islamism, made soldiers, or reduced to slavery. Everything 
abhorent to parents was imposed upon sons and daughters. Christians are toler- 
ated when and where most profitable; but the hardships imposed on the Greek 
church must always dispose them to favor any revolution in government.^ The 
remains of the ancient Greeks still exist, though under grievous oppressions, and 
profess Christianity under their own patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, 
Jerusalem, and Antioch.^ These patriarchs are indulged in a civil as well as an 
ecclesiastical authority over their votaries, according as they pay for their privilege. 
The same maybe said of the ISestorian and Armenian patriarchs, and every great 
city that can pay for the privilege has its archbishop or bishop. All male 
Christians, in addition, pay a capitation tax according to their stations, from seven- 
teen years old to sixty. ^ 

In the vast regions of the eastern world Christianity lost ground from day to 
day, and the Mahometans, whether Turks or Tartars, united their barbarous efforts 
to extinguish its bright and salutary luster. Asiatic Tartary, Mogul, Tangut, and 
the adjacent provinces, where the religion of Jesus had long flourished, were now 
become the dismal seats of superstition, which reigned among them under the 
vilest forms; nor were any traces of Christianity visible at this time in these 
immense tracts of land, except in China, where the Nestorians still preserved 
some scattered remains of their former glory, and appeared like a faint and dying 
taper in midst of a dark and gloomy firmament. The Nestorian pontiff in Chaldea 
sent missionaries into Cathaz, China, to govern the Christian assemblies concealed 
in the remoter provinces of these ^reat empires, but even these missionaries did 
not survive this century. 

The ruin of the Greek empire was a new source of calamities to the Christian 
church in the greatest part of Europe and Asia, and the cause of Christianity 
received a blow from which it has never recovered. Its adherents had no 
resource left to enable them to maintain it against the perpetual insults of their 
fierce and incensed victors, nor could they stem that torrent of barbarism and 
ignorance that rushed in with the triumphant arms of Mahomet and overspread 
the Greek empire with fatal rapidity. The liberties granted to retain their 
churches and monasterys in a part of Constantinople were diminished by Selim 
L, and the Christian worship was loaded with severe and despotic restrictions. 
The outward forms of the church were not changed or destroyed by the Turks, 
but its luster was extenuated to a mere shadow under their tyrannical rules. ^ 
The insulting distinctions between Christians' and Mahometans is carried to so 
great a length that the minutia of dress are subjects of restriction. A Christian 
must wear only such cloths, head-dresses, and slippers as Turks never wear; they 
must be dark or black — as also their houses; and the least violation of these 
restrictions is punished by death ; and so is every accidental injury done to a 
Mahometan wearing the green turban. '^ The Turkish monarchy has no written 
law but the Koran, and their faith involves and declares the Christians to be 



(9) Gbn. 26; 424. (1) 29; 456. (2) 25; 408. (3) Guth , Vol. II., p. 465. (4) 480. (5) 465. (6) 
Mosh. 15:1; 2, § 2. (7) Guth. 2; p. 465. 



CHAPTER CL. I SECTIONS I. -II. 753 

outcasts and forsaken by God and fit subjects for murder or any other barbarity 
by the faithful Mahometans. It has treated the people with less humanity than 
their own beasts. The local government is a mere fiction to give license to all 
sorts of robbery and barbarity. Judges make no disguise of selling judgments 
for the highest price; the lives of men, women, and children are at the mercy of 
the Turks; the ordinary tributes enacted have been enormous ; but the irregular 
ravages, the wholesale stripping of the substance of the people on every possible 
pretext have been terrible in severity. It has been customary to reward an army 
by turning it loose on some of the provinces, with license to gorge itself in blood, 
in lust, in cruelty, and in plunder upon the unarmed, helpless people. ^ (Con- 
tinued in Chap. 176, § 1. Also see Woes.) 



CHAPTER CL. 



THE LITTLE BOOK. 

1. Contents. — Let us now go back to the eleventh century, when the eager, 
superstitious, and unholy pilgrims were crowding to Jerusalem to visit what was 
supposed to be the sepulcher of Christ and became oppressed by the Turks, and 
when the glorious and powerful angel descended from Heaven and stood firmly 
on the sea and land, claiming both for the kingdom of God. His glory and His 
voice called the attention of the servants of Christ who had looked for the glor- 
ious Hope of Israel, but beheld the desolations and pollutions of Jerusalem. Once 
a glorious ambassador descended to give Daniel an outline history of the Chil- 
dren of Israel down to the latest prophetic time. And now the same, or another, 
brings an opened book in his hand in which they can read the future, and they 
hear him swear the most solemn oath that time should be no longer given for 
the nations to repent, or to tread Jerusalem under foot and pollute the holy 
mount of God; but when the seventh trumpet begins to sound the mysteries of 
God, foretold by His holy prophets, should be fulfilled.^ What are those 
mysteries? They have been foretold. The book is open — it is a little book — 
YOU can read them for vourself. To let Christ's servants know future events 
concerning the churches was the revelation given to John. ^ This little book 
must relate to the same subjects; it is open and not sealed; it can be read, and 
what it contains will be fulfilled as soon as the seventh angel begins to sound. 
We ought to have read it before, but the seven thunders interrupted us. 

2. The first thing, I notice, is the division and disposition of the great Roman 
empire. According to the succession of kings, shown to Daniel, ^ the empire 
will be destroyed by a northern power, which will remain till about the time for 
the restoration of Israel; but according to the succession of beasts,^ the Roman 
domain, as distinct from the domain of the other beasts, is divided into ten 
horns ; but the body of the beast, or empire, remains till the judgment sits and 
the time for the saints to rule the whole earth comes. Hence, it is evident the 
empire must be divided, and an eleventh power must arise among the ten horns 
that will uproot three horns and be very hostile to the kingdom of God. Now, 
we all can read these things on the open page of history. The empire has been 



(8) Chgro. Trib., April 18, 1877. (9) Rev. 10. (1) Rev. 1:1. 22:16. (2) Dan. 10:14; 11. (3) Dan. 7. 

—48 



754 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

divided into the Latin and Greek empires. The Latin has been divided into ten 
powers. Of these, three have been eradicated by the pope, who has proved him- 
self stouter than any of his fellows and rules the whole Latin division and has 
inaugrated war on the saints. The Greek has been pushed to its center by the 
Saracens from the south; the Turks from the north have come against it like a 
whirlwind and vanquished it in Asia; discord has stayed their onward march and 
bound them to the Euphrates; but they have determined, and have been com- 
missioned, to destroy the Greek empire. Peter the hermit has proclaimed the 
impotency of the empire to recover the Holy City or protect the pilgrims. The 
abomination that makes desolate has been built on the site of the temple and 
neither Jew nor Christian can worship there. It is now plain to every student 
of prophecy that the empire must fall, and the Turks are the last of the nations 
that shall tread Jerusalem in hostile subjugation, and the papal power is the 
great persecutor of the saints in the west. 

3. Another thing I notice in the little book is Daniel's account of another 
little horn which grew out of one of the Macedonian horns. ^ This prophecy has 
become an open book. Its rise, characteristics, and consummation in power stands 
out in open history conspicuously. It has cast down the truth to the ground — 
from the Jaxartes to the Adriatic and from the Indus to the Atlantic ; it has taken 
away the daily worship of the Son of God on Mount Zion and set up the mosque 
of Omer, that has made Jerusalem desolate of the servants of tlie Living God. 
And all its pretentions, foretold by the prophet, are conspicuous on the page of 
history, and the servants of Jesus Christ have come in contact with all these 
predicted enemies of the kingdom of God. But the conflicts between these two 
horns are not portrayed in the little book ; but they were audibly proclaimed by 
the seven thunders. Since the book could be read some of its contents have been 
converted into history. 

4. The Turks. — Mter the Saracens had pushed the great Roman king back 
to the Propontis and Hellespont they decaj^ed, and he recruited and pushed them 
back to Syria and Persia; but he never recovered Syria, Egypt, North Afria, or 
Spain. Then the Turks from the north came suddenly against him like a whirl- 
wind. He was suddenly assaulted by an unknown race of barbarians, who united 
the Sythian valor with fanaticism of new proselytes and the arts and riches of a 
powerful monarchy, and the myriads of Turkish horse overspread a frontier of 
six hundred miles; but the torrent rolled away from the open country. ^ Alp- 
Arslan flew to the scene of action with forty thousand horse. His rapid and 
skillful evolutions distressed and dismayed the superior number of the Greeks. ^ 
Soliman soon seated his royal camp in Phrygia and his flying cavalry laid waste 
the country as far as the Hellespont and Black sea;' and the subjugation of the 
whole empire was determined by the Turks when the angel with the little book 
and the predicted doom of the Great King was openly manifested. In accord- 
ance with John's visions, this whirlwind was arrested and bound to the Euphrates 
by civil wars and the flrst crusade. Then it was let loose, and during the cru- 
sades multitudes of Latin and Greek Christians were destroyed. Then it accum- 
ulated its former force, passed the Hellespont and Bosphorus into Europe and 
destroyed wliatever yet adhered to the Greek empire. ^ Then, with the many 
ships of Daniel's, and the smoke, tire, and brimstone of John's visions, the Great 
King was overthrown and his throne usurped by the Ottoman Turk. Now, cal- 
culate as you will and from what dates you may, the great Roman king is 
destroyed by a northern power — Jerusalem being our standpoint and the inlidel 
historian our judge. 

5. Boundary and Destiny. — The Lybians, on the west of Egypt, and the 
Ethiopians, on the south, formed the boundary, or footsteps, of Turkish subju- 
gation in that direction, as the prophet foretold more than one thousand years 



(4) Dan. 8:8-12, 22-25. (5) Gbn. 2:18; 317. (6) Idm., 318. (7) 321. (8) 25; 410. 



CHAPTER CL. '. SECTION VI. 756 

before; and, also, Edom, Moab, and most of Ammon should escape out of their 
hands. I do not find these enumerated among their conquests, like Aleppo, 
Damascus, Antioch, Tripoli, and other places, and, being on the border of Arabia, 
appear to have been on the track of Selim's conquests. And Soliman, following 
the Euphrates, left Arabia in the fork of their subjugations. Mede, Isaac, and 
Bishop JSTewton could only apply this in general terms. The Arabs possessed 
these countries and exacted tribute from the Turks for permitting their caravans 
to pass through. 

But recent travelers, including Yolney, have unconsciously given the most 
satisfactory information. Edom and Moab are in the possession of the Bedouin 
Arabs. The country of Ammon is divided by the Turks and Arabs, but chiefly 
possessed by the Arabs. The extortion of the one and the depredations of the 
other keep it in perpetual desolation. ^ Moab has often been a field of conten- 
tion between the Arabs and Turks; and, though the former have retained posses- 
sion, both have mutually reduced it to desolation. ^ 

The Edomites, having become an outcast from Syria, among whose king- 
doms it had long been numbered, was united to Arabia-Petrea. ^ The greater 
part of Ammon, particularly what adjoins the ancient, but now desolate, city of 
Ammon, live in a state of complete independence of the Turks. ^ These coun- 
tries mark the boundary between Arabia and the Turkish empire, as Daniel fore- 
told; but their safety from Turkish inroads and conquests was their ruined condi- 
tion, caused by the Saracens, or Arabs, who claim them as belonging to their 
country.* 

Egypt has been impoverished of its gold, silver, and precious things by the 
Ottoman dynasty of the Turks. But this Turkish power is the last to usurp 
dominion over the patrimony of Abraham and the royal city of David. They 
will become enfeebled and dependent on their allies, who will fail them in their 
final calamity. He shall come to his end and none shall help him. Tidings out 
of the east and out of the north shall trouble him, making him desperate and 
furious. He shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas, in the delightful 
holy mount. But his destruction is sure when, or before the seventh trumpet 
begins to sound. ^ 

Mahometanism, which is the animating and controlling spirit of this northern 
power, shall be broken without hands before the woe accompanying the sixth 
trumpet will expire. So completely has the Mahometan horn cast down the truth 
and destroyed the holy people, that we can not find one assembly of the true 
church of Christ within its territory that has survived its craft and cruelty. His 
craft, in subjecting to tribute, taking children of Christians and educating them 
into Islamism, making wives and concubines of Christian women, granting citi- 
zenship and pardon to captives, slaves, and criminals when they became 
Mahometans, has prospered and made this horn powerful. But Mahometanism 
never established an inquisition to hunt up and torture the true disciples of 
Christ. So, some true churches and some faithful witnesses might be in its wil- 
dernesses and corners of cities, whom persecution never brought to the knowl- 
edge of the historian. Having seen all that history has revealed of the divine 
programme in regard to Jerusalem and the eastern Roman empire, we shall turn 
to the dominions of the western little horn. 

6. The Russian State Church. — Before we leave the east under the 
dominion of the Mahometan horn, let us take a note of a state and church power 
arising in the north which may some day dispute supremacy with both the 
Mahometan and papal horns and restore the Constantine state and church empire. 
In A. D. 867 the Sclavonians, Arentani, and certain provinces of Dalmatia sent 
an embassy to Constantinople to declare their resolution of submitting to the 



(9) Bush , p. 532. Ezek. 25:4 (1) Idm. 506. Jer. 48:1, 2. (2) 509; Jer. 49:7. (3) 546-7. Dan. 
11:2, 3. (4) 505-513, 531-533. (5) Dan. 11:44, 45. Rev. 10:7. 



756 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Greek empire and embracing the Christian religion, and a number of Greek 
teachers were sent to instruct them and baptize them into the church. The war- 
like Russians entered into a treaty of peace with the same emperor and were 
engaged by presents and promises to embrace the Gospel, and they received 
ministers to instruct them and an archbishop to perfect their conversion and 
establish their church.^ The church of Russia became the chief bulwark and 
ornament to the Grecian faith. "^ In the councils of Ferrara and Florence, A. D. 
1438-9, the Russian primate, Isidore, represented a national church, ^ was made 
cardinal by the pope, subscribed the reunion of the Greek and Latin churches, ^ 
hastened from Florence to Moscow to reduce the Russians under the Roman 
yoke. But their bishops had been educated at Mount Athos, and the prince and 
people embraced the theology of their priests. They were scandalized by the 
title, the pomp, and the Latin cross of the legate, Isidore, the friend of those 
who shaved their beards and performed the divine office with gloves on their 
hands and rings on their fingers. Isidore was condemned by a synod, imprisoned 
in a monastery, and with extreme difiiculty escaped from the hands of a fierce 
and frantic people. ^ The patriarch of Constantinople had enjoyed the spiritual 
supremacy over the Russians and sent them a bishop whenever a vacancy hap- 
pened; but toward the conclusion of the sixteenth century this power ceased. 

The patriarch of Constantinople, unable to resist the solicitations of the 
Moscovite monks, in a council, A. D. 1589, nominated and proclaimed Job, arch- 
bishop of Rostow, the first patriarch of the Moscovites. Every new patriarch of 
the Russians was obligated to demand the consent and suffrage of the patriarch 
of Constantinople and pay at certain periods five hundred gold ducats. This was 
ratified in another council at Constantinople, A. D. 1593, with the consent of the 
Turkish emperor. At the solicitation of the grand duke of Moscovy, in the 
following age, the patriarch of Russia was exempt from the double obligation of 
paying tribute and of depending on foreign jurisdiction for confirmation and 
installation. This independence was granted by the four patriarchs of Constan- 
tinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Antioch.^ Thus, while the four patriarchs 
of the Greek church were captives under the Moslem Turks, here is the fifth 
patriarch in the place of the apostate pope ol Rome, united with a Christian 
sovereign — the true fac-simile of the great Constantine state-church empire. This 
is certainly the seventh head of the great Monotheistic empire, and resists both 
horns of the second wild beast. "^ We also see the Turkish sultan exercising both 
a civil and ecclesiastical headship over the Greek patriarchs while he animated 
and controlled the Mahometan horn, which he now wears, having obtained the 
title of caliph from the sheriff of Mecca. 

7. What the Little Book Showed About the Western Empire. — Nebu- 
chadnezzar's image, showing a succession of the empires coming in contact with 
the kingdom of God until it be consummated, has now been historically developed 
down to the feet, which are a mixture of iron and clay. This has been fulfilled 
in both the Greek and Latin divisions ; both have exhibited the former iron strength 
of Rome and the weakness and pusillanimity of the creatures of sloth and luxury. 
Under one emperor the Greeks appear to be nothing but clay knocked to pieces 
at a blow. Under another they break to pieces their conquerors and show the 
iron. In the Latin empire the iron and clay are mixed and continually fighting; 
but in the fifteenth century the Franks and Germans appear to be the iron, and 
the Italians the clay. The purity of the blood had been contaminated through a 
thousand channels. ^ But the toes may be the horns of the first beast. f The dis- 
tinctive existence of the ten horns of Daniel's beast is lost, being compounded 
with, subjugated, or eradicated by the pope, Franks, British, or Saracens. The 
eleventh horn has eyes everywhere, watching everything, and its mouth is doing 



(6)Mosh.9:l; 1, §§4, 5. (7) 16:1; 2, i^ 21. (8) Gbn. 2:27; 432. (9) Tdm., 434. (1)28; 441. 
(2) Mosh. 16:1; 2, §9. (*) Chap. 158, § 5. 168. (3) Gbn. 2:30; 462. (f) Chap. 151, § 6. 



OnAWfeR cLi. : SECTION i. t5? 

big talking; and the beast himself must continue, under one form or another, till 
the consummated age of the kingdom of God ; then it will be given to the flames. * 
This consummation of the kindom of God will commence while these mixed feet 
and toes exist, and will annihilate them, and then will fill the whole earth. ^ 

The measurement of the temple worshipers must be finished. The Sons of 
Oil, or two witnesses, must complete one thousand two hundred and sixty years 
of prophesying in sackcloth ; must torment the worshipers of the beast and of 
his image till they fulfill their testifying. They must be killed by the wild beast 
out of the abyss and arise again, and the attending revolutions will complete the 
woe accompanying the sixth trumpet. Then will the seventh trumpet begin to 
sound; the third woe will be inflicted; voices, thunderings, lightnings, and earth- 
quakes will announce the completion of the mysteries of God foretold by the holy 
prophets : The kingdoms of the world will become the kingdoms of the Lord and 
of His Anointed. The kingdom of God will be consummated. Thus, we see 
that the contents of the little book are pleasant information, showing the divine 
programme to be advancing; but after this information is digested the contem- 
plation of the dreadful afllictions and catastrophes yet to intervene the happy 
time is bitter to the soul. John must break off his enrapturing contemplations 
of the consummated age, and prophesy again about and against many nations, 
and kings, and people of different languages. All this is conspicuous on the pages 
of this little book, showing former predictions collated with past history. 



CHAPTER CLI. 



THE POPE, EMPEKOR, AND STATE SYSTEM. A. M. 5400-5600. 

(Continued from Chap. 147.) 

1. The Image of Imperial Authority. — Of the western empire, of which 
the political image was restored by Charlemagne, the title and image still decorated 
the singular constitution of modern Germany. Rome was revered as the metrop- 
olis of the world, as the throne of the pope and the emperor, who, from the 
eternal city, derived their title, their honor, and the right or exercise of temporal 
dominion. ^ It is in the fourteenth century we may view in the strongest light the 
state and contrast of the German Roman empire, which, except on the borders of 
the Danube, no longer held a single province of Trajan or Constantine. After 
the excommunication of Louis, the Bavarian, Charles lY. received the gift and 
promise of the vacant empire from the Roman pontiff, who in Avingnon affected 
the dominion of the earth. The death of his competitor united the electoral 
college, and Charles was unanimously saluted king of the Romans and future 
emperor. He was no more than the elective and impotent magistrate of an aris- 
tocracy of princes, who had not left him one village that he might call his own. 
His best prerogative was the right of presiding and proposing in the national 
senate, which was convened at his summons. His native kingdom of Bohemia, 
less opulent than the adjacent city, Nuremburgh, was the firmest seat of his power 
and the richest source of his revenue. He passed the Alps with but three hundred 
horse. He was admitted into Milan with only a peaceful train. The gates were 



(4) Dan.7:ll, 13, 14, 21, 22, 24-26. Rev. 19:20. (5) Dan. 2:33, 41-45. (6) Gbn. 2:30; 462. 



?58 I'&E kiNGbOM o^ d^oD d^Vjeloped. 

shut on him, and the king of Italy was held as a captive by the arms of the viscount, 
whom he confirmed in the sovereignty of Milan, and there he was crowned with 
the Lombard iron crown of Italy. In the Vatican he was crowned with the golden 
crown of the Roman, or papal, empire, and in obedience to a secret treaty the 
Roman emperor immediately withdrew without reposing a siugle night in his 
Roman capital, and his contemporaries could observe that the sole exercise of his 
authority was in the lucrative sale of privileges and titles. The gold of Italy 
secured the election of his son, but such was the shameful poverty of the Roman 
emperor that his person was arrested by a butcher in the streets of Worms, and 
was detained in the public inn as a pledge, or hostage, for the payment of his 
expenses; but he had empty honors. Compared with Augustus or Constantine, 
he was as a faint shadow to the substance. '' 

The last pilgrimage for coronation of a German emperor by the pope was 
that of Frederick III., or lY., of Austria, A. D. 1452. So tame were the times, 
so feeble was the Austrian, that the pomp of his coronation was accomplished with 
order and harmony ; but the superfluous honor was so disgraceful to an independent 
tiation that his successors have excused themselves from the toilsome pilgrimage 
to the Vatican and rest their imperial title on the choice of the electors of Germany. ^ 
As a civil magistrate he was a shadow, and in the hands of the pope he was the 
representative of a galvanized image of empire for many centuries, with but few 
exceptions. But at length Charles Y. vanquished the Yenitian and French 
influence in Italy and was crowned by the pope as the Roman emperor. ^ Boni- 
face YIII. claimed a supreme and irresistible dominion over all the powers of the 
earth, both spiritual and temporal ; terrified kingdoms and empires with the thunder 
of his bulls ; called princes and sovereign states before his tribunal and decided 
their quarrels ; augmented the papal jurisprudence with the sixth book of decretals ; 
declared war against the Colon a family. ^ 

Soloman, the legitimate king of Hungary, driven from his throne by his 
cousin, Geisa, was restored by the emperor upon condition that Solomon should 
hold it of him as a feudatory. Gregory immediately claimed it as the property 
of the Roman church, and threatened him with indignation if he held it from the 
emperor and not from the pope, for the pope could not sufi'er the honor due to 
St. Peter to be given to another. Solomon being again expelled, the usurper 
was blessed by the pope, and held the kingdom from the pope and not from the 
emperor, and so did his successor, Ladislaus. ^ Thus, we see the emperor super- 
seded in civil afi'airs by the pope, and the pope's legates required all kings and 
princes to swear allegiance to the pope before he gave them the insignia of ofiice 
or royalty. But the dominion of the popes over kings and princes received a 
shock from Philip the Fair, king of France. ^ After some more rough-and- 
tumbles, the civil powers, or horns, recovered their power. The imperial head- 
ship of Germany over prelates and princes never more became a substance, 
though Germany continued a powerful horn. * So, also, the lieutenants of the 
Saracens and sultans of the Turks received their titles and commission from the 
caliphs till the Ottoman sultans obt.^ined both civil and religious headships. And 
now the power of the Mahometan world is in the horns. 

2. The Pope Made the Image. — Who created or authorized the creation of 
this image of the Roman empire ? Justinian, the Greek-Roman emperor, had 
conferred the Roman consularship upon the dynasty of Clovis, the most Christian 
king of the Franks; but it was the pope, the Trinitarian horn of the second wild 
beast, in his ecclesiastical character, that recommended, introduced, or imposed 
on the west this image of the Latin empire. This he accomplished by his supe- 
rior ecclesiastical influence, superstitious power, and political strategy. His 
power over the superstitious and ignorant citizens of the west was unbounded. 
His strategy had separated them from the Greek head, and his impiety absolved 

(7) Gbn. 2:10; 192. 30; 483. (8) Gbn. 2:31; 486. (9) Mosh. 15, Chron. (1) 13:2; 2, § 17. 
(2) Dowl , bk. 5, chap. 2, § 14. (3) Mosh. 14:2; 2, § 2. (4) Gbn. 2:30; 462. 



GfiAPTteR CLl. : SECTION ill. %9 

tliein from allegiance to it. But his military power was not adequate to protect 
them from invasion and the dominion of surrounding nations, or princes, so he 
absolved the Franks from their oath of allegiance to the dynasty of Clovis and 
transferred the scepter to the Carlovington dynasty. ^ 

Constantine received his empire from the Red Dragon and moulded and 
regulated the Christian hierarchy to suit his political government, and none of 
the ecclesiastics disputed his authority, but accepted their grades and positions 
and acquiesced in his sovereignty. Charlemagne was a conqueror, a monarch, 
and an independent sovereign, but accepted his imperial crown from the pope, 
and promised his scepter and sword to defend the assumptions of the clergy and 
the prerogatives of the pope ; and the influence of the Christian hierarchy origin- 
ated his empire and was necessary to its perpetuity. 

The pope and the emperor had their distinctive rights and prerogatives regu- 
lated by mutual contract, and Charles I. had something more than an image of 
political sovereignty and exercised his political rights, as well as Constantine. 
The Roman pontiffs obeyed the laws of the emperor, received their judicial deci- 
sions as of indispensable obligation, and executed them with the utmost punctu- 
ality and submission. All churches and monasteries were obliged to pay tribute 
to the public treasury, except those exempt by special favor of the supreme 
power. 6 

When the Frank empireship became dissolved, the pope sent ambassadors 
to Otho I., or the Great, for assistance, promising to array him with the purple 
and other ensigns of royalty and proclaim him emperor of the Romans; and the 
pope swore allegiance to Otho as his lawful sovereign. ' This German-Roman 
image of empire was wholly the work of the pope and Otho. France, Spain, and 
England had nothing to do with it ; Germany had no interest in it ; Italy and 
Rome were not consulted in the matter. Germany elected whoever they pleased 
for king or emperor, and gave him but little power or wealth. If he goes to 
Italy, the archbishop of Milan must there crown him king of Italy with the iron 
crown of Lombardy, which was made out of a nail of the true cross. In Rome, 
the pope must crown him Roman emperor with the golden crown of empire. If 
this emperor was able, he might govern Rome and Italy; if not, he might retreat 
as soon as possible. 

When the pope was able, he robbed the emperor of all his prerogatives and 
immunities, sent him on crusades, and made him a vassal. Yet, the pope will 
not do without him, and if the Germans will not elect one, the pope will appoint 
one. If he does not please the pope, this papal horn of the second wild beast 
will excommunicate him, strictly forbid all persons from observing or attending 
him, give his throne to another, and order all princes and people to dethrone, 
rob, nnd assassinate him;^ and forbid any one, on pain of excommunication, to 
lend him any assistance whatever. ^ 

3. Obliged to Worship this Image. — I have not any samples of the obliga- 
tions imposed on princes, prelates, or people, to worship the empire or emperor 
instituted or crowned by the pope. But, when the pope transferred the crown 
from the house of Clovis to the Carlovingian dynasty, he absolved the Franks 
from their oath of allegiance to Clovis, and he imposed the direst anathema on 
them if they presumed to elect a sovereign out of any other family than that of 
Pepin. And as he prohibited any to serve or befriend the rulers he deposed, he 
necessarily required all homage and obedience to the emperor crowned by him ; 
and as he counted his emperor the Lord's anointed, he would enjoin reverence 
and obedience upon all, free or bond, to acknowledge and obey the one he 
approved; and as the civil sovereignty was the pope's hangman, he would com- 
mission this image to execute everyone that refused this homage and obedience. 

(5) Chap. 143, §§ 1, 2. (6) Mosh. 8:2; 2, § 16. (7) 10:2; 2, § 5. Chap. 144, § 8. (8) Dowl., bk. 
5, chap. 1, §§ 9, 10. (9) Idm. 11, § 101. 



760 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPEl^. 

By his thundering bulls the pope makes this image of sovereignty to issue edicts, 
and execute them; to raise armies and devastate countries; to persecute the 
saints, and give dominion to the pope. Ferdinand of Spain assumed the title of 
emperor at the solicitation of Henry III. Pope Yictor threatened Ferdinand 
with excommunication and interdict unless he immediately renounced a title 
which had been conferred by the holy see only on Henry, and the terrified prince 
gladly submitted to his commands. ^ 

4. Change. — The authority of the German emperors had silently declined in 
Italy to the mere ceremony of coronation, and the exercise of a few honorary and 
feudal rites over the Lombard vassals of the crown. The numerous republics of 
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,, torn to pieces by factions, fell under the 
tyranny of one despot after another. In A. D. 1500, Ferdinand of Spain 
deprived France of INaples; and from this time the Spaniards, already masters 
of Sicily and Sardinia, became for more than one hundred years the predom- 
inating power in Italy. ^ 

So valueless were the imperial prerogatives in Italy and Rome that, after 
Frederick III., the German emperors thought them not worth the coronation by 
the pope. The ghostly power of the pope had also declined, and his thundering 
bull no longer controlled ambitious aspirants. His bull first broke its horns 
against the armor of Philip the Fair, king of France. ^ Don Pedro, king of 
Arragon, having taken Sicily from Charles of Anjou, treated the pope's excom- 
munication and interdict with ridicule;^ and in the council of Constance the five 
head nations of Europe subjected the pope to the authority of a council. ^ (A, D. 
1414-18.) The pope could not crown an emperor unless the German diet elected 
him; the elected emperor could not possess the kingdom of Italy and the empire 
of Rome unless crowned by the pope ; the emperor would not go to Rome for 
all the Italian and Roman crowns were worth. The emperor is in the hands of 
his German electors, and the pope is subjected to the authority of a council, by 
the emperor and the five head nations of the Latin empire. Hence, it is evident 
that the headship of the Latin empire must rest on some other basis than the 
contract between Otho I. and the pope, and the supreme power must be vested 
somewhere else than in the pope and the German diet. At first, supreme power 
was in the emperor; next place, in the pope, or between the pope and emperor. 
But, in the fifteenth century, pope and emperor united can not protect their own 
possessions and prerogatives. 

5. The Rise of the State System of Europe, or Balance of Powep. — By 
conquest or marriage, one dynasty, or state, might become more powerful than 
another and conquer it, and thus, by conquest and absorption, extend its 
dominion over all Europe, as the Franks did at first. To prevent this, a number 
of weaker states, or dynasties, combined against the powerful one, and weakened, 
or circumscribed it, without regard to pope or emperor. Thus, we discover the 
power is in the horns — they wear the crowns. Of these crowned horns five were 
recognized in the council of Constans by the temporal and the spiritual heads of 
the western empire, and they showed their power in subjecting the pope to a 
council. At the death of Frederick III., Maximilian ot Austria was elected 
emperor of Germany. He married Mary of Bergiindy, and thus secured to the 
house of Austria the whole of Bergundy and the low countries, or Netherlands. 
In Spain, Ferdinand Y. of Aragon married Isabella of Castile, and, uniting these 
two estates, expelled the Moors and Saracens, conquered Navarre, and then 
united all Spain under one dynasty. ^ These two houses, or dynasties, became 
united A. D. 1506, in Charles V. of Austria, and secured to him Austria, Bur- 
gundy, Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia, together with all Spanish America; 



(1) Dowl.,pp. 237-8. (2) Will., p. 316. Rev. Eurp. 1:238. (3) Mosh. 14:2; 2, §§ 2-4. (4) 
Dowl., bk. 5, chap. 11, § 110. (5) Gbn. 2:31; 486, note F. Mosh. 15:2; 2, §§ 10-12. (6) Will. 
2:2; § 15. 



CHAPTER CLi. : SECTION Vi. t6l 

and in A. D. 1519 the imperial dignity of the German empire was conferred on 
him by the electors of Germany. Charles soon resigned his hereditary Austrian 
states to his brother, Ferdinand, but retained his Spanish possessions, including 
Spain, l^aples, Sicily, Sardinia, and Spanish America. ^ He conquered and pil- 
laged Italy and Rome and took the pope captive. In the peace concluded, A. D. 
1529, he remained master of Italy; the pope submitted, and the Venetians were 
shorn of their conquests. ^ Charles Y. was crowned by the pope, at Bologna, 
king of Italy and emperor of Rome. ^ 

Since the time of Charlemagne, Europe had not seen a monarchy so powerful 
as that of Charles Y. ^ Pope Clement YII. performed the coronation, and this was 
the Roman emperor crowned by the pope. In A. D. 1558, Charles Y. resigned 
his Spanish possessions and the Netherlands to his son, Philip II,, but could not 
prevail on the princes of Germany to elect him emperor. This dignity they con- 
ferred on Ferdinand, brother of Charles, for the purpose of dividing the house 
of Austria to weaken its power. Spain, including Portugal, with all its posses- 
sions in Africa, the Netherlands, and some Italian states, remained with the Charles 
branch, while Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia fell to the Ferdinand branch. ^ 
Philip II. was dignified with the title, Most Catholic King. He aided his uncle, 
Ferdinand, to war against the German reformers. He was a bitter persecutor, 
and showed Spain to be a horn of the wild beast. 

6. The First Wild Beast Perfected, and the Crowns on the Horns. — 
The first wild beast has now (A. D. 1500) been fully developed in both his sub- 
stantial and his image characters, and the crowns are now on the horns, indicating 
his condition at the time of his maturity, and the time of his greatest mischief to 
the saints. His first, or Latin, head, wounded to death, has been restored by the 
popes. The second, or Greek, head has been slaughtered by the Latins and Turks. 
The Frank, or third, head has been superseded by the German, or fifth, head, 
which has been reduced to an image of civil monarchy. The fourth, or Saracen, 
head has been superseded by the Turkish, or sixth, head. The seventh head is 
now developed in Russia. It has ten crowned horns. Five of them are Mahom- 
etan and five are papal. The caliph and the pope may animate and control them, 
but neither the Ottoman sultan nor the German emperor can, and they appear to 
be losing respect and obedience to both of them. Mahometan horns are the 
Afghan, or Mogul, horn. Under Mahmud, the Gaznevide, it extended from 
Transoxiana to the neighborhood of Ispahan, and from the shores of the Caspian 
to the mouth of the Indus, and was extended beyond the Ganges A. D. 997-1028. ^ 
The Seljuks drove the Gaznevide dynasty across the Indus, A. D. 1038-63. ^ This 
Afghan empire in India was conquered by Timour, or Tamerlane, A. D. 1198-99, 
and the Afghan dynasty was superseded by the Moguls A. D. 1530-1806^^ which 
extended in A. D. 1658-1707 from Cashmir to Cape Comorin, and from Candahar 
in Afghanistan to the Gulf of Bengal. ^ Transoxiana (now Bokhara) was 
jtrampled under foot by the Uzbeks and the Turkomans of the black and white 
sheep, A. H. 1505,'^ but Persia remains a horn, or independent Mahometan power, 
as do Arabia and North Africa; but the Mahometans in Spain had ceased to be 
a power, A. D. 1491. ^ The Ottoman empire made the fifth horn, and the sultan, 
having obtained the title of caliph, is the head and representative of all the Moslem 
powers. Timour called it the frontier and bulwark of the Moslem world. The 
orientals, and even Timour, styled the Ottoman sultan the Cgesar of Rome — 
Kaiser of Roum. ^ The North Africans became allies to the Ottomans in their 
wars with the Christians, but were an independent sovereign power, A. D. 1565. ^ 



(7) Will., pt. 2, chap. 3, §§ 1-4. Rev. Eurp. 1:220. (8) Will. 2:8, §§ 11, 12. (9) Rev. Enrp., 
Vol. 1, p. 238 (1) Rev. Eurp , 1:220. (2) Guth , Vol. II , pp. 895-6. Will. 2:3. § 24. (3) Gbn- 
2:18; 314: (4) Idm.; 316. Chap. 144, §§ 4, 5. (5) Lipp. Gaz., MoruI. (6) Gbn. 2:26; 421. Thai., 
p. 124, § 154. (7) Gbn. 2; p. 421. Lipp. Gaz., Bok. (8) Thai. 116, § 135. (9) Gbn. 2:26; 416. 
(l)Rev. Eurp. 1:280. 



?62 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEY:£L0PED 

In Europe we find five horns which properly belong to the first beast, and 
appear to be something more than an image of power. The pope had pla3^ed the 
tyrant till princes became indignant and reassumed their authority. Philip the 
Fair, king of France, checkmated the pope; ordered his bull to be burnt; forbade 
his ecclesiastics to leave the realm ; assembled the states general of the kingdom, 
A. D. 1302-3, and with their advice and approbation adopted measures against 
the dangerous pretentions of the court of Rome against or over civil government, 
captured the pope, and pillaged his treasures. ^ The Emperor Louis, of Bavaria, 
incurred the censures of the church for defending the rights and prerogatives of 
the crown; was loaded down with the most blasphemous curses, and could not 
obtain absolution on the most humiliating condescensions. This indignity roused 
the princes and states of Europe, and on the representation of the electoral 
college they thought proper to check these bounds of the pope by a decree which 
was passed at the diet of Frankfort, A. D. 1338. This decree declared that the 
imperial dignity was held only from God ; that the emperor chosen by the majority 
of the electors was thereby a true king and emperor, and needed neither confirma- 
tion nor coronation from the pope, and that persons who should maintain the 
contrary should be treated as guilty of high treason. ^ 

Mahometanism had at one time three caliphs, and popery had three popes, 
A. D. 1409-17, and during this grand schism the civil head and horns showed 
themselves, exercised their rights, and exhibited the characteristics of the first 
beast. The new general council was convoked at Constans, A. D. 1414, by order 
of the Emperor Sigismond, and it was there that the maxim of the unity and 
permanency of councils was established, as well as its superiority over the pope 
in all that pertains to matters of faith, to the extirpation of schism, and the 
reformation of the church in both its supreme head and subordinate members; 
and it was by the decree of this famous council that John Huss and Jerome of 
Prague were burnt, ^ which shows its relation to the first beast under its first and 
second heads. Though this council was the work of the emperor and princes, it 
had to be done in the name and by authority of a pope. So, Pope John XXIII. , 
induced by the importunities of the emperor and expectation of decrees favorable 
to his interest, convoked the council, and appeared with a great number of cardinals 
and bishops. 

The council was honored with the emperor, many German princes, and 
ambassadors of all the European states whose monarchs or regents could not 
be personally present at the decision of this important controversy. '^ On this 
momentous occasion the college of twenty-three cardinals was fortified with thirty 
deputies, six of whom were chosen in each of the five great nations of Christen- 
dom — the Italian, the German, the French, the Spanish, and the English. The 
French ambassadors contended that Christendom was essentially distributed into 
the four great nations and votes — Italy, Germany, France, and Spain ; that the 
lesser kingdoms — such as England, Denmark, Portugal, etc. — were comprehended 
under one or otlier of these great divisions. The English asserted that the British 
islands, of which they were the head, should be considered as a fifth and coordi- 
nate nation with an equal vote, and every argument of truth and fable was intro- 
duced to exalt the dignity of their country. 

Our countrymen prevailed in the council, but the victories of Henry Y. 
added much weight to their arguments. ^ Pope John XXIII. was deposed by 
this council, and Martin Y. was elected. Here we have the five crowned sover- 
eignties determined by this council, and many heads crowned by the popes were 
reckoned subordinate to them ; and though they here asserted, vindicated, and 
exercised their power, it required time, vigilance, perseverance, and exertion to 
bring the clerical power down to what it was under the first two heads of the great 



(2) Rev. Eurp , Vol. I., pp. 167-8. note 4. (3) 1:168. (4) Rev. Eurp. 1:170. (5) Mosh. 15:2; 
2, §8. (6)Gbn.2:31; 486. 



CHAPTER CLI. \ SECTIONS "Vll. -Vlll. t63 

Moiiotheistic wild beast. These ten horns may be the ten toes of Nebuchad- 
nezzar's image. Some of them have the iron predominating, in others the clay, 
and in all more or less mixed. All these empires and all their divisions were 
national religion and state soverignties, or state church nationalities. 

Y. Blasphemous Titles. (Continued from Chap. 129, § 4.) — We have con- 
sidered the titles on the Greek head,''' and shall add only two more — Invincible 
Augustus^ and Divine Theodosius. ^ Theodosius I., or the Great, conferred the 
title of Augustus on the occupants of the thrones of Rome and Constantinople, ^ 
and both were equally entitled to all the honors and prerogatives of a Christian 
empire. 2 The Frank head wore the titles: Most Christian King; Eldest Son of 
the Church; The Lord's Anointed; Most Pious Augustus, Crowned of God.^ 
And these titles passed to the German head by the pope, who had conferred them 
on the Frank. The Saracen head wore the titles: Lieutenant ot the Commander 
of the Faithful; Lieutenant of the Yicar of the Apostle, or Prophet, of God.^ 
In addition to these, the Turkish head wore the titles: Commander of the 
Faithful; Shadow of God; A God on Earth; Brother of the Sun and Moon; 
Disposer of all Earthly Crowns. ^ The Russians have borrowed from the Greeks 
the greatest part of their civil and ecclesiastical polity. ® The czar takes the title, 
Autocrator of All the Russias — that is, self-ruler, sole ruler, or uncontrollable 
ruler. The full title is of considerable length. Peter the Great declared himself 
the head of the church and preserved the subordinations of metropolitan arch- 
bishops and bishops. '^ The titles, Exalted Master and August Master, are ascribed 
to him. My August Master sees himself compelled, to his great regret, to have 
recourse to the force of arms. My Exalted Master has resolved to undertake 
alone what he had invited the great powers to do in common with him. ^ The 
title. Head of the Church, is a title of presumptuous blasphemy, whether worn 
by a civil or ecclesiastical personage, and is a usurpation of a prerogative of 
Christ, who alone is the head ; and the church that acknowledges any other head 
is an adulteress. All these heads have sought to occupy the throne of Caesar and 
wear his name. The Russian Csesar has not yet consummated his designs, and 
may assume greater titles yet and the throne of the Greek Csesars. 

8. Blasphemes with the Mouth Given to Him. — We have taken the speech 
of Rab-Shakeh and letter of Sennacherib,^ of the third head of the Red Dragon, 
for a sample of what inspiration calls blaspheming God by civil potentates. 
1. Disparages the strength of the people. 2. Boasts of his own power over 
kings and their gods. 3. Impeaches with impiety because they rejected the 
innovations and corruptions introduced by man into the religion of Jehovah. 
4. Asserts a commission from Jehovah to destroy the capital and temple of their 
religion. 5. Insinuates the impotency of Jehovah to save them, and that He is 
not superior to the gods destroyed by the mighty kings of Assyria. 6. Demands 
unconditional surrender and subjugation. These sayings, impeachments, insinu- 
ations, and demands are called reproaching and blaspheming the Living God, 
and rage against. ^ We can not form conceptions of anything about the Deity, 
excepting of those attributes which are imperfectly exhibited in His servants; 
and those who hate, blaspheme, or persecute His servants on account of these 
attributes of truth, holiness, and fidelity, or for obedience, fear, and love which 
recognize His authority, greatness, and excellency, hate, blaspheme, and perse- 
cute God Himself. Hence, whatever is done to one of Christ's disciples is done 
to Him.^ He that receiveth you receiveth Me; and he that receiveth Me 
receiveth Him that sent Me. ^ If the world hate you, ye know it hateth Me 
before you. ^ ^ ^ I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth 
you. * -^ * If they have persecuted Me they will persecute you also. ^ ^ ^ 



{1\ Chap. 129, § 4. (8) Gbn. 1 :34; 463. (9) 464. (1) 28; .^86 (2) 17; 212. (8) Chap. 143, 
§§ 1, 2. (4) Chap, 141, § 6. (5) 144, §§ 4, 5. (6) Gbn. 2:9; 158, (7) Guth. 2:242-3. (8) Chgo. 
Trib,, April 18, 1877. (9) Chap. 129, §4. II. Kings 18:11-35. 19:9-19. (1) Isa. 36:3-22. 37:3, 4, 
6, 17, 24, 28, 29. (2) Matt. 25:40, 45. (3) 10:40-2. 



764 The KtNGiDoM of Qoh r)£VEL0J*ED. 

He that hateth Me, hateth My Father also.* Hence, to blaspheme or persecute 
a disciple exhibiting the true Christian character, or a church maintaining the 
primitive purity and simplicity of the Gospel, is to blaspheme or persecute the 
tabernacle of God, its ligitimate members or inmates, and the Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost. 

In tracing out a parallel between the blasphemy of the third head of the 
Dragon and the blasphemies out of the mouths of the different heads of the 
Monotheistic beast, we ought to have a copy of the Theodosian code and of all 
imperial edicts. This I hav^e not. " But we know when an emperor or any civil 
ruler persecuted saint or ruler, it was in enforcing the decision, or decree, of some 
council, pope, or caliph, and the objects of persecution had always been anath- 
ematized by these usurpers of divine authority. This anathema he endorsed, 
issued his edicts, and executed the decree of these ecclesiastics. This blaspheming 
mouth was not natural, but was given to him and he used it. 1. He disparages 
them as heretics, or schismatics, and not Catholics. 2. Boasts his own power as 
civil sovereign to defeat and punish them. Who is able to make war with the 
beast? Their destruction is sure! He has vanquished the nations and their 
gods from the Atlantic to the Gangees and from the north sea to the southern 
ocean. 3. He impeaches them with impiety in rejecting the innovations and cor- 
ruptions and usurpations of councils, popes, and caliphs. 4. He asserts he is 
commissioned by God to destroy cities, provinces, churches, and heresy or 
schism. 5. He more than insinuates that God can not protect them, as they are 
anathematized by council, pope, or caliph; and their innocence and holiness 
can not deliver them. 6. He demands the unconditional surrender of their faith 
and practice, and their complete subjugation to councils, pope, or caliph. 

He has often destroyed the countries, cities, and churches of the saints — 
dispersed them by persecution as the Catholic empire did the Novatians and the 
Latin did the Donatists; he has expatriated them as the Greek empire did the 
Paulicians; he has reduced to oppressive tribute, exactions, and bondage, and 
he has wrecked, tortured, and slaughtered by millions. In every respect he has 
far surpassed the Assyrian blasphemer of the name of Jehovah. After a pre- 
amble filled with passion and reproach, Constantine absolutely prohibits the 
assemblies of the heretics and confiscates their public property to the use either 
of the revenue or of the Catholic church. The Montanists of Phrygia and the 
Novatians were some of these heretics. ^ Constantine humbly professed that he 
was the minister, not the judge, of the successors of the apostles who had been 
established as priests and as gods upon earth. ^ Roused by the growing import- 
ance of the Paulicians, the Greek emperors began to persecute them with the 
most sanguine severity, and under Christian forms and names they reacted the 
scenes of Galerius and Maximin. They were capitally punished, their books 
burnt, and those who secreted their books were put to death and their property 
confiscated.'^ Empress Theodora resolved to bring the Paulicians to the true 
faith or cut them all off, root and branch; some were crucified, some put to the 
sword, and some drowned in the sea. Thus, were one hundred thousand 
slaughtered, and their goods and estates were confiscated. The pope of Rome 
commends Theodora for the manly vigor she exerted, the Lord cooperating, 
against obstinate and incorrigible heretics. ^ 

The civil or military heads of the Saracens and Turks proclaim, like the 
Assyrian : We require you to testify that there is but one God, and that Mahomet 
is His apostle. If ye refuse this, consent to pay tribute and be under us forth- 
with ; otherwise, I shall bring men against you who love death better than you 
do the drinking of wine or eating hogs' flesh. Nor will I ever stir from you, if 
it please God, till I have destroyed those that fight for you, and have made slaves 



(4) John 15:18, 19, 23. (*) Gbn. 1:27; 875. (5) Gbn. 2:21; 265. (6) 20; 264. (7) Miner. 1:9; 
2, p. 573. (8) Idm , 574. 



CHAPTER CLI.: SECTION VIII. Y65 

of your wives and children. ^ Ye Christian dogs, you know your option : the 
Koran, the tribute, or the sword. We delight in war more than in peace ; we 
despise your pitiful alms, since we shall speedily be masters of your wealth, 
your families, and your persons, i This throws the blasphemy of Sennacherib 
into the shade. But the edict of Frederick (the only imperial edict in my posses- 
sion) surpasses the Mahometan lieutenants as far as the pope surpasses the 
caliphs in presumption and impiety. The care of the imperial government, com- 
mitted to us from Heaven and over which we preside, demands the material 
sword which is given to us, separately from the priesthood, against the enemies 
of the faith and the extirpation of heretical depravity, that we should pursue with 
judgment and justice those vipers and perfidious children who insult the Lord 
and his church as if they would tear out the very bowels of their mother. We 
will not suffer these wretches to live who infect the world by their seducing doc- 
trines, and who, being themselves corrupted, more grieviously taint the flock of 
the faithful. 

In a second edict, after comparing them to ravenous wolves, adders, ser- 
pents, etc., the emperor proceeds, since beside the loss of their immortal souls 
they expose their bodies to a cruel death, being prodigal of their own lives and 
fearless of destruction, which, by acknowledging the true faith, they might escape, 
and which is horrible to express, their survivors are not terrified by their 
example. Against such enemies to God and man we can not contain our indig- 
nation, nor refuse to punish them with the sword of just vengeance, but shall 
pursue them with the greater vigor, as they appear to spread wider the crime of 
their superstition to the most evident injury of the Christian faith and the church 
of Rome, which is adjudged to be the head of all churches. ^ 

These maledictions were the utterances of their own mouths, though dictated 
by council, caliph, or pope, and exceed anything blasphemous in the speech of 
E-abshakeh or letter of Sennacherib. But, if the mouth given to the beast be 
the council, caliph, or pope, whose decisions, commands, and denunciations were 
endorsed, sustained, and executed by him, these blasphemies are beyond any 
comparison. 

The relation between the first and second beasts, or the beast and false 
prophet, is like union of the soul and body of man, and the same speech or action 
may be attributed to either. And if the force and power of action and execution 
of this Monotheistic wild beast was in the civil sovereignty, the devising, 
framing, and uttering in regard to religion, was in councils, caliphs, and popes. 
Councils usurped the legislative and judicial authority of Jesus Christ; so did the 
pope; and the caliph rejected the authority of Christ and usurped the preroga- 
tives of the Living and True God. The name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit 
was most scandalously blasphemed, reproached, and disgraced by their decrees 
and anathemas, and the name of the Living God was equally so by the caliphs, 
and the civil and military sovereignty sustained their usurpations, sanctioned 
their speeches, and enforced their demands. 

According to Scripture manner of speaking, persons are guilty of what they 
cause to be done : Yet, in this your fathers have blasphemed Me, in that they 
have committed a trespass against Me. ^ And when they entered unto the heathen, 
they profaned My holy name ;^ -x- ^ * because thou hast given cause to the 
enemy to blaspheme ; ^ * -^^ -J^- for the name of God is blasphemed among the gen- 
tiles through you as it is written. ^ In reproaching the hope and piety of God's 
people, when under afifl^iction and persecution, the heathen blasphemed Jehovah; 
in like manner did civil and ecclesiastic rulers blaspheme the hope and piety of 
Christ's witnesses. But councils caused the name of Father, Son, and Holy 
Spirit to be blasphemed, when in the name of the Holy Trinity they disputed, 
decreed, and acted like murderers and banditti. ^ When the caliphs decree and 



(9) Gbn. 2:12; 231. (1) Idm. 227. (2) Dowl., p. 305. (3) Ezek. 20:27. (4) 36:20, 23. (5) II. 
Sam. 12:14. (6) Rom. 2:24. (7) Chap. 136. 



^66 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

authorize deeds of licentiousness, cruelty, and impiety, in the name of the One 
Living and True God, promise their followers a Paradise of lasciviousness, and 
endorse Mahomet's blasphemous assumptions and legends; they blaspheme and 
cause to be blasphemed the name of God. ^ The popes themselves, at the head 
of their councils, blasphemed the name of God by persecuting, anathematizing, 
slandering, and vilUfying the witnesses for Christ who reflected the attributes of 
God and proclaimed His truths, and by the most impious assumptions, scan- 
dalous conduct, and outrageous invectives and other outlandish bulls. ^ 

9. This Monotheistic Empire Not the Kingdom of God. — Though the pious 
Jew or Christian might rejoice in the overthrow of Polytheism and the triumph 
of Monotheism over such a vast region of the world, yet they can not recognize 
this great seven headed and ten horned empire as the consummated kingdom of 
God, nor these imperial or sovereign heads as the Lord's anointed ; nor can they 
recognize the state and condition of this Monotheistic domain as the Hope of 
Israel and joint inheritance of the children of God. These imperial heads are 
usurpers of Christ's prerogatives, and the titles they wear are presumptuous 
blasphemies. Those originating or animating ecclesiastics are the two horns of 
the false prophet, and we must wait till the sounding of the seventh trumpet 
before the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of the Jehovah and of 
his Christ. When the dragon transferred his power and authority to this beast, 
he commissioned him to carry on his war with the seed of the woman and suc- 
cessfully persecute the saints, which work the beast has done and is doing, and 
his power has even now, A. D. 1500, extended over all Monotheistic nations, 
and is still extending as fast and as far as the knowledge of the True God and His 
revealed will extends. But, his time to continue his tyrannizing over the saints 
is limited to twelve hundred and sixty years from the time his wounded head was 
healed, and he must perish by the sword on the field of Armageddon and be'cast 
into the fire. 

The pious frauds of the second wild beast are so notorious on the page of 
history we need not refer to them now. Though Mahomet never pretended to 
work miracles, his followers claim them for him and have practiced pious frauds; 
but the Catholics have practiced them extensively ever since the fourth century, 
as we have seen in every century. This false prophet shall lose his Mahometan 
and papal horns, an^d his body shall accompany that of the first beast into the lake 
of fire. But we are not done with the history of these wild beasts. The Greek 
fire was kept secret by the Greeks four hundred years, and the terror of the 
enemy was increased and prolonged by their ignorance and surprise ; and the 
Greeks told other nations that it had been revealed by an angel, with a sacred 
injunction that this gift of Heaven and peculiar blessing of the Romans should 
never be communicated to the nations. At length it was discovered or stolen by 
the Mahometans, and was used by them in the crusades. ^ If the people believed 
it had been revealed by an angel, they might regard it as fire brought down from 
Heaven by the divine hierarchy, and it was a terrible sight to see and death to 
feel. It flew through the air like winged longtailed dragons, with the report of 
thunder and velocity of lightning. ^ 



(8) Chap. 139. (9) Chap. 153. (1) Gbn. 2:13; 251-2. 



CHAPTER CLIL 



THE TRUE CHURCH AND HER HELPERS. A. M. 5050-5500. 

(Continued from Chap. 146.) 

1. Paulicians in the West. — It is difficult to fix the time when the Paulicians 
began to take refuge in Europe; but a number of them settled in Lombard, 
Isaubria, and principally at Milan, about the middle of the eleventh century, and 
many of them led a wandering life in Germany, France, and other countries, 
where they captivated the esteem and admiration of the multitude, and they were 
called by different names. ^ Their first religious assembly in western Europe was 
discovered at Orleans, A. D. 1017, headed by a lady. Its principal members 
were twelve canons of the Cathedral of Orleans, distinguished by their piety and 
learning, and it was composed in general of a number of citizens in the better 
conditions of life. It was discovered by Priest Heribert and a Norman noble, 
Arifestus, and a council was called to convert them ; but this pernicious sect, 
adhered obstinately to their principles, and were condemned to be burnt alive. ^ 
Such is the testimony of their enemies, who received from the Red Dragon 
authority to slander as well as to murder. Mosheim thinks these were not Paul- 
icians, but a sect of Mystics, who rejected all external worship, rites, and ceremonies, 
and placed the whole of religion in the internal contemplation of God and the 
elevation of the soul to divine and celestial things. A vast number of such persons 
proceeded out of Italy and inundated the provinces of Europe. 

Another branch of these, not impeached with the same crimes, were converted 
by Gerhard, bishop of Cambray and Arras, A. D. 1030. This branch was reckoned 
honest and free from crime, because they were ignorant and docile and submitted 
to be converted by the Catholics. They confessed they had received their doc- 
trines from Gundufi*, a chimerical Italian. The tenets confessed by them are 
reduced to sixteen heads. ^ They rejected baptism, and in a special manner the 
baptism of infants and the Lord's supper, as ceremonies in no respect essential to 
salvation. They denied the churches to be more sacred than common dwellings ; 
regarded the altars as heaps of stones unworthy of veneration ; condemned incense 
and consecrating oil and the use of bells in churches; denied the divine institution 
and necessity of bishops, presbyters, and deacons; denied the power of masses, 
self-mortification, and alms to be of any advantage to departed spirits, and treated 
purgatory as a fable. They affirmed the institution of funeral rites and the burying 
in churches to be the effects of sacradotal avarice, and penance to be unprofitable 
and absurd; condemned marriage; granted a certain veneration for the apostles 
and martyrs; condemned instrumental music in religious assemblies; refused to 
venerate the cross; condemned images, and condemned the distinction of ranks 
and grades of subordination among the clergy."^ 

From this account it appears more plausible to regard these different societies 
and individuals as so many reformers and reformations, more or less perfect, 
originating in knowledge obtained from the Scriptures by reading or hearing. 



(2) Mosh. 11:2; 5, § 2. (8) Mosh. 11:2; 5, § 2. (4) Idm., §§3, 4. (*) Mosh. 11:2; 5, §§ 3, 4. 



768 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

than SO many branches of the Paulicians ; but it might better suit the interests of 
the corrupt empire church to attribute them to the Paulician emigrants than 
acknowledge them to be the offsprings of the Scriptures. Lutard, in tiie eleventh 
century, opposed and broke in pieces the images and declaimed against tithes to 
the priests, but is charged with impugning the truth of the prophecies of the Old 
Testament and claiming inspiration for himself, and of drowning himself in a 
well. ^ All this may be true, and part may be false ; but, perhaps the clergy 
threw him into the well and then charged him with error and suicide. However, 
the fact stands, supported by the testimony of empire Christians themselves, that 
some persons witnessed against the corruptions and falsehoods of the state church 
and were condemned to death by the bishops and councils for their testimony. 

In the eleventh century Berenger condemned the doctrine of transubstantia- 
tion. He was condemned, dissembled, taught his doctrines again, and dissembled 
again ; was condemned again, abandoned his worldly concerns, retired to the Isle 
of Cosme, repented of his dissimulatings, and died in exile, A. D. 1088.^ But, 
enough for the present. If we can not iind the true church we can find reformers 
deriving their faith and practice from the Scriptures, and suffering for their testi- 
mony. I can not determine whether they are free from error or not, for I have 
not access to the original testimony and can not decide on its internal evidence; 
but Mosheim, who had access to the original documents, says : It is difficult to 
determine the character of these people, for when we examine matters attentively 
we find their enemies acknowledge the sincerity of their piety; that they are 
blackened by accusations that are evidently false, and the opinions for which they 
were punished differ widely from the Manichean system. 

When we consider the corrupt state of religion in this century, and particu- 
larly the superstitious notions generally adopted in relation to outward ceremonies, 
the efficacy of penance, and the sanctity of churches, relics, and images, it will 
not appear surprising that many persons of good sense and solid piety, in running 
from one extreme to another, fell into the opinions of these Mystics."^ We must 
remember what we are told in the divine programme, that one of the names of 
the Old Serpent is Diabolis, Slanderer, or Traducer. When he gave his throne 
and authority to the first beast he gave him this authority also, and when the 
second beast exercised all the authority of the first he did not neglect this right. 
When the empire clergy adopted the two maxims of pious frauds and death to 
heretics, they adopted two of the distinguishing characteristics of Satan, who was 
a murderer from the beginning and the author of lying. 

2. Difficulty in Distinguishing Between the Woman and Her Seed. — 
In looking after the two witnesses, the seed of the woman and the woman herself, 
we find it difficult to distinguish between them, for they are designated in history 
by the same appellations. It is difficult to tell whether reformers originated by 
a study of the Scriptures or by contact with the true churches of Christ. It is 
difficult to determine whether religious societies, stigmatized as heretics, were the 
offspring of reformations or branches of the true churches that had kept themselves 
pure and entire since the time of the apostles. It is also difficult to determine 
whether heretics, properly so called, were the remnants or offshoots of former 
heresies or a defective effort at reformation. The same terms being applied to 
all classes of protestants against the corrupt empire churches furnished an oppor- 
tunity to brand all of them with the errors and crimes of a few, and to accredit 
the pernicious with the truths and virtues of the genuine Christians. From the 
times of the apostles, corrupters and perverters of the Gospel have existed, who 
have brought disgrace upon Christianity and furnished the adversaries a pretext 
for slandering the truth of God. 

We cannot use history in determining the genuine faith and practice of prim- 
itive Christianity. Reformers have gone different lengths in reformation, 



(5) Mosh. 10:2: 5, § 3. (6) Mosh. 11:2; 3, §§ 13-18. (7) 5, §§ 3, 4. 



CHAPTER CLII. : SECTION III. 769 

rejecting and retaining more or less errors and perversions, and yet they were 
earnest, honest, and devoted witnesses ; and this witness-bearing clothed them in 
sackcloth for slaughtered brethren, and subjected themselves to loss, suffering, 
and death. And churches can boast of an uninterrupted descent from the time 
of the apostles, which have corrupted and perverted all the teachings, laws, and 
institutions of the kingdom of God. Everything must first be measured and 
determined by the Scriptures themselves, and then every church or society, 
whether originating in reformation or claiming direct apostolic origin, must be 
measured by the same divine standard. The name of the Paulicians, who origi- 
nated in reformation, was given to various societies of witnesses against the empire 
churches, or they became dispersed over the empires under various names. In 
Italy we find the Cathari and the Paterini, ^ and yet the term, Paterini, was 
given to all kinds of heretics;^ and the term, Cathari, was originally given to the 
Novatians, 1 and consequently designated apostolic churches and witnesses. The 
term Albigenses was applied to the Paulicians in France, and also to all heretics, ^ 

It is extremely probable that many persons of eminent piety and zeal for gen- 
uine Christianity were confounded, by the Greeks, with enthusiasts and ranked in 
the list of heretics merely on account of their opposing the vicious practices and 
insolent tyranny of the priests, and of their treating with derision that motly 
spectacle of superstition supported by public authority, or of the Christian char- 
acter. In Greece and all the eastern provinces this sort of men were distinguished 
by the general and invidious appellation of Massalians,' or Euchites — praying 
persons ; and the Latins comprehended all the adversaries of the Roman pontiff 
under the general terms of Waldenses and Albigenses. ^ 

3. Individual Witnesses or Keformers. — Among the Latins, the reign of 
superstition, the vices of the clergy, the luxury and indolence of the pontiffs and 
bishops, the encouragement of impiety by the traffic of indulgences increasing 
from day to day, several pious though weak-minded men, who had the cause of 
Christ and of His religion at heart, attempted a reformation to restore Chris- 
tianity to its primitive purity and luster. But their knowledge was not equal to 
their zeal, nor were their abilities in any proportion to the grandeur of the under- 
takings ; and, opposing the reigning abuses, they fell into others inconsistent 
with the Gospel. And some of them, by their extravagant enthusiasm, became 
a new dishonor to the Christian cause. ^ Among the more rational reformers 
was Peter De Bruys, A. D. 1110, in Languedoc and Provence, who labored for 
twenty years to reform the abuses and remove the superstitions that disfigured 
the beautiful simplicity of the Gospel, engaged in this cause a great number of 
followers, and was burnt at St. Giles (A. D. 1130) by an enraged populace set on 
by the enraged clergy, whose traffic was in danger from the enterprising spirit of 
this new reformer. ^ Another of these witnesses attempting to reform the super- 
stition of the times was a monk named Henry of Lausanne, in Switzerland. 
Banished from Mans, he labored successfully in Poitiers, Bourdeaux, and adjacent 
countries till he came to Toulouse, A. D. Il47, where he was opposed by St. 
Bernard. He was seized by a bishop and taken before Pope Eugenius III. in 
the council at Rheims, and ended his days in prison for preaching truths and 
attempting to reform the papal churches. ^ 

Another, named Tanqulinus, arose in. Brabant, A. D. 1115, and drew after 
him a numerous sect. He was accused of such enormous pretensions and crimes 
that Mosheim reckons them false charges, preferred because he inveighed against 
the clergy and their vices. He was assassinated in a cruel manner by an eccles- 
iastic. "^ The most successful of these reformers was Arnold of Brescia, in Italy. 
His reformation extended to church and state. He demanded a restoration of 
all political power and wealth of the clergy to the civil government, leaving the 

(8) Mosh. 11:2; 5, § 2. (9) 2, § 13. (1) 8:2; 5, §18. (2)11:2: 5,§2. (B) 12:2; 5, § 1. (4) 
Mosh. 12:2; 5, § 3. (5) Idm., § 7. (6) Idrn., § 8. (7) Mosh. 12:2; 5, § 9. 
-49 



7T0 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

clergy only ecclesiastical power and dependence on tiths and voluntary contri- 
butions. For ten years the popes trembled on their throne or fled from the city, 
and the government was changed ; hut Pope Adrian lY. cast an interdict on the 
city and deprived them of religious worship from Christmas to Easter. The peo- 
ple were terrified and submitted; Arnold was crucified and burnt to ashes, ^ or 
was burnt alive and his ashes cast into the Tiber. ^ 

The greatest of all these reformers was Peter Waldus. He was a merchant 
of Lyons and extremely zealous for the advancement of true piety and Christian 
knowledge. He procured a French translation of the four Gospels, from the 
Latin version, with other books of the Holy Scriptures and the most remarkable 
sentences of the ancient doctors. Having obtained a knowledge of genuine 
Christianity, he abandoned his mercantile business, distributed his riches among 
the poor, formed an association with other pious men who had adopted his senti- 
ments and turn of devotion, and began, A. D. 1180, to assume the quality of public 
teacher and to instruct the multitude in the doctrines and precepts of Christianity. 
The archbishop of Lyons and the other rulers of the church in that province 
opposed with vigor this new teacher in the exercise of his ministry; but in vain, 
for the genuine Christian faith and practice of the reformer and his adherents 
engaged all having any sense of true piety, and the number of his followers 
increased daily. Religious assemblies were formed in France and Lombardy, 
and propagated their sect throughout the other provinces of Europe with incred- 
ible rapidity and with such invincible fortitude that neither fire nor sword, nor 
the most cruel inventions of merciless persecutions could damp their zeal or 
entirely ruin their cause. ^ 

Beside these famous reformers, or witnesses prophecying in sackcloth, who 
drew multitudes from a corrupt and superstitious church, there were others of 
less notoriety. ^ Another of these witnesses for truths of Christ was Wicklifi", 
of England, A. D. 1360-87, whose conflict was principally with mendicant friars. 
For his teachings and declamations against the monks' scandalous conduct, the 
pontifical power, and other ecclesiastical abuses, he was tried in councils and his 
opinions were condemned. In the first council he was protected by the Duke 
of Lancaster and other peers; in the second, how he escaped is not known; but he 
died in peace. ^ John Hus and Jerome of Prague are the last we shall name of 
these sackcloth witnesses. Hus declared with vehemence against the vices of the 
clergy and the court of Rome. Such remonstrances had become very common 
and were generally approved by the wise and good. He was summoned before 
the council of Constance; the safe conduct, granted by the Emperor Sigismond, 
was violated; he was cast into prison, declared a heretic, burnt to death A. D. 
1415, and closed his life triumphing in the flames. Jerome of Prague, having 
accompanied Hus to support him in the council, first yielded to the council 
through fear, then rallied, and expired in the fiames A. D. 1416.'* 

4. Seed of the Woman, or Reformed Churches. — How many witnesses of 
Christ testified and suffered for the truth we can not tell, but they were myriads. 
We do not say they were perfect, nor that all who suffered for their principles 
and practices were witnesses for truth and righteousness ; but these facts show 
that Christ had always witnesses — and never less than two — who, without 
authority from the princes or prelates, poured the golden oil into the lamps of 
the kingdom of God and kept the lamp shining around them. And for this 
testimony they suffered those afiiictions which induced men in Scripture lands to 
put on sackcloth. These witnesses left many followers who, begotten by the 
Word and Spirit of God, are the legitimate seed of the woman ; and with these 
the Red Dragon, in his commissioned successors, waged a perpetual war. In the 
council at Constance the five horns of the Latin empire were recognized and fully 
represented by thirty commissioned delegates, with the Emperor Sigismond at 

(8)Mosh.,§10. (9) Gbn. 2:29; 465-6, (1) Mo^b, 12;2; 5, §§ 11-13. (2) Idm., §§ 14, 15, (3) 
14:2; 2, §§19, 20. (4)14:2; 2, §§ 5-7. 



CHAPTER CLII.: SECTION V. 771 

their head. And they fully identified themselves with the first beast by burning 
John Huss, Jerome of Prague, and the bones of Wickliff, and condemning their 
teachings of truth. And any one in the Moslem empire witnessing against 
Mahometanism, as they did against popery, would sufter death in the Mogul, 
Persian, and Ottoman monarchies, in Arabia and North Africa. 

The numerous sects of reformers scattered over the countries under difibrent 
names, and having made difi^erent advances in reformation, different sects of false 
teachers and societies scattered and dispersed among them, and all designated 
or comprehended under the same titles, names, and epithets, make it difficult to 
distinguish and identify the woman herself, or the true apostolic churches. We 
have Hussites, Wicklifites, Waldenses, Henrichians, Arnoldists, Berengarians, 
Albigensiens, Paulicians, Paterini, and Catherini. Some of these names were 
applied to the true apostolic churches in the wilderness, but most of them desig- 
nate reformed churches which were the legitimate seed of the woman. The Albi- 
genses, slaughtered by myriads in France, are reckoned by Gibbon ^ and others 
as a branch of the Paulicians. Milner^ and others reckon them a branch of the 
Waldenses; others consider them a sect of reformers.'' But, it appears they 
migrated to France from some place not known ; so, they may be apostolic 
churches, or they may be only reformers. The name, Cathari, was given to the 
Paulicians in Italy and also to the Novatians, etc. ^ 

5. The Woman Herself. — In A. D. 1140, Evervinus, in writing to St, 
Bernard, complains of the heretics of Cologne, Germany, who are placed by his- 
torians under the name of Cathari ; and though he calls them the messengers of 
Satan, the character he gives them is that of genuine Christianity and unyielding 
firmness, rejoicing in the flames, with some among them who apostatized under 
persecution. They claimed to be the true church of Christ ; to be scattered almost 
everywhere; that many of the monks and Catholic clergy were among them ; that 
they had been concealed from the time of the martyrs, and had existed in Greece 
and other countries. ^ The time of the martyrs was the time of the heathen per- 
secutions before the time of, Constantine. Bernard gives them both a good and a 
bad character, though he expresses himself as knowing but very little about the 
manners of the sect, i According to this testimony, the Cathari were scattered 
everywhere — were and had been in Greece, had descended from the time of the 
heathen persecutions, and claimed to be the true churches of Jesus Christ — and the 
testimony of Evervinus sustains their claim; and the Albigenses may have been 
of the same fraternity. But the fact of their apostolic descent does not prove that 
they did not fraternize with and receive accessions from reformations on and from 
the empire church, while the testimony of Evervinus shows they did have among 
them some of the papal monks and clergy. Bernard may have slandered them, 
or he may have attributed to them the character of other sects, not knowing the 
difference. 

Under the name of Paterines, Dr. Allix says: We have found a body of men 
in Italy before A. D. 1026, who believed contrary to the opinions of the church, 
and who highly condemned its errors. Atto, bishop of Yerceuli, had complained 
of such people eighty years before, and so had others before him; and there is the 
highest reason to believe that they had always existed in Italy. These, noticed 
A. D. 1026, were brought to light by accident. ^ Now, eighty years before A. D. 
1026 would be A. D. 942, and before the migration of the Paulicians into Italy, 
which was in the eleventh century. ^ Under the name of Waldenses, Reinerius 
Saccho, the inquisitor, admits that they flourished five hundred years before Peter 
Waldo, A. D. 1160, which takes us back to A. D. 660, and shows them to have 
been in Europe when the first Paulicians appeared in Asia. ^ In A. D. 553 nine 



(5) Gbn. 2:15; 285. (6) Miner., Vol. II. Cen. 13; chap. 4. p. 63, note f. (7) Encp. R. K., Alhi- 
genses. (8) Chap. 152, § 1. (9) Jones, pp. 277-8. Miner., Vol. II., pp. 20-1. (1) Jones, pp. 227-8, 
(2) Idm. 283. (3) Mosh. 11:2; 2, § 13, note B., and chap. 5, § 2. (4) Mosh. 7;2, ^, § 1, 



772 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

bishops of Italy and Switzerland openly refused communion with the bishop of' 
Rome, and the churches under their care persisted in their dissent. ^ Archbishop 
Claudius Syssel charged one Leo with originating the Waldenses in the valleys in 
the days of Constantine the Great, A. D. 331.^ Here we see that ancient apos- 
tolic churches were called by the name of recent reformers — Waldenses, after- 
Peter Waldo — and so, by the name of Paulicians may have been designated many 
apostolic churches in Asia. If we believe the testimony of the martyred Waldenses 
themselves, their doctrine and discipline had been preserved in all its purity and, 
efficacy from the days of the primitive martyrs in Spain, France, Germany, Italy, 
and especially in the valleys of Piedmont. Their persecutors allow that they had 
been transmitted in Gaul from generation to generation almost from the origin of' 
Christianity. 

Reinerius, of A. D. 1250, says : Of all the sects which have been, or now 
exist, none is more injurious to the church than the Waldenses, for three reasons : 
1. It is more ancient ; some aver their existence from the time of Sylvester, A. D. 
330, and others from the very time of the apostles. ^ 2. Because it is so universal ;. 
there is scarcely any country into which this sect has not crept. 3. Because all 
other heretics excite horror by the greatness of their blasphemies against God, 
but these have a great appearance of piety, they live justly before men, believe 
rightly all things before God, and confess all the articles contained in the creed ;, 
only they hate and revile the church of Rome, and in their accusations are easily 
believed by the people. ^ 

Hence, it is evident we have a succession of genuine Christian churches from; 
apostolic times till the time of Evervinus, A. D. 1140, and of Reinerius Sacco, 
A. D. 1254, and these enemies say that the Waldenses claimed succession from 
and to the apostles. Thus, we find the Novatians, A. D. 250-575, who were 
scattered all over the Roman empire, and the Cathari, Paterani, or Waldenses, 
in Italy, France, and Germany, A. D. 553-1254. Again, we have the Donatists 
in Africa, A. D. 314r-900 ; the Paulicians, a name of reformers but most probably 
embracing many apostolic churches, in Asia, A. D. 653-900, and scattered over 
parts of Europe, A. D. 900-1017, when they were embraced in the more common 
or local appellations. The Catholic monks and clergy among them were undoubt- 
edly such men as Claude of Turin and Henry of Lausane. No doubt but some 
of these reformers got their first hints of reformation from these churches, and 
as general intelligence increased among the Catholic clergy such reformers as 
Wickliff and Hus extended an influence among them,[and, blending with reformers, 
gave the appearance of diversity in teachings and practice, and being compre- 
hended in terms applied to all opposers of the empire churches they were liable 
to be impeached with errors, fanaticisms, and malpractices of others. That they 
were true churches of Christ, in the estimation of the Protestants of the present 
day, is evident from the fact that the different denominations have tried to claim 
them for brethren and the advocates of their peculiar tenets. ^ 

As the testimony of Evervinus bears all the evidence of truth and sincerity, 
while he regards them as children of the devil, because opposed to the papal 
church, we shall transcribe his testimony as given by Milneri^ 

Evervinus, of Steinfield, wrote to Bernard a little before A. D. 1140 : There 
have been lately some heretics discovered among us near Cologne. * * * 
Having been admonished for three days to repent, they were seized by the people 
in the excess of zeal and burnt to death; and what is very amazing, they came to 
the stake and bore the pain not only with patience but even with joy. Were I 
with you, father, I should be glad to ask you how these members of Satan could 
persist in their heresy with such courage and constancy as is scarcely to be found 
in the most religious believers of Christianity. Their heresy is this : They say 



(5) Jones, p. 249. (6) Orch., d 256. (7) Mosh. 12:2; 5, § 11, note G.; McLain. (8) Encp. R. K., 
and others. (9) Jones, pp. 818-58. Orch., pp. 295-t319. Ben., pp. 56-9, and others,, (1) Miner. ^ 

ygi.ii., p. 21. 



CHAPTER CLII. ! SECTION VI. 773 

the cliurch is only among themselves, because they alone of all men follow the 
steps of Christ and imitate the apostles, not seeking secular gains, possessing no 
property, following Christ, who was Himself perfectly poor and did not allow 
His disciples to possess anything. Ye, say they to us, join house to house, and 
field to field, seeking the things of this world, so that even those who are looked 
on as most perfect among you, namely, those of the monastic orders, though they 
have no private property, but have a community of possessions, do yet possess 
these things. Their own condition in the world they represent in such terms as 
these : We, the poor of Christ, who have no certain abode, fleeing from one city 
to another like sheep in the midst of wolves, do endure persecution with the 
apostles and martyrs, though our lives are strict, abstemious, laborious, devout, 
and holy, and though we seek only what is necessary for the support of the body, 
and live as men who are not of the world. But ye, lovers of the world, have 
peace with the world because ye are of it. False apostles, who adulterate the 
word of Christ, seeking their own, have misled you and your ancestors, whereas 
we and our fathers, being born and bred up in the apostolical religion, have con- 
tinued in the grace of Christ, and shall continue so to the end of the world. By 
their fruits ye shall know them, saith Christ, and our fruits are the footsteps of 
Christ. The apostolical dignity, say they, is corrupted by engaging itself in 
secular afiairs, while it sits in the chair of Peter. They do not believe infant 
baptism to be a duty, alleging that passage of the Gospel : Whosoever shall believe 
and be baptized shall be saved. They put no confidence in the intercession of 
saints, and all things observed in the church, which have not been established by 
Christ Himself or His apostles, they call superstitious. They do not admit of any 
purgatory after death, but afiirm that as soon as the souls depart out of the bodies 
they enter into rest or punishment, ^ ^ ^ whence they make void all the 
prayers and oblations of believers for the deceased. Those of them who returned 
to our church told us that great numbers of their persuasion were scattered almost 
everywhere, and that among them were many of our clergy and monks. ^ 

This testimony, coming from an enemy inquiring into the mystery of their 
suffering with fortitude, can not be regarded as a misrepresentation, or a calumny 
to excite indignation, nor as a commendation to incite favor to them. He regards 
them as monsters and children of Satan because they opposed the papal church, 
but states the facts to a superior, and desires a solution of the mystery. 

The churches of Wales claim to have existed from apostolic times as discon- 
nected with popery, witnesses against it, and persecuted by it, and their claim 
appears to be valid in the judgment of protestants, who try to prove the faith 
and practice of the Welsh churches, before the Lutheran reformation, to be the 
same as their own. ^ We have now found the servants of Jesus Christ under the 
three classes given in the divine programme : Individual witnesses for the law 
and testimony, who testify in sackcloth; the seed of the woman, or churches of 
reformers, with whom the Red Dragon delegates waged continual war on account 
of their testimony and obedience ; and the woman herself has been discovered 
in the wilderness, where she has been nourished, and her lineage has been traced 
back to the Novatians and claimed to the time of the apostles. She still exists, 
but only in secluded places unknown to princes and prelates can she be nour- 
ished. All sorts of people have repeatedly endeavored to root her out, but in 
vain ; for even yet, contrary to the opinion of all men, they still remain con- 
querors, or, at least invincible, says Claudius Seisselius, archbishop of Turin, 
A. D. 1480.3 

6. Persecution of the Woman and Her Seed. — From the outrageous attack, 
A. D. 1400, until about A. D. 1487, the Waldenses of Piedmont appear to have 
remained in a great measure unmolested in the profession of their religion.* 
The Fraisiniere, Argentiere, and Loyse seem to have abounded with Waldenses in 



(1) Miner., Vol. II., p. 21. (2) Ben. 343-51. (3) Orch. 278. Jones 346. (4) 433. 



.\ 



774 THU KINGDOM OV GOD DEVELOPED. 

A. D. 1460, when a monk, with inquisitorial power, was sent to drive them from 
the neighborhood, and scarcely any person escaped being apprehended as here- 
tics or their abettors. 

In A. D. 1484, Pope Innocent YIII. issued his bulls for the extirpation of 
the Waldenses, called, the Poor of Lyons, and appointed officers to carry the 
same into effect. An army was raised by Albert, the pope's legate, and marched 
into the valley of Loyse, and more than three thousand men and women per- 
ished on this occasion. Measures equally ferocious were adopted against the 
inoffensive inhabitants of other valleys and with a like cruel success. So effectual 
were the papal measures that the inhabitants were wholly extirpated in the above 
named valleys, and these abodes were afterwards repeopled with new inhabitants. 
In A. D. 1487 scenes of barbarous cruelty awaited those long privileged people who 
inhabited other districts of Piedmont, and in the ensuing year, to complete the 
work of destruction, an army of eighteen thousand men marched into these 
sequestered parts. The Waldenses abandoned the non-resistance principles of 
their ancestors and brethren, defended the defiles of their mountains and repulsed 
the invaders, while the women and children on their knees entreated the Lord to 
spare and protect His people. The duke of Savoy no more employed his mili- 
tary force against them, but relinquished them to the inquisitors after heretics, 
who apprehended them, two and three at a time, as they came in or went out of 
the valleys. ^ The sanguinary and brutal conduct of the inquisitors and soldiers 
induced the Waldenses to avoid public worship, and some of them occasionally 
conformed to the communion of the pope. Thus, the heretics, or Waldenses, 
were destroyed or driven into obscurity, and the state of the papal church was 
unusually tranquil at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and the witnesses 
ceased to trouble the church. ^ 

The Paterines disappeared from Italy, A. D. 1260;"^ the Albigenses from 
France, also;^ and now the Waldenses, A. D. 1500. But their scattered mem- 
bers, hidden from princes and prelates, will still cohere in the wilderness; will 
attract kindred spirits ; will be nourished and appear again. They are not 
exterminated, but only dispersed, and will find one another in the wilderness, 
where crowned princes and prelates seldom go. ^ If the true churches of Christ 
had become extinct, or had triumphed over the Red Dragon or his successors, we 
would inquire into the time of their first and last, or the beginning and the ending 
of their flight into the wilderness. When we find the woman again in the wil- 
derness it may be difiicult to distinguish between her and her seed and the two 
witnesses, for all three are now (A. D. 1500) dispersed, and comprehended under 
and designated by various appellations. (We shall see more of the persecutions 
by which the woman and her seed were dispersed in the next chapter, 153, § 6. 
155:1, 2. Continued, chap. 159.) 



(5) Jones 438. (6) 432 38. Orch. 276-82. (7) Idm. 159. (8) 226. (9) 275-^. 



CHAPTER CLIIi; 



FOURTH SEAL CHARACTERISTICS. A. M. 5056-5652. (Continued 

from Chap. 145.) 

1. Moving Fokce and Energy Cokrupt. — Conversions were effected by 
force and fraud, as under the third seal. Boleslaus, duke of Poland, forced 
Christianity upon the Pomeranian pagans. Waldemar I. of Denmark unsheathed 
his sword, not only for the defense and happiness of his people, but also for the 
propagation and advancement of Christianity, and wherever his arms were suc- 
cessful, as against the Sclavonians, Yenedi, Yandals, and others, he pulled down 
the temples and images of the gods, destroyed their altars, laid waste their sacred 
groves, and substituted the Christian worship; and the pirates and robbers of 
the Rugen island were obliged to receive the Christian worship. The Finlanders, 
after many bloody battles, were totally defeated }fy Eric IX. of Sweden, and 
were forced to embrace the Christian religion, though they did it with reluctance. 
The propagation of the Gospel among the Livonians was attended with much 
difficulty and with horrible scenes of cruelty and bloodshed until, exhausted by 
the knight's swordbearers and legions from Germany, they abandoned the statues 
of their heathen deities and substituted the images of the saints; but, at the same 
time they were robbed of their lands and all earthly comforts, and the knights 
and bishops divided the spoil. 

Prester John established the ISestorian Christianity in Asiatic Tartary by 
conquest. The corruption and horrors of the crusades for possession of the holy 
places belong to this seal. These converts professed, with inward reluctance, a 
religion inculcated by violence and bloodshed, and which recalled to their remem- 
brance nothing but scenes of desolation and misery, and was but a few degrees 
removed from the absurdities of paganism. ^ The three military orders of 
knights, the conquest and pillage of Constantinople, and the abuse of citizens, 
captives, and women by the Latin Christian brethren, the sacrilegious robbery of 
the Greek churches, the profanation of ordinances in mockery, and the dancing 
of prostitutes in the churches of the captured Christian city, exhibit the corrupt 
character of the moving force and energy of the empire churches or state Chris- 
tianity, and the failure of the crusades was owing to the discords among the 
Christian leaders. ^ Had the Saracens been infected with the same odious spirit 
of persecution that possessed the crusaders, there would not have remained a 
single Christian in that part of the world. But, though these Unitarians were 
chargeable with various crimes, and had frequently treated the Trinitarians in a 
rigorous and injurious manner, yet they looked with horror upon the scenes of 
persecution which the Latins exhibited as the exploits of heroic piety, and con- 
sidered it as the highest and most atrocious cruelty and injustice to force unhappy 
men, by fire and sword, to abandon their religious principles, or put them to 
death merely because they refused to change their opinions. ^ 



(1) Mosh. 12:1; 1. (2) Gbn. 2:368-70. Mosh. 13:1; 1, §§ 3, 6. (3) Moah. 13:1; 2, § 1, 



776 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

In the fourteenth century Jagellon, duke of Lithuania, yielded up his super- 
stition to royalty, and obtained a queen and the crown of Poland, while the Teu- 
tonic knights and crusaders extirpated by fire and sword any remains of paganism 
in Prussia and Livonia. ^ The new subjects added to the kingdom of Christ in 
the fifteenth century are altogether unworthy of that sublime title, unless we 
prostitute it to those who made an external, though insincere, profession of Chris- 
tianity. The Jews in Spain were forced to profess Christianity or become ban- 
ished exiles; but the Saracens, or Moors, yielded not to the force of persecution. 
This corrupt religion was propagated by everj^ unchristian means of force and 
fraud in India, Ethiopia, Africa, and America. ^ Barbarous laws and inhuman 
tortures were used to force the natives into a profession of Christianity, which 
was an excessive veneration for their stupid instructors — certain gestures, the 
repetition of a little jargon, and the performance of a few superstitious rites and 
ceremonies. ^ The missionaries under the first seal suffered and died for the con- 
version of the heathen and Jews, but the missionaries under the fourth seal 
deceived, tortured, and slaughtered pagans, Mahometans, and Jews. 

2. Corruption Among the Clergy. — Wherever we turn our eyes among the 
various orders of the clergy in the twelfth century we perceive the most flagrant 
marks of licentiousness and fraud, ignorance and luxury, and other vices whose 
pernicious effects were deeply felt in both church and state. Excepting a very 
small number lamenting the degeneracy of the order, the rest were wholly busied 
to satisfy their lusts, to multiply their privileges, to grasp new honors and dis- 
tinctions, to increase their opulence and tyranny, to neglect entirely the interests 
of religion, to live in ease and pleasure, and to draw out their days in an unmanly 
and luxurious indolence. Bernard exposes the corruptions of the pontiffs and 
bishops, and describes the enormous crimes of the licentious monks. "^ Both the 
Greek and Latin writers of the thirteenth century, provoked beyond measure by 
the flagicious lives of their spiritual rulers and instructors, complain loudly of 
their licentious manners and load them with the severest reproaches ; and this 
accords with the history of this corrupt and superstitious age. Several eminent 
men attempted to stem this torrent of licentiousness which, from the heads of the 
church, had carried its pernicious streams through all the members; but their 
power and influence were unequal to the difficult and arduous enterprise. 

The history of the popes presents a lively and horrible picture of the com- 
plicated crimes that dishonored the ministers of the church. The clergy advanced 
to places of authority in the church, behaved rather like tyrants than rulers, 
and showed they aimed at an absolute and unlimited dominion. ^ The popes 
absolved both themselves and others from the obligation of an oath. Julius 11. 
bound himself under the penalty of perjury and anathema, from which he swore 
neither to absolve himself nor suffer any other to absolve him; but when elected 
pope he absolved himself. Popes make and violate oaths with impunity. ^ The 
secular clergy spent in mirth and jollity the opulence with which their ancestors 
enriched that sacred body. The monastic orders had, most all, degenerated and 
exhibited the most offensive and shocking examples of licentiousness and vice, 
and by their flagitious lives rendered the cause of heresy triumphant. ^ Those 
monastic orders who wallowed in opulence were lulled into a luxurious indo- 
lence, trampled upon the authority of their superiors, suffered heresy to 
triumph unrestrained, and abandoned themselves without shame or remorse to 
aU sorts of crime. ^ 

In the fourteenth century the governors of the church, from the highest to 
the lowest orders, were addicted to vices peculiarly dishonorable to their character. 
The Greek and Oriental clergy, who for the most part lived under a rigid, 
severe, and oppressive government, deserve their part in this severe and igno- 
minious charge. Among the Latins the flagrant abuses were attended with 



(4) Mosh. 14:1; 1, § 3. (5) 15:1; 1, §§ 1, 2. (6) 16, § 2. § 1. (7) 12:2; 2, § 1. (8) 13:2; 2, 
§§ 1, 2. (9) DowL, p. 429. (1) Mosh. 13:2; 2, § 18. (2) Tdm., 13:2; 2, § 21. 



CHAPTER CLIII. I SECTION III. 777 

consequences equally pernicious to the interests of religion and the well-being of 
civil society. The power of the popes, the excessive superstition that enslaved 
the minds of the generality, and the vrretched ignorance and barbarity of the age 
by which every spark of truth was stifled in its very birth, prevented the few pious 
and worthy men from effecting a reformation. ^ In this century the church had 
three heads thundering anathema against%ne another. The distress and calam- 
ities of these times are beyond description. By the perpetual contentions and 
wars between the factions multitudes lost their fortunes and lives, all sense of 
religion was extinguished in most places, profligacy rose to a most scandalous 
excess, the clergy were so excessively corrupt they no longer studied to keep up 
even an appearance of religious decency, and many believing that none could be 
saved unless united with the vicar of Christ were overwhelmed with doubt and 
plunged into the deepest distress of mind.^ 

The vices and scandalous conduct of the monks was too inveterate to admit 
of a cure. And such was the barbarous superstition of the age and wretched 
ignorance of the time that the people universally believed that they should obtain 
mercy from Christ at the day of judgment, if they appeared before His tribunal 
associated with the mendicant friars; and many made it an essential part of their 
last will to be buried in some Dominican or Franciscan rags. ^ In the fifteenth 
century the church was reduced, by the corruption of its ministers, to nothing less 
than its total ruin, unless Providence interposed by extraordinary means for its 
deliverance and preservation. The vices of the popes and all the clergy were so 
impious that the most eminent in the church, living in luxurious indolence and 
infamous practices of all kinds of vices, could hear with a placid countenance all 
declamations against the degeneracy of the church in its head and all its members, 
and demands on the secular arm and destroying sword to lop off the parts infected 
with this grevious and deplorable contagion. ^ 

• 3. The Doctrine of the Church was as Corrupt as the Clergy. — A mul- 
titude of causes united in obscuring the luster of the genuine Christianity and 
corrupting it by a profane mixture of the inventions of superstitious and designing 
men with its pure and sublime doctrines. It is surprising that the religion of 
Jesus was not totally extinguished. To maintain their authority the popes 
obliged the teachers to pervert the precepts of Christ to subserve papal dominion 
and tyranny. Such teachers as refused to force the words of Scripture into sig- 
nifications totally opposite to divine truth, and placed the authority of the Gospel 
above that of the popes and considered it the supreme rule of their conduct, were 
answered with fire and sword and received death in the most cruel forms. The 
priests and monks kept the people in the grossest ignorance and darkness, daz- 
zled their feeble eyes with the ludicrous pomp of gaudy worship, and led them 
to place the whole of religion in vain ceremonies, bodily austerities and exercises, 
and particularly in blind and stupid veneration for the clergy. The scholastic 
doctors, instead of explaining the doctrines of the Gospel, undermined them by 
degrees and sunk divine truths under the ruins ot a captious philosophy; while 
the mystics excluded reason entirely from religion and morality, and in a manner 
denied its very existence. 

Superstition and ignorance were substituted in the place of true religion and 
reigned over the multitude with a universal sway. Relics, mostly spurious, 
superseded the merits of Christ and were reckoned more effectual than prayers 
to God offered through the mediation of the Divine Redeemer. The opulent 
erected new temples or repaired and embelished old ones, and the poor did the 
drudgery of beasts in bearing burdens and drawing wagons to obtain eternal 
salvation. The saints had more worshipers than the Supreme Being and Savior 
of mankind, and the multitude ran after new oracles, dreams, and visions. This 
universal reign of ignorance and superstition was dexterously and basely improved 



(3) Mosh. 14:2; 2, § 1. (4) Idm., § 15. (5) 14:2; 2, § 17. (6) 15:2; 2, § 1. 



778 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED 

by the rulers of the church to fill their coffers and drain the pUrses of the deluded 
multitude. Penance were first imposed by the bishops, and then remitted for a 
sum of money. Abbots and monks carried about in processions the spurious 
carcasses and relics of saints, and sold at a fixed price the privilege of touching 
or embracing them; and the monks often gained by this raree-show as much as the 
bishops did by their indulgences. Ajt length the pope monopolized the sale of 
indulgences from the bishops and sold remission of all penalties for all sins, 
whether civil, ecclesiastical, or eternal. The doctrine was taught that some saints 
had more good works than necessary and these belonged to the church, and the 
popes, as guardians, sold these to those deficient in merit. " 

However numerous and deplorable the corruptions and superstitious abuses 
were that had reigned in the church and deformed the beautiful simplicity of the 
Gospel, they were increased in the thirteenth century, and the religion of Christ 
continued to suffer under the growing tyranny of fanaticism and superstition 
among the Orientals, Greeks, and Latins. The two popular maxims were: That 
man could perform a more perfect righteousness than God required, and the sur- 
plus made a stock for indulgences to be sold; and, that the whole of religion 
consisted in an external air of gravity and certain composed bodily gestures. The 
absurd and pernicious doctrines of transubstantiation and auricular confession 
were established by Pope Innocent III. ^ Another mode of obtaining salvation 
was by self-whipping, and societies of self-whippers were formed of men, women, 
and children, of all ranks and conditions. They ran in multitudes through cities, 
fields, and deserts, lashing severely their naked bodies with whips, filling the air 
with wild shrieks, and looking at the sky with an air of distraction, ferocity, and 
horror. The doctors propagated the most impious sentiments concerning the 
Supreme Being, the world, origin of the universe, and the nature of the soul. 
False definitions were given to terms to pervert Scripture and establish corrup- 
tion; piety and holiness consisted in giving to the church and obeying the pope, 
and justice in persecuting heretics. ^ 

In the fourteenth century the religion taught in the schools, or inculcated 
upon the people as a rule of conduct, was so extremely adulterated and deformed 
that not a single branch of Christian doctrine retained the least trace of its prim- 
itive luster and beauty. ^ In the fifteenth century the state of religion had become 
so corrupt among the Latins that it was utterly destitute of anything that could 
attract the esteem of the truly virtuous and judicious part of mankind; and 
among the Greeks and Orientals religion was scarcely any better. The worship 
of the Deity consisted in a round of frivolous and insipid ceremonies. The dis- 
courses were destitute of sense, judgment, spirit, piety, and devotion, and in 
reality were a motly mixture of the grossest fictions and the most extravagant 
inventions. This miserable state of things, this enormous perversion of religion 
and morality was observed and deplored by many wise and good men. ^ 

4. Rites and Ceremonies. — In the twelfth century rites and ceremonies 
were greatly augmented among the Greeks, and the same superstitious passion 
for new observances discovered itself in all the oriental churches, Nestorian and 
Jacobite. The veneration for the Virgin Mary was increased, and a festival was 
instituted in honor of the Immaculate Conception. ^ It would be endless to 
enumerate the additions made, in the thirteenth century, to the external parts 
of divine worship to increase its pomp and render it more striking. Religion 
had become a sort of a raree-show. Remarkable events in the Christian history 
were represented under allegorical figures and images or in mimic shows, which 
amused and affected the gazing populace, degraded religion, and exposed it to 
ridicule. The bread in the Lord's supper became an object of religious worship; 
its receptacles were adorned for the residence of God ; it was carried around in 
solemn pomp; it was administered to the sick; was honored with a festival.* 

' (7) Mosh. 12:2; 3, §§ 1-4. (8) 13:2; 3, §§ 1, 2. (9) §§3, 8, 11. (1) Mosh. 14:2; 3, § 1. (2) 
15:2; 3, § 12. (3) 12:2; 4, §§ 1, 2. (4) Mosh. 13:2; 5, §§ 1-3. 



CHAPTER OLIII. : SECTION V. 7?9 

In the fourteenth century was added the festivals sacred to the Lance, to 
the Nails, and to the Crown of Thorns. ^ In the fifteenth century, among the 
Greeks, the substance of religion was lost in ceremonies. A splendid shadow of 
pomp and vanity was substituted, and all branches of divine worship were 
ordered to strike the imaginations and captivate the senses of the multitude ; 
and the popes distinguished themselves by the addition of new festivals and 
rites. Thus, religion was reduced to mere show, composed of pompous absurd- 
ities and splendid trifles. ® 

The doctrine of transubstantiation gave rise to the impious pretentions of 
creating God, "^ and the audacious lies that accompanied the doctrine show the 
moving force and energy of the Catholic church to be corruption and blasphemy. 
The giving of indulgences was as flagicious and criminal as transubstantiation 
was presumptuous. The person was exempted from all penance, penalties, and 
future punishment for any sin of theft, ' adultery, and murder by securing an 
indulgence.^ Thus, those guilty and vicious had every encouragement to satiate 
their diabolical lusts and cruelties without the fear of punishment. An indul- 
gence would hire men to perpetrate any crime or cruelty, and by them the popes 
raised innumerable armies to perpetrate wholesale slaughters, outrage, and 
cruelties, and millions perished by them for the pope. Money could be raised 
for any object by granting security to the wicked from the punishment of crimes 
they had or wished to commit. With this money the pope could accomplish 
whatever he desired, and when an object was desired the flood-gates of vice were 
thrown open by indulgences. 

Auricular confession, enjoined once a year upon all, put the pope and priest- 
hood in possession of all the secrets of every individual, family and community, 
and enabled the pope to anticipate and defeat senators and kings, and plunder 
and extort treasures. It also put females in the entire power of their confessors 
and led to horrible disorders, seductions, adulteries, and abominations of every 
kind. 9 

5. The Guiding Intelligence was Death and Hades. — In the second seal 
the guiding intelligence gained his object by contention and the sword. In the 
third, by inexorable tyranny and the yoke. In the fourth, by death and hades. 
Death here, and purgatory and hell hereafter, were his ostensible means of 
success. He used both to consummate his purpose, and he exerted all his craft 
and power to impose these terrors upon all persons. These characteristics were 
necessarily given in the moving force and energy in the crusades against the 
Turks, and were named in the persecutions of the woman and her seed. 

In tracing these characteristics we must view the union and united action 
between the first and second beasts, and also the western little horn of DaniePs 
prophecy. This little horn has become too stout for his fellows, or other frag- 
ments or divisions of the western Roman empire ; wages war with the saints and 
overcomes them; wears them out; blasphemes God, perpetrating in His name 
the most scandalous crimes and diabolical cruelties ; blasphemes the work and 
fruits of the Holy Spirit among the saints, or heretics, and speaks great things, 
professing to deliver persons to death and hell or to absolve the penalty of death 
imposed for civil off*enses, and to give safe passports to Heaven for the greatest 
criminals. He pretends to have no more power to punish than a lamb's horn 
has, but he has the dragon's voice, and by it he exercises all the power of the first 
beast through an image of civil sovereignty, which he made and crowned, as did 
Mahomet. He pretends to abhor shedding blood, but commands that image of 
civil sovereignty to do this, and commands all Christians, Jews, Mahometans, 
and pagans to reverence and obey it. This little horn, at the head of the councils, 
makes war on the saints. 



(5) Mosh. 14:2; 4, § 2. (6) 15:2; 4. Dowl., 4:2; § 23, (8) 6:6, § 75, p. 440. (9) Dowl., bk, 5, 
chap. 10, §§ 92-3. 



780 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED, 

Besides the provincial councils, the general councils of Lateran, Constans, 
and Sienna, A. D. 1179-1514, excommunicated and condemned the heretics, 
commanded the civil powers to suppress them, and included their protectors and. 
defenders in the same curse, ^ and the popes fulminated these decrees — Alexander 
III., Innocent III., Martin, and others. Innocent says: We excommunicate and 
anathematize every heresy extolling itself against this holy, orthodox, and Catholic 
faith, which we before expounded; condemning all heretics, by whatsoever name 
called; and being condemned, let them be left to the secular power, or their 
bailiffs, to be punished by due animadversion. And let the secular powers be 
warned and induced, and, if need be, condemned by ecclesiastical censure, what- 
soever office they are in, that as they desire to be reputed and taken for believers, 
so they publicly take an oath for the defense of the faith, that they will study in 
good earnest to exterminate to their utmost power from the lands subject to their 
jurisdiction all heretics denoted by the church, so that every one that is hence- 
forth taken into any power, either spiritual or temporal, shall be bound to conform 
to this chapter by oath. But if the temporal lord -^ * ^ neglect to purge 
his territory of this heretical filth, let him be tied by the bond of excommunica- 
tion ; and if he scorn to satisfy within a year, let that be signified to the pope, 
that he may denounce his vassals thenceforth absolved from his fidelity, and may 
expose his country to be seized on by Catholics, who, the heretics being excom- 
municated, may possess it without any contradiction, etc.; and the Catholics that, 
taking the badge of the cross, shall gird themselves for the exterminating of her- 
etics, shall enjoy that indulgence and be fortified with that holy privilege granted 
to them that go to the Holy Land. * * * And we decree to subject to excom- 
munication the believers and receivers, defenders and favorers of heretics, firmly 
ordaining that when any such person is noted by excommunication, if he disdain 
to satisfy within a year, let him be made infamous by the law itself. ^ 

Thus, we see it is the papal horn itself that makes war on the saints, and 
galvanizes the political image into action by anathemas, interdicts, absolving 
oaths of allegiance, deposing princes, and transferring property to others. Yet it 
is a hypocrite and pretends it has only a lamb's horn. Pope Alexander III. says: 
Although ecclesiastical discipline, content with the sacredotal judgment does not 
exact bloody vengeance, yet it is asserted by the constitution of Catholic princes, 
in order that men, while they fear that corporal punishment may be inflicted on 
them, may often seek a salutary remedy. ^ This shows the horn of a lamb; but 
the one above is the voice of the dragon issuing edicts through its galvanized 
image, as in the case of Frederick 11.^ 

Pope Lucius III. issued a bloody bull against the Catharists, Paterines, Poor 
of Lyons, Passagines, Josephites, Arnoldites, and all other heretics, including 
them under a perpetual anathema. He says : It is but fitting that the power com- 
mitted to the church should be awakened, that by the concurring assistance of the 
imperial strength ^ -^^ -^ the heretics may be crushed. * * •* Wherefore, 
we being supported by the presence and power of our most dear son, Frederick, 
the most illustrious emperor of the Romans, always increaser of the empire, with 
the advice and counsel of our brethren and other patriarchs, archbishops, and 
many princes, who, from several parts of the world, are met together, do set 
themselves against these heretics, * * * left to the sentence of the secular 
judge to receive condign punishment according to the quality of the offense. ^ 

Here we have the whole power to make war with the saints combined — the 
ecclesiastical beast, represented by the pope, patriarchs, archbishops, and the 
civil beast, represented by the emperor and many princes. The ecclesiastical 
beast is the prime mover, and assigns to the civil beast his part of the work. 
Once no general council could be convened only by and through the emperor, but 
now (A. D. 1184) none can be called but by and through the pope; then the 

(1) Dowl. 8:1, §§ 2-3; pp. 542-44. (2) Dowl. 5:10, § 91. (3) Idm., 7, § 60. (4) Idm., pp. 
304-5, (5) Dowl. 5:7, §63. 



CHAPTER OLIII. I SECTION VI. 781 

emperor presided and controlled, but now the pope. In both the papal and 
Mahometan worlds the civil sovereignty is reckoned but an image animated and 
controlled by the ecclesiastical ; but in the Greek church the emperor is the head 
of both church and state, and so will remain till popery and Mahometanism cast 
his real sovereignty into the bottomless pit. The second beast claims the authority 
to bless or curse, confirm or depose, the first beast or civil sovereignty. In the 
edicts of Frederick II. the civil magistrate has no complaint against the saints as 
citizens, subjects, or sojourners, but persecutes them for sake of the papal church. ^ 

In tracing out the characteristics of the fourth seal we exhibit the image of 
the first beast, or Monotheistic civil sovereignty, made and galvanized into action 
by the religious, or ecclesiastical, wild beast, and also the western little horn of 
Daniel. The eastern little horn of Daniel and its fourth seal characteristics have 
been given;'' and now we shall add only sonae of the actions of Tamerlane, who 
was a zealous Unitarian and devout Moslem. He used his authority to force 
multitudes of Christians to apostatize from their most holy faith. Persuaded that 
it was incumbent upon the true followers of Mahomet to persecute the Christians, 
and that the most ample and glorious rewards were reserved for such as were most 
instrumental in converting them to the Mahometan faith, he employed the most 
inhuman acts of severity to vanquish the magnanimous constancy of those that 
persevered in their attachment to the Christian religion; and some suffered death 
in the most barbarous forms, while others were condemned to perpetual slavery. ^ 

But the history of the genuine saints under the Turks, and the manner of their 
extirpation, has not found its way to the west. Daniel predicted, and history shows, 
that Mahometanism destroyed the holy people; and though the Saracen locusts 
spared them out of policy, and out of policy aided the Paulicians against the 
Greek empire, yet the Moslems have either extirpated the true churches of Christ, 
or driven them so far into the wilderness we can neither find nor hear tell of them. ^ 

6. Persecutions in the West. — The western little horn of Daniel has 
uprooted three of the ten ; become stouter than his fellows ; waged war with the 
saints; become a mouthpiece to the first wild beast; and has blasphemed God, 
His tabernacle, and His true worshipers. Gibbon reckons the Albigenses a 
branch of the Paulicians, and says: The same vicissitudes of martyrdom dis- 
played in the neighborhood of the Euphrates were repeated in the thirteenth 
century on the banks of the Rhone. The laws of the eastern emperors were 
revived by Frederick II. The insurgents of Thephrice were represented by the 
barons and cities of Languedoc. Pope Innocent III. surpassed the sanguinary 
fame of Theodora, and it was in cruelty alone that her soldiers could equal the 
heroes of the crusades ; and the cruelty of her priests was far excelled by the 
founders of the inquisition — an office more adapted to confirm than to refute the 
belief of an evil principle. The visible assemblies of the Paulicians, or Albi- 
genses, were extirpated with fire and sword, and the bleeding remnant escaped 
by flight, concealment, or Catholic conformity. ^ 

Pope Innocent III. sent legates extraordinary into the southern provinces of 
France to extirpate heresy in all its various forms and modifications. These 
spiritual champions engaged in this expedition upon the sole authority of the 
pope, without the advice or succors of the bishops ; inflicted capital punishment 
upon all heretics they could not convert; were called inquisitors, and from them 
the odious tribunal of the inquisition derived its origin. ^ When this new set of 
heresy hunters had the provinces of the majority of the enemies of the Roman 
faith, the popes established inquisitors in most cities suspected of heresy, not- 
withstanding the reluctance of the people to receive them and the violence with 
which they often expelled and sometimes massacred these bloody officers of the 
papal hierarchy. The council at Toulouse, A. D. 1229, erected in every city a 
council of inquisitors, consisting of one priest and three laymen ; but Gregory 



(6) Dowl. 5:7, § 64. (7) Chap 149, §§ 6-8. (8) Mosh. 14:2; 2, § 1. (9) Chap. 149, § 8. (1) 
Gbn. 2:15; 283. (2) Mosh. 13:2; 5, § 3. 



782 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

IX., A. D. 1233, entrusted the business to the Dominican friars, and erected 
tribunals wherever they had convents. From this period we are to date the com- 
mencement of this dreadful tribunal of the inquisition, which subdued such a 
prodigious multitude of heretics by terror to the church, or committed them to 
the flames without mercy. ^ That this court might be tremendous and formid- 
able, the popes persuaded the European princes, and more especially the 
Emperor Frederick 11. and Lewis IX., king of France, to enact the most bar- 
barous laws against the heretics ; to commit to the flames by the ministry of 
public justice those pronounced heretics by the inquisitors ; to maintain the 
inquisitors in their office, and to protect them in the most open and solemn 
manner. The edicts to this purpose issued by Frederick 11. excite horror, and 
rendered the most illustrious piety and virtue incapable of saving from the most 
cruel death such as became disagreeable to the inquisitors.^ 

The inquisition was one of the papal machines for destroying the saints, and 
the crusades against them was another. The inquisitors not accomplishing the 
work, the monks proclaimed, in the pope's name, a crusade against all the here- 
tics throughout France, and a storm was raised and gathering on all sides. 
Raymond VI., earl of Toulouse, who had protected his heretical subjects, was 
excommunicated, and to deliver himself joined the crusade against the Albi- 
genses; but, to save his earldom he was obliged to change sides and attack their 
persecutors, who were commanded by Simon, earl of Montfort, and led by 
Abbot Arnold, the pope's legate. The crusade was raised b}^ the promise of the 
most ample indulgences, and carried on with the utmost exertions of cruelty and 
barbarity for several years. (A. D. 1209-22.) The pope gave Simon the 
earldom of Raymond. Simon died A. D. 1218, and Raymond, A. D. 1222. ^ 
Simon was succeeded by his son, Amalric, as earl of Montfort, and Raymond 
YII. succeeded his father as earl of Toulouse. Raymond appeared the more 
powerful, but Pope Honorius III. engaged Louis YIll., king of France, with the 
most alluring promises, to march a powerful army against the enemies of the 
church. Louis died, but his son, Louis IX., or the Saint, executed the engage- 
ment, and Raymond was forced, A. D. 1229, to cede most of his territories to 
the French monarch and the church of Rome. The inquisition was established 
and the saints sufl'ered from the pious cruelties of St. Louis, and from the over- 
awed Raymond YII. himself, the most inhuman severities.^ 

By their anathemas, interdicts, transfer of dominions, and plenary indul- 
gences, the popes show themselves to be the animating spirit, and the civil rulers 
their vassals. The people from all parts of Europe hastened to enroll them- 
selves for the crusade to exterminate the Albigenses. They were immediately 
placed under the protection of the holy see, freed from the payment of the interest 
on their debts, exempted from the jurisdiction of all tribunals, and their service 
in the war expiated all the vices and crimes of a whole life. 

In this holy war ! — what blasphemy ! — they could war; they could, without 
remorse or restraint from their ofiicers, pillage all the property, massacre all the 
men, and abuse the women and children. Treachery, violation of oaths, and 
cruelty were recommended by the pope and practiced by the legate. In Beziers, 
of sixty thousand persons not one person was spared alive. Thousands of women 
and children were murdered in the churches, and their blood drenched the altars 
and flowed in crimson torrents through the streets. To be sure of all the heretics 
the legate ordered to kill all, and thus intimidate other Catholics from protecting 
the heretics in other cities. At other places the inhabitants were hanged on gib- 
bets, had their eyes torn out, and noses cut off. At Menerbe, men and women 
were burnt because they would not turn to the papal faith. Massacre or burning 
was the business of the crusaders and the joy of the priests, who blasphemed 
God by singing praises to Him in the midst of such crimes and cruelties and 
attributing their diabolical deeds to His favor. '^ 

(3) Mosh. 13:2; 5, § 4. (4) Idm., § 6. (5) 13:2; 5, § 7. (6) § 8. (7) Dowi. 5:8, §§ 65-76. 



CHAPTER OLIII.: SECTION VII. 783 

Plundered, outraged, massacred, and exiled, the Albigenses were extirpated 
in the most cruel and wicked manner by the holy Catholic church, animating, 
controlling, and commanding the holy Roman empire. In Piedmont, the Wal- 
denses of Pragela were driven into the mountains, and women, infants, and chil- 
dren were frozen to death. Those of Loyse and Frassiniere were slaughtered by 
brutal soldiers, and four hundred children in their cradles were suffocated in 
caves. At Cabriers, the oath of capitulation was violated ; the men were slaugh- 
tered, and the women burnt in a barn of straw. In Calabra, they were hunted 
like wild beasts in the woods. ^ 

But it is impossible to detail even a specimen of the crimes and cruelties 
perpetrated by these crusaders against heretics, under the control of the pope's 
legates and by persecuting prelates. All the outrages perpetrated upon women, 
suffering of children, and slaughter of men ; all the calamities of famine, disease, 
and exile; all the devastations, wanton licentiousness, crimes and cruelties of 
savage warfare, carried on by the vilest dregs of society with unrestrained 
brutality, were inflicted on the saints and those giving to them protection or 
relief, by papal religion and authority; and done, too, in the name of all and 
everything that is holy. ^ (Chapter 159.) 

7. The Inquisition. — Of all the inventions of cruelty, the holy inquisition 
is the masterpiece. It is impossible for Satan himself to conceive a more hor- 
rible contrivance of torture and blood, where unfortunate beings writhed under 
torture and burning. When perfected, it was a dark, gloomy, massy prison, 
with cells and dungeons, where nothing but solitude, silence, shrieks, groans, 
indecency, crimes, and cruelty reigned without alleviation or mitigation. It was 
invented by St. Dominic to extirpate the Albigenses ; was readily approved at 
Rome; and in one day eighty persons were beheaded and four hundred burnt 
alive by Dominic's orders, and in his sight. To impose privations and pain was 
the pleasure of his unnatural heart, and cruelty was in him an appetite and a 
passion. ^ The victims of the inquisition were generally apprehended by officers 
dispersed in large numbers over the countries where the holy office was estab- 
lished. It might be at the dead of night — a carriage drives up, a knock is given! 
the holy inquisition is announced, with the demand: Deliver up your son! 
daughter! wife! husband! father! mother! friend! or guest! Not a murmur 
must escape a lip on pain of a like terrible fate with the victim. The trembling 
prisoner is led out, perhaps ignorant of his crime or accuser, and immured 
within those walls, through which no sighs of agoney or shrieks of anguish can 
reach the ear of friends. The family go in mourning and bewail the lost one 
consigned to a living tomb; but must not drop a tear! nor express a sigh! for 
spies are watching; and the same fate awaits the sympathizer. In the gloomy 
cell the most awful and mysterious silence must be preserved, lest its secrets be 
disclosed ; even the unavoidable cough is inhumanly punished. 

The object of this imprisonment is to obtain knowledge by torture ; to force 
confession of heresy, and then confiscation of the property of the prisoner; to 
inflict vengeance on the saints for their testimony to the truth ; or gratify fiendish 
malignity. The most common tortures were: 1. Dislocation by the pulley, 
ropes, and weights : The victim is stripped, weights tied to the feet, arms drawn 
back and tied at the elbows and wrists, and the rope passed over a pulley above; 
then the victim is swung and jerked till every joint is dislocated, causing inde- 
scribable agony and fainting; then thrown on the cold damp ground of the 
dungeon and left for a surgeon to patch up for more torture, unless renunciation 
of faith, confession of what he is not guilty, or death, releases the sufferer. 
2. Roasting the soles of the feet : The victim is stripped, placed in the stocks, 
and feet roasted till burnt to the bones, and crippled for life unless the fiendish 



(8) Idm. 4, §§ 23'6i also, Jones, Orcb., md others. (9i Dowl, bk 8. See chap. 148. (1) Dowl 
5:9; § 83. 



784 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

object be gained. 3. Tightened ropes and suffocation bj water : The victim 
was stripped, tied to a wooden horse or bench, the cords tightened till they cut 
through the flesh of the arms, thighs, and legs to the bones; in this situation 
they were obliged to swallow seven pints of water slowly dropped into their 
mouths, producing all the horrid sensations of drowning. Vain struggles only 
tightened the cords through the quivering flesh. 

Heretics supposed incapable of surviving these tortures were subjected to 
others not so mortal. Pieces of hard wood were placed between tlie Angers, 
which were bound together with cords and tightened with a screw. Another 
instrument was a concave piece of iron fastened on the heel with a rope and 
tightened with a screw. These two modes gave intolerable pain without endan- 
gering life; but under other tortures the victim often expired in the inquisition. 
One young lady, a victim of inquisitorial brutality, endured the torture till all the 
members of her body were rent assunder by the infernal machinery. Beginning 
to recover after some days, small cords were twisted round her naked arms, 
thighs, and legs till they were cut through the flesh to the bone and blood 
streamed from the lacerated veins. She expired after eight days of suffering. How 
many thousands perished in the same manner, of whom we have no account, 
God only knows. ^ 

The saints who do not expire under these tortures are clad in a tunic and 
pasteboard cap pictured with crosses, flames, and devils, and gags in their mouths. 
These pictures represent that the victim will be cast into hell tire, and the flames 
are fanned by devils. Some are burnt and others are roasted alive for one or two 
hours. And these horrible scenes were beheld by men and women and children 
with transports of joy, because so taught by the clergy. ^ Compared with the 
papal butcheries of the saints, the persecution of the pagan emperors of the first 
three centuries sink into insignificance. The pictures on the victims of the Auto 
Da Fe, symbolize death, followed by hell fire. Could anything better verify the 
fourth seal? Paganism never dreamed of the thousand ingenious tortures 
invented by papal inquisitions. And over fifty million of human beings have 
been slaughtered for heresy or witnessing for the truths of Jesus Christ by papal 
crusades, inquisitions, and massacres.^ 

It is the papal horn that makes war on the saints and overcomes them, or 
prevails against them, till the consummated age of the kingdom of God is intro- 
duced. He wears out the saints with protracted persecutions; claims the power 
to alter the laws and institutions of God;^ has an image of civil sovereignty 
galvanized into action to issue and enforce edicts against heretics ; uses the 
crowned horns without consulting the nominal emperor and imposes the acts of 
murder upon them; while he hypocritically recommends mercy to the devoted 
victim. As the mouth-piece of the first beast he blasphemes God, Christ, the 
Holy Spirit, the true church and its legitimate citizens, when he fixes the name 
of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, angels, and the saints to his impious anathemas; 
he defames as heretics and malefactors the saints, and devotes them to perdition; 
affixes the name of Holiness, an attribute of Deity, to his wicked and cruel insti- 
tutions and assemblies for crime and murder ; calls Mary, the mother of God, 
and professes to create God by transforming the wafer in the Lord's supper into 
the flesh of Christ. ^ The moving force in the papal church is corruption 
throughout, and the guiding intelligence is death in the front and hell in the rear. 
How appositely is this fourth seal characteristic displayed in the Auto Da Fe, 
where the victim is doomed to death and clad in tunics and caps pictured with 
hell tires and devils. 

He murders in every possible manner and by infernal machinery which we 
have not described — as the lady that clasps the victim doomed to kiss her lips 
and pierces it with many knives. Their power to destroy the saints extended 



(2) Dowl. 8:3, §§ 16-19. (3) Idm., §§ 20-22. (4) Dowl. 8:1, § 1. (5) Dan. 7. (6) Rev. 13. 
Dowl. bk. 4, chap. 2, § 23. 



CHAPTER CLIV. : SECTION I. 785 

over about one-fourth of the Monotheistic world. '^ They were circumscribed on 
the south and east by the Mahometan powers, and on the north by Eussia. Bad 
as this picture appears on the page of history, when compared with the pure 
primitive Christianity which it supplanted, it is not horrible. Place the picture 
in the first seal opposite the picture in the fourth seal, and behold the contrast ! 
Compare the history of the first two centuries with the history of the twelfth to 
sixteenth inclusive, and the contrast is as great! And yet the history of the 
kingdom of God, giving events in consecutive order, presents this last picture as 
the legitimate successor of the first ! Is not this the lawless one enthroned in 
the palace, or temple, of God?^ (Chap. 158:1.) 



CHAPTER CLiy. 



THE MAN OF SIN. (Continued from Chap. 109, § 15.) 

1. The Lawless Ojsie Identified. — Paul did not confine his teachings to the 
saving of souls at death, but extended his instructions to the development of the 
kingdom of God, and had taught the young church at Thessalonica to look for the 
consummation of their hope at the second advent of Jesus Christ. ^ Overlooking 
intervening time, the apostles often spoke as if the day of the Lord was at hand, 
and t>hey often presented events as if transpiring in a moment of time; and per- 
sons not accustomed to the prophetic vision might suppose that event very near, 
and, being disappointed in their expectations, they were in danger of apostatizing. 
Paul assures them that a great apostacy must intervene and the full development 
of that most impious system of wickedness, called: the Lawless Mystery, the Man 
of Sin, the Son of Perdition. ^ The prophets, and especially Daniel, had fore- 
told the time of his full development, which was after the Roman empire was 
divided and three of its divisions were subverted by this Lawless One. ^ These 
Thessalonian Christians were acquainted with the power which prevented this 
development, and held it back till the time predicted ; and even then this Wicked 
Mystery, or Mystery of Lawlessness, was working with energy, but was restrained 
till his own time, fixed by prophecy — or, only till the hinderance of him be out 
of the way — and then shall be revealed the Lawless One. ^ This Impious Mystery 
has now been fully manifested, and history has shown what it is. 

Atheism says : There is no God. Polytheism says: There is a god for every- 
thing, and if you oifend one god by vice, you please another. But this Impiety, 
or Lawless One, confesses God and all His attributes, Christ and all His laws and 
institutions, the Holy Spirit and all His infiuences, and the Scriptures with all 
their divine authority. The atheist, having no god, might feel at liberty to gratify 
his desires with impunity. The Polytheist, having a god for everything, could 
pursue any vice under the supposed sanction of a god. But this Lawless One could 
teach and inculcate the knowledge of the True God, and yet act in direct hostility 
to every divine attribute ; could demand faith in Christ as the Teacher, the Savior 
and King, or a prophet and apostle of God, and yet trample under foot all His 
teachings, force people to seek salvation through every other person or thing but 



(7) Rev. 6:8 (8) 11. Thes. 2:5-12. (9) II. Thes. 1:7. (1) II. Thes. 2:3, 7. (2) Dan. 7:8. (3) 
II. Thes. 2:6, 7, 8. 
-50 



786 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPEB. 

Him, and break or annul all His laws, and abrogate or alter all His institutions; 
and he could profess to be imbued by the Holy Spirit, and yet authorize and 
practice every pollution, crime, and cruelty. All this he accomplished by claiming 
to be the prime minister of God, caliph or pope, apostle of God or vicar of Christ, 
and the absolute disposer of all laws and the institutions and subjects of the king- 
dom of God. Thus, he enthroned himself in the very palace, or temple, of God,* 
and claimed and exercised all the divine prerogatives.^ He came to this full 
development, according to (kata) Satanic energy in all power, or ability, always 
using that power to its utmost boundary on all occasions, and in false signs and 
prodigies, and in all unrighteous deception, or deceit of unrighteousness, in those 
doomed to perish with him ; or, literally, going to destroy themselves — appol- 
lumenois ; second future participle, middle voice. For these received not the love 
of the truth into their salvation; for they were hypocrits, having pleasure in 
unrighteousness while they professed to be holy. It is hard to understand how 
any but an atheist could do all this ; but, whatever he might be in fact, he claimed 
to be the true Christian, or Moslem, and called himself and all his institutions 
holy, though they were the most cruel and debauched persons and things that ever 
cursed this earth. 

2. The Jewish Effoet to Establish this Wicked One. — This system of 
impiety was generated when the folly of idolatry was exposed in the history of 
Israel, and the nations began to furnish many proselytes to the dispersed syna- 
gogues of the Jews. Though the native power of the Jews was evidently inadequate 
to resist the Greek empire, and afterward the Romans, yet the plausibility of 
augmenting it by the influence of their superior religion tempted the ambitious 
Sadducees and Pharisees to hope for supremacy and the universal dominion prom- 
ised in their covenants and prophecies ; and to offer the privileges and blessings 
of the kingdom of God to the nations, without bringing them under the yoke of 
the Sanhedrim and the absolute authority of the high priest, was reckoned the 
greatest crime committed against the nation. Christ detected this effort to usurp 
the government of the kingdom of God and to establish a system of tyranny 
over the nations founded on the true revelations of the True God, and He exposed 
it by a parable of a vineyard and husbandmen. They had abused the servants 
sent unto them, and as Christ was the Heir in all the covenants, oaths, and prom- 
ises, they determined to kill Him and then secure the control and riches of the 
kingdom to their impious selves. Chaiaphas, the high priest, betrayed this project 
when he claimed it sound policy that one citizen should die rather than that the 
whole nation should perish. He decided that if Christ was permitted to continue 
His impartial bestowment of favors upon publicans and sinners, uncircumcised 
centurians and Syro-Phenician widows, the conquering Romans would absorb their 
nation and supersede them in the control, othces, and incomes of the religion of 
Jehovah, and thus they would lose their nationality and their superior preroga- 
tives in the all-conquering religion of their fathers. The pious Jews, having 
embraced Christianity, insisted on the circumcision of the believing gentiles and 
their subjugation to the law in the hands of the high priest and the Sanhedrim. 

In bestowing his favors on Corneleus, and in his guiding the council of 
apostles, elders, and brethren at Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit decided the contro- 
versy against them ; but still many Christians adhered to this demand, and 
Jewish emissaries continued to vex the gentile believers with this effort to impose 
a yoke of bondage upon them. The mass of the Jews at Jerusalem listened 
attentively to Paul narrating his conversion, till he mentioned his commission to 
the gentiles. Then they cried out : Away with such a fellow from the earth ! 
for it is not tit he should live. This system was working among the Jews with 
energy when Paul wrote his second epistle to the Thessalonians, A. D. 52, about 
eighteen years before the destruction of Jerusalem. Even now, Paul says : ^ 



(*j Chaps. 175, § 7. 139, § 5. (4) Verse 4. (5) Verse 7. 



CHAPTEK CLIV. I SECTION III. 78? 

^nd perhaps those believing gentiles in Gallacia enibracing circumcision® were 
captivated with the notion of Jewish supremacy over the pagan nations. The 
pure Gospel of Christ and the faithful preaching and writings of the apostles did 
not eradicate this fond hope of the Jews ; but Polytheism being the established 
religion of the nations, this system of a despotic hierarchy over the kingdom of 
God, a self-authorized disregard to the divine laws, whether given by Moses or 
by Jesus Christ, could not develop itself in Paul's day, nor till Polytheism was 
removed out of the Roman empire. But it was removed from being the national 
religion, and this mysterious wickedness developed itself rapidly. "^ 

The Jews did not give up the scheme of subjecting all the worshipers of 
Jehovah under their control when Titus destroyed their city and temple; but in 
the time of Adrian they persecuted their Christian brethren who would not aid 
them to regain their power. Being defeated and dispersed by Adrian and pro- 
hibited to come near their old city, this hope expired in the breast of the Jews. 
But the Old Serpent transferred this same spirit into the breasts of the bishops 
of Christian churches. 

3. Transferred to the Christians. — Some time after Adrian, when the 
second destruction of Jerusalem had extinguished among the Jews all hopes of 
seeing their government restored to its former lustre and their country rising out 
of ruins, the doctors persuaded the people that the ministers of the Christian 
church succeeded to the character, rights, and privileges of the Jewish priest- 
hood. This notion was propagated with industry, and, accordingly, the bishops 
considered themselves invested with a rank and character similar to those of the 
high priest among the Jews; the Presbyters represented the common priests, 
and the deacons represented the Levites. The notion at once introduced its 
natural pernicious effects, and was consummated in the pope of Rome^ and caliph 
ol Moslemism. A high priest who could, like Chaiaphas, disregard the law of 
Moses and crucify Jesus Christ, and then go into the holy of holies and there, 
alone in the presence of the Jehovah make atonement for the sins of Israel, 
and a pope guilty of debaucheries, tor tu rings, and wholesale massacres, that 
could pronounce benedictions and administer ordinances, must be atheists, or 
worse than Satan. Demons believed and trembled ! while these priests and 
bishops did not tremble in the very presence of God, if they believed in His exist- 
ence ; and if they did not believe, they could not profess their atheism without 
subverting their own power and influence. The same is true of the Mahometan 
caliphs, and most of the characteristics of the Man of Sin are found in Mahomet- 
. anism, but not all. 

During a great part of the second century the Christian churches were inde- 
pendent of each other; nor were they joined together by any association, confed- 
eracy, or any other bonds but those of love and charity. Each Christian assembly 
was a little state, governed by its own laws, which were either enacted or at 
least approved by the society. But, in process of time, all the Christian churches 
of a province were formed into one large ecclesiastical body, which, like confed- 
erate states, assembled at certain times to deliberate about the common interest 
of the whole. These councils, or synods, of which we And not the smallest trace 
before the middle of the second century and after the time of Adrian, changed 
the whole face of the church and gave it a new form; for by them the ancient 
privileges of the people were considerably diminished and the power and 
authority of the bishops greatly augmented. At first they acknowledged them- 
selves only the delegates of their representative churches, and acted in the name 
and by the appointment of the people. But they soon changed their humble 
tone, imperceptibly extended the limits of their authority, turned their influence 
into dominion and their counsels into laws, and at length openly asserted that 
Christ had empowered them to prescribe to His people authoritative rules of faith 



(6) Gal. 1:6, 7. 4:21. (7) II. Thes. 2:7, 8. (8) Mosb. 2:2; 2, § 4. 



788 THE KING^DOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

and manners. In the meantime, tlie bounds of the church were enlarged; patri- 
archs were created over bishops; and finall}^ the pope was made prince of the 
patriarchs. ^ The pope made himself the vicar of Ctirist, and the caliph was the 
vicar of the apostle of God and commander of the faithful."^' 

When Polytheism was dethroned in the Roman empire, confederated, or 
rather, consolidated, Christianity took its place, and in process of time subjected 
the civil powers to its imperial sway. Thus, placed above all law and authority, 
it developed itself in popery and Mahometanism to the whole world in a most 
hideous character. Immoral polhitions, too loathsome to be named in public, 
and shameless perversions of the truth kept equal pace with prelatical usurpa- 
tions. But, having become too cruel to be borne and too loathsome to be 
endured, it will be subverted by the civil powers and weakened by reformations, 
and must expire by the sword of vengeance. Here Paul says: This system of 
iniquity shall be dissolved with the wind (pneumati) of the Lord's mouth, and 
be destroyed with the brightness of His coming. As Christ approaches, the 
blast from his mouth shall blow this wicked mystery to atoms, and the glory 
radiating from His person will palsy its energy. These are figurative expressions, 
showing the ease and certainty of its destruction at, or just before Christ's second 
advent; but the revolutions, convulsions, and battles by which this destruction 
will be accomplished are more fully represented by trumpets, vials of wrath, 
harvests, and the battle of Armageddon. 

4. The Character and Condition of Those Deceived. — The persons 
deceived into this great apostacy were not genuine Christians, having that faith 
which works by love and purifies the heart. They were not born from above, and 
so had no right to citizenship in the kingdom of God. While they professed dis- 
cipleship to Christ, they never received the love* of the truth into their salvation, 
or to such an extent as is necessary in the salvation of every person. Truth is 
an attribute of God. Christ came to bear witness to the truth. All who have the 
truth hear Christ. Those who practice the truth come to the light, that their deeds 
may be manifested and proven to be wrought by the Spirit of God. Truth is the 
perception, conception, and presentation of everything just as it is, was, or will 
be, and is essential to the complete salvation of every individual and all commu- 
nities. If we abide in Christ we shall know the truth, and the truth shall make 
us free. But these persons never loved the truth itself, though they coveted the 
riches, honors, and positions secured by the truth. They loved to practice sin, 
but desired the rewards of holiness and righteousness. They wished to find some 
rites, ceremonies, external actions and relations that would expiate guilt as soon 
as contracted, and purge out the stain of sin and prevent the consequences as soon 
as the pleasure is over. 

History shows such was the character of Jews, Christians, and Mahometans 
engaged in this wicked mystery. Through this (dia touto) hypocritical pretention 
and effort God sent them these strong delusions (or Satanic energy in power 
which they possessed to accomplish their object in false signs and prodigies) to 
induce them to believe the lie (or energ}^ of delusion into the believing themselves 
the lie), or any lie which they wished to believe, or that big lie — that they could 
defeat all the covenants, oaths, and promises of Jehovah, usurp the throne of 
David, disregard, or abrogate, or alter the laws and institutions of God, govern the 
world as commissioned officers of the kingdom, do what they pleased, and go to 
the Pardise of Heaven at last. God sent them or gave them up to this energetic 
delusion by giving the success for which they prayed, that they might develop 
their true character and be judged accordingly. They would not accept the truth, 
80 let them believe the lie and abide the consequence. Christ told the Jews they 
would not believe Him, though come in His Father's name ; but if another came 



(9) Mosh. Cent. 2, pt. 2, chap. 2, §§ 1-3. (*) Chap. 175, § 7. 



CHAPTER CXLIV.: SECTION IV. 789 

in his own name they would beheve him. They disbelieved in Christ, notwith- 
standing His works showed His power and proved His divine mission, but 
afterward they believed the workings of Satan in false signs and prodigies, and 
were led on to their own destruction ; and such has been and ever will be the fate 
of their successors. The Greek Christians believed that their crucifixes, pictures, 
images, and relics would deliver them in their last extremity, but they fell in 
slaughters and slavery before the Saracens and Turks. The crazy infatuation of 
the Jews in the last days of Jerusalem was incredible, and the same deluded belief 
of final success will gather their successors into their last destruction. Seducers 
wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. 

There are two sources of these delusions to believe the lie, or any lie wished 
to be believed — the force of education, and an infatuated zeal for the dogmas of a 
new party. Having imbibed or adopted these dogmas or opinions as their own 
property and the sacred rights of their party, they view all opposition to them as 
hostile invasions of their rights, and, instead of investigating evidence for ascer- 
taining the truth, they resent the supposed insult and outrage to their property, 
and think of nothing but defense of their rights and off'ense to all opposite opinions 
and conclusions. Any fact, opinion, supposition, cavil, or denial supporting their 
positions they adopt as a right in self-defense, and they overlook their accounta- 
bility for resisting the truth. 

Both Catholics and Mahometans were educated in all the dogmas and notions 
of their religion from infancy, regarded them as their legitimate inheritance, and 
prayed for them and fought for them with success, and, having committed every 
species of crime and cruelty upon their opposers, returned devout thanks to God 
for the wicked victory. To pray for an object and obtain it is very strong induce- 
ment to believe the object right and approved of God. Success in what is prayed 
tor is strong inducement to believe the thing right ; but it may be a strong delusion 
to believe the lie wished to be true. Success claims to be right, and sometimes 
"wears out the saints" witnessing for the truth against such success in sin. Yery 
few examine the evidence on controverted subjects with a view to ascertain the 
truth at all hazards. Fewer are willing to admit the force of evidence against 
themselves or party. They will adopt the weakest evidence for them and reject 
the strongest against them. In law, the accused has the advantage of the doubt, 
and falsehood claims the advantage of the doubt in all subjects. 

God is the Creator, Possessor, and Ruler of the universe, and even Satan can 
not act without His permission ; and hence the Scriptures represent God as doing 
what He permits to be done. Isaiah is commanded to go and harden the hearts 
of the Jews. The evangelists say : They could not believe because God had done 
it; and Paul quotes it to the Jews at Rome, as that they had done it themselves. 
God sent the prophets to preach to the Jews. The people resisted the truth till 
nothing could move them. Just so here. God sends them the truth ; they hate 
and pervert it. God leaves them to Satan, who gives them falsehood sustained by 
great success, in answer to their prayers, and false signs and remarkable wonders. 
They love the falsehood, believe it, fight for it, show their true character, and are 
judged according to what they are, and not according to what they profess to be. 



CHAPTER CLY. 



ANTI-CHRISTIAN POWER BROKEN. A. M. 5300-5652. 

1. Christ Appearing Against His Enemies with His One Hundred and 
Forty-Four Thousand. — When the antagonism against the kingdom of God, 
represented bj the image of the first beast animated by the second beast, was 
consummated, and the victory of the adversary appeared inevitable, the Lamb 
was seen standing on Mount Zion, and with Him were one hundred and forty-four 
thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written in their foreheads. 
These were openly avowed followers of Christ. None of them had the mark of 
discipleship in their hand and could show or conceal it as occasion required, and 
in this they differed from the worshipers of the beast. These one hundred and 
forty-four thousand represented the virgin followers of the Lamb, who openly 
avowed and practiced the truth without any compromise or occasional conformity 
to the beasts. They were faithful into death, and were regarded before the throne 
of God as blameless — a choice, or first fruits, to God and to the Lamb. They 
represent, or are, the true witnesses, the seed of the woman, and the true churches 
in the wilderness. 

This sight of faithful martyrs, like those who witnessed into death under 
pagan persecutions, filled Heaven with joy, which burst forth with the voice of 
thunder and of many waters, on harps and in songs, that aroused citizens of the 
empire church, and many reformers appeared against the beast. The pope fled 
before the Arnoldists, and Luther split the papal church. None could learn or 
catch the song nor join in singing it but those martyrs who could triumph in the 
flames and sing the victories of the kingdom while suftering persecution. These 
were not recognized citizens of the Monotheistic empire, but were chosen out of 
the world and redeemed by Christ for the advancement of His kingdom, which is 
not of this world though set up in it. When first sealed they were out of the 
twelve tribes of Israel; but now they are without nationality, and their number 
is still complete. It was a new song before the throne, and shows an advance in 
the development of the kingdom of God. The Red Drao:on was defeated and 
cast out of Heaven and the saints shouted for joy. Now the beast antagonism is 
consummated, but by the same fidelity of the one hundred and forty-four thousand 
rpartyrs shall the beast be defeated. ^ The Gospel messenger shall become as 
conspicuous as an angel flying and proclaiming in the face of the blue sky:^ 
Babylon shall be destroyed, and the venerators and citizens of the image and 
renovated beasts shall be destroyed by the wrath of God poured out upon them, 
and the faith and patience of the saints shall surely be rewarded. ^ These judg- 
ments now manifested to the servants of Christ shall soon begin to be manifested 
to the world, and all nations shall come and worship the True God alone, and not 
the beast nor his image. They shall worship the One Jehovah, which was the 
theme of the song of Moses, and they shall worship the Lamb, which was the 
peculiar burden of Christianity, as distinguished from the Jews. 



(1) Rev. 14:1-5. (2) Idm. 6-7. (3)8-12. 



ClMAP^fiR CLt.: SECTION 11. tOl 

In the conflict with the dragon, the Christian martyrs had fellowship with 
the Jewish martyrs of the One Living God; in the conflict with the beasts, the 
martyrs excluded from divine worship all saints, angels, pictures, relics, beasts, 
and images of them. They sing praise to none but to the True God and the 
Lamb, and unite the songs of the Jews with those of the Christians — the song of 
Moses and the Lamb. None but the martyrs could learn or sing this song when 
the Lamb first appeared on Mount Zion; but, when the angels with the last 
plagues appeared, others caught the song.^ This great conflict of the Lamb and 
his one hundred and forty-four thousand faithfuls, with the animated image of 
the beast, commenced in the west with the persecution of the Albigenses in the 
twelfth century, when all persons were forbidden all buying and selling with 
them, giving reception or the common necessaries of life to them. The Cathari, 
Paterini, Poor of Lyons, and others, were placed under perpetual anathema 
A. D. 1181, ^ and included in the sanguine persecution of the Waldenses A. D. 
1487/ or in later persecutions. During this conflict many reformers appeared 
and witnessed faithfully into death — such as the Berengarians, Arnoldists, Hen- 
ricians, Petrobruscians, Waldo, Wicklif, and Huss. The victors standing on 
the glassy pavement were those having obtained, by martyrdom before the 
reformation, the victory over the beast and his image. Having defeated the 
adversary by the suffering and dispersion of His martyrs, the Lamb begins to 
break the power of the beasts. 

2. Offensive Measures Adopted by the Lamb. — When the Lamb appeared 
on His holy mount with his faithful followers, who conquer by suffering and per- 
severing, we might expect some offensive movement on His part for the recovery 
of His patrimony ; and, accordingly, John is shown'' seven angels having seven 
plagues, which, after the trumpets, are the last; and in them is filled up, or com- 
pleted, the wrath of God upon the adversaries of His kingdom. These angels 
are not warriors, but look like messengers of peace; yet, their cups are full of 
wrath. They came out of the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony, or tab- 
ernacle for witness-bearing. This temple is in Heaven, and is now open and 
forces can go forth from it. The cups of wrath are given to the angels by one of 
the aggressive forces of the kingdom. The temple was filled with smoke out of 
the glory, or shekinah, of God and out of His power, and no one can enter the 
temple to inspect or ofliciate till the seven plagues are fulfilled. This temple 
represents the sanctuary in the tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness, and desig- 
nates the kingdom of God as still in a migratory state, and not permanantly 
located on Mount Zion. Still, there are ministers and golden bowls, or cups, in 
it; it is opened, and messengers and influences proceed out of it; and, though 
these are peaceful and holy, they occasion wrathful consequences to the adversa- 
ries. The palace of the kingdom is safe in Heaven, or under heavenly protec- 
tion; but the glory and power of God, now manifested in behalf of His cause, 
has raised such a smoke by disputes and reformations in the migratory tabernacle 
that the divine service can not be restored in its simplicity and purity till these 
last plagues be inflicted on the beasts and their citizens and admirers. Every- 
thing in and about the Scriptures— the kingdoms, laws, and institutions of the 
Gospel — has been examined and disputed, both honestly and dishonestly; but no 
controversy has been settled, and Christians can not officiate together at one 
altar on account of indistinct and adverse sentiments. Ignorance, confusion, 
prejudice, and interest prevent clear views of truth and united action in obedience. 

3. A^iew of the Image of the Beast. — At this time (A. D. 1300-1600) the 
image of the first beast, or of the first development of the Monotheistic antag- 
onism to the kingdom of God, was composed of many nations having a nominal 
union in two nominal emperors — -the Turkish sultan and the German emperor — 
but whose real union was in their national religions, headed by the caliph and the 



(4) Rev. 15; 1-4. (5) Orch. 20B, § 2. (6) 281. (7) Rev. 15. 



'7d^ THE KiNd^DOM OF GOt) DEVELOPED. 

pope. The worshipers of this image of Monotheistic civil sovereignty were the 
Mahometan and papal 'clergy and the civil ralers, who sanctified their wars by the 
sanction and presence of the clergy and held their divine right to countries and 
dominions by the gifts and confirmations of popes or caliphs. Though the civil 
and ecclesiastical beasts often contended for the supremacy, yet the one can not 
do without the other; and whatever destroys the concentration of ecclesiastical 
and political power is a grievous sore to all worshipers of this Monotheistic 
beast. JSTow, those having the mark, number, or name of this wild beast were 
recognized citizens, and, on showing tins evidence of citizenship, they were 
entitled to the protection and rights of citizens in any and every nation under 
the respective horns of the second wild beast. The second, or ecclesiastical, 
beast was the uniting and animating principle of the Monotheistic empires, and 
the hostility between the two horns divided the Monotheistic world into the 
Mahometan and papal empires. 

In the divisions and subdivisions of the Mahometan empire, the evidence of 
genuine Mahometanism entitled the subject to all the protection and rights of a 
Moslem citizen. And in all papal countries the mark or evidence of papal 
orthodoxy entitled the person to all the rights of a papal subject, and the clergy 
were obligated to give tliem shelter, aid, and protection ; and if executed by civil 
government the priest must give them •: safe passport into Heaven. Now, what- 
ever destroj^ed this religious protection and favor in all nations was a grevious 
sore on those having recognized citizenship. It mattered not to the saints which 
wild beast had the supremacy, for it was ecclesiastical damnation and political 
execution in both cases. The Ottoman sultans were styled, by the orientals and 
by Timour himself, the Caesars of Rome, or Roum ;^ but when Tamerlane overrun 
the Turkish empire, A D. 1370-1403, and built pyramids of human heads, and 
when the Ottomans vanquished the Mamelukes in Syria and Egypt, it was a 
great sore on the Moslem worshipers of their state-church empire. 

Mahometanism is now split into innumerable sects ;^ but as I have not a 
full, minute, and impartial history of Mahometanism, I can not trace out their 
sores, nor causes of them. However, what historv I have shows that the saints 
and others suffered because they were not Moslem citizens and did not worship 
the beast; and Moslems sufi'ered by disregard to the sacred rights of Islamites. 
Tamerlane was of the sect of Ali, and wished to know who were the true martyrs — 
his men or those of his enemies? The answer was, that the motive and not the 
ensign constituted the martyr. ^ Hence, those receiving the mark of the beast 
to escape death or slavery were liable to die with the sore; and their citizenship 
often subjected them to a sore as grievous to them as martydom, slaver}^ or 
tribute to the genuine Christian. In the west, the pope was the bond of union 
and animating spirit of the holy Roman empire, as it was called, ^ and exerted 
himself to perpetuate the image of civil sovereignty, but under his control. The 
civil rulers considered an ecclesiastical hierarchy necessary to train the public 
mind for despotic government, and labored hard to reform popery without dis- 
troying it and to circumscribe it to certain and subordinate boundaries. The 
pope, in the zenith of his power, could depose sovereigns, transfer governments, 
and settle national disputes; his clergy, monks, convents, etc., were obligated to 
aid, protect, and relieve all his true subjects in every nation and under every 
government. 

Hence, anything calculated to diminish the power and influence the pope, 
clergy, and monks was a grievous sore to all magistrates and clergy who vene- 
rated the concentration of regal and clerical power and influence ; and to all 
citizens enjoying relief and protection from convents, nuns, monks, and clergy, 
wherever cast in sojourning or in war. Nothing was a greater sore to popes, 
clergy, monks, nuns, and persecuting princes than the bold, firm, fearless, and 

(8) Gbn. Vol. II , chap. 26; p. 416 (9) Guth. Geo^., Vol. II.; p. 464. (Ij Gbn. 2:27; 407. 
(2) Thai , p. 53, § 101. Mosh. Cent. 16, Sect. 1, chap. 2, § 17. 



CHAPTER CLV.: SECTlOiT IV. 793 

independent spirit of the martyrs, who refused to yield their faith and practice, 
or to restrain their testimony for the truth on account of the anathemas of the 
clergy or the vengeance of the princes. This same independence of thought, 
freedom of speech, Urmness of position in controversy, was communicated to, or 
fell upon princes, monks, and clergy, and produced a want of veneration for the 
person, decisions, and anathemas of the popes; disregarded for their authority, 
denunciations against their crimes, and rebellion against their authority. This^ 
proved to be a grievous sore to all worshipers of the beast and all his acknowl- 
edged good citizens. The popes, monks, and clergy, the emperor, kings, and 
princes have tortured and slaughtered millions who would not worship the beast 
nor his image, nor receive his mark of citizenship in their foreheads nor in their 
right hand. But now the worshipers of the combined beasts are themselves 
tormented with a grievous sore. This sore was the effect of a vial, or bowl, of 
God's wrath poured out by an holy messenger come out of the temple in 
Heaven, which is now opened but filled with smoke. The two witnesses have 
said : We can not accomplish any reformation ; we are slaughtered and dis- 
persed; we can do no more ; send thy judgments. 

4. Schism Between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Leaders. — The orders 
are given to the seven angels to go forth out of the temple and to pour out their 
bowls of wrath into the earth, or the great Monotheistic empire. The first did 
so, and a grievous and evil sore came upon the citizens and admirers of the beast 
and his image. But the saints were not afflicted by it. ^ The independence of 
thought, freedom of speech, firmness of position, and persistence in action which 
characterized the martyrs showed themselves in Philip the Fair, of France, in the 
fourteenth century, producing a schism between him and the pope and convinced 
Europe that it was possible to set bounds to the overgrown arrogance of the 
pope, though many crowned heads had attempted it without success. Fope 
Boniface YIII. asserted his supremacy over Philip and all other princes, in 
political as well as in religious affairs. Philip responded with great spirit and 
in terms of the utmost contempt. The pope rejoined with more arrogance, and 
in a famous bull asserted a two-fold power of the church to use the spiritual and 
temporal sword, and the subjection of the whole human family to the authority 
of the Roman pontiff; and that all who disbelieved it were heretics excluded 
from all possibility of salvation. 

The king charged the pope with heresies, simony, and many other vices, 
and demanded a council to depose him. The pope excommunicated Philip and 
all his adherents. Philip held an assembly of the states, had judgment passed 
on the pope, and appealed to a general council. The pope was captured by the 
king's orders, but was rescued by the people; he soon died from the effects of the 
rage and anguish he experienced, and was succeeded by Benedict XL Benedict 
repealed the excommunication against Philip and his kingdom; but would not 
absolve Nogaret for kidnapping and striking Boniface. Hogaret prosecuted at 
Home, in Philip's name, the former accusation against Boniface, and insisted on 
branding his name with infamy. Benedict died A. D. 1304, and Philip, by 
intrigues in the conclave, obtained the see of Rome for a French prelate, as 
necessary to the execution of his designs. 

This pope, Clement Y., removed, at the king's request, the papal residence 
to Avingnon, where it continued seventy years, which doubtless impaired greatly 
the papal authority. The friends of the German emperors, but enemies to the 
popes, invaded the patrimony of St. Peter and attacked his authority by their 
writings. Many cities revolted from the popes. Rome was the grand source 
and fomenter of cabals, tumults, and wars. The papal laws and decrees sent from 
France were publicly treated with contempt by common people and the nobles. 
This influence was propagated from Italy through most parts of Europe, and the 



(3) Rev. 15:1, 2. 



f94 tHE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOI^ED. 

decrees and thunders of the Gallic popes were not so much regarded as those 
formerly from Home. This gave rise to various seditions against the pontiffs, 
wliich they could not entirely crush even with the aid of the inquisitors, who 
exerted themselves with the most barbarous fury.^ Clement Y. was a mere 
creature of Philip the Fair, and abrogated the laws enacted by Boniface ; absolved 
Nogaret from all his crimes; restored the citizens of Anagni to their reputation 
and honor; called a general council, A. D. 1311, and condemned the templars;^ 
and died A. D. 1314. 

After many contentions in the conclave between the French and Italian 
cardinals for two years. Pope John XXII. was elected by the French, A. D. 1316. 
Pope John met this same independent spirit of thought, speech, and action in the 
person of Lewis of Bavaria. Frederick of Austria, and Lewis were both elected 
emperors of Germany by different parties, A. D. 1314. John considered the 
decision in this contest belonged to him. Lewis vanquished Frederick by force 
of arms and took the throne without asking the pope's approbation, and would 
by no means allow the dispute decided by the sword to be submitted to the pope. 
For this insult to his authority, Pope John deprived the emperor of his crown 
by an edict, A. D. 1324. The emperor disregarded the edict, accused John of 
heresy, and appealed to a general council. Exasparated bj^ these and other 
affronts, the pope excommunicated Lewis and declared, a second time, the 
imperial throne vacant, A. D. 1327. By an edict at Rome, A. D. 1328, Lewis 
declared John unworthy of the pontificate, deposed him from that dignity and 
succeeded by Nicolas Y., and Nicolas publicly crowned Lewis at Rome as the 
Roman emperor; but in A. D. 1330 surrendered himself and office to John. 
Thus, both emperor and pope retained their respective thrones in despite of each 
other's edicts and anathemas. Pope John XXII. died A. D. 1334, and a French 
cardinal, named Benedict XII., was elected pope, who ended the quarrel with 
Lewis but did not restore him to the communion of the church, because that was 
opposed by the king of France. ^ The Emperor Sigismond, the king of France, 
and several European princes, in the council of Constance, so prevailed against 
the pope as to have him pronounced inferior to a general council, "' A. D. 1414, 
and a reformation of the church in its head and members was attempted by 
setting bounds to the despotism and corruption of the Roman pontifis, and to 
the luxury and immorality of the licentious clergy. "^ 

5. Schism in Papal Headship. — The removal of the papal see to Avingnon 
by the influence of Philip the Fair resulted in a schism in the papacy. Pope 
Gregory was induced by a prophetess to remove from Avingnon to Rome; but, 
by the long absence from Rome the authority of the pope in Italy was reduced 
to a low ebb, and the Romans and Florentines made no scruple to insult him 
with the grossest abuse. This made him resolve to return to Avingnon, but he 
died, A. D. 1378, without accomplishing it. ^ Urban YI. was elected pope. His 
election was declared null, and Clement YIL was elected at Avingnon. Both 
exercised the office — Urban at Rome, and Clement at Avingnon. Clement was 
acknowledged by France, Spain, Scotland, Sicily, and Cyprus, while all the rest 
of Europe acknowledged Urban to be the true vicar of Christ. ^ Tims, the union 
of the Latin church under one head was destroyed by the western schism. 

This dissension was formented with such dreadful success and arose to such 
a shameful height that for the space of fifty years the church had two or three 
heads at the same time, and each of the contending popes were forming plots 
and thundering out anathemas against their competitors. The distress and 
calamity of these times is beyond all power of description. Perpetual conten- 
tions and wars between the factions of the several popes caused multitudes to 
ose their fortunes and lives. All sense of religion was extinguished in moat 
places, and profligacy rose to a most scandalous excess. The clergy vehemently 

' (4) Mosh. 14:2; 2, §§ 1-5 (5) Idm,, § 7. (6) §§ 8, 10. (7) 15:2j 2, §§ 3, 4, 10. (8) 14:2; 2, 
§ 13. (9) Mosh. § 14. 



OHAttER clV.: section v. ^795 

contended about which pope was the true successor of Christ, and were so exces- 
sively corrupt as to be no longer studious to keep up even the appearance of 
religion. In consequence of all this, many plain, well-meaning people, who con- 
cluded that no one could possibly partake of eternal life unless united with the 
vicar of Christ, were overwhelmed with doubt and plunged into the deepest dis- 
tress of mind, i This looks like an evil and grievous sore upon the legitimate 
citizens of the holy Roman empire, having the name and mark of this citizen- 
ship, while the persecuted saints would not be hurt by it. By these dissensions 
the papal power received an insurable wound. Kings and princes, formerly 
slaves of the lordly pontiffs, now became their judges and masters; many of the 
people had the courage to disregard and despise the popes, to commit their sal- 
vation to God alone, and to admit it as a maxim that the prosperity of the church 
might be maintained and the interest of religion secured and promoted without a 
visible head crowned with spiritual supremacy. ^ Had they not been worshipers 
of the beast or his image, they might have discovered that a political head was as 
unnecessary for the churches as a spiritual one; but the kings and princes vener- 
ated the Constantine wild beast and wished to have the churches confederated or 
consolidated, but under the government of the state. To keep the people subject 
to ecclesiastical tyranny, and then keep this ecclesiastical despotism subject to 
themselves, was the grievous task of the worshipers of the beast, while the popes^ 
and prelates worshiped the image animated and controlled by themselves. 
Princes and prelates appeared with zeal in healing this melancholy breach in the 
church, but neither entreaties nor threatenings could induce these independent 
popes to resign their respective pontificates and submit to a new election. The 
Galilean, or French, church, incensed at this obstinacy, renounced all subjection 
to both pontiffs in a council held at Paris, A. D. 1397, and Charles YI. detained 
Benedict XIII. as prisoner in his palace at Avingnon.^ 

At the commencement of the fifteenth century Boniface IX. was at Rome, 
and Benedict XIII. was pope at Avingnon. A plan of reconciliation was formed. 
The popes bound themselves by oath to resign, if necessary for the peace of the 
church; both violated their oaths, and Benedict escaped from Avingnon. The 
council at Pisa, A. D. 1409, pronounced sentence of condemnation on both popes 
for heresy, perjury, contumacy, and unworthy the smallest tokens of honor or 
respect, and separated them from the church; and Alexander V. was elected 
pope. But all the decrees and proceedings of this council were treated with con- 
tempt by the condemned pontiffs, who continued to enjoy the privileges and per- 
form the functions of pope. ^ 

Thus, the Latin church had three ecclesiastical heads, and the duration of 
this schism was a source of many calamities and became daily more detrimental 
to both the civil and religious interests of those nations where the flame raged ; 
hence, the Emperor 8igismond, the king of France, and several European 
princes, employed all their zeal and activity and spared neither labor nor expense 
in restoring the tranquility of the church and restoring it again under one spiritual 
head. On the other hand, the pontiffs could not be persuaded by any means to 
prefer the peace of the church to the gratification of their ambition, so a general 
council and the decision of the universal church was determined on. This council 
was summoned to meet at Constance, A. D. 1414, by Pope John XXIII. , who 
was instigated to it by the entreaties of the Emperor Sigismond and from an 
expectation that its decrees would be in his favor. Pope John XXIII. with a 
great number of cardinals and bishops, the Emperor Sigismond with a great 
number of German princes, and the principal sovereigns, or horns of the first 
beast, were present or represented at this council.^ The schism that had so long 
rent the papacy was healed; the inferiority and subjection of popes to general 
councils was decreed; Pope John XXIII. was deposed for flagitious crimes and 



(1) Mosh. § 15. (2) § 16. (3) 15:2; 2, § 2. (4) 15:2- 2, § 3. 



?96 fHE KINGDOM OF GOt) DEVELOPED. 

violation of his oath to resign if necessary for the peace of the church; Martin 
Y. became sole pope; heretics were condemned and burnt; but the reformation 
of the church was not effected, for Pope Martin frustrated the effort. ^ 

6. Schism Among the Monks. — Tlie strength of popery was in the monks, 
and until this force was broken reformation was hopeless. Independence of 
thought, freedom of inquiry and speech, firmness in purpose, and persistence in 
action appears among the monks, scholars, and teachers of science. The schism 
between the civil and ecclesiastical heads, and in papacy, gave opportunity for 
malcontents to think, inquire, speak, and act with freedom in regard to religion 
and politics. The numerous tribes of the Fratriceli, Beghards, and spiritual 
Franciscans adhered to the party of Lewis. Supported by his patronage and 
dispersed throughout the greatest part of Europe, they everywhere attacked the 
reigning pontiff, John XXII., sl^^ an enemy to true religion; and their writings 
and ordinary conversation loaded him with the heaviest accusations and bitterest 
invectives, and his doctrine about the privileges of the souls of the faithful was 
condemned by the divines of Paris. ^ 

Lewis protected these monks of the third order, or rule of St. Francis, from 
the attempts of the inquisitors, while he treated the Dominicans, as friends to 
the pope, with ignominy and great severity. '^ The Mendicants, and more espe- 
cially the Dominicans and Franciscans, were at the head of all the monastic 
orders, and indeed were become the heads of the church. All matters of 
importance in the court of Pome and in the cabinets of princes were carried on 
under their supreme and absolute discretion. But their esteem among the 
superstitious multitude and influence in courts and cabinets drew upon them 
jealousy and hatred from the higher and lower clergy, the monastic societies, 
and the public universities.^ The Franciscans asserted St. Francis to be a second 
Christ, and the popes approved and recommended their tracts and stories putting 
Francis, the founder of their order, upon equality with the Son of God. ^ 

But a schism took place in their ranks that the popes and inquisition could 
not heal by conciliation nor persecution. Those adhering to the genuine and 
austere rule of their founder opposed the popes who attempted to mitigate the 
severity of the injunction, and were called Fratriceli or Minorites, Beghards, 
and Spiritualists; those of a lax discipline, called Brethren of the Community, 
acknowledged the jurisdiction of the pope and respected his decisions. These 
monastic factions were turbulent and seditious beyond expression, gave incredible 
vexation to the popes, and for a long time disturbed wherever they went the 
tranquility of both church and state. The Community brethren were outrageous 
against the Fratriceli who had deserted their communion, and persecuted them 
with fury. In Sicily the Fratriceli were protected by the king, Frederick, A. D. 
1313, by the nobility and bishops; in Germany, by Lewis, A. D. 1327. Pope 
John published a bull against them, ordered Frederick to expel them out of 
Sicily, and ordered the French Spiritualists to lay aside their rigid costume, and 
those who disobeyed were treated as heretics, some being burned and others 
died in prison, A. D. 1318. By order of the pope the inquisitors apprehended 
all they could find, condemned them to the fiames, sacrificed them without 
mercy to papal resentment and fury, and from that time vast numbers of them 
were most barbarously put to death in France, Italy, Spain, and Germany. 

This dreadful flame spread until it involved the whole Franciscan order. 
They and the Dominicans were so exasperated against each other they could not 
be reconciled by the popes' compromises or ambiguous terms. ^ The Dominican 
inquisitors committed a great number of them to the flames A. D. 1324. In 
A. D. 1327 they were protected by Lewis, and the Dominicans banished. But 
Lewis died, A. D. 1347, and Charles IV"., by his edicts and arms, supported the 



(5) Mosh. §§5,7,10. (6)14:2; 2,§9. (7) §31. (8) 14:2; 2, §§ 17, 18. (9)§21. (l)§§22-28. 



CHAPTER CLV. I SECTION VII. 797 

inquisitors and the popes' bulls to extirpate both the perfect and imperfect Fran- 
ciscans. ^ Many sought refuge in Switzerland; and neither edicts, bulls, nor 
inquisitors could pluck up the root of this inveterate discord ; but Franciscans 
were to be found in all places. A division of the order was agreed to and the 
order tolerated by the pope. But the Fratriceli and Beghards absolutely 
rejected this reconciliation and persisted in disturbing the peace of the church 
during this and the following centuries, and the scattered remnants of the 
Spirituals joined them. 

This lourteenth century gave rise to other religious societies, some of them 
of short duration and the rest never became famous. ^ In the fifteenth century 
the Fratriceli and Beghards carried on an open war against the court of Rome, 
and were persecuted by every method to vanquish their obstinacy ; monks, 
armed hosts, and magistrates committing them to the flames; but protected by 
persons of great influence they opposed force to force, and put to death some of 
the inquisitors. These dreadful series of calamities and persecutions were not 
suflScient to extinguish them, but they subsisted till the times of reformation in 
Germany, and embraced the doctrine and discipline of Luther.^ 

7. Schism Between Monks and Universities. — There was scarcely a province 
or university in Europe in which bishops, clergy, and doctors were not warmly 
engaged in opposition to the Dominicans and Franciscans, who used the power 
and authority received from the popes in undermining the ancient discipline of 
the church and assuming to themselves a certain superintendence in religious 
matters. In England, the University of Oxford made a resolute stand against the 
encroachments of the Dominicans, while Richard, archbishop of Armagh, Henry 
Crump, l^oris, and others attacked all the Mendicant orders with great vehemence 
and severity. They had many opponents in France also, who, with the University 
of Paris, were secretly engaged in contriving means to overturn their exorbitant 
power; but John De Polliac set himself openly against them and publicly denied 
the validity of the absolution granted by the Dominicans and Franciscans to per- 
sons confessing to them, and maintained that the popes were disabled from granting 
them a power of absolution by authority of the canon, omnis utriusque sewus, 
and proved from these premises, and not from the Scriptures, that all who would 
be sure of their salvation ought to confess their sins to their own parish priests, 
even though they had been absolved by the monks. But the monks were protected 
by the popes, who condemned the opinions of John Rollick, A. D. 1321. ^ 

Both the monks and their opponents belonged to the beast; but certainly 
a great schism was between them. John Wicklifl', an English doctor and professor 
of divinity in Oxford, was very conspicuous in this schism, and threw Out some 
reproofs against the popes themselves, and he has been eulogized by one party 
and blackened with calumnies by the other. For his opposition he was deprived 
of his position in the university by the archbishop of Canterbury, and a monk 
was put in his place. Wickliff appealed to the pope, who confirmed the sentence 
of the archbishop. Exasperated at his treatment, Wicklifi" threw ofi" all restraint 
and attacked all the monks and their scandalous irregularities, the pontifical power 
itself, and other ecclesiastical abuses, detested the wretched superstition of the 
times, refuted the absurd notions generally received in religion, translated the 
Scriptures out of the Latin Yulgate into English, and exhorted the laity to study 
them. For all this he was tried in a council in London, ordered by Rope Gregory 
XL, A. D. 1377, but escaped his imminent danger by the interest of the duke of 
Lancaster and other peers having a high regard for him. Soon after this the 
grand schism of the papacy gave all reformers or schismatics an opportunity to 
speak and act successfully, and the Scriptures translated into the English language 
was the hardest blow to popery in England. But process was revived against 
Wickliff by William De Courtney, archbishop of Canterbury, A. D. 1385, and 



(2) Mosh. §§ 30-33. (3) §§ 34, 35. (4) 15:2; 2, § L • (5) 14:2; 2, § 18. 



798 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

carried on with great vehemence in two councils, held at London and Oxford. 
His works were condemned as ten heresies and thirteen errors ; but he escaped 
execution in safety and died in peace, A. D. 1387. How he escaped execution is 
not known, but most likely by the protection of princes who were now desiring a 
reformation of the corrupt ecclesiastics, and protected reformers while they con- 
demned schisms. 

Wickliif left many followers in England and other countries, styled Wickliffites 
and Lollards, who were persecuted wherever found by the inquisitors and other 
instruments of papal vengeance. ^ Of this the Lollard's tower is a memorial.' 
But as these names were indefinitely applied to all opposers of popery and papal 
corruptions, it is difficult to determine whether they designate advocates of reforma- 
tion, reformers, or the woman in the wilderness ; and though Oldcastle, in England 
deserves special notice among reformers and schismatics, we must pass over to 
Huss, of Bohemia. 

John Huss, of highest reputation in character and talents, lived in Prague, 
and performed the functions of professor of divinity in the university and 
ordinary pastor in the church of that city. Like other reformers, he com- 
menced by declaiming against the corruptions of the clergy, and such remon- 
strances had become very common and were approved by the wise and 
good. The Latin church had now two popes, and Huss endeavored, A. D. 1408, 
to withdraw the University of Prague from the jurisdiction of Gregory XH., 
whom the kingdom of Bohemia had hitherto acknowledged as the true and lawful 
head of the church. This exasperated the archbishop of Prague and the clergy, 
and the violent quarrel was inflamed by the reformer's pathetic exclamations 
against the court of Rome and corruptions of the priests.^ 

8. Schism Among the Philosophers. — At this time there was a schism among 
the philosophers in the Latin church, and the animosities that always reigned 
among the realists and nominalists were at this time carried to the greatest excess 
imaginable. They accused each other of impiety, heresy, the sin against the 
Holy Ghost, and had constantly recourse to corporal punishment to decide the 
matter. Huss was a realist and peculiarly severe in his opposition to the nomi- 
nalists. ^ Huss recommended, in an open and public manner, the writings and 
opinions of Wickliff, whose new doctrine had already made such a noise in England. 
An accusation was brought against him, A. D. 1410, before the tribunal of Pope 
John XXIIL. and he was solemnly debarred the communion of the church. This 
he treated with contempt, laid open the disorders that preyed upon the vitals of 
the church and the vices that dishonored the conduct of its ministers, and was 
almost universally applauded. Huss was summoned before the great council of 
Constance, which was convened to heal all the schisms in the church and restore 
its unit}'. He obeyed the order, having a safe conduct for his journey to Con- 
stance, his residence in that place, and safe return to his own country granted by 
the German-Poman emperor, Sigismond, and he expected to prove the charge of 
having deserted the church of Pome to be entirely groundless. He was only an 
advocate for reformation, and these were very common then in the church. But 
Huss was condemned as a heretic, with whom no faith was to be kept. The imperial 
conduct was violated, and, notwithstanding his oath, the emperor suffered him to 
be cast into prison and burnt to death, A. D. 1415, after being degraded in the 
diabolical manner peculiar to popery. Jerome of Prague, his friend and coadjutor, 
was also martyred, A. D. 1416. ^ 

This religious dissension, inflamed by the martyrdom of Huss and Jerome, 
broke out into open war which was carried on with the most savage and unpar- 
alleled barbarity. The emperor, Sigismond, employed edicts, remonstrances, 
terror of penal laws, and force of arms to put an end to these lamentable divis- 
ions, and great numbers of the Hussites perished by his orders in the most 

(6) Mosh. 14:2; 2, §^ 19, 20. (7) Encp , R K. Lollard and 01dca?tle. Dowl.6:2; 14-22. (8) 
Mosh 15:2; 2, § 5. (9) Mosh. 15:2; 2, § 7. (1) §§ 6, 7. Dowl. 6:3, 4; §§ 23-52. 



CHAPTER CLV. I SECTION IX. 799 

barbarous manner. The Bohemians, irritated by his despotic yoke, A. D. 1420, 
with Ziska at their head, made war against their sovereign. Ziska became a 
terror to enemies; and on his death (A. D. 1424) Procopius Rasa carried on the 
war with spirit and success. The acts of barbarity committed on both sides were 
shocking and terrible beyond expression. Though diiFering in religious senti- 
ments, both agreed it was lawful to extirpate with fire and sword the enemies of 
true religion ; and such enemies they appeared to each other. Both agreed that 
heretics were worthy of capital punishment ; but the Hussites denied Huss and 
Jerome to be heretics. The Huss army increased prodigiously by a confluence 
of strangers, but a schism among themselves arose (A. D. 1420) about the extent 
of the reformation. The Calixtines wanted the Scriptures simply explained, the 
Lord's supper administered in both kinds, the clergy devoted to their own busi- 
ness, and mortal sins punished according to their enormity. The Taborites 
insisted upon reducing the religion of Jesus to its primitive simplicity, ecclesiastical 
government reformed in the same manner, the authority of the pope destroyed, 
the form of divine worship changed ; Christ alone should reign, and all things 
should be carried on by a Divine direction and impulse. And, as usual, these 
radical reformers are blamed with all the violence, rapine, desolation, and 
murder, 2 though all these outrages were perpetrated and justified from the first 
appearance by the Hussites. 

The council of Basil endeavored, without success, to put an end to the war ; 
but Aeneas Sylvius and others sent by the council into Bohemia, gained back the 
Calixtines by allowing to them the cup in the communion. But the Taborites 
remained firm to their first principles, and neither eloquence, threats, persecutions, 
nor sufferings could vanquish their obstinacy. Afterwards the Taborites reviewed 
and improved their tenets and discipline, became more rational, withdrew from 
the war, expelled the disorderly, and joined Luther and his successors at the 
reformation. ^ The next reformers, Martin Luther and others, made a perma- 
nent schism in the empire, or state church. And schism in state churches 
continue to be an evil and grievous sore to all citizens and worshipers of the beast 
or his image ; and this sore is incurable. 

9. Schism About the Power of Councils and of the Popes. — The councils 
of Constance and Basil burnt Huss, Jerome, and the bones of Wickliff, con- 
demned their works, subjected the popes to a general council, and ordered 
reformers. But Pope Eugenius devoted the council of Basil and its members to 
hell and damnation, declared all their acts null, and their proceedings unlawful. 
Pope Pious 11. (A. D. 1460) publicly denied the pope's subordination to a general 
council, and prohibited all appeals to them under the severest penalties ; he 
obtained from Louis XL, king of France, the abrogation of the pragmatic 
sanction, which favored the supremacy of a general council : and declared that, 
for what he had written in favor of the council of Basil, as Aeneas Sylvius, he 
himself was a damnable heretic, but as Pope Pious II. he was an orthodox 
pontift^^ A. D. 1463. The church was not reformed in its head nor members. 

Pope Alexander YI. was a most debauched and cruel wretch."^ Pope Julius 
II. was a man of blood and perjury ; ^ excommunicated the council of Pisa, A. D. 
1511, and the council excommunicated him. He called the fifth council of Lateran 
and died A. D. 1517. Leo X. continued the council; forbid the freedom of the 
press ; enjoined upon the inquisitions the punishment and extirpation of heretics 
and Jews; pronounced peace established among Christian princes; the schis- 
matical synod of Pisa abolished; and the reformation of the church and court 
of Rome sufiiciently provided for, A. D. 1517. ^ But reformation was not 
accomplished and was still demanded by many. ^ The monks were not reformed, 



(2) Mosh. 15:2; .% §§ 3-6. (3) Idm., §§ 2-7. Encp. R. K., Hus., Tabr.,and Boham. (4) Mosb. 
15:2; 2, §§ 11-14. (*) Mosh. 15:2; 2, § 18. 16:1; 1, § 4. (5) 16:1; 1, § 5. (6) § 7. Dowl. bk. 6, 
chap. 5, §§ 66-71. (7j Mosh 16:1; 1, § 18. 



800 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

and indulgences were sold to the perpetrators of crime. ^ Kone of the schisms 
were healed in fact, nor the causes of them removed. Not only private persons, 
but the most powerful princes and sovereign states exclaimed loudly against the 
despotic dominion of the pontiffs ; the fraud, violence, avarice, and injustice that 
prevailed in their councils; the unbridled licentiousness and enormous crimes of 
clergy and monks of all denominations; the unrighteous severit}^ and partiality 
of the Koman laws ; and they publicly demanded a reformation of the church in 
its head and in all its members, and demanded a general council to accomplish 
this purpose. But the popes, monks, and clergy resisted the demand and con- 
tinued their frauds, crimes and cruelties. 

Louis XIL, of France, expressed his resolution to overturn the power of 
Babylon, as he termed Rome. Pope Julius II. treated his threat with mockery 
and laughter, and was preparing to meet them when he died. ^ Indulgence were 
still sold by monks, which precluded confession to the priest or enduring the 
penance enjoined by them. ^ While all these schisms in principle and practice 
tormented popery, if not Mahometanism, the divines disputed with a good deal 
of freedom upon rehgious subjects, even upon those looked upon as the most 
essential to salvation — and the popes did not prohibit it unless detrimental to 
their authority. Many doctors before Luther inculcated with impunity, and even 
applause, the very same tenets that drew upon him such accusations and bitter 
reproaches ; but they did not attack the power and opulence of the popes and 
clergy. ^ Thus, schism in fact, if not in form, pervaded every department of the 
papal empire and made it ready for permanent schism whenever some daring 
spirit commenced the revolution. This daring spirit appeared in the person of 
Martin Luther, A. D. 1517. Others followed his example. Reformation was 
effected, and schisms in the empire or state church were permanently established. 



(8) Mosh. §§ 10-12, 17. (9) 1. §§ 2, 6. 10, 18. (1) §§ 8, 17, and chap. 2, § 4, and D. Aubigne, 
Vol. 1., p. 231. (2) Mosh. 16, Sect. 1, chap, 1, §§ 11-15. 



CHAPTER CLYI. 



PROTESTANT SCHISM EFFECTED. A. M. 5521-5652. 

1. Schism Established in Germany. — Luther was of Saxony, in Germany; 
a monk of the Augustine order of Mendicants; a professor of divinity in the 
academy erected at Wittenberg by Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony. 
Leo X. was pope, and Maximilian L of Austria was the German-Roman emperor. 
Luther was the right man in the right place at the right time. The prayers of 
the saints were in some degree answered, and the power of the two witnesses to 
smite the earth, or empire, with plagues was manifested. As a philosopher, 
Luther was a nominalist ; in theology, he followed Augustine chiefly, but pre- 
ferred the decision of Scripture and dictates of reason; but he was not perfect, 
omniscient, nor infallible.^ The first thing that aroused him to the corruptions 
and errors of popery was the sale of indulgences for the remission of all sins — 
past, present, or yet to be committed — by a Dominican monk, named Tetzel. 
Against these he declaimed with indignation and vehemence, and even censured 
the pope himself for permitting the people to be seduced to delusions and from 
the merits of Christ. ^ 

This dispute between a doctor of divinity and a monk was nothing uncommon 
at this time, and the sentiments of Luther were received with applause by the 
greatest part of Germany, which had long groaned under the extortions of papal 
avarice and corruption; but the votaries of Rome were filled with horror at the 
opinions of the Saxon reformer, and the Dominicans were insulted and attacked 
in the person of Tetzel ; and other Dominican champions in debate attacked 
Luther and were defeated by him. As yet, Luther remained submissive to the 
bishops and the pope, and wished only for a' reformation. ^ The pope regarded 
this controversy with indifference or contempt till the emperor informed him of 
its importance and of the fatal divisions it was likely to produce in Germany. 
Then Luther was ordered to Rome to defend his cause before the pope. Frederick, 
elector of Saxony, interposed and claimed that Luther should be tried by the 
laws of the German empire; so, he was tried in the German diet of Augsburg, 
before Cardinal Cajetan, the pope's legate, who was an avowed enemy to Luther 
and friend to Tetzel. ^ Cajetan imperiously demanded Luther to renounce his 
opinions, humbly confess his fault, and respectfully submit to the judgment of 
the pope. The high spirit of Luther was not to be tamed by arrogant dictates of 
authority, and, rejecting the decision of the legate, he appealed to the decision of 
the pope when better informed. But the pope published a special edict, com- 
manding his subjects to acknowledge his power of delivering from all the punish- 
ments due to sin and transgression of every kind. Luther, perceiving it impos- 
sible to bring the court of Rome to any reasonable terms, appealed from the pope 
to a general council.'^ The pope changed his conduct and employed milder 
means, and sent Charles Miltitz, a Saxon knight, who induced Luther to write a 
submissive letter to Pope Leo X., promising silence upon matters in debate pro- 
t^ided the same obligation be imposed on his adversaries. ^ The elector of Saxony 
was demanded to oblige Luther to renounce the doctrines he maintained, or to 
withdraw from him his protection and favor ; but the elector favored Luther, and 
his credit and cause were too far advanced to be destroyed by authority.^ 



(3) Mosh. 2, § 12. (4) 16:1; 2, § 3. (5) Idm. § 5. (6) § 6. (7) Idm. § 7. (8) § 8. (9) § 9. 
-51 



802 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

I 

Doctor Eckius challenged Carlostadt and Luther to public debate on free will 
and authority of the pope. After the discussion Eckius breathed nothing but 
fury against Luther, and marked him out for his vengeance ;i but Philip Melanc- 
thon, professor of Greek at Wittenberg, was gained by them to the reformation. 
A. D. 1519.- The pope, instigated by the Dominicans and Eckius, issued a bull 
against Luther, A. D. 1520, condemning forty-one of his heresies; ordering his 
writings to be publicly burnt; summoning him, on pain of excommunication, to 
confess and retract his errors within sixty days, and to cast himself on the cleni- 
ency and mercy of the pontiff. ^ But Luther stole a march on the pope before 
the sixty days expired and renounced the communion of the church of Rome; 
and before a second bull was thundered against him, he, in the presence of a 
prodigious multitude, publicly burnt the former bull and the decretals and canons 
relating to the pope's supreme jurisdiction. (A. D. 1520.) About twenty days 
after, January 10, A. D. 1521, a second bull from the pope excommunicated 
Luther for insulting the majesty and disowning the supremacy of the Roman 
pontiff. 

Luther now formed the resolution of founding a church upon principles 
entirely opposite to those of Rome, and to establish in it a system of doctrine 
and ecclesiastical government agreeable to the spirit and precepts of the Gospel 
of truth. From this time his reformation was more radical and thorough and 
carried on with more vigor, and he was seconded in it by many learned men in 
various parts of Europe and in the Academy of Wittenberg; and the incredible 
number of students, from all parts, propagated the principles of the reformation; 
throughout all the countries of Europe. (See § 15.) 

The Emperor Maximilian I. died, and his son, Charles Y., became emperor, 
A. D. 15 1 9. The pope reminded Charles of his character as advocate and 
defender of the church, and demanded the exemplary punishment of Luther. 
Frederick the Wise, by whose influence Charles was elected emperor, employed 
his credit with Charles to prevent any unjust edict against Luther, and to have 
him tried by the canons of the Germanic church and the laws of the empire. 
Luther was tried at Worms, secured against his enemies by a safe-conduct from 
the emperor, and pleaded his cause before the assembly with the utmost resolu- 
tion and presence of mind, and the united power of threatenings and entreaties 
were employed in vain to induce him to renounce his positions, or submit to the 
Roman pontiff. The emperor was importuned to violate his safe-conduct to 
Luther, as Sigismond did to Huss, but Charles permitted Luther to return home 
unmolested. After Luther departed he was condemned by the unanimous vote 
of the emperor and princes, and declared an enemy to the holy Roman empire, 
a schismatic, and heretic; and the severest punishments were denounced against 
those who should receive, entertain, maintain, or countenance him by acts of 
hospitality, conversation, or writing; and all his disciples, adherents, and 
followers were involved in the same condemnation. 

This edict was received with the highest disapprobation by all wise and 
thinking persons. Frederick saw the storm arising against Luther; sent confiden- 
tial persons in disguise, and apprehended him returning from the diet and carried 
him into the castle of Wartenburg, where he was concealed ten months and was 
engaged in writing. ^ Carlostadt was also excommunicated. He countenanced 
the populace in throwing down and breaking the images of the saints. Luther, 
with other learned men, translated the Scriptures into German and spread the 
different parts among the people, and the sudden and almost incredible effects 
were the extirpation of the enormous principles and superstitious doctrines of 
Rome from the minds of the people, or prodigious numbers of them. ^ 

Pope Leo died, and Adrian YI. was elevated to his place. Adrian promised 
reforms, but insisted on the speedy execution of the edict of Worms against 



(1) Mosh. § 10. (2) §§ 11, 13. (4) Idm. 17. (5) § 18. 



CHAPTER CLVI. : SECTION II. 803 

Luther. The emperor was now residing in Spain. But the German princes 
demanded a general council to reform abuses and settle all matters. They did 
not wish a schism, but demanded a reformation. Both Pope Clement VII. 
and the emperor demanded the execution of the edict of Worms, but said 
nothing about a reformation. Pope Adrian having died, A. D. 1523, Clement 
YII. had become pope. The German princes demanded a council, but the pope's 
legate had retired to Ratsbon, with the bishops and princes attached to the pope, 
and engaged to rigorously execute the edict in their respective dominions.*^ Dis- 
putes arose among the reformers about Christ's presence in the supper, which, 
with the Peasants' war (A. D. 1525) and the death of Frederick the Wise, were 
grievous sores to the reformers. '^ 

The new elector, eJohn, completed the schism, and assumed to himself the 
supremacy in ecclesiastical matters. He founded and established a church in his 
dominions totally different from the church of Rome in doctrine, discipline, and 
government. He ordered a body of laws relating to the form of ecclesiastical 
government, the method of public worship, the rank, office, and revenues of the 
priesthood, and other matters of that sort, to be drawn up by Luther and pro- 
mulgated by heralds throughout his dominions, A. D. 1527, and had the churches 
supplied with pious and learned doctors. His example was followed by all the 
princes and states of Germany, who renounced the papal supremacy and jurisdic- 
tion ; and thus, a like form of worship, discipline, and government was intro- 
duced into all the dissenting churches. 

The schism being now established in the church, the differences among the 
German princes broke out into a violent and lasting flame. They all wanted 
reformation, but schism was an evil sore that the worshipers of the beast or of his 
image could not endure. Elector John was the second parent and founder of the 
Lutheran church. ^ The pope party gave intimations of making war on the 
Lutherans, and the Lutherans formed the plan for a confederacy. Efforts were 
again made, by order of the emperor, to suppress all further disputes and to 
execute the edict of Worms. The greatest part of the German princes opposed 
this motion and insisted on a general council, and the emperor was solicited to 
assemble, without delay, a free and general one; and in the meanwhile each 
prince should manage the matter in his own way in his own dominions.^ War 
between the emperor and the pope favored the reformation, more princes and 
states engaged in it, and the schism increased. ^ 

2. Spread of the Schism. — While the credit and authority of the pope received 
a mortal wound in Germany, they received another in Switzerland from Ulric 
Zuingle, a canon of Zurich, whose extensive learning and uncommon sagacity were 
accompanied with the most heroic intrepidity and resolution. As early as A. D. 
1516 he had begun to explain the Scriptures to the people and to censure the errors 
of a corrupt church, and appears to have been in the advance of Luther, both in 
time and in degree of reformation principles. But in A. D. 1519 he encountered 
the Italian monk, Samson, who was selling indulgences with the impudence of 
Tetzel. He pursued with steadiness and resolution the design of reformation, and 
was seconded by other learned men in Germany, and the pope's supremacy was 
rejected in the greatest part of Switzerland. He is said to have attributed to the 
civil magistrate an extensive power in ecclesiastical affairs. ^ During these trans- 
actions in Germany and Switzerland the reformation spread far and wide, and 
almost all European states welcomed its salutary beams and exulted in the pros- 
pect of deliverance from the yoke of superstition and spiritual despotism. The 
reformed religion was propagated in Sweden soon after Luther's rupture with the 
pope, by Olaus Petri, and the papal empire in Sweden was entirely overturned 
and the king declared head of the church, A. D. 1527. ^ 



(6)Mosli.§20. (7) §§21, 22. (8) 16:1; 2, § 23. (9) §24. (1)§25. (2) 16:1; 2, §12. (3)§80. 



804: THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

The reformation was introduced into Denmark A. D. 1521, and perfected 
A. D. 1539, by the king, Ciiristian III> By the patronage of Margaret, queen 
of Navarre, several pious and learned men were encouraged to propagate the 
principles of the reformation in France and to erect several Protestant churches. 
In A. D. 1523 multitudes were in several provinces, who had conceived the 
utmost aversion against both the doctrine and tyranny of Rome, and among these 
were many persons of rank and dignity, and even some of the Episcopal order. 
As their numbers increased daily and commotions were excited on account of 
religious differences, the authority of the monarch and cruelty of his officers 
intervened by the edge of the sword to support popery. ^ 

Before A. D. 1530 the reformation had progressed into Spain, Hungary, 
Bohemia, Poland, the Netherlands, and Britain. ^ The commotions raised in all 
these countries, and the eflbrts to preserve the unity of the empire, or state, church 
in subjection to the pope or general councils, show schism to be an evil and 
grievous sore upon the worshipers of the beast or his image. 

3. Efforts to Heal the Sore. — The difficulty with the pope being ended, 
the wars with Francis I. being settled by treaty, the emperor assembled a diet at 
Spire, revoked the rights of the princes to manage ecclesiastical matters in their 
own dominions, and every change in doctrine, discipline, or worship of the estab- 
lished religion before the determination of the approaching council was known 
was declared unlawful. Against this the Lutheran princes protested, and from 
this circumstance the name, Protestants, was applied to all opposers of popery.^ 
They sent their protest to the emperor, who became so enraged as to imprison 
the ambassadors for several days. ^ The Protestants, in view of this violence, 
attempted a confederation for mutual defense, but owing to much schism among 
themselves found it impossible to make a Protestant wild beast, with heads and 
horns. ^ The emperor, on his way from Spain through Italy to Germany to attend 
the diet at Augsburg, endeavored to induce the pope, Clement YII., to call a 
general council ; but the pope was inflexible, reproached the emperor with 
ill-judged clemency, and alleged it to be his duty to support the church and execute 
speedy vengeance upon the obstinate heretical faction who dared to call in question 
the authority of the Roman pontiff. That the emperor might know what Luther- 
anism was, the elector of Saxony ordered Luther and others to draw up the 
confession of Augsburg. ® 

The diet of Augsburg opened June 20, A. D. 1530. The confession of Augs- 
burg was read in presence of the emperor. The copies of it delivered to the 
emperor were signed by the elector, four princes of the empire, and two imperial 
cities. 1 An attempted refutation was drawn up by Bishop Faber and Doctors 
Eckius and Cochlaeus, and was publicly read in the assembly. The emperor 
demanded the Protestant members to acquiesce in the pretended refutation and to 
end their religious debates by an unlimited submission to its doctrines and opinions. 
The Protestants asked a copy of the refutation, to expose its extreme insufficiency 
and weakness. This request was denied by the emperor, in obedience to the 
pope's legate, and his authorit}^ interposed to stop further proceedings and to 
prohibit any new writings or declarations that might lengthen the debates. How- 
ever, the refutation was reviewed from memory, and the review was presented to 
the emperor, but he refused to receive it. ^ The schism was permanent. Confer- 
ences were held between persons of eminence, piety, and learning, chosen from 
both sides, and nothing was omitted that might have the least tendency to calm 
the animosity, heal the divisions, and unite the hearts of the contending parties, 
but all to no purpose. ^ A decree was issued by the emperor against Luther and 
his adherents, in addition to the edict of Worms. The changes in doctrine and 
discipline were severely eensured, and the Protestant princes, states, and cities 
were ordered to return and resume the papal yoke or incur the indignation and 

(4)Mosh., §§31-33. (5) §34. (6) § 35. (*) § 26. (7) § 27. (8) § 28. (9) § 29. (1) 3, § 1. 
(2)16:1; 3, §3. (3) §4. 



CHAWER CLVI. : SECTION III. 805 

vengeance of the emperor, as the patron and protector of tlie church.^ The 
Protestant elector and princes of Germany formed a confederacy, A. D. 1530, 
for defending their liberties and religion, and invited into it the kings of 
England, France, Denmark, and several republics and states. The elector, 
Palatine, and the elector of Mentz, offered their mediation. The Turkish war 
and the election of his brother, Ferdinand, as king of the Romans, induced the 
emperor to accept a treaty of peace with the Protestants, A. D. 1532 ; and the 
Lutherans were allowed the free and unmole^ed exercise of their religion till a 
rule of faith was fixed in a free and general council, or in a diet of the empire, to 
be called in six months. John, elector of Saxony, died and was succeeded by 
John Frederick. The truce of J^uremberg inspired new vigor and resolution to 
the reformation, and various cities and provinces boldly espoused it. The 
emperor insisted on the council, but Pope Clement YII. baffled it till he died, in 
A. D. 1534. Pope Paul III. proposed a council at Mantua, and sent letters 
through the kingdoms; but the Protestants protested against it as partial and cor- 
rupt, and prepared the Articles of Smalcald to present if required.^ The council 
at Mantua being prevented, efforts were made by the emperor and Protestant 
princes to restore civil and religious concord, but they were defeated by the court 
of Rome, and a general council was the only remedy. ^ 

In the diet at Spire, A. D. 1542. the pope's legate proposed a council at 
Trent, which was accepted by Ferdinand, king of the Romans, and the papal 
princes. The Protestants objected to the place and to a council called solely by 
the pope's authority, but to no effect; and the emperor, with the pope, formed 
the design of terminating the dispute by force of arms. The landgrave of Hesse 
and the elector of Saxony took measures and raised an army of defense; and 
Luther, who recommended patience and prayer as the only arms worthy of 
Christianity, died A. D. 1546. '^ The emperor and pope had mutually resolved 
the destruction, by a sudden blow, of all daring to oppose the council of Trent. 
The council of Trent, A. D. 1546, promulgated its decrees. The Proliestant 
princes in the diet of Ratsbon protested against their authority, and were pro- 
scribed by the emperor, who raised an army to reduce them to obedience.^ The 
contest was decided by the sword, and the schism in the empire church remained 
permanently established in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and England. In 
England the pillars of popery had been shaken, and King Henry YIIL declared, 
by parliament and people, the supreme head on earth of the church of England. 
The monasteries were suppressed and their revenues applied to other purposes, 
and the power and authority of the pope were abrogated and entirely overturned. ^ 

The schism in England was effected by the caprice of the king. The refor- 
mation was effected afterwards by Archbishop Cranmer and others, but efforts 
and war were made to recover it to the pope. ^ The reformation was early sown 
in Scotland by several Scotch noblemen who had resided in Germany during the 
disputes that divided the empire ; but the popes prevented its growth by inhuman 
laws and barbarous executions till John Knox, a pupil of Calvin, inspired them 
with a violent aversion to the superstitions of Rome ; and the greatest part of 
the Scotch nation abandoned them entirely and aimed at nothing less than the 
total extirpation of popery. In Ireland the reformation underwent the same 
vicissitudes and revolutions as in England. ^ In the Belgic provinces — Spain and 
Italy — the reformation progressed and schism spread till met by force of arms 
and the cruelties of the inquisition. ^ In Switzerland and France the schism 
spread and efforts — even to war — were made to heal the sore, as we shall see 
again. 4 The papists acknowledge that the papal doctrines, jurisdiction, and 
authority would have fallen into ruin in all parts of the world had not the force 
of the secular arm been employed to support this tottering edifice, and fire and 
sword been let loose upon those who were assailing it with only reason and 
argument. ^ We shall see more of this grievous sore in Chap. 157. 

' (4) Mosh. § 5. (5) §9. (6) § 13. (7) § 14. (8) 4, § 1. (9) 16:1; 3, § 11. (1) §§ 11, 12. 
(2) § 10. (3) §§ 12, 13. (4) Chap. 157, § 6. (5) 16:1; 2, § 35. 



CHAPTER CLYII. 



THE SECOND BOWL, OR YIAL, AND THE BLOODY SEA. 

A. M. 5500—5652. 

1. Import of the Scene and Symbol; Schism. — Schism being introduced 
into every department of the holy Roman empire, which decides its controversies 
in religion and politics by fire and sword, we may expect it to become a pool of 
blood or a lake of lire, and every vital principle of concentration of ecclesiastical 
and civil power must necessarily perish. Schism is a grievous sore upon the 
worshipers of political and religious monarchy. Emperor and pope, princes and 
prelates, will combine to heal the wound, or consuming sore. But the second 
angel stepped forth and poured out a second bowl of wrath upon the sea, or 
empire. The sore was not healed, but every vital principle of empire died. 
What were the ingredients poured out we are not told, but they ma}^ have been 
sound principles. The angel came out of the temple in attire of an officiating 
priest; the bowl was given by one of the aggressive forces of the kingdom of God, 
and the principles may have proceeded directly or indirectly from the teachings 
of the Scriptures. Three principles ma3' be seen cooperating in defense of the 
reformation : 1. The right of civil governments to rule without the gift of 
empire from the pope and to circumscribe ecclesiastical ambition and usurpation 
in political matters. 2. The right of civil rulers to defend the lives, property, 
liberties, and religion of subjects against any political or ecclesiastical assailant. 
3. The right of governments to combine against a common foe without receiving 
authority from an ecclesiastical or civil head, or to rebel against tyrants. The 
sea, taken geographically and as a part for the whole, would denote the countries 
or dominions bordering on the coasts and in the islands ; taken figuratively, it 
denotes the concentration of power, prerogatives, and infiuences supplied by 
tributaries — as rivers, streams, and fountains. Turning into blood, denotes the 
wars by which this concentration isdestroj^ed and its vital energies and infiuences 
are exhausted or consumed, so that this power can not hinder the advancement 
of the kingdom of God. The wars between the Mahometan and papal powers 
not only dyed the waters with blood, but also gave a withering death-blow to the 
Ottoman empire," which was the head and bulwark of Mahometanism, while 
other Mahometan powers gave it no support. Thus, schisms and bloody wars 
consumed the vital energies of the Monotheistic antagonism to the kingdom of God. 

2. Contest Between Pope and Emperor. — By the strategy and usurpations 
of the pope, the power and authority of the emperor in Italy were entirely gone, 
as we have seen already. ^ Charles lY. was crowned king of Italy at Milan, and 
Roman emperor at Rome, like a captive in the hands of a conqueror. '' Fred- 
erick III., avoiding Milan, received the crowns of Italy and Rome from the hands 
of the pope, Nicholas, in his own capital. Maximilian L, prevented by the 
Yenicians from repairing to Italy for coronation, was content to take the title, 
emperor elect, and this his successors in the empire have retained. ^ The strategy 
of the pope was to have an emperor, but to neutralize his power in Italy by 



(*) Chap. 166, §§ 2, 3. (6) Chap. 147. (7) Gbn. 2:10; p. 192. (8) Rev. Eurp., Vol. I., p. 238. 



CHAPTER CLVII. '. SECTIQN III. 807 

donating portions of it to princes of Italy, France, or Spain, to be held as the 
property of the papal domain, and for which they paid tribute to the church of 
Rome. ^ Hence, the JSTorman influence predominated in Italy, then the French, 
then the Spanish ;i then the Yenicians, becoming powerful by their commerce, 
prevented Maximilian from being crowned king of Italy and Roman emperor. ^ 
* The popes, kings of Naples, dukes of Milan, republics of Venice and Florence 
principally shared the dominion of Italy toward the end of the fifteenth century, 
and the popes employed all their policy to prevent any foreign power from inter- 
fering or establishing itself there. ^ The mutual wars of these states and the 
weakness of the German emperors encouraged other powers to plan their conquest, 
and they could found their claims to Italy on former grants of the popes^ and 
marriages.^ The French kings, Charles YIIL, Louis XII., and Francis I., 
engaged in these conquests, but they were defeated by the Spaniards, who held 
the sway in Italy for more than one hundred years. ^ These wars were desolating 
and bloody. The veneration for the pope v^as lost. His power to bestow crowns 
and countries was disregarded, and the imperial army imprisoned the pope, took 
Rome by storm, and all Italy was pillaged. ^ The emperor claimed the right of 
conferring secular dignities in Italy by virtue of his Italian crown ; but the quarrels 
between the emperor and the court of Rome about this matter was settled A. D. 
1576, when the emperor, Maximilian II., granted the grand duke of Tuscany that 
dignity upon condition he acknowledged it a tenure of the empire, and not from 
the pope. ^ The stripping the pope of power over civil rulers, the balance of power 
among the states, the persecution and defense of religion, were so mixed up and 
blended with desolating wars and bloodshed that they must be treated together 
topographically. So long as the object was to subvert the feudal aristocracy and 
!the Protestant religion in France, Francis and Henry were defenders of the 
Germanic systems and extended protection to the Protestant states of the empire, 
to prevent the house of Austria from establishing their imperial power absolute 
and hereditary. Henry lY., Louis XIIL, Richelieu, and Mazarin adopted the 
same line of policy. They leagued with the Protestant princes and armed by turns 
the greater part of Europe against Austria and the Emperor Ferdinand II., whose 
ambitious designs threatened to subvert the constitution of the empire. This was 
the grand motive for the famous thirty years' war, which was terminated by the 
'treaties of Westphalia, A. D. 1648, and of the Pyrenese, A. D. 1659. ^ 

3. Religious Wars in England. — England had been favored by a reformer 
'in the person of Wickliff, and with a translation of the Scriptures by him, before 
Germany had given birth to a Luther; and the papal authority was overthrown in 
ithe country before the peace of Westphalia, A. D. 1648. Henry YIIL rebelled 
against the pope because the pope, fearing to ofi^end the emperor, refused to grant 
Henry a divorce from his wife, Catharine, sister to the Emperor Charles Y. 
Henry caused the divorce to be pronounced by Cranmer, archbishop of Canter- 
'bury, A. D. 1532. The pope annulled the divorce and issued a bull against Henry. 
Henry caused the pope's authority in England to be abrogated by the parliament; 
^installed himself the supreme head of the English church. This title was con- 
'ferred on him by the clergy and confirmed by the parliament, and all persons 
were obliged in their oath of office to acknowledge his supremacy. A court of 
(high commissioners was established to judge ecclesiastical causes in the name of 
^the king, and from this sentence there was no appeal. 

Henry's religion was not very evangelical, but archbishop Cranmer and others 
advanced in reformation, and perhaps they profited by what WickliflP had done 
before them. The monasteries were suppressed and their property given to the 
king. Catholics were persecuted for denying his supremacy, and Protestants 
were persecuted for heresy. His son by Jane Seymour, Edward YL, introduced 
Presbyterianism and Calvinism, and soon died. 

(9) Rev., pp. 140-1. (1) 142. (2) 238. (8) 220. (4) 238-9. (5) Will., p. 327. (6) Will., p. 328. 
{7) Rev. Eurp. 1; 240. (8) Mm. 222. 



80$ tHE KINGDOM Oi' GOD DEVELOPED. 

Henry's daughter by Catharine ascended the throne, and was called Bloody 
Mary. She restored popery, A. D. 1553; received the pope's legate; inflicted 
great cruelties on the Protestants; burnt many of them. Over eight hundred 
suifered in five years, among whom were Archbishop Oranmerand the bishops of 
London and Worcester. She married Philip 11. , of Spain, and united with him 
in a war with France. The Spanish gained a victory at St. Quentin. The French 
conquered Calais from the English, and Mary died the same year (A. D. 1558.) 

Elizabeth, daughter of Henry by Anne Boleyn, came to the throne, and the 
Protestant religion became firmly established under her reign. Elizabeth 
abrogated the authority of the pope ; claimed to herself the supreme administra- 
tion of both spiritual and temporal aff'airs in her own kingdom ; adopted the 
Calvinistic doctrines, but retained the government of bisliops and many Romish 
ceremonies, A. D. 1559. This gave rise to the distinction between the English, 
or High church, and the Calvinistic, or Presbyterian.^ As the marriage of Anne 
Boleyn with Henry VIII. had not been acknowledged by the pope, Elizabeth was 
not recognized by the Catholic states of Europe as the legitimate queen of England, 
and Henry's grand niece, Mary, queen of Scotland, educated in France in Cathol- 
icism, was ii^duced by her paternal uncles, the Guises, to assume the arms and 
title of the queen of England. She married Francis II. , king of France, who 
died the next year after ascending the throne (A. D. 1560). i While her mother 
was regent of Scotland, French troops had been introduced to suppress the refor- 
mation; but the reformers, reinforced by the Catholic malcontents, who feared 
the French more than Protestantism, and applying to Elizabeth, received English 
troops, besieged the French in Leith, and compelled them to capitulate. 

By the articles signed at Leith, both the French and English troops were to 
evacuate Scotland ; Francis and Mary were to renounce the titles and arms of the 
sovereigns of England which they had assumed, and a parliament was to assemble 
at Edinburgh for the pacification of the kingdom. This parliament ratified the 
confession of faith, the Presbyterian worship was established, and the Catholic 
religion was prohibited. On the death of Francis 11. , Mary returned to Scotland, 
but with difficulty was she allowed a Catholic chapel attached to her court. She 
married Henry Stuart. Lord Darnby was accused of his murder and fled to 
England; was accused of complicity in plots against Elizabeth, and was beheaded, 
A. D. 1587.2 

On the death of Elizabeth, James Stuart YL, of Scotland, succeeded to the 
throne of England and Scotland with the title of James I.^ The church of 
England had for a long time been tossed on a boi^erous sea. The opposition 
of the papists on the one hand, and the discontents and remonstrances of the 
Puritans on the other, had kept it in a perpetual ferment. The troubles excited 
in Scotland by the reformation extended to Ireland, on account of the vigorous 
measures to establish over it the laws framed in England against the court of 
Rome and Catholic clergy. A general insurrection to expel the English from 
the island broke out A. D. 1596. Philip II., of Spain, supplied the insurgents 
with troops and ammunition, and Pope Clement YIII. proffered indulgences to all 
who would enlist under O'Neal against the English heretics. The insurgents, at 
first successful in a pitched battle with a formidable army, were entirely subju- 
gated after seven years' sanguinary war. ^ Refugees from persecution in France 
and the Netherlands found an asylum in England. The persecuting zeal of France 
and Spain stimulated the English naval power, and the invincible armada of 
Spain was destroyed in an invasion of England under the reign of Elizabeth. 
And not without blood was the reformation established in England, Scotland and 
Ireland; and schism and blood destroyed the power of monarchical government 
in church and state. ^ 



(9) Rev. Eurp. 257. Will., pp. 326-339. (1) Will., 340. (2) Rev. Eurp. 1; 259. (3) Will. 361. 
(4) Rev. Eurp. 1; 260. (5) Chap. 160, §§ 6, 7. 



Ohapter clvii.: section iv. 8()d 

4. Italy Deowned in Blood. — Rome was the throne of the Red Dragon, 
the first seat of the first beast, and the home and palace of the pope. And the 
popes were exceedingly active and employed all their policy to prevent any 
foreign power from interfering or from establishing itself in Italy. ^ But a com- 
bination of circumstances, influences, and agencies defeated the pope, destroyed 
the power and influence of Italy, and placed them under foreign control. In 
A. D. 1500 Spain was master of Sicily, Sardinia, and Naples. Francis I. 
attempted to recover Navarre, A. D. 1520, which was won and lost in a few 
months, and then the war was transferred into Italy. In two successive years 
the French governor of Milan was driven from Lombardy. The duke of Burbon, 
the constable of France, being repeatedly afl'ronted, deserted to the emperor, 
Charles Y., and was invested with the chief command of the imperial forces. 
Francis I. was defeated in the battle of Pavia. His army was almost totally 
destroyed and himself taken prisoner, A. D. 1525. ^ The liberation oi Francis I. 
(A. D. 1526) was the signal for a general league against Charles Y. 

The Italian states, since the battle of Favia in the power of the Spanish and 
German armies, now regarded the French as liberators. The pope headed the 
league, the Swiss joined, and Henry, alarmed at the increasing power of Charles 
Y., entered into a treaty with Francis II. The rebel duke of Burbon remained 
in Italy, quartering his mercenary troops on the inhabitants of Milan, and when 
the Italians declared against the emperor all Italy was delivered up to pillage. 
Burbon marched upon Rome followed by his own soldiers and fourteen thousand 
German brigands. Pope Clement discharged his best troops and shut himself 
up in the castle of St. Angelo. Rome was taken by storm, though Burbon fell 
in the assault; the pillage was universal, neither convents nor churches being 
spared ; from seven thousand to eight thousand Romans were massacred the first 
dav, and the ravages of the Goths and Yandals did not surpass those of the 
army of the first prince of Christendom. This excited great indignation throughout 
Europe; but instead of liberating the pope, Charles ordered prayers in all the 
Spanish churches for that purpose. 

At this favorable moment Francis sent an army into Italy, which penetrated 
to the very walls of Naples ; but here his prosperity ended. The rival monarchs 
desired peace; and though Charles was generally fortunate, his revenues were 
expended and he desired to crush the Reformation. Charles remained supreme 
master of Italy, the pope submitted to the emperor, the Yenitians were shorn of 
their conquests,^ and Pope Clement YIL crowned Charles Y., at Bologna, king 
of Italy and emperor of Rome, A. D. 1530. ^ The emperor was now the Roman 
emperor in fact, and distributed the provinces of Italy according to his own 
pleasure without the approbation of the pope. ^ Under Louis XL the theater of 
bloody wars between France and Austria was the low countries, but under Charles 
YIIL, Louis XIL, and Francis I. it was transferred to Italy, and from thence to 
Germany by Henry II. ^ The scene closed in Italy with the supremacy of Spain 
and the emperor of Germany, Charles Y. ^ Besides the rivalry of France and 
Austria, the wars of the Turks upon the Yenitians dyed the sea literally with 
Mahometan and Christian blood, destroyed the power of the Yenitians,* and 
wounded the Monotheistic antagonism to the kingdom of God. 

Italy as a power, or center of empire, died out during the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries. The political history of Italy during the seventeenth 
century is of trifling importance, but the social condition of its people merits a 
passing notice. The Reformation had destroyed the political influence of the 
pope, who was reduced to the rank of a petty sovereign over a small territory 
embraced in the states of the church; while Spain, mistress of the fairest prov- 
inces of the peninsula and its two large and beautiful islands, inflicted upon the 
country numerous evils which made the people at once poor and miserable. In 

(6) Rev. Eurp. 1 : 220. (7) Will., pt. 2, chap. 3, § 8, p. 327. (8) Idm., §§ 8-12. (9) Rev. Eurp., 
Yol. L, p. 238. (1) Idm., p. 240. (2) 246. (3) 247. (4) 245. 



810 THE KINGDOM OF GOB DEVELOPED. 

Lombardy, a city of three hundred thousand souls was reduced to scarcely one 
hundred thousand, seventy woolen factories were reduced to five, skillful and 
flourishing agriculture were reduced, and emigration was made a capital crime. 
The nation was drained of its treasures and of its blood. The people were drafted 
by thousands into the Spanish armies and perished in the wars of France, 
Germany, and the Netherlands; and the morals were worse. ^ The Roman sea 
was turned into blood and the moral character was corruption itself. 

5. Spain Exhausted. — When Spain entered into the wars of the Reforma- 
tion she was one of the most extensive and powerful nations on the earth; and 
when united with Austria in the person of Charles Y., she formed an important 
part of Charles's force in his wars during the Reformation; and under Philip II. 
it was an independent, self-moving power in the wars of religion and supreme 
sovereignty. The German-Roman emperor, Charles Y., resigned to his son, 
Philip II., the Spanish monarchy, which included Spain, Sicily, Naples, Sar- 
dinia, the Netherlands, and Spanish America; and to these Philip added 
Portugal, with its possessions in Asia and Africa. ^ The Netherlands had 
belonged to the German empire, but Charles Y. had transferred them to his son, 
Philip, and they became incorporated with the Spanish monarchy. '' 

Philip II. was despotic and fanatic in his zeal for the papal religion and a 
declared enemy to the rights and liberties of these Belgic provinces, and he was 
mortified to witness the religious privileges they enjoyed and the daily progress 
of the Reformation. Resolved to extirpate this new faith and the religious lib- 
erties which served to protect it, he introduced the inquision, A. D. 1559, as the 
most sure and infallible support of despotism. He suppressed the rights of the 
clergy, by the consent and authority of Pope Paul lY. ; altered bishoprics, sup- 
pressed abbeys and monasteries, and applied their revenues to his new bishoprics; 
and ordered the decrees of the council of Trent to be promulgated. 

Remonstrances having no efi'ect on him, the nobility formed the compromise 
confederacy. They drew up a request, addressed to Margaret of Austria, daughter 
of Charles Y., and regent of the Netherlands under the king of Spain. This was 
presented to her at Brussels, A. D. 1566, by four hundred gentlemen. At the 
same time the populace collected in several towns and fell upon the churches and 
monasteries, broke down the altars and images, and introduced the exercise of 
the Protestant religion by force. The storm was calmed; the Catholic worship 
was reestablished everywhere; the confederacy of the nobles dissolved, and some 
of them retired to foreign countries. 

Contrary to the advice of the regent, Margaret, Philip sent the duke of Alva 
with twenty thousand soldiers. The regent resigned. A general terror spread 
over the country. Multitudes of merchants and manufacturers took refuge in 
England, carrying along with them their arts and industry. The duke of Alva 
immediately established a tribunal, called council of blood. Eighteen thousand 
perished by the executions, and more than thirty thousand others were entirely 
ruined. These executions excited a general indignation, and was the signal of 
revolt and civil war throughout the low countries. All the malcontents, and the 
Lutherans and Calvinists, were called beggars. Some concealed then)selves in 
the woods and marshes, and sallied forth in the night to commit all sorts of 
excesses, and were called beggars of the woods; others infested the coast and 
made descents on the country, and were called maritime, or marine beggars. 
The prince of Orange and his brother, count of Nassau, who had retired on the 
dissolution of the compromise confederacy, assembled troops in the empire; 
attacked the Netherlands, A. D. 1568 ; associated the marine beggars in the 
cause and attacked the Spaniards by sea; captured Brille, A. D. 1572, causing a 
revolution in Zealand. All the cities of that province opened to the beggars, 
except Middleburg, and so did most of the towns of Holland. An assembly of 



(5) Will., p. 390, pt. 2, chap. 4, §§ 10, 11. (6) Rev. Eurp. 209, 252. (7) Idm. 229. 



OHAPTEK CLVII.: SECTION V. 811 

Hollanders at Dort laid the foundation of their new republic; declared the prince 
of Orange governor of Holland, Zealand, Friesland, and Utrecht ; declared the 
Spaniards their common enemy, and introduced the public exercise of the 
reformed religion according to the form of Geneva. 

The Spanish troops mutinied on account of bad pay, pillaged several cities, 
and laid waste the whole of the low countries. The states-general, assembled at 
Brussels, implored the assistance of the prince of Orange and the confederates, 
and a general union between the states of Brussels and those of Holland and 
Zealand was signed at Ghent, A. D. 1576, to expel the Spanish troops and never 
permit them to enter the Netherlands. The confederates, now in alliance with 
Elizabeth, queen of England, soon reduced the Spaniards to the single provinces 
of Luxemburg, Limburg, and Namur. But this confederacy of CathoHcs and 
Protestants against Catholic Spain fell to pieces on account of jealousies between 
the Catholic states, and the prince of Parma again reduced the provinces of Flan- 
ders, Artois, and Hainault, under the Spanish dominion ; took the city of Maes- 
tricht by assault; entered into negotiations with the. states-general under the 
mediation of the Emperor Rodolph II., the pope, and some princes of the 
empire, but without success. The prince of Orange, faithless in schismatic con- 
federacy, fixed on the maritime provinces, such as Holland, Zealand, and Fries- 
land, whose religious creed attached them to the same interests and whose 
maritime power could repel the Spaniards and protect the neighboring provinces 
that might join the union. Seven princes were thus united at Utrecht, A. D. 1579. 

This new republic, which was in strict alliance with England, not only pre- 
vailed against the Spaniards, but gained strength by the vast number of refugees 
from other Belgic provinces and from France, where persecution raged against 
the Protestants. When Antwerp was taken by the prince of Parma, A. D. 1585, 
above one hundred thousand of these refugees transported themselves, with their 
wealth and industry, to Holland and Amsterdam. From this date the commerce 
of the confederate states increased every day. ^ The aid given by England 
induced Philip to declare war against her. The infamous duke of Alva formed 
a project of uniting with the English Catholics and Mary in a confederacy against 
Elizabeth. ^ Mary, queen of Scots, was executed A. D. 1587. The resentment 
throughout Europe was inflamed, giving additional vigor to the preparations of 
Philip 11. for an invasion of England to destroy the great supportor of the 
Protestant cause. Religion and political interests were mixed up in these wars of 
the Reformation, and, for a pretext, Philip. complained of English depredations 
in South America and on the coasts of Spain ; and npw, a vast armament was 
prepared to sweep the English from the seas, ravage their coasts, burn their 
towns, and dethrone the Protestant queen, Elizabeth. 

In May, 1588, the Spanish fleet of one hundred and thirty ships, and no less 
than twenty thousand of the best troops in the Spanish armies, sailed from the 
harbor of Lisbon for the English coast. The pope had blessed the expedition 
and oflered the sovereignty of England as the conquerors' prize; and, confident 
of success, the Catholics throughout Europe had named the armament, the "Invin- 
cible Armada." England was put in a state of defense, and an army of forty-five 
thousand men was organized for the defense of the coast and capital. The 
Spanish armada suffered from a storm off the French coast. In passing through 
the English channel it was harassed several days by the lighter English vessels. 
When anchored ofi" Calais, English fire ships destroyed several vessels and threw 
others into such confusion that the Spanish admiral gave up victory and only 
thought of escape. The south wind preventing the retracing of his course, he 
coasted the northern shores of Scotland and Ireland. Many of his vessels were 
•driven by a storm upon the coasts of Norway and Scotland. Another storm 
off the Irish coast caused almost equal loss, and only a few shattered vessels of 



(8) Rev. Eurp,, 1; 229-34. (9) Will. 345. 



^1^ - THSJ kingdom of god DEVELOPEt>. 

this invincible armada returned to Spain. This defeat was regarded as the 
triumph of the Protestant cause. It exerted a favorable influence on the welfare 
of the united provinces of the Netherlands, and virtually secured their inde- 
pendence. It raised the courage of the Huguenots in France, and completely 
destroyed the decisive influence which Spain had long maintained in the affairs 
of Europe, and her naval power and commerce declined. ^ 

And the power of the pope, unsinote by the sword, 
Was wrecked on the seas by the winds of the Lord. 

The Spanish, findinp^ their efforts to reduce the confederates of the I^ ether- 
lands ineffectual, negotiated, under the mediation of England and France, A. D. 
1609, a truce of twelve years. During this time the confederates extended their 
commerce over all parts of the globe. Their marine increased in strength and 
importance to the rank of the second maritime power, and gave them a decisive 
influence over the political aff'airs of Europe. The truce having expired, the 
Dutch, or confederates, carried on the war with Spain twenty -five years, with great 
glory under their stadtholders, or governors. War between France and Spain 
was followed by a strict alliance between France and the states-general. Peace 
with Spain was concluded A. D. 164:8. The united provinces were acknowledged 
by Spain to be free and independent states, and all the places seized by them in 
Europe, Asia, Africa, and America were given up to them. The closing of the 
Scheldt, granted in favor of the united provinces, ruined Antwerp and shut off the 
Spanish Netherlands from all maritime commerce. ^ 

Philip 11. , at his death, left an enormous debt, and the whole glory of the 
Spanish nation perished with him. By the expulsion of the Moors, because not 
genuine Catholics, A. D. 1610, Philip III. lost nearly one million of his most 
industrious subjects.^ During the wars of Philip TV. with France, the Catalans 
revolted and put themselves under the French crown, A. D. 1640. The same 
year Portugal revolted and replaced the house of Braganzaon the throne, and the 
Neapolitans revolted A. D. 1647.^ Thus, by the time of the peace of Westphalia, 
A. D. ]618, Spain had ceased to be a vital power in the holy Roman empire, or 
papal sea, and Protestant Holland had obtained her preponderance in the world 
and stripped the Portugese also of their finest settlements in India. ^ 

6. France Dyed in Blood. — The separation of the Lutheran and Swiss 
churches was chiefly occasioned by the doctrine of Zuingle on the Lord's supper, 
who regarded the bread and wine as only symbols. ^ When Carlostadt was ban- 
ished from Saxony, he came to Switzerland and taught with success at Zurich and 
Basil; so, also, did Schwenckfelt, their views being about the same as Zuingle's. '^ 
Oecolampadius, Bucer, and Hideon were companions of Zuingle.® Scarcely had 
the Reformed church been founded in Switzerland by Zuingle when he fell in 
battle, fought A. D. 1530, between the Protestants of Zurich and their Roman 
Catholic compatriots, who drew the sword in defense of popery.^ Another 
reformer, John Calvin, trod nearly in the footsteps of Zuingle. He began to 
distinguish himself in Paris, A. D. 1532. Being compelled to leave, he withdrew 
to Switzerland, A. D. 1538. ^ Calvin surpassed most all the doctors of his age in 
laborious application, constancy of mind, force of eloquence, and extent of genius, 
and on his settlement in Geneva the afi'airs of the new church were committed to 
his direction; and he also acquired a high degree of influence in the political 
administration of the republic. This event entirely changed the face of affairs, 
and gave a new aspect to the reformation of Zuingle, which we shall hereafter call 
the Calvinists, or Calvinistic, churches, and Geneva became the mother and sem- 
inary of all Calvinistic churches, as Wittemburg was of all the Lutheran commu- 
nities. The fame of this seminary spread through distant nations, and those 

(1) Will 341. (2) Rev. Eurp. 1; 234. (3) Mosh. 17:2; 1; 1, § 9. (4) Rev. Eurp. 1; 252-3; 
256. Will. 391-2. (5) Rev. Eurp. 1; 256. (6) Mosh. 16:3; 2; 2, § 4. (7) Idm. 1, §§ 22, 23. (8) §4, 
and note Y. (9) § 5 (1) Rev. Eurp. 216. 



CHAPTER CLVII. ! SECTION VI. 813 

ambitious of distioction in either sacred or profane erudition repaired to Geneva 
from England, Scotland, France, Italy, and Germany, and the Acadamy of Geneva 
flourished as much under Beza as in the lifetime of Calvin. 

The plan of doctrine and discipline formed by Zuingle was altered by Calvin, 
but the alterations, or amendments, were not all adopted by all those called 
Keformed churches, as distinguished from Lutherans. ^ It is probable that the 
first French Protestants were uniform in nothing but opposition to the church of 
E-ome, and among them were various religious sentiments ; but Geneva, Lausanne, 
and other cities and vicinities, which had adopted Calvin's doctrines and the zeal 
of Calvin, Farel, and Beza against popery, produced a very remarkable effect 
upon the French churches, for they all entered into the bonds of fraternal com- 
munion with the church of Geneva, and were called by their enemies Huguenots, 
in contempt and derision. The storms of persecution assailed them with unpar- 
alleled fury, and, though many princes of the royal blood and great numbers of 
the nobility adopted their sentiments and defended their cause, yet no other 
reformed churches suflfered so grievously for the sake of religion. 

The ambitious house of Guise, instigated by the sanguinary suggestions of 
the popes, ainned at nothing less than the extirpation of the royal family and the 
utter ruin of the Protestant religion, and the Huguenots, headed by heroes of 
valor and most illustrious rank, combatted for their religion and their sovereigns 
with various success. ^ In addition to the wars in Italy, Spain, Germany, and 
with England, we find France immersed in her own blood, shed by her own hands 
in the name of religion. In A. D. 1521, the council of the Sorbonne in Paris, 
under the influence of the French monarch, declared that flames, and not reason, 
ought to be employed against the arrogance of Luther. ^ In both the Netherlands 
and France the attempts of the Catholic rulers provoked a desperate resistance, 
and in France banishment or death had been the penalty of heresy. ^ A series of 
wars, both civil and religious, broke out under the feeble reigns of the three sons 
and successors of Henry II. The great influence of the Guises and the factions 
which distracted the court and state were the true source of hostilities, though 
religion was made the pretext. Francis IL, having espoused Mary Stuart, queen 
of Scotland, the whole power and authority of the government passed into the 
hands of Francis, the duke of Guise, and the Cardinal de Lorain, his brother — 
and these were the queen's maternal uncles. Anthony, king of Navarre, and 
his brother, Louis, prince of Conde, considered the precedency was due them, 
being princes of the blood. These being Calvinists, and having enlisted all the 
leaders of that party, it was easy for the Lorrain princes to secure the most zealous 
Catholics. A conspiracy to seize the Guises, to bring them to trial, and to throw 
the management of afl'airs into the hands of the princes of the royal blood, being 
discovered, Louis, prince of Conde, was arrested, and would have been executed 
had not Francis II. died. 

The queen mother, Catherine Medici, regent during the minority of Charles 
IX., desirous to hold the balance between the two parties, liberated Conde and 
granted the Calvinists the free exercise of their religion in the suburbs and parts 
lying out of t' e towns, A. D. 1562. ^ The Guises were indignant at the counte- 
nance thus given to heresy, and the duke, in passing through a small village — 
Vassay, in Champaign — massacred the Protestants assembled in prayer outside 
the walls. This atrocity was the signal for a general rising. The prince of 
Conde, leader of the Protestants, made Orleans the headquarters of the Hugue- 
nots, and Paris was the headquarters of the Catholics. Philip IL of Spain openly 
proflered help to the Guises, and the prince of Conde delivered Havre de Grace 
to Elizabeth of England for a corps of six thousand men. Prayer was heard 
morning and evening in both armies, and there was no grumbling, nor profane 

(2)Mosh.l6:B; 2; 2, §§ 11-13. (3) Mosh. 16:3; 2; 2, § 15. (4) Will 333. (5)340. (8}Rev.Eurp. 
l;p. 248. 



814 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

language, nor dissipation ; but the most vindictive hate was nourished, and the 
direst cruelties were openly perpetrated in the name of religion, and both parties 
made retaliatory reprisals, each spilling blood upon scaffolds ot its own erection.*^ 

Eight of these wars have been commonly reckoned under the family of 
Yalois — four under Charles IX., and four under Henry III. The fourth under 
Charles IX. began with the njassacre of St. Bartholomew, A. D. 1572. ^ In the 
first great battle the Protestant prince of Conde and the Catholic constable ot 
France, Montmorency, became prisoners to their opposite parties, but the Pro- 
testants lost the battle. The duke of Guise was next in command of the Catho- 
lics, and Admiral Coligni succeeded to the command of the defeated Huguenots; 
and Orleans, their principal post, was saved only by the death of the duke ot 
Guise from a pistol shot by a Protestant behind him. 

The capture and death of the chiefs on both sides, except Coligni, brought 
about an accommodation, and in March, A. D. 1563, the treaty of Amboise 
granted the Protestants full liberty of worship within the towns in their posses- 
sion at that time. This treaty was soon modified by the court so that edicts took 
more from the Protestants in peace than force could have taken in war. The 
Protestant leaders, Conde and Coligni, tried in vain to get possession of the young 
king. A battle was fought in the very suburbs of Paris. The Catholic leader, 
the aged Constable Montmorency, was slain, A. D. 1567. A lame pe^ce was 
concluded as a trap to ensnare the Protestant chiefs as soon as their army was 
disbanded. The court attempted to seize the two chiefs. Four battles were 
fought. The Huguenots were defeated; Conde was slain, and Coligne severely 
wounded. A peace was concluded A. D. 1570; amnesty and liberty of worship 
were again granted to the Protestants. This peace was only another trap for the 
Protestants, concocted by the cardinal, Charles IX. (in his twentieth year of age), 
and his mother, Catherine de Medici. To bring the Protestant leaders into Paris, 
it was proposed that a young Protestant prince, Henry of Navarre, should 
espouse the king's sister, Margaret, a Catholic, and thus unite the contending 
parties. The plot was successful. The aged Coligni was assassinated, and the 
massacre of thousands of unresisting Huguenots was consummated by crime, 
cowardice, and cruelty that might make a savage blush. (A. D. 1572.) Charles 
IX., his mother, Catherine, Philip II. of Spain, and the pope of Rome exulted 
in the crime, congratulated one another, and returned thanks to Heaven for the 
success. 

This scene belongs to the characteristics of the fourth seal, or to the woman 
drunken with the blood of the saints. This crime produced neither peace nor 
advantage, and the civil war was renewed with greater force than ever. ^ From 
the massacre of St. Bartholomew, France was tilled with deph)rable civil wars for 
most of the sixteenth century. ^ Charles IX. was succeeded by his brother, 
Henry III. The Guises formed a league, ostensibly to maintain the Catholic 
religion, but in truth to dethrone the reigning dynasty of Yalois and elevate 
themselves, and they concluded an alliance, A. D. 1584, with Philip II. of Spain, 
for the exclusion of the Burbons from the French throne. Henry III. was 
obliged by the leaguers to recommence war against the Protestants; but, per- 
ceiving the duke of Guise and his brother, the cardinal, took every occasion to 
render his government odious, he caused them both to be assassinated, A. D. 
15'>8, and threw himself on the protection of the king of Navarre, with whom he 
besieged Paris, and was assassinated by a Jacobine, A. D. 1588. In Henry HI. 
ended the Yalois dynasty, and the crown passed to the Burbons. 

Henry lY., king of Navarre, was a Protestant, and, b}^ aid from Elizabeth of 
England, withstood the opposition of the Catholic league four years, and then 
abjured tlie Protestant faith, concluded a treaty with the Spaniards, and tranquil- 
ized the kingdom by the edict of Nantes, A. D. 1698. By this edict he granted 



(7) Will., pt. 2, chap. 3, §§ 4, 5. (8) Rev. Eurp., 1; 248. (9) Will., pp. 341-4. (1) 2; 3, § 18. 



CHAPTER CLVII. I SECTION Til. 815 

to the Protestants perfect liberty of conscience, the public exercise of their reli- 
gious worship, and an equal clain:i with tvhe Catholics to all offices and disunities. 
The parliament opposed the registering of this edict, and the king was obliged to 
use menaces as well as persuasion to overcome their obstinacy. Henry IV. was 
assassinated A. D. 1610, and when Cardinal Richelieu assumed the reins of gov- 
ernment he had nothing so much at heart as the expulsion of the Protestants, or 
Huguenots, from their strongholds. This he accomplished under Louis XIII., 
by three wars and the siege of Rochelle, A. D. 1628. ^ During these religious 
wars Rochelle was a stronghold of the Protestants. Invested by the Catholics, 
A. D. 1572, it withstood a long siege, terminated by a treaty. The numerous 
infractions of that treaty in the reign of Louis XIII. led to a second siege, A. D. 
1627, as violent as the former, longer, and more decisive. After six months' 
heroic resistance the entrance to the harbor was barred; famine decimated the 
besieged, and after more than fourteen months Pochelle was compelled to capitu- 
late. Cardinal Richelieu entered the city in triumph, the fortifications were demol- 
ished, and the Protestants were deprived of their last stronghold, or place of 
refuge. ^ But, this same Catholic cardinal, Richelieu, united with the Protestant 
Germans against Catholic Austria, and after him Cardinal Mazarine followed the 
same policy under the queen-mother. Anne, during the minority of Louis XI Y., 
A. D. 1643-48. ^ But, Cardinal Richelieu's religion was held in subordination to his 
state policy for subverting the preponderance of Austria in the affairs of Europe. 
He did not revoke the edict of JSTantes, and so the Protestants could exercise 
their religion and worship, and yet possess dignities and fill offices of trust. 
France has become powerful during these wars of the Reformation, but the 
supremacy of the pope or emperor, or of both combined, is repudiated and over- 
thrown in France; and, by the diplomacy of a French prime minister, a Catholic 
cardinal, the power of pope and emperor are wounded to death, and the holy 
Roman empire is about to expire. 

7. Germany Immersed in Blood and Wretchedness. — Since the time of 
Charlemagne, or Charles I., popery never animated such a powerful monarchy 
as that of Charles Y. at the time of the Reformation. Having combined Austria, 
Burgundy, and the Netherlands with Spain, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and South 
America, ^ he was invincible on sea and land. He repelled the Turks, conquered 
the African pirates, defeated the French, subdued the pope, and then combined 
with the pope to crush the Reformation. But, after the sea, or holy empire, was 
turned into blood by various wars, waged for various purposes and on various 
pretexts, all powers and prerogatives of pope and emperor died out in time. 
Some of these died by sudden and violent deaths, others lingered along and died 
of consumption, and the holy Roman empire became extinct. When the pope 
and emperor united to put down the Reformation in Germany, the Protestant 
German princes combined for its protection. Wars and factions arose in Ger- 
many, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Hungary, and Poland, and the 
march of the Reformation was everywhere stained with blood. ^ 

Beside the wars in Italy already noticed,'^ Charles retreated from France 
with only the wreck of a ruined army, without fighting a general battle. ^ The 
emperor issued an edict of proscription (A. D. 1546) against the elector of Saxony 
and the l.indgrave of Hesse, the two chiefs of the union ; and, having made a 
secret treaty with Duke Maurice of Saxony, transferred the theater of war from 
the Danube to the Elbe. ^ France, Denmark, and England had abandoned the 
alliance of the Protestant German princes. ^ The elector of Saxony and land- 
grave of Hesse cannonaded the emporer's camp to bring on an engagement, but 
did not accomplish that object. The perfidious Maurice, seduced by promises of 
the emperor, invaded the dominions of his uncle, John Frederick, elector of 



(2) Rev. Eurp., 248-50. (3) Will., 357, § 6, and note. (4) Rev. Eurp., Vol I., p. 250. Will., 
p. 377. (5) 325. Rev. Eurp. 1; 220. (6) Rev. Eurp., 1; p. 217. (7) § 4. (8) Will. 336 (9) Rev. 
Eurp. 1; 225. (1) Will., 336. 



816 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Saxony. Divisions were fomented among the confederates by the dissimulation 
of the emperor; France failed to furnish the subsidy promised; other incidents 
of less moment occurred ; the chiefs became discouraged and their army soon 
dispersed. The elector directed his army homeward ; the emperor pursued with 
a superior army; a bloody battle was fought ; the elector was defeated and taken 
prisoner; Maurice was declared elector of Saxony; Philip, landgrave of Hesse, 
was persuaded by his perfidious son-in-law, Maurice, to throw himself upon the 
mercy of the emperor and implore his pardon. The emperor set him at liberty, 
as promised, but rearrested him and kept him a prisoner. ^ 

The 'emperor now held councils under the shadow of his army and mouth of 
his cannon and dictated the interum to govern the religion of Germany till the 
council of Trent should establish a reformed poperj^ Charles was more solicitous 
to extend his power and make his authority supreme over churcli and state than 
to restore unlimited authority to the pope; and by fomenting discord among the 
German princes he hoped to absorb all their rights and privileges and make his 
power absolute. Most of the princes of Europe had solicited the deliverance of 
the elector and landgrave from confinement, and Maurice had urged the liber- 
ation of his father-in-law, the landgrave ; but all to no purpose. Maurice, seeing 
he had been duped by the emperor, and believing him to be forming designs 
against the liberties of Germany and the jurisdiction of its princes, entered into a 
secret alliance with the king of France and several of the German princes for the 
maintenance of the rights and liberties of the empire. In A. D. 1552 Maurice 
marched a powerful army and surprised the emperor with his few troops, and 
imposed on him the treaty of Passau. And the diet at Augsburg, A. D. 1555, 
opened by Ferdinand in the name of the emperor, terminated these deplorable 
scenes of bloodshed, desolation, and disorder that had afflicted both church and 
state. ^ Albert of Bradenburg refused to sign the pacification at Passau, and con- 
tinued the war against the Catholics. 

Maurice headed a confederacy against him, was wounded in battle, and died 
before the happy issue was consummated.^ Poth Catholics and Protestants 
were guaranteed perfect liberty of worship; no reunion should ever be attempted 
by force ; the secularizing of the ecclesiastical revenues by the princes was 
ratified ; and every prelate or churchman renouncing his ancient faith for the 
confession of Augsburg should lose his benefice. Many difterences sprung out 
of this treaty, each party interpreting it to its own advantage. This led to the 
thirty years' war. ^ All who should injure or persecute any person under relig- 
ious pretexts and on account of their religious opinions should be declared and 
proceeded against as public enemies of the empire, invaders of its liberty, and 
disturbers of its peace. But before the greater part of the German states could 
be brought to consent to these conditions difiiculties had to be encountered; 
tedious deliberations held ; warm debates, violent animosities, and bloody wars 
excited.^ Charles abdicated his throne to end his days in the solitude of a mon- 
astery, having resigned his German possessions to his brother, Ferdinand, A. D. 
1558, and his Spanish kingdoms to his son, Philip XL, A. D. 1556.''' The Prot- 
estant princes of Germany formed a new union for self-protection, A. D. 1608. 
The chief promoter of this union was Henry IV., of France, designing to use it 
as a check against the ambition of Austria, and he determined the number of 
troops to be furnished by each contracting party. The Catholic princes renewed 
their league; powerful armies were raised in France, Germany, Italy, and the 
Netherlands; Henry lY. was assassinated; and the princes of the union and of 
the league concluded a treaty, A. D. 1610. 

In A. D. 1618 a war was kindled in Bohemia and spread over all Germany, 
in which politics had as great a share as zeal for religion; and it may be divided 
into four periods. ^ The Protestants were cruelly persecuted and oppressed by 

(2)"Mosh. 16:1; 4, § 2. (3) 16:1; 4, §§ 3-6. (4) §§ 7, 8, and note. (5) Rev. Eurp. 1:225-6. 
(6) Mosh. 16:1; 4, § 8. (7) Rev. Eurp. Chart. Will. 387. (8) Rev. Eurp. 1; 228. 



CHAPTER CLVII. : SECTION VII. 817 

the Catholics, in violation of all treaties and conventions, and had neither the 
resolution, vigor, nor strength to maintain their privileges. The Bohemians 
involved in the same vexations, proceeded in a different manner, and defended 
themselves v^^ith an intrepidity that struck terror into the rank of their adversaries. 
On the death of the Emperor Matthias (A. D. 1619) they, in accordance with the 
ancient laws and customs of the kingdom, rejected a hereditary sovereign and 
elected a Protestant king — Frederick Y., elector Palatine and head of the Prot- 
estant union. Ferdinand II., being elected emperor of all the German states to 
the great alarm of the Protestants, received the intelligence of his deposition in 
Bohemia. Assisted by a Spanish force and the Catholic league in Germany he 
defeated Frederick, at Prague. Frederick fled to Holland ; all Protestant clergy- 
men were banished ; thirty thousand families were driven away and took refuge 
in Saxony and Brandenburg. This success of the Austrians was owing to the 
help of John George, elector of Saxony and a Lutheran; but out of hatred to the 
Calvinists and political motives he reinforced the imperial army. ^ 

After the flight of Frederick, his general, Mansfeldt, determined to maintain 
the Protestant cause against the emperor, Ferdinand II.; but he was unable to 
cope with the imperial generals, Tilly and Wallenstein. The Protestant towns 
of lower Saxony, anticipating a like fate, took up arms, formed an alliance with 
Christian YL, king of Denmark, and made him general of the confederate army. 
With twenty-five thousand Danes, Germans, Scotch, and English, and seven 
thousand Saxons, he achieved some success, but at last was defeated by Tilly 
with a loss of four thousand men, besides a vast number of prisoners, A. D. 1626. 
Next year, Wallenstein, with a force of one hundred thousand men, drove the 
Danes out of Germany, pursued them into Denmark, conquered the whole 
peninsula except one fortress, and the king took refuge in his islands. Ferdinand 
II. aimed now at the extirpation of the Lutheran heresy throughout his own 
empire and the reestablisliment of the Catholic faith throughout the entire north 
by the subjugation of Norway and Sweden also. Wallenstein was first to secure 
the dominion of the Baltic and the north sea; and, assisted by a Spanish fleet, he 
took possession of several ports on the Baltic. But the citizens of Stralsund, 
aided by five thousand Swedish and Scotch troops, defended their walls. Wal- 
lenstein was forced to abandon the siege after a loss of twelve thousand men. 

A treaty of peace was formed with Denmark. Christian was restored to his 
dominions but had to abandon his German allies, A. D. 1629. The subjects, 
allies, and enemies of Ferdinand united and implored him to put an end to a 
civil war, waged with^'a ferocity unknown since the age of Gothic barbarism. 
The Catholics thought the moment too favorable to be neglected, and urged him 
on to the most intolerable tyranny over his Protestant subjects. He carried his 
arms through a great part of Germany, committing insult and outrage upon 
Protestants, and showed plainly a scheme laid for the extinction of Germanic 
liberty, both civil and religious. The depopulating soldier, sword in hand, 
wrested from the lawful possessor whatever the Pomish priests and monks 
thought proper to claim. Germany groaned under these dismal scenes, but 
looked in vain for succor. 

Cardinal Richelieu, the Catholic prime minister of Catholic France, having 
taken the last stronghold from the Huguenots in France, directed all his powers 
to abase the powerful house of Austria, which France beheld with a jealous eye. 
Pichelieu mediated an armistice of six years between Sweden and Poland. All 
the inducements an artful diplomatist could urge were brought to bear upon 
Gustavus, king of Sweden, who was ardently Protestant and already a sufferer 
from the insolence and rapacity of Wallenstein. Pichelieu succeeded in depriving 
Ferdinand of Wallenstein, who was his ablest general. Sweden declared war 
against Germany, A. D. 1630, and Gustavus Adolphus entered Germany with 



{d Mosh. Cent. 17; Sect. 2, pt. 1, chap. 1, §§ 3, 4. 

—52 



818 THE KING-DOM OF GOD DEVELOPED 

only fifteen thousand men ; but these were well disciplined. Every regiment had 
its chaplain, and devotion was performed twice every day. He was contemptu- 
ously called the Snow King, and the Protestant princes of Germany hesitated in 
joining his standard. 

The onset of the Swedes was irresistible and rapidly conquered Pomerania, 
took Frankfort under the eye of the imperial general, Tilly, but were unable to 
relieve Magdeburg, which Tilly burned after plundering it amid scenes of the 
most revolting atrocity. Reinforced from France and England, Gustavus gained 
a great victory over Tilly ; traversed Germany from the Elbe to the Rhine and 
the borders of the Switzerland. All northern and western Germany and Bohemia 
were in the hands of the Protestants, and Tilly was slain on the banks of the Lech. 
Wallestein was recalled to command the imperial forces, and he seized Prague 
and restored Bohemia to the emperor. The troops of Gustavus being scattered 
over Germany, he retired within Nuremburg till they could be concentrated. 
Wallenstein blockaded Nuremburg. Both parties lost thirty thousand men by 
famine and sword. Wallenstein suddenly moved toward Dresden ; was thwarted 
by the advance of the Swedes and brought on the action. After a desperate 
engagement the Protestants triumphed, though Gustavus fell, pierced with two 
balls in the first of the battle, A. D. 1632. In a little more than a year Wallen- 
stein, accused of treason, was assassinated by order of Ferdinand II. 

The French minister, Richelieu, with secret satisfaction observed the misfor- 
tunes of the Austrian dynasty, and of the German empire in general, and now 
offered the aid of France to the Swedes and German Protestants, with Holland 
and the duke of Savoy as allies, upon condition of extending the French frontier 
over a portion of German territory. French armies were sent into Italy, Germany, 
and the Spanish Netherlands. The provinces along the Rhine became the chief 
seats of the war, and were pillaged and devastated as those along the Oder, Elbe, 
and Weser had been before. From the active interference of France the power 
of the German imperialists declined, and the remainder of the war was marked 
by an unusual degree of ferocity on both sides, presenting a continuation of gloomy 
and heartrending scenes, in which Richelieu had the advantage by diplomacy. 

Ferdinand II. died A. D. 1637. The French monarch, Louis XIIL, and his 
minister, Cardinal Richelieu, died A. D. 1642, and the negotiations for peace, 
begun A. D. 1636, were more easily concluded, and in A. D. 1648 the treaty of 
Wetphalia closed the sad scene of the long and sanguinary thirty years' war. 
The German states presented everywhere the scene of wide waste and ruin. Two- 
thirds of the population had perished by the sword, plague, famine, and other 
attendant horrors of war. The religious peace of Passau was confirmed, and the 
independence of the Protestant German powers was confirmed and guaranteed by 
consent of foreign powers, which was now the supreme authority in Europe. 
Many of the German states were dismembered to indemnify others for their 
losses. The sanction of the complete sovereignty of each of the German states 
within its own territory was confirmed and guaranteed ; also, the extension of the 
eastern limits of France; the grant of territory on the Baltic, with a subsidy of 
five million dollars, to Sweden; the acknowledgement of the independence of 
the Netherlands by Spain, and of the Swiss cantons by the German empire.^ 

The treaty of Westphalia terminated the thirty years' war; but France and 
Spain continued the contest between themselves till A. D. 1659, when it was 
terminated by the treaty of the Pyrenees, and France assumed almost its present 
form. 2 And as this continuation contributed to the permanent success of the 
Protestants in Germany and the Netherlands, we must reckon it in the wars of 
the reformation. 

8. The Result. — Thus popery, as the uniting, animating, and controlling 
power, and imperialism, as the head and center ot that power, has been fatally 



(1) Will. 355-61. Rev. Eurp., Vol. T, pp. 226-28. Mosh. 17:2; 1, §§ 3-7. (2) Will. 378. 



CHAPTEK CLVII. I SECTION VIII. 819 

wounded by bloody wars, and must die in time. Its vitality is gone. That imperial 
prerogatives are subjected to the rights of the princes, and Protestantism has 
become a state-church religion, as well as Catholicism. In France, the interests 
of popery were subjected to the interests of the state, and thus Louis XIY. was 
left superior to the pope in France, and despotic master of the church and state; 
and the Huguenots possessed the rights and privileges guaranteed to them by the 
edicts of Nantes. A. D. 1661, the halcyon days of popery were over in which 
the papal clergy excited with impunity seditious tumults in the states ; intermeddled 
openly in the transactions of government ; struck terror into the hearts of sover- 
eigns and subjects by the thunder of their anathemas; imposed burdensome 
contributions on the credulous multitude, and filled their coffers by notorious acts 
of tyranny and oppression. The pope found his titles had lost part of their former 
significance, and the energy of his denominations diminished daily. Almost all 
the princes and states of Europe had adopted the maxim of the French nation — 
that the power of the Roman pontiff is confined entirely to matters of a religious 
and spiritual nature, and can not, under any pretext whatever, extend to civil 
transactions or worldly affairs. He was extolled in words in the courts of princes, 
but in disputes between him and those of his own communion his authority was 
no more respected than what was expedient for their own y)urpose and interest. ^ 
Neither pope nor emperor, nor both united, have the power or prerogative to 
dismember governments, depose kings, confer rights to countries, or bestow 
crowns, but the state system has usurped this prerogative. In Protestant coun- 
tries neither pope nor emperor can bestow even ecclesiastical preferments only in 
subordination to the state government. Nor can they in Catholic France ; and we 
may as well say the papal sea, or the holy Koman empire, has been turned into 
blood, and every vital prerogative of pope and emperor has died. The states 
system is supreme in civil matters ; and councils, or synods, under civil protection 
and control, are supreme in ecclesiastical affairs; and we shall see if this reformed 
system of the beast will shed the blood of the saints of God. 

Jehovah promised Israel, when obedient to Him, they should achieve great 
victories by the sword ; but when Peter drew the sword to defend his Teacher 
Christ said : Put up the sword ; for the principles of war shall now rule, and those 
who take the sword may expect to fall by the sword; and hence, God's people 
may not expect any miraculous victories by the sword in their own hand. In 
Revelations the same principle is inculcated in relation to the beast, and so far has 
it been verified in the history of the extinct heads of the beast, and most fully has 
it been verified in the wars of popery and Mahometanism. And from the Paul- 
icians down to the Protestants all reformations defending themselves by the sword 
were at length defeated by the beast. But at length the schisms and complicated 
interests of the papal powers rendered Protestantism victorious. Popery fell by 
the edge of its own sword, and will be consigned to captivity by its own offspring. 
But the end is not yet. (See Chap. 166.) 



(3)Mosh. 17:2; 1; 1, §§ 18, 19. 



CHAPTER CLYIII. 



THE SUBJECTS OF WKATH DESIGNATED. THE HARLOT AND 

HER WILD BEAST. A. M. 5652-5665. 

1. The Harlot. — The Latin, or papal, church must now be drunken with the 
blood of the saints and of the witnesses of Jesus Christ.^ She may drink more 
blood and continue drunk for some time ; but certainly she has drunk enough to 
make any strumpet too drunk to sit on the back of any wild beast. From the 
birth of popery (A. D. 606) to the present time it is estimated by careful and 
credible historians that more than lift}" millions of the human family have been 
slaughtered for heresy by popish persecutors. ^ Her cup is now full of all tilth 
and debaucheries, as we have seen,^ and all efforts of emperors, kings, and 
councils to reform her have been frustrated.'^ She is rich in gold and silver 
images, and vessels, and furniture, in robes and decorations, in cathedrals, churches, 
monasteries, prisons, palaces, and fortifications, and in revenues and treasures, 
and is queen of the holy Roman empire. 

The characteristics of the harlot given in the divine programme are so 
obviously verified in the history of the papal, or Latin, church that we can not be 
mistaken in the picture. She has always been embracing civil sovereigns, or 
claiming embraces from them, and her influence upon the nations has been most 
pernicious, establishing and perpetuating ignorance, superstition, vice, and cruelty, 
as her whole history, from the eleventh to the eighteenth century, has shown. "^^ 
She sits on a wild beast, and she sits upon many waters. These waters denote 
peoples, tongues, nations, and kingdoms, and their concentration under the throne, 
or seat, of the harlot constitutes the sea of empire, or the pa]'»al sea, which has 
been turned into blood. The wild beast she rides must denote the same concen- 
tration under a difi'erent modification, and the two figures were necessary to reveal 
the different characteristics of the object. The beast denotes the moving force, 
and the woman denotes the guiding intelligence. 

The Latin church embraced in its communion whole nations in Europe and 
America, tribes of different languages in Asia and Africa, and individual societies 
in all parts of the world. A political empire was connected with this church, did 
its political work, and received its imperial crown from the pope, and subordinate 
crowns were received from the pope or from his clergy. This was called the holy 
Roman empire,^ and the emperors were called the Csesars and Augusti, though 
their empireship was only nominal in parts, and sometimes only a shadow in any 
part. At this time (A. D. 1648-1660) the great Monotheistic wild beast has three 
heads — the Turk or Ottoman, the Russian, and the German. The Russian, or 
Greek church empire, and the Ottoman or Moslem empire, were never under tlie 
guiding intelligence of the Latin, or papal church, and can not be included in its 
holy empire, and all the characteristics of this third wild beast are found in the 
papal empire, or renovated Latin head of the first beast. "^ 



(4) Rev. 17:1-18. (5) DowL, p. 541. (6) Chap. 153. (7) Chap. 156, § 1. (*) Chap. 171, § 2. 
(6) Mosh. 16:1; 2, § 17. (7) Chap. 143, § 5. 



CHAPTER CLVIII.l SECTION II. ^21 

2. The Third Wild Beast. — This holy Roman empire has had seven head- 
ships, or dynasties, crowned by the pope as defenders of the faith, and eldest or 
only son of the church: 1. The Carlo vingian, A. D. 800-962;^ Charles I. and 
Lothaire crowned by pope. 2. The Saxon, A. D. 962-1024 ;9 Otho I. and III. 
crowned. 1 3. The Franconian or Salic, A. D. 1024-1138 ;^ Henry Y. crowned. ^ 
4. The Swabian or Hohenstaufen, A. D. 1138-1254;^ Frederick I. and Conrad TV. 
crowned by pope. ^ 5. The Luxemburg dynasty, A. D. 1308-1438;^ Henry YIL, 
Charles lY., and Frederick III. '^ (After Frederick III. none crowned by pope till 
Charles Y.) 6. The Hapsburg or Austrian, A. D. 1438;^ Charles Y. crowned 
by the pope, and the only one of the Hapsburg dynasty crowned by the pope. 
Three of the Hapsburgs — Kodolph, Adolph, and Albert L^ — occupied the imperial 
throne before the house of Luxemburg, but were not crowned by the pope ; hence, 
the sixth crowned dynasty may most properly be called the Austrian. 

In the house of Austria the imperial headship of Rome continued till the 
German empire was dissolved, A. D. 1806. The Roman emperor must be elected 
emperor of Germany, but he could not become king of Italy nor emperor of Rome 
till crowned by the pope, according to the imperial compact between the pope and 
Otho the Great. How many German emperors in each dynasty were crowned by 
the pope I have not found out; but I have found mention of some in each. 
Charles Y. was the last crowned emper of Rome by the pope ; but they assumed 
that title by virtue of their election as emperor of Germany, as the diet of Frank- 
fort decreed, A. D. 1338.^ Napoleon Bonaparte was created emperor of the 
French by a decree of the French senate, and was solemnly crowned in Raris by 
the pope, whom J^apoleon had called to Paris for that purpose. This ceremony 
took place in the church of Notre Dame, but, contrary to custom, Bonaparte put 
the crown on his own head, after which he placed it upon the head of Josephine.^ 
The principal powers of Europe, excepting Great Britain, recognized the new 
sovereign. 

In A. D. 1805 a decree of the estates of the Italian republic, assembled at 
Paris, proclaimed Napoleon to be king of Italy, and the crown to be hereditary. 
He repaired to Milan, where he was crowned with the iron crown of the emperors 
of Germany, who were kings of Italy. ^ The iron crown of Charlemagne was 
brought forward. Napoleon placed it on his own head, saying: God has given 
it me; beware of touching it. ^ The German emperors had for a long time — 
since the council of Constance, or diet of Frankfort — possessed the imperial head- 
ship of Rome by virtue of their election as German emperors, without being 
crowned by the pope. Now Napoleon, elected and crowned emperor of the 
Franks by the French senate and the pope, and having usurped or obtained the 
crown of Itaty, may be Roman emperor without the golden crown of Rome placed 
on his head by the pope; and like a self-made and independent emperor he dis- 
posed of crowns and countries, and the pope was his subject till A. D. 1815.^ 
Whether or not this act of the estates of northern Italy and self-crowning of 
Napoleon constituted the Bonaparte dynasty a legitimate head of the third beast, 
it is, in fact^ the seventh head, or dynasty, of the holy Roman empire, and if 
this dynasty ended with Napoleon III. it has been a short headship. The Austrian 
influence predominated in Italy from A. D. 1815 till A. D. 1848. On February 9, 
A. D, 1848, a national assembly elected by the people proclaimed the pope's tem- 
poral power was at an end, and the Roman republic was named; but Louis 
Napoleon, pretending to check Austrian influence, restored the papal authority 
on the ruins of the Roman republic,^ and became the eldest son of the church. 
The papal empire is now without a head, and Italy is a united kingdom, A. D. 1880. 



(8) Rev. Eurp. 1; 63, 65. (9) Idm. 83, 84. (2) 84. Ill, note 4. (4) 111, note 4. (6) 182, note 5. 
(1) Thai., p 53, §§ 100-102. (3) Idm, 80, § 49. (5) 84, § 60. 90, § 74. (7) 96, § 89. 107, § 112. 
Gbn. 2:31; 486. (*) Mosh. Chron. Table Cent 13. (*) Chap. 151, § 6. Rev. Eurp. 1; 168. (8) Rev. 
Eurp 2; 207. (9) Idm. 208. (1) Will., p. 484. § 18. (2) Will., pt. 2; Chap. 6, §§ 21, 25, 55. (8) 
Will., pt. 2; Chap. 7, §§ 8, 9. p. 547. 



B22 THE KINaDOM OF &0t) DEVELOt^Et). 

3. Ten Horns. — In A. D. 1139 this holy Roman empire had ten sovereigns 
crowned by the pope, besides the German head which inherited Italy by com- 
pact with the pope : France, England, Scotland, Castile, Arragon, Navarre, 
Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, and Sicily. ^ These were comprehended in the 
five grand divisions of Charlemagne's empire: France, Spain, Italy, Germany, 
and Hungary — England being only a tributary. ^ But this is too early in papal 
history to count the horns, for when this third beast was headed by the sixth, or 
Austrian head, and when the harlot was drunk, the horns had not then received 
their kingdoms, their dominions were not marked out, nor were they independent 
sovereignties; but as they cooperated with the beast they had royal prerogatives 
for a short time, or one hour. But they should unitedly give their cooperation 
to the beast, make war with the Lamb, and be at last defeated by Him. These 
powers shall become distinct and well defined sovereignties, or horns, and shall 
cooperate with the beast out of the bottomless pit in hating and destroying the 
harlot. While the pope continued to dismember governments and bestow 
crowns the numbers were changing and their boundaries altering; but when they 
obtain their kingdoms, or become independent sovereignties, they can make a 
new wild beast, or remodel or renovate an old one, that will not carry the harlot. 
Now, the eighth head is to be this beast remodeled, or the old beast, imprisoned 
in a bottomless pit, renovated. And with the renovated beast the ten horns will 
cooperate to perform unitedly the counsel of God and destroy the harlot and 
finish up the words of God, or the predictions of the prophets. ^ 

Now, it is evident these ten horns, or kingdoms, or powers, must become 
distinct independent sovereignties, in regard to their treatment of the kingdom of 
God, some time after the harlot was drunk, and after the Austrian headship. 
The ten horns survive the seven heads and cooperate with the eighth head till the 
words of God are finished, or accomplished. We might give some curious and 
interesting enumerations and classifications of these divisions and subdivisions 
of the holy Roman empire. These all gave their power to, and cooperate with, 
the third beast in supporting the harlot and in making war with the Lamb till the 
council of Trent, A. D. 1556. But since then some of them have hated the 
harlot, consumed her wealth, and would not stop from burning, or hesitate to 
burn her with fire; and in the peace of Westphalia their defeat by the Lamb was 
manifested. In his chronology of the sixteenth century Mosheim gives — Germany, 
Spain, France, England, Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Portugal, and 
United Provinces — ten, and the same in the seventeenth century. This embraces 
the council of Trent and the treaty of Westphalia, and also of the Pyrenees. 
Koch gives only nine, leaving out the United Provinces. But the eighth head 
is not yet (A. D. 1878) developed, and we have now ten independent sover- 
eignties — Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, 
Switzerland, and Great Britain — and two dependent and liable to be absorbed 
— Holland and Belgium. Here are the horns, but where will we find a head for 
the beast ? The state system has prohibited war on the saints and prevents an 
overshadowing monarchy from developing itself. We think the eighth head, or 
beast out of the bottomless pit, has yet to be developed, or is without a head. 

4.- Blasphemous Titles. — This wild beast is a decorated animal, such as is 
used on parades. He is not devouring with the teeth of lions, trampling down 
with the feet of the bear, nor tearing to pieces with the horns of the wild bufiklo; 
but he is a splendid animal, guided by a rich and ornamented woman. "^ He is 
not a fire-red, like the dragon or the horse in the second seal, but a scarlet-red, a 
fancy color, and his cover is labeled all over with splendid titles, captivating the 
people of this world. But they are presumptuous assumptions of titles belonging 
to the Deity or to His people, and viewed from a Christian standpoint they are 
blasphemous. They are not titles of service or office, but of quality, dignity, 



(4) Gbn. 2; 309, and note H. (5) Idm. 18®. (6) Rev. 17:7-18. (7) Rev. 17:3. 



d£iAl*TER CL-V-III.: SECTION Y. ' 82^ 

or excellence, such as : His Excellency, His Majesty, His Reverence, His 
Highness, His Honor ; Csesar, Augustus, Lord's Anointed, Most Christian King, 
Eldest Son of the Church, Advocate and Defender of the Faith; Holy Alhance, 
Holy Wars, Holy Inquisition, Holy League, Holy Roman Empire, Holy Lance ; 
St. Louis, St. George, St. Charles ; Prison, Tower, or Castle, of St. Michael 
Angelo; Court of St. James, Court of St. Cloud; Crown of St. Stephen, Banner 
of St. Mark, Flag of St. Patrick, etc. The term, saint, is applied to thousands 
of places and things. Everything vile, polluted, and cruel is called holy, saint, 
and blessed. These titles are given to persons and things belonging to the civil 
government which supports and carries the holy Catholic church, and to all her 
saints, clergy, monks, churches, and convents. A sacred title, when applied to a 
profane or polluted person or thing, becomes a blasphemous profanation. Civil 
governments should have political titles denoting office, rank, and service, but 
have no right to assume or receive titles of office, or character, or relation, 
belonging to the kingdom of God. More such titles might be given, but enough. 
History enables us to identify both the beast and its rider. 

5. The Eighth Head.*^ — There is a mystery about this third wild beast and 
about his eighth head. This beast was, or existed before its sixth headship, but 
at that time it was not, or did not exist, and after that time it was to ascend out 
of the bottomless, and then go into perdition ; and he must be the eighth head 
of himself or of the third beast. Hence, he must have been in the bottomless at 
the time of his sixth, or Austrian headship. But according to the divine pro- 
gramme^ the third beast did exist then, for he was decorated and the harlot was 
seated upon him. And according to history, the holy Roman empire was never 
greater than under Charles Y. and Ferdinand II., during which time the harlot 
was drunk with the blood of the Reformation. Was this beast that carried the 
harlot the German empire ? But the house of Austria was only the fifth German 
dynasty, and was never succeeded by another dynasty while the German empire 
sustained the papal or Latin church ; and the German empire was only an integral 
part of the papal empire, and never constituted the sole support and moving 
force of the papal or Latin church, and in no sense could it be said to not exist 
during the drunkenness of the woman. Was this beast the Frank empire of 
Charlemagne? The papal empire was the empire of Charles I. , or the Great, 
enlarged by German and Spanish conquests; but as a consolidated civil empire 
it did not exist under the Austrian, or sixth headship. . Spain, France, England, 
and the north recognized the Roman title of the German empire, but repudiated 
the idea of legitimate subjection to him, though they submitted to the pope. 

JS'ow, if some monarch would restore the Frank empire of Charlemagne, 
receiving the cooperation of the horns and consolidating it under one head, after 
the seventh head had passed away, his dynasty would be the eighth head and his 
monarchy would be the Carlovingian empire restored. But how could it be said 
that during the drukenness of the woman the restoration of the Frank empire 
of Charles I. was as helpless, and hopeless as the condition of a wild beast in a 
bottomless pit? When Charles Y. became emperor, French power and influence 
predominated in Rome; and though driven out by Charles, still France was a 
defying power and created combinations against Austria. When the harlot took 
her St. Bartholomew drunken spree, France was powerful ; and while she was 
drinking blood during the thirty years' war, France, by diplomacy and war, broke 
the power of Austria and subdued Spain. France came out of the sea of blood 
the most powerful nation in the papal empire, and Louis XIY. conld fight all 
Europe while the harlot was drinking the blood of the saints in Piedmont. The 
restoration of the Frank monarchy of Charlemagne was not hopeless, nor even 
improbable, during the drunkenness of the woman and the headship of Austria. 
And since that time Napoleon made it a fact when he made the Boneparte 



(8) Rev. 17:8, 11. (*) Chap. 168. 



824 THE KmaDOM of god DEVELOPliD. 

dynasty supersede the Austrian headship in the holy Roman empire. AVhethei* 
these facts, showing the possibility of a restoration of the Frank empire as it was 
under the Carlovingian dynasty, which was one of the seven, compel us to exclude 
it from this future position in the programme or not, they certainly authorize us 
to look for something more apposite ; and the Frank empire, or monarchy, in 
itself is nowhere represented as a beast, but only a head. 

This holy Roman empire was only an image of civil sovereignty, united, 
animated, and controlled by the pope and his clergy and monks. Now, the Con- 
stantine empire was a genuine political sovereignty, governiiig church and state, 
and he modeled the church government to suit the state fi^overnment and held 
the headship of church and state in his own hands. The Catholic churches 
accepted their government, model, and rights at his bands and acknowledged him 
for their head. General councils were called by him, controlled by him, and 
their decrees enforced or abrogated by him; and in all departments of govern- 
ment the ecclesiastical government was in subordination to the civil. When the 
empire divided, the divisions under the Latin and Greek heads continued the 
same regulations. The Latin empire became dissolved and transferred its sov- 
ereignty to the Greek head. Under the Greek head this genuine state sover- 
eignty, in fact or in form, continued until the Emperor of Tribesond yielded his 
throne to the Ottomans, A. D. 1461. From that date genuine state sovereignty 
nowhere existed, except in Russia, till the Reformation. The Greek head recog- 
nized the Frank monarchy, under the Merovingian dynasty, as a head in the 
Constantine Roman empire. Before the Frank monarchy became extended and 
powerful the Greek empire became enfeebled. The ecclesiastical influence 
became a wild beast and concentrated its power in two horns — the Unitarian 
and Trinitarian. The Unitarian horn created, by his order, an image of state 
sovereignty out of the Saracens, and these were superseded in government, or 
headship, by the Turks. But the caliph was the uniting, animating, and con- 
trolling spirit of this horn, or power. The Trinitarian horn converted the Frank 
monarchy into an image of state sovereignty, united, animated, and controlled 
by the pope. The pope deposed forever the Merovingian dynasty and estab- 
lished the Carlovingian dynasty, but the headship passed over to the German 
empire. 

These papal and Moslem horns, animating the Mahometan and papal 
empires, destroyed the genuine state sovereignty, or drove it into the unknown, 
dark, and frozen north. The Ottoman sultan united the caliph and sultan in 
himself. But, we find in the present day that it is the. caliph that unites and 
controls the Moslem world, while the sovereignty of the sultan has but little 
respect. Before the last Greek emperor fell he transferred his ecclesiastical head- 
ship and independent state sovereignty to tlie pope. The pope sent his legate to 
take possession of Russia, but he was rejected by both church and state. From 
the extirpation of state sovereignty, A. 1). 1461, it was confined, by the Moslem 
and papal horns uniting, animating, and controlling their images, in the impene- 
trable north, in as helpless and hopeless imprisonment as a wild beast in a 
bottomless pit, till the papal church was dead drunk with blood. 

Russia is the seventh head of the great Monotheistic wild beast constituted 
by Constantine, and not till the eighteenth century did Russia show any symptoms 
of raising the Constantine wild beast out of its hopeless prison. Now, if Russia 
would subjugate Turkey, or destroy its power, and all the Greek churches 
acknowledge the czar as their civil head and defender, the Constantine wild beast 
would be out of the bottomless pit and under its seventh headship. And if the 
ten horns of the holy Roman empire would cooperate and destroy the ecclesias- 
tical sovereignty of pope and caliph and establish state sovereignty churches, all 
the world, excepting the two witnesses, would wonder after the resurrected beast, 
and would worship him and slay the two witnesses. This would fill the pro- 
gramme in every point. 



ohApter oLix. : SECTION i. 8^5 

iTow, placing ourselves back to the peace of Westphalia, A.. D. 1648, or, 
come down to A. D. 1700, what prospect was there of such an event? Not 
much. It is like a crazy dream. But, stop ! Russia is inaccessible in her dark 
and frozen north, and she may grow. The Greek churches want a civil head of 
their own faith, and they have heard of Russia. Their patriarchs have ordained 
a brother patriarch in Moscow, in place of the apostate patriarch at Rome. 
The Protestant state churches all acknowledge themselves under state sovereignty, 
and Catholic princes are disposed to bring the clergy under their control whether 
the clergy acknowledge the right or not. France will restrict the pope's power 
to religious matters, and others will follow the example. Time will show, and we 
will watch the signs. Will the empire of Charlemagne, now united, animated, 
and controlled by the pope, be restored and have control of the church ? or, will 
the empire of Constantine, holding all churches and clergy under its control, be 
established from the Atlantic to the Euphrates or the Indus ? We shall see. (Con- 
tinued in chaps. 168, 184.) 



Period Twenty-first. A. M. 5652-5928. 

The Safety and Prosperity of Witnesses^ and the Power of the Kingdom 
of God Exercised on Its Adversaries. 

CHAPTER CLIX. 



THE FIFTH SEAL HISTORICALLY OPENED. (Continued from 

Chaps. 152 and 155, § 1.) 

1. The Seal. — We may consider the fifth seal opened now, and some of the 
events transpired. The result of the three preceding seals is now exhibited to 
John. He saw around the altar of incense the individuals slain for the word of 
God and the testimony of Jesus, and they cried : Until when, O Lord, the Holy 
and True, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on those that dwell on the 
earth? (Rev. 6:9, 10.) — on the recoo^nized citizens of the Monotheistic empire. 
This appositely represents the time immediately preceding the Reformation, as 
well as some time after. The woman, or true church, was nowhere nourished 
except in the wilderness of obscurity. Her seed had been dispersed by cruel 
persecutions and the vigilance of inquisitors. The two witnesses were clothed in 
sackcloth, and mourning over disappointed hopes and slaughtered companions. 
These dreadful commotions, excited about the Waldenses, Albigenses, Beghards, 
and Bohemians, were entirely suppressed by the united powers of councils and 
the sword. The few Waldenses in Piedmont could propose to themselves no 
higher felicity than leaving to their posterity that wretched and obscure corner of 
Europe separating the Alps from the Pyrenees; while the surviving handful of 
Bohemians, still persevering in opposition to the Roman yoke, had neither 
strength nor knowledge to attempt anything new. ^ The numbers of witnesses 
were not so contemptible, as we shall see from Mosheim's own account of the 
Anabaptists, but they were dispersed in obscurity and unobserved by princes and 
prelates. 

(2)Mosh. 16:1; 1, § 1. 



826 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

In this hopeless condition, how appropriate was such a prayer as this heard 
by John as they were gathered around the altar, where prayers go up with the 
incense. ^ It shows that all hope of reformation by their efforts had expired, and 
now they appeal to God for vengeance. ^ If the barren tig tree will not produce 
fruit after all cultivation, cut it down. These prayers were not limited to that 
time, but were repeated after the Reformation had triumphed in some countries; 
and one of these, from the pen of Milton, may serve for a specimen : Avenge, 
O Lord, Thy slaughtered saints, whose bones lie scattered on the Alpine mount- 
ains cold. Even them, who kept Thy truth so pure of old — when all our fathers 
worshiped stocks and stones — forget them not. In Thy book record their groans, 
who were Thy sheep, and in their ancient fold slain by the bloody Piedmontese, 
who rolled mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans, the vales redoubled 
to the hills, and they to Heaven. Their martyred ashes sow o'er all the Italian 
fields — where still doth sway the tripled tyrant — that from these may grow an 
hundred-fold, who, having learned Thy way, early may fly the Babylonian woe. 

Those prayers offered before the Reformation (A. D. 1500), were answered, 
to some extent, when the papal sea was turned into blood by the wars of the 
Reformation. But, not until all the vials of wrath are poured out will their 
prayer be fully answered; and, at some time before they be emptied, more of 
their witnessing brethren must be martyred — which may refer to the slaughter of 
the two witnesses by the beast out of the bottomless pit. ^ But the vengeance 
will be perfected in the sixth seal. Their case, however, became safe and pros- 
perous in some countries after the peace of Westphalia. They could rest from 
persecution, and put on white robes, as victors; and they could exhibit the truth 
and true Christian character in safety. The two witnesses can put off their sack- 
cloth and cease mourning for some slaughtered brother or sister, martyred for 
the truth, though they will still torment the worshipers of the beast till they 
finish their witness-bearing. The woman, or true church, can be nourished in 
other places than the wilderness, and the dragon and his delegates must stop 
making war upon her seed. 

2. The Waldenses. — We shall now look after the woman, and see when 
she came out of the wilderness and where she has gone. The Waldenses claimed 
to be the true church of Christ, and that the Church of Rome was the whore of 
Babylon. 6 They say : That is the church of Christ which hears the pure doctrine 
of Christ and observes the ordinances instituted by Him, in whatever place it 
exists. '' They say that they alone observe the evangelical and apostolic doctrine, 
on which account they claim the name, the Catholic Church.^ Such of the Wal- 
denses as remained at the beginning of the Reformation lived, contented under 
the difiiculties of extreme poverty, in the valleys of Piedmont, and proposed to 
themselves no higher felicity than leaving to their posterity that wrecked and 
obscure corner of Europe which separates the Alps from the Pyrenean mount- 
ains. 9 In A. D. 1526 the pastors of the valleys deputed persons to visit the 
Reformers in Germany, who returned with printed books to the brethren. Other 
brethren visited Germany and conferred with Ecolampadius, who, from statements 
given, exhorted the Waldenses to remedy certain evils which existed among them 
in certain points of doctrine in church order and in irregular conduct of members 
who mingled with Catholics in worship. ^ A letter from these Waldenses says: 
"Health to Mr. Ecolampadius. Whereas, several having given us to understand 
that the Almighty has replenished you with His Holy Spirit, as appears from the 
fruits, we have recourse to you from a far country, with a steadfast hope that the 
Holy Spirit will enlighten our understanding by your means and give us the 
knowledge of several things in which we are now doubtful and which are hidden 
from us because of our ignorance, to the damage of ourselves and people. We 



(3) Rev. 8:3-5 (4)11:5,6.6:10. (5) Rev. 11:7, 8. (6) Jones, pp. 324, 329. (7)334. (8)330. 
(9) Mosh. 16:1; 1, § 1. (1) Orch., pp. 284-5, § 24. 



C3MAi*TfiE CLIX.: SECTION tit. B2T 

are poor instructors of this small people, who have undergone, for above four 
hundred years, most cruel persecutions, but not without signal marks of favor 
from Christ, Who has interposed to deliver us when under the harrow of severe 
tribulations. In this, our state of weakness, we come to you for advice and 
consolation." 

They wrote in the same strain to other Reformers, zealous to profit by their 
superior knowledge. ^ Their descendants in the valleys of Piedmont embraced 
the doctrines and rites of the Eeformed Church. So far down as A. D. 1630 they 
retained a considerable part of their ancient discipline and tenets; but, that year 
the plague having destroyed the greatest part of them with a considerable number 
of their pastors and clergy, they addressed the French churches for spiritual 
succor, and these new doctors made several changes in their discipline and doc- 
trine and rendered them conformable in every respect with the French Prostestant 
churches. ^ These were oppressed and persecuted in the most barbarous and 
inhuman manner during the greatest part of the seventeenth century, which 
seemed to portend their total destruction, and but a small number survived. ^ In 
A. D. 1686 the prisons were opened and the survivors banished. In A. D. 1689 
Henry Arnaud, with about four hundred of these exiles, sword in hand, returned 
from Switzerland, and, after fighting and sufi'ering, were permitted to settle in 
their native land, and so remain to this day. ^ 

Can we regard these last mentioned as the woman originally in the wilder- 
ness ? or, only part of her seed ? If the Reformers had corrected their own doc- 
trine, discipline, and rites by the principles of the Waldenses, we should consider 
them the true church, come out of the wilderness in A. D. 1689. But, when we 
are informed that their creed was altered by the Reformers, we must regard them 
as Reformers, or the seed of the woman. Instead of the children returning into 
the bosom of their mother, the woman has given up her peculiar characteristics 
and gone into the habitations of her seed. 

3. The Bohemian Brethren. — Let us now look after the Bohemians, a 
handful of whom survived the ruin of their faction and still persevered in opposi- 
tion to the Roman yoke, but, instead of inspiring terror, had become objects of 
contempt. ^ The Moravians derive their origin from the Greek church in the ninth 
century, when the kings of Bulgaria and Moravia, with their subjects, were con- 
verted by the Greek monks and united with the Greek church. Mithodus was 
their first bishop, and Cyrillus translated the Scriptures into the Sclavonic lan- 
guage for them. After many struggles the greater part of them were compelled 
to submit to the Roman see. A few of them, adhering to the rites of the Greek 
church, united, A. D. 1170, to the Waldenses, and sent missionaries into many 
countries. All bishops in the Bohemian church having submitted to Rome, three 
preachers of the United Brethren were ordained, A. D. 1467, by Stephen, a Wal- 
densian bishop in Austria. These three on their return ordained ten more from 
among the rest. In A. D. 1547 they threw off all reverence for human compila- 
tions of faith, professed to follow the word of God alone, and were called Brethren 
of the Law of Christ. For friendly correspondence with Luther, Calvin, and 
other reformers, they were persecuted ; and disputes among themselves threat- 
ened the ruin of their society. A synod, in A. D. 1570, terminated the schism 
by decreeing that differences in non-essentials should not destroy their union. 
The persecution ceased A. D. 1575, and they obtained an edict for the public 
exercise of their religion. '^ 

The Bohemian, or Moravian, brethren, according to Mosheim, descended 
from the better sort of Hussites. They sent deputies to Luther, A. D. 1522, to 
recommend themselves to his friendship and good offices, and discovered the 
same attachment to the Lutheran churches in Saxony and other countries. 



(2) Milnr., Vol. II , pp. 73-4 Cent. 13, chap. 4. (3) Mosh. 16:3; 2, 2, § 25. (4) 17:2; 2, 2, § 5. 
(5) Orch., p 293, § 32. (6) Mosh. 16:1; 1, § 1. (7) Encp.Morav. 



828 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Though Luther could not approve of their confession of faith in every particular, 
yet he looked upon it as an object of toleration and indulgence. The death of 
Luther, and the expulsion of these brethren from their country A. D. 1547, gave 
a new turn to their religious connection, and by degrees they all entered into the 
communion of the Swiss church. At first the union was formed on the express 
condition that each church should continue to be governed by their respective 
laws and institutions and have separate places of public worship, but in the fol- 
lowing century they were united under the title, the United Brethen. The out- 
ward form was modeled after the form of the Bohemian brethren, and the articles 
of faith were from the Calvinists. ® 

The persecution of A. D. 1621 dispersed their ministers and distressed the 
members. Some fled to England, some to Saxony, and others conformed to 
popery. A colony, retaining their original principles and practices, was con- 
ducted, A. D. 17:^2, by Christian David to Lusatia, and were protected by 
Nicolas Lewis, count of Zinzendorf, who, in trying to convert them to the 
Lutheran faith and practice, became a leading man among them, and is regarded 
as the restorer of their church. ^ Whether they sprung from the Greek church 
or the Hussites they were reformers, and not by a succession from the apostles; 
and, though persecuted as reformers, they were protected by a public edict, A. D. 
1575. Like other ancient witnesses, they have been misrepresented and slan- 
dered, or had the actions and speeches of other opposers of popery attributed to 
them. There were diversity of opinions among them, and keen disputes, which 
were terminated by Count Zinzendorf, and he must be regarded as the founder of 
them as they now stand among modern churches. 

4. Anabaptists, Origin Of. — When the Lamb took His station on Mount 
Zion with His one hundred and forty-four thousand avowed followers. Heaven 
rejoiced in the prospect of the consummation of the kingdom of God, ^nd the 
one hundred and forty-four thousand on earth joined in the song. ^ But it is 
evident from the opening of the fifth seal that a disappointment was experienced, 
and a prayer of vengeance was offered up. ^ "History shows such was a fact. 
Before the rise of Luther or Calvin there lay concealed in almost all the countries 
of Europe, particularly in Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland, and Germany, many 
persons who adhered tenaciously to the following doctrine, which the Waldenses, 
Wicklifiites, and Hussites had maintained, some in a more disguised and others 
in a more open and public manner : That the kingdom of Christ, or the visible 
church he had established upon earth, was an assembly of true and real saints, 
and ought to be inaccessible to the wicked and unrighteous, and also exempt from 
all those institutions which human prudence suggests to oppose in the progress of 
iniquity, or reform and correct transgressors. This maxim is the true source of 
all the peculiarities that are to be found in the religious doctrine and discipline 
of the Mennonites, and it is most certain that the greatest part of these peculi- 
arities were approved by many of those who, before the dawn of the Reformation, 
entertained the notion already mentioned relating to the visible church of 
Christ. "3 

"Some reckoned that such a church could not be realized by the power 
of man, and hoped Christ would effect it Himself by chosen instruments pre- 
pared by the extraordinary succors of His Holy Spirit. Others thought it possible 
by human wisdom, industry, and vigilance to purify the church from the con- 
tagion of the wicked and restore it to the simplicity of its original constitution, 
provided the manners and spirit of the primitive Christians could recover their 
lost dignity and luster. "^ 

"The drooping spirits of these people were revived when informed that 
Luther and others had successfully attempted the reformation of the church. 
Then they spoke with openness and freedom, and the enthusiasm of the fanatical 

(8)Mosh 1:3;2, 2, §24. (9) Encp. Morav. (1) Rev. 14:1-5 Chap. 155, § 1. (2) Rev. 6:9-11. 
(8) Mosh. 16:3; 2, 3, § 2, and note H, or *. 



OHAPTEB CLIX. ! SECTION IV. 829 

and the prudence of the wise discovered themselves in their natural colors. 
Some thought God would now establish a pure church by celestial succors; others 
hoped the long expected restoration of the church would now be accomplished 
under the divine protection by the labors and counsels of pious and eminent 
men. This sect was soon joined by great numbers whose characters and 
capacities were very different, though their views seemed to turn upon the same 
object. Their progress was rapid. Their discourses, visions, and predictions 
excited commotions in a great part of Europe and drew into their communion a 
prodigious multitude, whose ignorance rendered them easy victims to the illusions 
of enthusiasm. As the leaders of this sect had fallen into that erroneous and 
chimerical notion that the new kingdom of Christ, which they expected, was to 
be exempt from every kind of vice, imperfection, and corruption, they were not 
satisfied with Luther's plan of reformation, and undertook a more perfect refor- 
mation and to found a new church entirely spiritual and truly divine."^ 

"It is difficult to determine certainly the particular spot of their origin, but 
most likely several persons appeared at the same time in different countries soon 
after the dawn of the Reformation. The first Anabaptist doctors of any emi- 
nence were almost all heads and leaders of particular and separate sects. For it 
must be carefully observed that, though all these projectors of a new unspotted 
and perfect church were comprehended under the general denomination of Ana- 
baptists, on account of their opposing the baptism of infants and rebaptizing such 
as had been baptized in childhood in other churches, yet from their very origin 
they were subdivided into various sects which differed from each other in points 
of no small moment. The most pernicious faction of all this motly multitude 
was that which pretended that the founders of the new and perfect church, 
already mentioned, were under the direction of a divine impulse, and were armed 
against- all opposition by the power of working miracles. It was this detestable 
faction that, in the year A. D. 1521, began their fanatical work under the guid- 
ance of Munzer, Stubner, Stork, and other leaders of the same furious complexion, 
and excited the most unhappy tumults and commotions in Saxony and adjoining 
countries. They first employed the various arts of persuasion, and then, opposed 
by Luther and others, they resorted to the force of arms."^ 

"The true origin of the Anabaptists is hid in the remotest depths of antiquity 
and is extremely difficult to be ascertained. This sect started up all of a sudden 
in several countries, at the same point of time, under leaders of different talents 
and different intentions, and at the time when the first contest of the reformers 
with the popes drew the attention of the world. "^ 

Perhaps, doctor, among these was the woman of the wilderness, hidden from 
the face of the dragon and his sTiccessors ! Perhaps she is coming to see if she 
can be nourished among princes and prelates in open civilized countries ! Per- 
haps the oppressed rebels borrowed her doctrines of truth and freedom to animate 
themselves and recommend their cause to others ! What you call erroneous, 
fanatical, and pernicious notions about the kingdom of Christ, or visible church, 
is the doctrine of the Bible; and when the kingdom of God is consummated it 
will be realized. The good seed are the heirs of the kingdom, and the Son of 
Man put them there ; the tares are the children of the Wicked One, and were 
sown by the Diabolus. At the end of .this age the angels will gather out the 
tares; then shall the righteous shine as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father. 
The fact of the wicked being in the kingdom is one thing, but their right to be 
there is quite another; and when they can be rooted out without taking the wheat 
it should be done, though it might cause a separation between church and state. 
This is the doctrine of the kingdom taught by Christ, and the apostles, the old 
prophets, the Novatians, the Donatists, and now by the Anabaptists. But, how 
can you accuse this doctrine, or those pious advocates of it, of tumults, seditions, 
debaucheries, carnage, desolations ? 

(4) Mosh. 16 :3; 2, 3, § 3. (5) Idm., § 4. (6) § L 



830 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 



5. Character of Anabaptists. — "The nature and constitution of this sect, 
the Waterlandians, appear to have been in some measure founded on this prin- 
ciple : That practical piety is the essence of religion, and the surest mark of the 
true church is the sanctity of its members. It is at least certain that this principle 
was always universally adopted by the Anabaptists."" 

"The opinions held in common by the Mennonites seem to be derived from 
this leading fundamental principle, that: The kingdom established by Christ 
upon earth is a visible church, or community, into which the holy and the just 
alone are to be admitted, and is exempt from all those institutions and rules of 
discipline invented by human wisdoin for the correction and reformation of the 
wicked. This fanatical principle was frankly avowed by the ancient Mennonites. " ^ 

The most vehement contests among the ancient Anabaptists was not con- 
cerning doctrines and mysteries of religion, but generally upon conduct of life — 
what was lawful, decent, just, and pious in actions and manner; and on the con- 
trary, what was criminal and unseemly. These disputes were a natural consequence 
of their favorite principle : That holiness of life and purity of manners were the 
authentic marks of the true church.^ I endorse these doctrines. By their fruits 
ye shall know them. J^ow, let us see what was done by some, or many, that 
brought reproach and suffering on them all. 

6. Peasants' War, Munzer's Fanaticism, and Bockhold's New Jerusa- 
lem. — " To these intestine divisions among the Protestants were added the horrors 
of a civil war, which was the fatal effects of oppression on the one hand, and of 
enthusiasm on the other. In A. D. 1525 a prodigious multitude of seditious 
fanatics arose like a whirlwind, all of a sudden, in different parts of Germany; 
took arms; united their forces; waged war against the laws, magistrates, and the 
empire in general; laid waste the country with fire and sword, and exhibited 
daily the most horrid spectacles of unrelenting barbarity. The greatest part of 
these furious and formidable mobs was composed of vassals and peasants, who 
groaned under heavy burdens, and declared they were no longer able to bear the 
despotic severity of their chiefs. And hence called the rustic, or peasants' war. 
Some were impelled by enthusiasm, and others for rapine and plunder. At first 
civil and political views alone appeared in their manisfestations. Diminution of 
taxes and more liberty were demanded, and religion seemed to be out of the ques- 
tion. These kind of wars were very common before this, and were called common 
evils. But Munzer, putting himself at their head, gave it a religious turn. Some 
pleaded for exemption from all laws ; others for a diminution of taxes and of the 
burdens under which they groaned. Others insisted upon a new religion, or new 
form of religious doctrine, government, and worship — the establishment of a pure 
and unspotted church, and pretended to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. Part 
were without any distinct view or fixed purpose at all, but, infected with sedition 
and exasperated by the severity of their magistrates and rulers, went headlong 
into every act of rebellion, violence, and cruelty suggested by enthusiasm. If it 
can not be denied that many of these rioters had perversely misunderstood the 
doctrine of Luther on Christian liberty, and took occasion from them to commit 
these odious disorders, yet it would be most absurd partiality and injustice to 
charge that doctrine with those extravagant outrages that arose from the manifest 
abuse of it. Luther advised the princes to take arms against them."i 

Doctor, if the Catholics should not blame these outrages on Luther's doc- 
trine of Christian liberty, why should Protestants charge them on the Anabaptists' 
doctrine of a pure church? The Anabaptists' views of the church, and piety, 
and Christian character and practice are more evangelical and peaceful than those 
of the Protestants. 

"This odious faction was defeated and destroyed, A. D. 1525, in a pitched 
battle at JVIulhausen, and Munzer was taken and put to death." ^ 



(7) Mosh., § 13. (S) § 15. (9j Idm., § 20. (1) Mosh. 16:1; 2, § 22. 



CHAPTER CLIX. : SECTIONS VII. -VIII. 831 

''Again, in A. D. 1533, a handful of madmen, called Dutch Anabaptists, chose 
Munster for their New Jerusalem and seat of their spiritual empire, and John 
Bockhold for king, and designed to subvert all human and political institutions 
and extend their dominion to the ends of the earth. They deposed the magis- 
trates and committed all the enormous crimes and ridiculous follies. In A. D. 
1536 their city was retaken after a long siege by the bishop and German princes, 
and their king and associates were put to death in the most terrible and ignomin- 
ious manner. "2 

7. Persecution of Anabaptists. — "This conduct of a handful of Anabap- 
tists drew upon the whole body heavy marks of displeasure from most European 
princes. The severest laws were enacted against them for the second time. The 
innocent and guilty were involved in the same terrible fate, and prodigious num- 
bers were devoted to death in the most dreadful forms. "^ 

"A great part of this rabble seemed really delirious. Extravagant dreams 
and visions were constantly arising in their disordered brains. Such of them as 
had some reason left reduced their notions into certain form, among which were 
the following: The church of Christ ought to be exempt from all sin; all ought to 
be common among the faithful; all usury, tithes, and tribute ought to be abol- 
ished; infant baptism was of the devil; every Christian was invested with power 
to preach the Gospel; no need of pastors or ministers; in the kingdom of Christ 
civil magistrates were useless, and God still revealed His will to chosen persons. 
But even all these were not chargeable with the extravagant conduct mentioned, 
and several of these enthusiasts were mild and pacific spirits and free from any 
other reproach than their errors and ardent desire to spread them. And many 
who followed the wiser class of Anabaptists, and some who adhered to the most 
extravagant factions of that sect, were men of upright intentions and sincere 
piety, who were seduced into this mystery of fanaticism and iniquity by their 
ignorance and simplicity, and by a desire to reform the corrupt state of religion."^ 

"The innocent and guilty were involved in the same fate, and many suffered 
death, not as rebellious subjects, but merely as incurable heretics: for limiting 
baptism to adults and rebaptizing those baptized in infancy were regarded as most 
flagitious and intolerable heresies. "^ 

Now, let us recollect the peasants' war was A. D. 1525, when Munzer and 
his faction were destroyed. Bockhold and his handful of associates were destroyed 
A. D. 1535 or 1536, which was the second and last rising ; and yet the Anabaptists 
were persecuted by Protestants in A. D. 1693-1.^ 

"In almost all the countries of Europe an unspeakable number of these 
unhappy wretches preferred death in its worst forms to a retraction of their errors. 
Neither the view of the flames, nor the ignominy of gibbet, nor the terror of the 
sword could shake their invincible constancy or make them abandon tenets dearer 
to them than life and all its enjoyments. The Mennonites have preserved volu- 
minous records of the lives, actions, and unhappy fate of those of their sect who 
suffered death for the crimes of rebellion or of heresy imputed to them."^ 

" While the terrors of death in the most dreadful forms were presented to the 
view of this miserable sect, and numbers of them were executed every day without 
a proper distinction being made between the innocent and the guilty, those that 
escaped the severity of justice were in the most discouraging situation imaginable, 
and were filled with the most anxious apprehensions of the perils that threatened 
them on every, or all sides. In this critical situation they derived much comfort 
and assistance from the counsels and zeal of Menno Simon, a native of Friesland. 
who had been a popish priest and a notorious profligate."'^ 

8. Mennonites. — "This man, Menno, went over to the Anabaptists in a 
clandestine manner and frequented their assemblies with the utmost secresy ; but 



(2) Mosh. 3, § 10. Cent. 8:2; 8, § 7, and note R. (3) Mosh, 16:3; 2; 3, § 5. (4) Idm., § 6. (5) 
17:2; 2, 5, § 1, and note E. (6) Mosh. 16:3; 2; 3, § 6. (.7) Idm., § 8. 



832 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

in A. D. 1536 he threw off the mask, resigned his rank and office in the Romisli 
church, and publicly embraced their communion. From this to the end of his 
life (twenty-fiv^e years) he traveled from country to country with wife and children, 
exercising his ministry under pressures and calamities of various kinds succeeding 
each other without interruption, and was constantly exposed to falling a victim to 
the severity of the laws. His ministry was attended with remarkable success, 
and added to his sect a prodigious number of proselytes, and hence he is deservedly 
looked upon as the common chief of almost all the Anabaptists and the parent 
of the sect that still bears his name.""^ 

Menno was the reformer of whom the world was not worthy, and was never 
wedded with any state government. 

''The Mennonites deny theirdescent from the fanatical and turbulent Anabap- 
tists, or that they are the same sect purged from their former fanaticism by reflection 
and suffering." 

JVIosheim, having examined the whole controversy, considers the following 
positions indisputable: "No one will impeach Menno with the odious opinions 
which drew the just severity of the law upon the Anabaptists of Munster. No 
one will deny that those churches having received their doctrine and discipline 
from Menno have been peaceful, submissive to governments, and have shown 
the utmost abhorrence of wars and bloodshed, and have banished from their con- 
fessions of faith and religious instructions those tenets and principles that led the 
ancient Anabaptists to disobedience, violence, and rebellion. Again, if the 
Mennonites maintain that even the Anabaptists who lived before Menno were not 
all so delirious as Munzer, nor so outrageous as the fanatical part of that sect, 
which rendered their memory eternally odious by the enormities they committed 
at Munster, but that, on the contrary, many of these ancient Anabaptists abstained 
from all acts of violence and sedition, followed the pious examples of the ancient 
Waldenses, Henricians, Petrobusians, Hussites, and Wickliffites, and adopted 
the doctrine and discipline of Menno as soon as that new parent arose to reform 
and patronize the sect, all this will be allowed without hesitation. But, on the 
other hand, some of the Mennonites descended by birth from those turbulent 
Anabaptists. The first Mennonite congregations were coniposed of those Anabap- 
tists who had always been inoffensive and upright, and of those who, before their 
conversion by Menno, had been seditious fanatics. The Mennonites do retain 
some of the tenets, opinions, and doctrines which led the seditious and turbulent 
Anabaptists to such enormous crimes, on the nature of Christ's kingdom, or 
church of the New Testament."^ 

Doctor, what are these seditions principles? That the church of Christ 
ought to be exempt from sin? That in the kingdom of Clirist civil magistrates 
were useless? "The opinions held in common by the Mennonites seem to be 
all derived from this leading and fundamental principle: Tliat the kingdom which 
Christ established upon earth is a visible church or comniunity, into which the 
holy and just alone are to be admitted, and is consequent ly exempt from all those 
institutions and rules of discipline that have been invented by human wisdom for 
the correction and reformation of the wicked. This fanatical principle was frankly 
avowed by the ancient Mennonites. In the thirtieth article of the Waterlandian 
confession, they declare that Jesus Christ has not compreliended the institution of 
civil magistracy in His spiritual kingdom, or in the church of the New Testament, 
nor has He added it to the offices of His church."'^ 

These are the two great fundamental principles up^n which is charged all 
the seditions, tumults, and bloodshed of the Anabaptists. I defend them both and 
deny the charge. They are fatal to all state-church < >rablishments, but they 
produce neither fanaticism, sedition, nor bloodshed. 



(7) Idm., § 8. (8) Idm., § 9, and note U, or *. (9) Mosh. 16:;' . L' 3, §§ 5, 15, note A. 



CHAPTER CLIX. : SECTION IX. 833 

9. The True Character of the Ancient Anabaptists Determined.— When 
I consider the fundamental principles attributed to the Anabaptists and the fact 
that they considered true piety and holy life the sure test of the true church of 
Christ, I regard the whole impeachment to be one of the Red Dragon's gratuitous 
slanders. When he delegated his throne and authority to persecute the woman 
and her seed, he authorized the beast and false prophet to slander, as an excuse 
to murder. Erasmus says : ^' The Anabaptists were very numerous in Switzer- 
land in A. D. 1529, (which was seven years before Menno,) and were worthy of 
greater commendation than others on account of the harmlessness of their 
lives. "1 According to Dr. Ypeij, professoT of theology at Gronengen, and Rev. 
G. T. Dermont, chaplain to the king of the Netherlands, A. D. 1819, the Menon- 
ites descended from Waldenses driven by persecution into Holland and Zealand 
in the twelfth century. They lived simple and exemplary lives as farmers and 
tradesmen, free from the charge of any gross immoralities, professing the most 
pure and simple principles, which they exemplified by a holy conversation. The 
greater part of the perfect and the whole of the imperfect were among the most 
pious Christians the church ever saw, and the worthiest citizens the state ever 
had. In A. D. 1536 their scattered community obtained a church order by Menno 
Simon, separate from other Protestants, but thej have declined government 
salaries. ^ 

Now we have the whole subject before us, as given by Dr. Mosheim, who 
is no friend to the Anabaptists; and now, dispensing with his adjectives and 
adopting his report of the facts, what is the true state of the case? Their origin 
is hidden in the remote depths of antiquity, before the rise of Luther and Calvin. 
They heard of the reformation, were rejoiced and disappointed. The rustic war 
broke out. At first religion had no part in it ; then Munzer, pretending to inspira- 
tion, turns it to a religious war, or adopts a religion to increase and animate his 
armies. He professes some Anabaptist principles and violates others. He is 
defeated and put to death. His disciples — a handful of Anabaptists — capture 
Munster, threaten Amsterdam, and are defeated and slain. A few go naked, 
practice polygamy, and do other things contrary to the Anabaptists' doctrine of 
the purity of the church and piety and holy life of its members. All this is 
charged on the pure anti-state religion of the Anabaptists. Edicts are issued, and 
severe laws were enacted against them all. Some guilty and many innocent were 
murdered in the most inhuman manner. They are distressed. Menno, a reformed 
priest, appears among them, reforms some of the erring and unites them with those 
persecuted without a crime, and thus formed the no-state-church society, called 
Mennonites; and persecution still sheds the blood of Anabaptists and Mennonites. 

The peasants' war and the misconduct at Munster and Amsterdam are the 
only cases of sedition, indecency, and outrage that I can find specified against 
them, and though charged with all kinds or sedition, they dwindle into insignif- 
icance when compared with the wars of the Reformation. In Germany, France, and 
England, the Catholics, Lutherans, Huguenots, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and 
Independents surpassed Munzer and Bokhold. But, these cases can not, in jus- 
tice, be charged upon the principles of the Anabaptists, nor upon them as a sect 
or society. They were neither a confederated nor consolidated body, but inde- 
pendent churches and individuals, individually and separately responsible for 
their conduct. They had been dispersed by persecution, and never were united 
till united by Menno Simon, if they were all united by him. My conclusion is 
that we have found a part of the true church in the wilderness. That they were 
in the wilderness is certain ; but whether they descended from the apostles, or 
were the fragments of reformations, or were the offspring of both, we can not 
determine. The woman and her seed have been so dispersed and commingled 
that we can not with certainty distinguish them. And no matter. When the 



(1) Ben. 55. (2) Encp. R. K. Mennonites. 
—53 



834 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

genuine seed of the woman are driven by persecution into obscurity, they "become 
true churches of Christ in the wilderness. The law enacted against the JSlova- 
tians and Donatists, A. D. 413, decreed that the person rebaptized and the bap- 
tizer should be punished with death ;3 and now the Anabaptists, or rebaptizers, 
are doomed to death (from A. D. 1525 to A. D. 1694) for the same offense — as 
intolerable and incurable heretics. ^ The Donatists said : What has the emperor 
to do with the church? What has the church to do with kings? What have 
bishops to do at court ?^ The Anabaptists say: The civil magistrate is useless in 
the church. Christ has not added it to the offices of His church, which is pure; 
and its membership is restricted to the holy and just. And they were banished 
from Berne A. D. 1671.6 Now, A. D. 413 + 1260 years, comes to A. D. 1673. 
But, the true churches can not yet be nourished out of the wilderness, except we 
regard Holland as out of the wilderness, A. D. 1626. 

10. How did the Anabaptists become stigmatized with the crimes of Munzer 
and others ? In three ways, besides unworthy members, have the followers of 
Christ been stigmatized : 1. By malignant, blasphemous lying, of which the wild 
beast is accused. '^ 2. By political leaders, who wish to stimulate their armies or 
factions with religious zeal. After Christianity ascended the throne of the 
Csesars it was linked with civil oppression, and all rebels against that despotism 
must adopt the religion of some oppressed heresy or schism. Thus, the Circum- 
cellians of Africa brought reproach upon the Donatists. 3. True Christians have 
often heroic friends, who refuse to witness injustice, oppression, or cruelty, and 
so defend them by the sword ; as was the case of the Paulicians in the Greek 
empire, the Albigenses in France, and others. When these defenders are 
defeated all the incidents of war are charged on the martyrs, as an excuse for 
persecuting them on account of their testimony. 

Here we have the peasants' war, a common evil of the times, in which were 
found Catholics, Lutherans, and others who were opposed to the state church. 
Running in the veins of many of these peasants was the blood of many dukes, 
counts, and barons, who had been ruined by the crusades and inquisitions of the 
empire church. These were ready to profess any religion opposed to the church 
and state oppression. The Catholic and Lutheran clergy, being wedded with the 
oppressors, denounced the peasants. Munzer, whether a fanatic, a fool, a mad- 
man, a patriot, a strategist, or a hero, professed to adopt the religion of the Ana- 
baptists, improved by inspiration. Being defeated, a handful of his followers 
tried it again and were destroyed. Then all their misdeeds were attributed to the 
pure anti-state-church principles of the genuine Anabaptists, and for these princi- 
ples the innocent had to suffer. Therefore, says Mosheim, it is not at all to be 
wondered at that the secular arm employed rigorous measures to extirpate a fac- 
tion which was the occasion, nay, the source, of unspeakable calamities in so 
many countries. ^ The case is made out, by Mosheim himself, that the Anabap- 
tists did not originate in the Munster affair, nor in the Rustic war, but existed 
before them. Many had no part in them, and their principles were violated by 
them. Their martja-s before the inquisition uniformly answer: "These were not 
our brethren ; we have no fellowship with such men. The men of Munster were 
among yourselves; of your own party." They were never accused by the inquisi- 
tors of personal misconduct, and they constantly challenged their accusers for the 
proof of anything immoral or injurious in their conduct. But nothing of the kind 
was ever attempted. The affairs at Munster and Amsterdam were the only cases 
of malconduct alleged against them. Their heresies were Anabaptism, against 
the sacrament of the altar, the Virgin Mary, and all other articles of the Roman 
church. ^ 



(3) Ben., p. 10. (4) Mosh. 16:3; 2, 3, § 6. 17:2; 2, 5, § 1, note C Ben., pp. 112-18. (5) Chap. 
128, § 5. (6) Ben., p. 115. (7) Rev. 14:6. (8) Mosh. 16:3; 2, 3, § 7. (9) Ben., 123-4, and see pp. 
84-132. Orch. 346-73. 



CHAPTER CLIX. : SECTION XI. 835 

11. The Destiny of the Anabaptists. — Having determined the claim of 
the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century to be a part of the true church in the 
wilderness, let us now see what has become of them. They appear to have been 
merged into the name of Mennonite, and the terms Anabaptists and Mennonites 
are used so indiscriminately by historians that I can not determine whether all 
of them united under the labors of Menno, or the original ones were cut off by 
persecution ; but they appear to have been finally comprehended under the name 
Mennonites. Was Menno one of them by birth and education ; or, was he an 
original reformer, as Waldo and others? That he was a Catholic priest is asserted 
by all. Was he a proselyte to their views; or, did they yield their hereditary 
opinions to his superior influence, as the Waldenses and Bohemians did to the 
Calvinists?^ According toMoshiem,^ we might reckon Menno a proselyte to 
the Anabaptists ; but according to his own statements he was an original reformer, 
though the sufferings of the Anabaptists aroused his attention to their views. 
He says : By the gracious favor of God I have acquired my knowledge through 
the enlightening of the Holy Spirit attendent on my much reading and contem- 
plating the Scriptures, and not through the efforts and means of seducing sects, 
as I am accused. He denies any communication with the Anabaptists until he 
had been led by the word and Spirit of God to adopt their principles. ^ 

That some of the turbulent were reformed by him is certain, but that he 
made any change in the principles and practices of the orderly and irreproachable 
I can not find evidence ; and if he did not, they were non-resistant, and anti- 
oath, and anti-war men, as is shown by their examination before the inquisitors, 
and letters and edicts of the prince of Cringe. ^ The modifications specified by 
Moshiem^ are not changes, as he shows himself, f but only explanations. Yet 
Menno is said to have purified their religious doctrines. ^ No sooner had the 
ferment of enthusiasm among them subsided than all the different sects unani- 
mously agreed to draw the whole system of their religious doctrine from the 
Holy Scriptures alone, and their confessions were expressed in the terms and 
phrases of holy writ. :{: In A. D. 1649, those of Flanders and Germany mitigated 
and corrected the rigorous laws of Menno and his successors. ^ Changes had 
taken place before the time of Moshiem, A. D. 1695-1755, in regard to the true 
church,:}: simplicity of manners, J and learning;:]: and in more points.'' But as I 
have not access to any of their confessions I can not judge for myself in how 
many points they adhere to, or disagree with, the Scriptures. 

But the Mennonites have never been wedded to the beast, or any of his 
heads or horns, and must be regarded as the only true reformed church till refor- 
mations on the Protestant churches produced churches free from state compan- 
ionship. What churches are true churches of Christ must be determined by the 
Scriptures. By the Scriptures they must be measured, whether they come out 
of the wilderness or out of Babylon. The Mennonites, after having been long 
in an uncertain and precarious situation, obtained a fixed and unmolested settle- 
ment in the United Provinces under a legal toleration procured for them by 
William, prince of Orange, A. D. 1572, the founder of Belgic liberty. But all 
did riot enjoy it in the different provinces till the obstinate opposition of the 
clergy and magistrates was overcome by the resolution and influence of William 
I. and his son, Maurice, and by their own exemplary conduct and zealous attach- 
ment to the republic on several occasions. But not till A. D. 1626 was their 
liberty and tranquility fixed upon solid foundations, when their confession of 
faith exculpated them from the errors laid to their charge. ^ But they were 
scattered over different countries and persecuted by Catholics and Protestants 
till persecution became dishonorable among statesmen. Here is one free and 
independent sovereignty where a true Christian church can be nourished, though 



(1) Ben. pp. 83-4. Orch. pp. 284-291. Chap. 159, § 8. (2)Mosh. 16:3; 2, 3, §§ 8,9. (*) NoteU. 
(t) §§ 14-17. (:{:) §§ 12, 16, 17, 19. (3) Encp. R K., Menno. (4) Ben. p. 112; note 6. (5) Encp. 
fi. K. Mennonites. (6) Mosh. 17:2; 2, 5, g 2. (7) Orch. (8) Mosh. 16:3; 2, 3, § 21. 



836 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

it be not hidden from princes and prelates: A. D. 1626 — 1260 = A. D. 366. 
First prohibition of the Novatians to assemble, books sought for, and places 
of worship lost, A. D. 331. ^ A. D. 331 + 1260 years in the wilderness = 
A. D. 1591. 

We have found the woman hidden in the wilderness from the serpent, and 
have conducted what remained of her down till merged into the reformed 
churches, unless some church or churches, unnoticed by historians, come to light 
after A. D. 1626. And in only one little spot can she be nourished in sight of a 
royal palace, or a state prelate. Perhaps Holland should not be regarded as out 
of the wilderness. Dr. Eurnet mentions about five hundred of dilSerent ages 
and sex who passed Coire, in Switzerland, A. D. 1685, from Tirol, a remnant of 
the old Waldenses, who knew nothing of Lutherns or Calvinists; and the Grisons, 
though neighbors, had never heard of their nearness to the Protestant religion. 
Being ordered to return to mass or endure severity, they (about two thousand, 
old and young,) divided into several bodies and migrated to difierent places. ^ 
This, I believe, is the last discovery of a church in the wilderness ; and this was 
her last flight to find a place where she could be nourished and protected from 
the dragon and his successors. A. D. 1685 — 1260 = A. D. 425. A. D. 413, 
the edict against the Donatists for re-baptizing, plus 1260 = A. D. 1673. (Con- 
tinued in chap. 161.) 



CHAPTER CLX. 



PKOGKESS OF SCHISM ; AND THE BLOOD OF SAINTS SHED. 
A. M. 5550-5686. (Continued from Chap. 156.) 

1. Holland. — When religious wars were terminated by the peace of West- 
phalia every reformed church, except the Mennonites, was taken into the embraces 
of some national government. Half of Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Prusia, 
and Livonia adopted the Lutheran, or Augsburg, confession, while England, 
Scotland, the United Provinces or Holland, and the principal part of Switzer- 
land declared in favor of the opinions of Zuingle and Calvin. The new doctrines 
made progress in France, Hungary, Transylvania, Bohemia, Silesia, and Poland, ^ 
which, with Italy, Spain, and Portugal, remained Catholic. These church and 
state wedded sovereignties did, from the beginning of the Reformation, guard 
against the grievous sore of schism in religion and shed the blood of the saints 
and prophets to prevent it; and they did not all stop persecution at the close of 
the thirty years' wars. Of all independent sovereignties Holland was the first 
to oppose the shedding of the blood of saints and prophets. Here Menno first 
obtained a regular church order for his scattered communities, A. D. 1536, and 
here the Mennonites first found an asylum from persecution under legal toleration, 
procured for them by William, prince of Orange, ^ A. D. 1575. This toleration 
was not immediately enjoyed by all the Anabaptists dispersed through the dif- 
ferent provinces ; but in several places, especially Zealand and Amsterdam and 
Gronigen,^ the magistrates and clergy made a long and obstinate opposition, and 
inflicted imprisonment, lashes, stocks, tines, banishment, and death. -' 



(9) Orch., p. 57. (1) Jones, p. 562. (2) Rev. Eurp. 1; 216. (3) Ben. 121. (4) 113. (5) Idm. 



OHAPTJER OLX. : SECTION ll. 837 

This opposition was flDally conquered by the resolution of William I. and 
his son, Maurice, and by the exemplary conduct and patriotism, and by the con- 
fession of faith of the Mennonites themselves, A. D. 1626. ^ But though Maurice 
secured the toleration of the heretical Mennonites, yet for some reason he was 
not so favorable to the schismatical Arminians, who were condemned for errors 
by the synod of Dart and excommunicated, and their religious assemblies sup- 
pressed, A. D. 1618. The ruin of their community was premeditated and 
determined before the meeting of the synod ; they were considered as enemies 
of the country and of its established religion ; were deprived of all their posts 
and employments, civil and ecclesiastical ; their ministers were silenced and their 
congregations suppressed. Disobeying these mandates, they were punished 
with fines, imprisonment, exile, and other marks of ignominy. '^ Oldenbarneveldt, 
gray in the service of his country, lost his life on a public scaffold, while Grotius 
and Hoogerbeets were condemned to a perpetual prison. ^ After the death of 
Prince Maurice, A. D. 1625, the Arminians were recalled from banishment and 
restored to their former tranquility^'^ and all persecution by Protestant Holland 
ceased. Hence, we have concluded that since A. D. 1626 the woman, or true 
churches, could be nourished in Holland under the eyes of princes and prelates. 

2. Switzerland, the home of Zuingle and seat of Calvinism, was also vexed 
with the schismatical sore, and to cure it shed the blood of saints and prophets. 
Apprehensive that the doctrines received from Calvin and confirmed by the 
synod of Dort might be altered and corrupted, the clergy of Switzerland drew 
up a form of doctrine, A. D. 1675; the magistrates gave it the stamp of their 
authority; to it was added the other confessions of faith received in the Helvitic 
church; called it the Form of Concord, and required subscription to it: which 
proved an abundant source of division and discord. ^ In A. D. 1718 the magis* 
trates of Berne ordered all professors in colleges and pastors of churches to 
adopt it as the rule of their faith. Many refused and some were punished, ^ but 
not with death, so far as I can find. We find even in this century examples of 
great severities against the Anabaptists, and some instances of capital punish- 
ment — in Switzerland, A. D. 1693, and in the Palatinate, A. D. 1694. ^ An edict 
from the magistrates of Zurich — Catholic and Zuinglians — A. D. 1525, decrees 
punishment for rebaptizing and for refusing baptism to infants. In 1530 the punish- 
ment was death to them and to all who adhered to them ; and all those aiding 
them, or will not report, disperse, or surrender them to be imprisoned, should be 
punished without mercy. ^ In 1601, cities and provinces of Switzerland and 
Holland decreed to them prisons, lashings, stocks, fines, banishment, and death. 

In A. D. 1636-7, they had to give their names and families ; were required 
to conform to the general public mode of worship, which they refused to do. At 
Zurich they had to give an inventory of their property, which was afterwards 
seized. Then they were commanded to attend the established church, to be con- 
signed to the galleys perpetually, or to die by the hands of the executioners. All 
kinds of excruciating and interminable sufferings were endured by men and 
women in every situation and condition. They were hunted like criminals, 
imprisoned in gloomy and filthy abodes, loaded witli chains, and tortured on the 
wreck. Shocking scenes of barbarity and distress are recorded, when seven 
hundred, old and young, were driven out of Berne, A. D. 1671.^ The Men- 
nonites in Holland importuned the court of Holland, A. D. 1659; and though 
having no jurisdiction, but only having the same religion of Dort, the court of 
Holland interceded with the magistrates of Zurich and Berne. Bat in vain ! 
and eleven years after was the great persecution, in which many lost ther lives 
and others were driven into exile. ^ According to Mosheim, up to A. D. 1693, 
the true church could not be nourished in Switzerland with the knowledge of the 
church and state, princes and prelates. 

(6)Mosh. 16:3; 2, 3, § 21. Ben. 112, and note 6. (7) Mosh. 17:2; 2, 3, §§5-9. (8) Mosh.l7:2j 
2, 2, § 37. (9) 18; § 26. (1) 17:2; 2, 5, § 1, note B. (2) Ben. p. 86. (3) Ben. 112-20. (4) 118-20. 



838 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

3. Fka^^ce, Denmark, and Sweden. — The Calvinists decided that the deter- 
mining of doctrine belonged to the church alone, but it was the business of 
the civil magistrate to confirm the validity and secure the execution of the eccle- 
siastical laws enacted by the church under his inspection, ^ and men of dissolute 
and licentious lives were punishable by the state. Calvin executed his rules of 
discipline with the utmost rigor. He had them strengthened and supported by 
the authority of the state; banished obstinate ofi'enders from the city, ^ and 
others who showed opposition to his doctrines, and this severity was justified by 
Beza. "' Servetus, escaping from prison at Yienna, was arrested in Switzerland, 
A. D. 1553. He was accused of blasphemy for his doctrines, declared an obsti- 
nate heretic by the council, and was beheaded. The apprehension, accusation, 
and condemnation are ascribed to Calvin. ^ 

In France the Calvinistic reformed church had acquired the form of a body 
politic from the time of Henry lY., endowed with privileges, and secured against 
insults of every kind by a solemn edict. They were possessed of fortified places, 
having sjarrisons of their own, and sometimes conducted themselves in a manner 
inconsistent with subordination and solicited alliances as if an independent sover- 
eignty. After many violent and severe struggles their strongholds were 
destroyed, A. D. 1628, leaving them in the power of the government. ^ Their 
civil polity being destroyed, the Huguenots ceased to be a state church in France 
and had no sword of their own to defend themselves against the Catholics or to 
punish heretics. In France, as in all other nations retaining popery as the 
state religion, persecution and intolerance to restore union and heal the grievous 
sore of schism continued to shed the blood of saints and prophets. 

The Reformation was early adopted by the sovereignties of Denmark and 
Sweden as the state religion. I do not read of any schism troubling them, except 
an eff'ort to introduce Calvinism into Denmark ; but the vigilant Lutherans, sec- 
onded by the countenance and authority of the sovereign, defeated the scheme. 
But, the fines and imprisonment of the brethren of Onken in the present century 
show that the true church could not have been nourished out of the wilderness in 
those countries before the present century; and had they been troubled with schis- 
matical reformers, they would undoubtedly shed the blood of saints and prophets. 
Lutherism made inroads upon popery in Hungary and Transylvania, and Cal- 
vinism was introduced A. D. 1550. This change was followed by the same 
dissensions that broke out in other countries on like occasions, and grew into an 
open schism, which time has confirmed. ^ But these countries belong to Austria. 

4. Germany. — Germany may be divided into Protestant Germany and 
Catholic Germany or Austria. Lutheranism was the state church of Protestant 
Germany, and, as in Denmark and Sweden, the king is the supreme head of the 
church, restricted by a creed; but liturgies are altered by his order. ^ It was 
driven out from the papal church, and was raised to the dignity of a lawful and 
complete hierarchy in A. D. 1552 by a treaty between the Emperor Charles Y. 
and Maurice, elector of Saxony. ^ Efforts were made to restore the first beast, 
and make the prince and pontifi* inseparable and indispensable characters, and 
the ministers of the Gospel not the ambassadors of God, but the deputies of the 
civil magistrate. Debate and contention was the result, detrimental to the repu- 
tation of the clergy, the dignity and authority of religion, and the peace and pros- 
perity of the Lutheran church. * Schism soon vexed the established Lutheran 
church. Carlostadt and Schwenckfeldt were banished.^ Efibrts were made 
by the elector of Saxony to secure unity among the reformers. Courts and 
synods were negotiated with ; some divines were imprisoned, some banished, and 
others forced by the secular arm to change their sentiments. The form of Con- 
cord, drawn up by six doctors, condemned and excommunicated as heretics all 



(5) Mosh. 16:3; 2, 2, § 31. (6) § 33, and note D. (7) §§ 40-2, and note D. (8) Mosh. 16:3; 2, 
4,§4; notesDandE. (9)17:2; 2, 2, §§ 2, 3. (1)16:3; 2,3,§§25-6. (2)Mosh. 16:3; 2,1, §§4,5. 
(3)ldm., §1. (4)17:2; 2,1 §14. (5) 16:3; 2, 1, §§ 22, 23. 



CHAPTER CtiX.: SECTION V. 839 

nations and Christians refusing to subscribe to its doctrines; and more particu- 
larly in Germany the terrors of the sword were solicited against them. Thus, it 
became the source of new tumults, violent dissensions and contests, and impris- 
onment, banishment, and death were inflicted. ^ Princes became Calvinists, and 
removed Lutheran professors from universities and doctors from their churches. 
(A. D. 1604. '^) Others became Calvinists, but granted liberty of conscience to 
their subjects. Sharp and uncharitable debates, civil commotions, and violent 
tumults disturbed the state, and nourished a spirit of revolt and sedition which 
the labor of years could not extinguish. ^ 

Hatred of the Calvinists induced John George I., elector of Saxony, to aid 
Ferdinand 11. to subdue the Bohemian Protestants,^ and induced the Lutherans 
to call the non-conformist martyrs the "devil's martyrs. "i Efibrts were made 
by divines to unite the Lutherans and Calvinists. King James of England 
engaged in it A. D. 1615 and A. D. 1631, but in vain. Uladislaus TV. of Poland 
planned a union for the Lutherans, Calvinists, and Catholics, A. D. 1645, ^ but 
schism still remained a grievous sore upon all who worshiped the beast or his 
image. The Lutherans preserved their severe despotic principles of intolerance, 
and their doctrine remained unchanged during the seventeenth century; and 
whoever should presume to renounce or invalidate any theological points in their 
symbolical books could have no toleration or indulgence, and rarely escaped with- 
out suffering in his fortune or reputation unless he renounced his innovations. ^ 
But, toward the end of this century, the Lutheran churches adopted the maxim 
that Christians were accountable to God alone for their religious sentiments, and 
that no individual could be justly punished by the magistrate for his erroneous 
opinions while he conducted himself as a virtuous and orderly subject. ^ Still, a 
severe persecution was set on foot against the Anabaptists, or Mennonites, A. D, 
1694, in the palatinate, which was suspended by the intercession of William III., 
king of England. 4 

Hence, we conclude that the true church of Christ could not be nourished in 
Germany in A. D. 1694, unless it was in some wilderness or other obscure corner, 
and the persecution of Onken and his brethren in the present century^ confirms 
this conclusion. Eot any national church can pretend to be the church in the 
wilderness, nor can any church reformed from a national church until it be dis- 
persed and driven into the wilderness. The Paulicians and others had been 
driven into the wilderness, and so intermingled with the family nourished by 
dukes and barons that it became impossible to distinguish between the original 
family and reformers; but since the time of Luther all reformed churches have 
fought and lived under the eyes of princes and prelates. The Anabaptists were 
the last society discovered in the wilderness that can claim to be a church of 
Christ. Menno, though persecuted and never fought, received the protection of 
a prince; but his followers were driven into obscurity in some countries till the 
close of the seventeenth century, and their blood was shed. If the Anabaptists 
were not merged into the Mennonites, we can not tell when their blood ceased to 
be shed. 

5. England. — England is placed among the Calvinist reformed churches 
because some of Calvin's doctrines were adopted; but the Reformation in Eng- 
land was a royal affair and its church government is Episcopal, with the king for 
its head. Under Charles I. the Church of England attempted to model its doc- 
trine, discipline, ceremonies, and polity according to the king's notion of the 
spirit and constitution of the primitive church. ^ The Zuinglen, or Calvinist, 
reformed churches had no common center of union; no consolidation, no confed- 
eration. ^ Though the doctors of Switzerland and Calvin labored to bring them 
all to one rule of faith and form of church government, and showed no favor to 



(6) Mosh., §§ 37-9, and note C: §§ 40, 49. (7) 17:2; 2, 1, § 1. (8) Mosh. 17:2; 2, 1, § 2. (9) 
17:2; 1, 1, § 4. (1) 16:3; 2, 2, § 17; note K. (2) 17:2; 2, 1, §§ 3-5. (3) §§ 16, 43. (4) 17:2; 
2, 6, § 1. (5) Ben., p. 361. (6) Mosh., 17:2; 2, 2, § 20. (7) 16:3; 2, 2, § 1. 



SiO THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

those adopting Luther's views of the Bucharest, yet, a combination of events and 
circumstances prevented their unity. Koman Catholics, Socinians, Quakers, and 
Anabaptists were proscribed by them. Quingle withdrew from the communion 
of Rome, but gave absolute and unbounded power in religious matters to the 
civil magistrate and subjected the clergy to him. He fell in battle with the 
Koman Catholics, A. D. 1530. Efforts to unite with the Lutherans produced 
schism, widened the breach, and kindled a flame of controversy with violence 
and fury. 8 Calvin rejected the authority of the civil magistrate in the church, 
and left him but little else than the privilege of protecting her and providing for 
her external exigencies and concerns ; and his ecclesiastical government was Pres- 
byterian. The English, German, and Swiss churches rejected Calvin's doctrine 
of church government and power of the civil magistrate in religion, while those in 
France, Holland, and Scotland received them. 

The church of Scotland acknowledges John Knox as its founder; adopted 
the doctrine, rites, and Presbyterian church government of Calvin, and opposed 
by force of arms the attempt of Charles II. to introduce the Episcopal government 
and worship. ^ Still, schism afflicted the state church of Scotland and wasted its 
energy. Ministers and people protested against corruptions and defections in 
the established church and seceded from it, and erected themselves into a church 
without a political head or support, A. D. 1739. ^ Since that time the doctrine 
of anti-state church has increased, and another schism produced the free church. 
These reformations on the reformed church of Scotland have produced churches 
having more influence and popularity at home and abroad than the state church, 
and endanger its very existence. When the crown of Scotland became united 
with that of England, she was involved in the civil and ecclesiastical revolutions 
of that country and used the sword freely. If she did not shed the blood of 
saints and prophets, to prevent or heal the grievous sore of schism, it was because 
there were none in her churches. 

We have reckoned the Reformation in England to have been established in 
the reign of Elizabeth, who defeated the Spanish armada of Spain and gave 
powerful aid to Holland ; but the state church of England was vexed with schisms 
that tormented all worshipers of concentrated civil and ecclesiastical power. 
During the bloody reign and inhuman tyranny of Queen Mary, many Protestants 
fled from England to Germany, France, and Switzerland, where they experienced 
the uncharitable hostility of the Lutherans and expulsion from their cities, but 
were received with great humanity and kindness by the Zuinglians and Calvinists. 
Some of these fugitives followed the rites authorized by Edward YL , and were 
called Conformists. Others preferred the Swiss worship, as more pure and simple, 
and were called Non-Conformists and Puritans. This schism among the exiles 
was brought back with them to England when Elizabeth ascended the throne. 
Elizabeth, as queen and supreme head of the church of England, having changed 
and reformed the rules of discipline and forms of public worship, issued the act 
of uniformity, requiring all her subjects to observe these rules. The Puritans 
refused ; pleaded the dictates of conscience; complained of the revival and impo- 
sition of popish rites supposed to have been abolished. Intent on suppressing 
these Puritans, she permitted their enemies to employ all the resources of art and 
severity of the laws. These Puritans now advocated the purity of the church, 
which was so reprehensible in the Anabaptists, but declared their exclusion 
extended not to effect civil liberty, life, or property, ^ and the Anabaptists said : 
The kingdom of God had no need of civil magistrates, whose business was to hurt 
or protect these rights. 

The high commission court chosen by the queen had power to try and punish 
heretics with the iniquities and cruelties of a real inquisition, ^ and the commis- 
sioners claimed the right to reform the church. The Puritans denied the power 

(8) Mosh. 16:3; 2, 2, §§ 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 12. (9) Idm., §§ 12, 16. (1) Encp. R. K. Seceders. (2) 
Mosh. Cent. 16; Sect. 3; pt. 2; chap. 2, §§ 17, 19. (3) Mosh. 16:3; 2, 2, § 19, note P., and 20. 



CHAPTEK OLX. I SECTION V. 841 

of the magistrates to extend so far, and that the reformation of the church 
belonged to the clergy ;3 and the Anabaptists had taught that the civil magistrate 
was useless in the kingdom of God. Thus, we find some of the odious doctrines 
of the Anabaptists boldly advocated by reformers in England. The Puritans 
maintained that the Scriptures alone could give rules and doctrines; denied the 
papal church to be a true church ; asserted the rules of church government to 
be clearly taught in the Scriptures ; denied that things used superstitiously 
were indifferent. The commissioners maintained the authority of the fathers ; 
the papal church to be a true church ; Christ had left the government of the 
church to the wisdom of after ages, and the magistrate might impose rites, rulesj 
and duties not determined by the Scriptures. Both agreed too well in asserting 
the necessity of uniformity of public worship, and of calling in the sword of the 
civil magistrate for the support and defense of their several principles, which they 
used in turns, as they could grasp the power. The bishops' standard of uniformity 
was the queen's supremacy and the laws of the land. The Puritans' standard 
was the decrees of the provincial and national synods, allowed and enforced by 
the civil magistrate. But neither party admitted the liberty of conscience and 
freedom of profession. ^ The power of the Puritans was diminished by schism, 
and united in nothing but opposition to the forms, discipline, and doctrine estab- 
lished by law. Hence arose the Brownists, or Independents, A. D. 1581. Not 
able to endure the severities of the government, they retired to the IS^etherlands 
and founded churches at Middleburg in Zealand, and Amsterdam and Leyden in 
Holland. Robinson's church at Leyden, A. D. 1595, was dispersed, and part of 
them transplanted themselves into America and laid the foundation of New Eng- 
land colony. ^ Benedict differs in these dates and particulars about Robinson, ^ 
but these discrepancies among historians do not affect my purpose. 

Among these Non-Conformist exiles was John Smyth, a clergyman of the 
English established church. He first opposed the Non-Conformists ; became one 
of them ; became pastor of one of their churches ; emigrated to Holland, A. D. 
1606, with his church, and joined the Ainsworth's society; discovered difficulties 
and inconsistencies in the position of the Independents and Congregationalists, 
became Baptist, and was cast out of their society ; preached and gathered a church 
of Englishmen in Holland, A. D. 1607 or 1608, which was the first Baptist church 
by reformation since the Lutheran Reformation. '^ I don't know whether he frater- 
nized with the Anabaptists or Mennonites of Holland or not ; but certainly he 
had opportunities. 

Smyth died in Holland, A. D. 1610. Haulwisse succeeded him. The church 
published a confession of their faith A. D. 1611. Haulwisse and the church returned 
to England A. D. 1614; published, A. D. 1615, a pamphlet on persecution, 
avowing the true principles of Christian liberty and the just distinction between 
civil and religious concerns, acknowledging the magistrate's authority in civil 
matters, but maintaining every man's right to judge in religious matters for him- 
self. In A. D. 1620, they published a petition to James I. and parliament, and 
subjoined ten short chapters of principles. ^ Thus, the English Baptists appear 
to be the offspring of Reformation on Reformations out of the church of England ; 
but Mosheim supposes they derived their origin from the Dutch Mennonites, and 
in former times adopted their doctrine on all points. ^ 

In this schism of Non-Conformists appeared another denomination of 
reformers, called Quakers, or Friends, A. D. 1650, whose principles and practices 
have had a manifest influence in the development of the kingdom of God. Some 
of their principles had appeared in much earlier times among those opposed to 
the empire, or state, churches ; but, as a distinct society, they owe their origin to 
reformation among members of the church of England. How far they are right 
or wrong is not my object to determine, but to know whence they came and what 

(3) Mosh. 16:3; 2, 2, § 19, note P., and § 20. (4) Idm., § 20, note T. (5) Mosh. 16:3; 2, 2, § 21, 
note C. (6) Ben., pp. 327-9. (7) 329. (8) 330-2, (9) Mosh. 16:3; 2, 3, § 22. 



842 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 



they have done and suffered for the kingdom of God. Like all others professing 
the religion of Jesus Christ, they must be measured by the Scriptures. Like other 
English Non-Conformists, they suflPered for their religion ; but they have never 
been stained with the blood of saints or prophets. The fanaticism and misconduct 
ascribed to Fox and others by Mosheim may be attributed to the historian's vener- 
ation for state-church religion. This veneration shows itself when writing about 
heretics and schismatics, whom he brands with misconduct, and yet says that the 
best of them denounced and disapproved of it, as of the Donatists, Paulicians, 
Anabaptists, and others. His prejudices induce him to adopt the charges and 
language which he finds in his authorities, who are generally enemies without 
Mosheim' s candor. But, after much suffering of his brethren, William Fenn 
obtained from James IL, or William III., a full and ample toleration for dissenters 
of almost all denominations, ^ and he planted just principles, wholesome laws, 
peace, and prosperity in my native state, which have influenced this whole Union, 
and the world, too. The toleration act passed parliament in November or Decem- 
ber, A. D. 1688, 2 and since that time the true churches of Christ could be nourished 
in Great Britain, out of the wilderness. But from the establishment of Protest- 
antism in England till this time the blood of saints and prophets was shed profusely 
there. 

While the English Baptists may trace their origin to the reformer, John 
Smyth, the Welsh Baptists have the fullest confidence that their sentiments have 
always lived in their mountainous retreats — as another Piedmont — from the 
apostolic age; and long before the ecclesiastical changes on the continent or in Eng- 
land they were among the first reformers, and appeared well accustomed to their 
principles and customs. Walter Brute was a contemporary and acquaintance of 
WicklifF, and labored and sufi'ered before A. D. 1400. John Henery or Penery, 
Erbury, Worth, and others had been ministers in the church of England. ^ But 
the oldest Baptist church in Wales given by Benedict is A. D. 1649, and the 
oldest association is in A. D. 1655, ^ and are not so old as the English Baptist 
churches, Devonshire Square, A. D. 1638, Little Prescott Street, A. D. 1633, ^ 
which are confessedly Reformers. So may be the Welsh Baptists of A. D. 1649, 
and I will place them among Reformers till I find better evidence that they were 
the woman of the wilderness. The woman of the wilderness appears to be merged 
into her seed, and can not be distinguished from them by family records, and any 
of her daughters claiming to be her successor must be measured by the divine 
standard; and so must the family and furniture. And when we find a time and 
place where all denominations ot Christians can be tolerated in their religion by 
civil government, then will I conclude that the woman herself can be nourished 
out of the wilderness — and this place was not in England before A. D. 1688-9. 

6. Schism and Bloodshed Among the Pkotestants in England. — The term 
Puritans was applied to those in England who wished for a farther degree of 
reformation than that adopted by Queen Elizabeth in discipline and worship. 
The greater part of them were Presbyterians, who objected to the forms and 
ceremonies of the English establishment ; but some were Independents and 
Baptists, who disapproved of national churches and the authority of human legis- 
lation in matters of faith and worship. ^ These Baptists must have been 
Anabaptists or Mennonites, or it must refer to the Puritans after time of John 
Smyth, A. D. 1608. Elizabeth ordered the Puritans to leave the kingdom, '' and 
many fled to Holland, where originated the Baptists of England and the Congre- 
gationalists of America. ^ On the death of Elizabeth, John Stuart YL, of 
Scotland, succeeded to the throne of England and Scotland with the title of 
James I. ^ James being a Scotch Presbyterian, gave the Puritans a hope of deliv- 
erance from their vexations and oppressions. But these expectations soon 



(1) Mosh. 17:2; 2, 4, §§ 3, 4. (2) Ben. 824. (3) 344-5. (4) 345. (5) 338-9. (6) Encp. R. K. 
(7) Ben. p. 327. (8) 327-9. Mosh. 16:3; 2, 2, § 21. (9) Will. p. 361. 



CHAPTER CLX.: SECTION VII. 843 

vanished, as James manifested a change to Episcopacy and despotism, and 
attempted to subject the Scotch Presbyterians to the worship of the English 
church, and imprisoned Puritans for petitioning for some changes not inconsistent 
with the established hierarchy. The Puritans were left without defense to the 
animosity and hatred of their adversaries, which now broke out with redoubled 
vehemence and at length kindled a religious war deplorable beyond expression, i 

James I. was succeeded (A. D. 1625) by his son, Charles I., who aimed at 
perfecting his father's despotic measures in church and state. Archbishop Laud 
and Charles I. violated laws and obligations, persecuted the Puritans and aimed 
at nothing less than their extinction; and great numbers of them fled to America. 
Introducing Episcopal form of worship into Scotland, they forced the Scotch 
Presbyterians into rebellion. The Scotch Presbyterians made a covenant to 
defend their religion, laws, and liberties. They received arms and money from 
the French minister, Richelieu ; marched into England ; the English army refused 
to fight their brethern; the king submitted to the fourth parliament; dissolved 
it ; public opinion compelled him to call a fifth ; Prime Minister StrafiJbrd and 
Laud were condemned and beheaded. Parliament usurped the government ; the 
king and his party staked his claims on the hazards of war. Charles had most 
of the nobility ot' the kingdom and the Roman Catholics; parliament had the 
numerous Presbyterian dissenters and all ultra religious and political reformers. 
From A. D. 1642-7 the war was carried on with various success. Five thousand 
men were left dead on the battle field at Edgehill, and the losses on both sides in 
the battle of Newburg obliged both to retire to winter quarters. Irish Catholics 
joined the royal army, and parliament entered into the solemn league and cov- 
enant with the Scotch to extirpate popery and prelacy, and establish a church 
government conformed to that of Scotland. 

Rejoicing at the prospect of extending their mode of religion over England, 
the Scotch sent twenty thousand men, A. D. 1644. The Irish forces were dis- 
persed by Sir Thomas Fairfax ; the royalists were defeated at Marston Moor, 
where fifty thousand British combatants joined in mutual slaughter. In Scotland 
the royal cause was sustained till A. D. 1645, when the parliamentary forces in 
the battle of Naseby decided the contest against the king, though the royalists 
protracted the war till A. D. 1647. The king fell into the hands of parliament, 
and was beheaded A. D. 1648. ^ This is the same date as the peace of West- 
phalia; and perhaps these scenes in England should have been placed under the 
second vial,"^ and the present subject commence with the reign of Cromwell ; 
but reformation in England and on the continent run in difi'erent channels, and 
Protestantism is more largely represented in these scenes than popery. 

7. Presbyterians and Independents. — The war was now ended, but civil 
and religious dissensions raged with greater fury than ever. The late enemies 
of the king were divided into two factions : the Presbyterians, having the 
majority in parliament, and the Independents, having a majority in the army 
with Cromwell at their head. Parliament proposed to disband the army; Crom* 
well purged parliament of the members obnoxious to him and imprisoned all 
disputing his authority. Reaction in favor of the king took place ; the Scots 
took up arms in his favor ; parliament negotiated with the king for his restor- 
ation. Cromwell marched on the Scots and defeated them, regulated the 
government to suit himself, surrounded the house of commons with his soldiers, 
caused a vote to be passed declaring it treason for the king to wage war against 
parliament, refused the consent of the house of lords; a court of justice was 
named by the commons; the king was charged with all the blood shed in the 
war, and he was condemned and executed A. D. 1649. ^ Cromwell was now a 
military despot, and he defeated the royal covenanters of Scotland in the battle 
of Dunbar, A. D. 1650, pursued the Scotch army into England, and annihilated 

(l)Mosh. 17:2; 2, 2, § 19. Will. pp. 61-2. (2) Mosh. 17:2; 2, 2, § 20. Will. 362-65. (*) Chap. 
157, §3. (3) Will. 365-6. 



844 THE KINGDOM OF GK)D DEVELOPED 

it in the desperate battle of Worcester, A. D. 1651. He modeled and ruled the 
parliament as he pleased for a time. A conspiracy of the royalists was sup- 
pressed, but republican officers of the army took share in council to restore the 
commonwealth to its original vigor and purity. He declined the dignity of king 
because his inflexible republican veterans would not abandon their old principles. 
Royalists renewed their conspiracies; a majority in parliament opposed his 
measures; mutiny in the army was apprehended; assassination was constantly 
apprehended; his health declined, and Cromwell expired A. D. 1658.^ 

Episcopalians and Presbyterians have represented the Independents as 
delirious, mad, fanatical, illiterate, factious, and ignorant of both natural and 
revealed religion ; abandoned to all kinds of wickedness and sedition and as the 
only authors of the murder of Charles I. From these charges Mosheim defends 
them and their religion. ^ But the doctor should remember that he set the 
example when he constantly charged the seditions at Munster upon the pure and 
Christian doctrines of the Anabaptists in Germany. We must remember that 
false brethren, political leaders, and men provoked to revenge by the wanton 
outrage committed on their unoffending Christian friends, have committed in the 
name of truth and righteousness deeds unjustifiable by the laws of God and 
teachings of Christ. The Jews were the true church, or kingdom of God, till 
they rejected Christ ; yet, even their high priests assassinated their competitors 
for office, and the devil sows tares in the true church of Christ. We can not 
defend or condemn any church, or denomination, or society, for principles or 
practices which they disavow. Every proposition in religion must be examined 
by itself and be justified or condemned on its own merit. The kingdom of God 
conquers by sufifering and not by inflicting suffering. 

Christ has all power, but has not delegated it to His people. He wears a 
robe dipped in blood, and when He decides to destroy an enemy He will induce 
another enemy to do it ; but His followers upon white horses must be clothed in 
linen clean and white. ^ All those friends, politicians, or false brethren who 
have taken the sword to establish the kingdom of God have been defeated by the 
sword. While Cromwell ruled Great Britain all sects were tolerated except the 
Episcopalians, who received the most severe and iniquous treatment; but the 
Presbyterians and Independents received his special marks of favor. The Inde- 
pendents were increased in credit and authority to set bounds to the ambition of 
the Presbyterians, who aimed at every high degree of ecclesiastical power. Also 
the Quaker and troublesome Anabaptists propagated their visionary doctrine 
without restraint. Mosheim here, as in other places, characterises the Anabap- 
tists as furious madmen ; but his translater, McLaine, exonerates these from the 
charge. "' Perhaps Cromwell's army was a hot-bed and germinated liberty plants 
for America, and perhaps Charles II. and James 11. sent them over the Atlantic 
to plant and cultivate themselves in new ground. Revolution and independence, 
republican government and liberty, have become respectable in America. 

Anarchy followed the death of Cromwell. Contending factions in parlia- 
ment and the army filled the country for a time with bloody dissentions. General 
Monk, commanding the army in Scotland, marched into England: declared in 
favor of the restoration of royalty; was universally congratulated ; the house of 
lords assumed its ancient authority; Charles II. was proclaimed king by the 
army, people, and both houses of parliament, A. D. 1660. ^ An effort was made 
to heal the ecclesiastical schisms in Great Britain that afflicted the worshipers of 
the beast, but to no purpose; they could not be healed. ^ No sooner was Charles 
II. established on the throne of his ancestors than the ancient forms, ecclesiastical 
government and public worship, were restored with him. The bishops were 
reinstated in their dignities and honors; the churches of Scotland and Ireland 



(4) Will. p. 367. (5) Mosh. 17:2; 2, 2, § 21, and note P. (6) Rev. 19; 11-16. (7) Mosh. 17:2; 
2, 2, § 22, and note X, or I.— different editions. (8) Will. 370-1. (9) Mosh. 17:2; 2, 2, § 24. 



CHAPTER CLX.: SECTION YIII. 845 

were subjected to the Episcopal government; the act of uniformity (A. D. 1662) 
renounced the validity of Presbyterian ordination; disowned the ministration of 
foreign churches, and ejected all ministers who rejected it from their livings. ^ 
Two thousand Presbyterian ministers were deprived of their Hvings ; the jails 
were filled with a crowd of dissenters; vice and immorality broke forth with 
ungovernable violence ; the court of Charles II. was a school of vice in which 
the restraints of decency were laughed to scorn. ^ 

Charles lost favor with the people, and his secret designs to reestablish the 
papal religion caused the parliament to oppose his measures. Charles II. died 
suddenly, A. D. 1685, and was succeeded by his brother, James II. James was a 
Catholic, violated the laws, sent an embassy to Pome, received a nuncio from 
the pope, treated the feelings and prejudices of the people with contempt, being 
confident of his ability to reestablish the papal religion in England. By the 
inhuman judge, Jeffries, the rigor ^of law were made to rival the ravages of a 
military tyranny. Neither age, sex, nor station was spared; the innocent were 
often involved with the guilty, and the king applauded the conduct. William, 
prince of Orange, and Stadtholder, of the United Dutch Provinces, were invited 
to England to recover their laws and liberties. This he accomplished A. D. 
1688^, and the toleration act passed by parliament delivered Non-Conformists 
from the penal laws of the uniformity act.^ 

From the restoration of royalty in Charles II. till the overthrow of the 
Stuart dynasty, seventy thousand persons are computed to have sufiered on 
account of religion ; eight thousand were destroyed, and twelve million pounds 
sterling were paid in fines. ^ Fines, pillories, whipping-posts, robbery, and every 
way malicious ingenuity could invent were employed to cure heresy and dragoon 
persons into the established church. The prayer book or the prison ! was the 
watchword, and the parish worship or the penal statutes was the order of the 
day. ^ But, when the governor of Holland became king of Great Britain, the 
freedom of religion, first secured in the United Provinces A. D. 1626, was 
extended to Great Britain A. D. 1689. But, the ascension of William to the 
throne produced another schism in the state church, called Jurors and Non- 
Jurors.^ A greater schism happened A. D. 1729-39 by reformations introduced 
by Wesley and Whitefield, which resulted in producing the Methodist denomi- 
nations, and reformations attempted in the Scotch state church produced the 
Seceders — and these subdivided. '^ By schism the state churches of England and 
Scotland have been weakened and prevented from growing into power. The 
worshipers of concentrated power in church and state have found schism a 
grievous and incurable sore, but it never discommodes the friends of truth. All 
these state and church combinations have shed the blood of saints and prophets 
to prevent or cure the schismatical sore. 

8. The Papal States. — The reformation schism, and the demands from 
every quarter for reformation, compelled the cardinals to elect better men for 
popes; and the efi'orts to limit his jurisdiction made him not pretend to exclusive 
authority in matters of importance, as formerly, and to pronounce according to 
the prevailing sentiment of the cardinals and the difi'erent congregations under 
their care; and they do not foment disturbance in sovereign states, or arm sub- 
jects against their rulers, nor thunder excommunications at the head of princes. 
The Reformation had a manifest influence upon the papal clergy, rendering them 
more circumspect and cautious in external conduct, more attentive to outward 
decency, and less scandalous in vices and debaucheries^ in Protestant neighbor- 
hoods. But more reformation is needed in every respect where no rival heretics 
censure their conduct nor ridicule their enormous and ridiculous ceremonies. ^ 
Most of the southern states of Europe set bounds to the daring ambition of the 



(1) Mosh. § 25. (2) Will. 371-2. (3) Idm. § 29-33. (4) Mosh. 17 :2; 2, 2, § 25. (5) Ben, p. 323-4, 
(6) Mosh. 17:2; 2, 2, § 27. (7) C. Coote in Mosh. Cent. 18; chap. 4, Vol. XL, p. 389. Encp. Meth., 
Seceders, etc. (8) Mosh. 16:3; 1, 1, §§ 13, 15. (9) Mosh. 16:3; 1, 1, § 42. 



8iQ 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED, 



pope and confined his power of enacting laws to narrow limits. ^ But, as the 
power of the second beast declined, the first beast recovered and used his former 
authority. Schism was a grievous sore upon them both, and both labored to 
suppress it. 

To gain what he had lost in Europe by the Reformation, the pope sent mis- 
sionaries into Asia, Africa, and America to convert the savages and barbarians 
to popery. The famous order of Jesuits was formed A. D. 1540, to propagate 
Christianity among the unenlightened nations, and they were to be always at the 
absolute disposal of the pope and ready at a moment's warning to repair wher- 
ever sent. They did, and sufi'ered much to advance the interests of their own 
society and to promote the ambitious views of Rome. ^ The inquisitions erected 
by them, and the penal laws whose terrors they employed so freely in the Spanish 
and Portuguese colonies and possessions, contributed more than their arguments, 
which were but sparingly used in converting the Indians. The success of the 
Jesuits aroused the converting zeal of the Franciscans, Dominicans, and several 
religious orders. The Jesuits penetrated into Japan and China with success; and 
in all places in Asia, Africa, and America where the Spaniards and Portuguese 
carried their arms with success, these missionaries, by barbarous laws and 
inhuman tortures, forced the wretched natives into a profession of Christianity. 
But this Christianity was only a blind and excessive veneration for their instruc- 
tors — a little jargon and a few superstitious rites. ^ Efforts were also made to 
gain over to popery the ancient sects of the Greek church — the Abyssinians, 
Egyptians or Copts, and Armenians, and the Nestorians or Christians of St. 
Thomas. 4 These papal legates and missionaries treated with much severity and 
injustice the Christians they desired to gain over to their communion, requiring 
them 10 renounce the particular opinions separating the Greek from the Latin 
church; to acknowledge the pope as Christ's sole vicegerent upon earth; to 
abolish several ancient customs, rites, and institutions of their ancestors, and an 
entire and minute conformity to the doctrine and worship of Rome. However, 
at length experience taught them to use moderation to these Greek sects, and so 
explain doctrines and rites as to make them believe there was no difierence 
between the Greek and Latin churches. 

To protect the papal church at home, persecuting laws were revised and cor- 
rected ; youth were trained in the art of disputing ; the circulation of books per- 
nicious to the Catholic religion was entirely prevented, or at least obstructed; the 
pursuit of knowledge was recommended to the clergy, and the youth were care- 
fully instructed in the dogmas of their religion. Since the Reformation the court 
of Rome has derived more infiuence and support from the Jesuits than from all 
other emissaries and ministers with the various exertion of their vast power and 
opulence;^ and Dr. George Brown, bishop of Dublin, A. D. 1551, gave in a sermon 
a true and somewhat prophetic account of their character, conduct, and destiny.^ 
However, controversies were excited by the Jesuits, which to the present day 
continue to divide the Romish church and endanger its stability. The Jesuits 
maintain, with the greatest zeal and obstinacy, the ancient system of doctrine and 
manners adopted before the Reformation; but others pronounce corruptions in 
popery and desire a partial reformation. 

The popes suppress, but can not heal the divisions raging in the bosom of 
their church. Both in the decrees of Trent and the papal confession many things 
were expressed in a vague and ambiguous manner designedly, on account of the 
intestine divisions and warm debates that reigned in the church. It was then, as 
at this day, divided and distracted with dissensions and contests of various kinds. ^ 
Experience in the case of Luther had taught the danger of bulls, and the thun- 
ders of excommunication was suppressed by the dictates of prudence. The 



(1) Mosh., § 4. (2) Mosh. 16:2; 1, 1, §§ 1, 2, and note B; and 3; 1, 1. i^ 11. (3) 16:2; 1, 1, 
§§ 1-3, and 3; 1, 1, § 5. (4) 16:3; 1, 1, §§ 5, 6, 7. (5) Mosh. 16:3; 1, 1, §§ 8, 9, 12, note A; or * 



CHAPTER OLX.: SECTION VIII. 847 

power of the pope has become circumscribed by that of the cardinals, who compose 
his privy council, the opinions of doctors and of the congregations. All these 
together form the court of Eome. ^ 

The congregation for the propagation of the truth was founded at Kome, 
A. D. 1622, and has charge of all the missionary work. "^ The Jesuits, Domin- 
icans, Franciscans, and Capuchins publicly accuse one another of corrupting Chris- 
tianity to promote ambitious purposes. The Jesuit missionaries are universally 
accused of sinister views and unworthy practices. They exhausted all their 
resources to impose silence on their accusers and to justify their own proceedings. 
These mutual contentions, arrogant and covetous practices of these missionaries 
in Japan caused their bloody persecution in A. D. 1615, and final expulsion. 
The Jesuits instigated the Indians in Paraguay to rebellion and war, and for this 
they were disgraced in the court of Portugal. They converted the Indians into 
hypocrits by the dread of punishment and terrors of death. '^ Thus, while popery 
contended against the great Protestant schism, it was afflicted with internal 
discord. 

Austrian Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France continued 
the Roman Catholic religion for their state church, ^ and during the whole prog- 
ress of the Reformation they shed the blood of the saints and prophets till the 
peace of Westphalia, A. D. 1648, was confirmed and ratified at Nuremburg, A. D. 
1650. After this period the court of Rome did not make war openly on the Pro- 
testants; but, wherever they could persecute with impunity, they oppressed them 
in the most grievous manner and in violation of the most sacred obligations. In 
Hungary both Lutherans and Calvinists were involved in an uninterrupted series 
of the most cruel calamities and vexatious by the Jesuits. In Poland, the Pro- 
testants were ejected from schools, deprived of their churches, robbed of their 
goods and possessions, and condemned to the most severe and cruel punishments 
without any charge of crime. 

The infraction of the treaty, and Germanic liberty founded upon it, by the 
extravagant zeal for the authority and jurisdiction of the Roman church, would 
fill volumes. The importunate solicitations of the clergy obtained an edict from 
the king of Spain for the expulsion of the Moors, ^ and the bloody inquisition con- 
tinued in Spain till A. D. 1820, and in the states of the pope till A. D. 1842. ^ 
All the resources of inventive genius and refined policy, insinuating craft and 
audacious rebellion were employed to bring back Great Britain and Ireland under 
the yoke of Rome, ^ resulting in war. Having destroyed the polity of the Hugue- 
nots in France, Richelieu exhausted artifice to extirpate and destroy them. When 
every artifice and perfidy failed, Louis XIY., instigated by the bishops and 
Jesuites, judged it necessary to extirpate them by fire and sword. The, edict of 
Nantes was revoked A. D. 1685, and the Protestants were required to embrace 
the Romish faith. Multitudes fled the country — ^ve hundred thousand^; others 
were prevented and sacrificed to the brutal rage of an unrelenting soldiery, and 
were assailed by every barbarous form of persecution. ^ The Waldenses living 
in the valley of Piedmont had embraced the doctrine, discipline, and worship of 
the Church of Geneva, and were oppressed and persecuted in the most barbarous 
and inhuman manner by the ministers of Rome. This persecution was carried on 
with peculiar marks of rage and enormity in A. D. 1655, 1686, and 1696, and 
seemed to portend their total destruction and entire extinction. The most horrid 
scenes of violence and bloodshed were exhibited on this theater of papal tyranny. ^ 
They endorsed the. reformed religion, and the edict specified the reformed reli- 
gion, 5 and they were sacrificed to the pope and king of France. ^ It was in 
regard to the slaughter of these that Milton penned his prayer for vengeance ; 



, (6) Mosh., §§ 2, 24, 30-2, 38. (7) Mosh. 17:1; §§ 1-6, 16, 19. (8) 16:3; 1, 1, § 23. (9) Mosh. 
17:2; 1, 1, §§ 7-9. (1) Dowl., p. 610. (2) Mosh. 17:2; 1, 1, § 10. (3) Encp. Hugnts. (4) Mosh, 
17:2; 1, 1, § 9» 2, 2, §§ 3-5. (5) Jones, pp. 493, 495. (6) Idm. 586. Letter No. 16. 



848 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 



and, perhaps, the opening of the fifth seal should have been deferred till A. D. 
1689, when England declared for toleration. But, no doubt many such prayers 
were offered before and since. The saints and witnesses began to put on white 
robes A. D. 1626 in Holland, and in England A. D. 1689. "What we now 
notice is the fact that all these state church sovereignties shed the blood of saints 
and prophets to cure or prevent the sore of schism; and the bloody inquisition 
continued its deadly work after the peace of Westphalia, in the Catholic state 
church sovereignties, and they deserve to get blood to drink. 



CHAPTER CLXI. 



THE WOMAN OUT OF THE WILDERNESS. (Continued from Chap. 159.) 

1. Why should the Waldenses and other true churches of the wilderness be 
exterminated or merged into reformed churches? We will not pretend to give 
the reason for all or any of God's doings ; but some good reasons are obvious in 
all His acts of government. Declensions and innovations have always happened 
in all hereditary societies, though they retained and monopolized all the preroga- 
tives, titles, property, positions, and relations which they enjoyed at the first. 
Patriarchism, Judaism, Greek and Latin Christianity, furnish ample proof of this 
position. The Waldenses and others were no exceptions to this rule, but they 
had diversity of principles and practices among them. The testimony of Ever- 
vanus, Rinarius, and others prove this, and the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and 
Baptists have claimed them for predecessors in their peculiar tenets. Whatever 
claim they might have to an unbroken succession from apostolic times, reformers 
from the Greek and Latin empire churches either united with them or were con- 
founded with them by their enemies, and they were called by the name of these 
reformers, and had their principles and practices attributed to them, from the 
Paulician reformation till the Mennonites and Calvinists. 

Now, mankind have always manifested a disposition to adopt, venerate, and 
defend hereditary institutions (though not in accordance with the Scriptures) and 
to defend errors because their predecessors professed and practiced them. So it 
was necessary to destroy these hereditary churches; for it would have been more 
difiicult to have reformed whatever was wrong among them, on account of truth 
and piety, than to make a reformation in the manifestly false and polluted papal 
church. The efforts of different Protestant denominations to find their doctrines 
and practices among the Waldenses shows the great and dangerous tendency to 
receive and defend principles and practices from hereditary succession, and not 
from the Scriptures alone. We know that errors in faith and practice did creep 
into the Christian churches long before they became the harlots of state sover- 
eignties. Histories show the protestants against these empire churches difi'ered 
widely in their principles and practices. They were all branded as heretics and 
schismatics, and were often designated by the name of the more recent reformer 
or reformation. Now, when all hereditary successions that could claim any degree 
of truth and purity were destroyed, all churches claiming apostolic faith and 
practice must derive them from the Bible alone, and not from predecessors or 
ancestors. 



CHAPTER CLXI.: SECTION II. 849 

2. The Influence of Religious Revolutions in Great Britain. — These 
schisms and revolutions in Great Britain had direct influence in the development 
of the kingdom of God there at that time; also in these countries subjected since 
by her arms, and indirectly upon the whole world. America was then but a 
wilderness. Here the refugees from state church oppressions made their last 
resort, bringing their Bibles, principles, and practices. America had been given 
by the pope to the Spaniards and Portugese, but by revolutions North America 
has been wrested from them, and papal stations have been surrounded by Protestant 
citizens and institutions, and Protestant missionaries from America dot all parts 
of the world. 

Virginia: In Virginia a spirit of religious intolerance was manifested in the 
legislative assembly, which ordered that no minister should preach or teach except 
in conformity to the church of England, '^ A. D. 1643. Heavy fines were imposed 
on Quakers and Baptists, A. D. 1673, ^ and not till A. D. 1784 were dissenter 
ministers put on equality with the established ministers in administering the rites 
of matrimony; but in A. D. 1798 all religious sects were put on equality in 
respect to government favors. ^ The last case of imprisonment for religion which 
I find on record was in A. D. 1768, and this was done by perverting the law for 
the preservation of the peace. This was condemned by the governor, and the 
ministers were released. ^ John Leland says : Virginia soil has never been stained 
with vital blood shed for conscience's sake ;2 but if no executions took place it 
was owing to circumstances not known now, and not to the spirit of the church, 
legislature, or laws during A. D. 1643. ^ Perhaps from A. D. 1768 we might say 
that the true church of Christ could be nourished publicly in sight of princes and 
prelates. 

Massachusetts: A permanent colony was settled here without the aid of the 
Plymouth company or of the king. The Puritans driven out of England by perse- 
cution in A. I). 1608 emigrated to Holland. There some of them became modeled 
into Congregationalists by John Robinson and others. About eleven years after 
part of them were induced to seek an asylum in the American wilderness, where 
they hoped to enjoy their religion and government. In A. D. 1620, after many 
deprivations, difficulties, and discouragements, these pious adventurers established 
the New England Plymouth colony, and, it is said, were never guilty of perse- 
cution. Another colony, called the Massachusetts Bay company, obtained a 
patent, A. D. 1628, from the company or council, and in A. D. 1629 a charter 
from the king, Charles I., and was incorporated in the name of the governor and 
company of Massachusetts Bay in New England. Their first permanent settle- 
ment was at Salem, A. D. 1628. New emigrants arrived at different times and 
settled at different places, but Boston became the metropolis of New England and 
the seat of the governor. Church membership was made a prerequisite to the 
full rights of citizenship, and church buildings, expenses, and ministerial support 
were furnished at the public expense. ^ In seven years from the planting at Salem 
the Bay company had so increased that we find a little colony branching off nearly 
one hundred miles, to the banks of the Connecticut. The citizens were Puritans. 
The government was a representative democracy; a pure religion the supreme 
object, and their laws were strict. But they had not abandoned the fatal doctrine 
and error of the second century, and blended Mosaic laws and principles with 
Christianity, and became intolerable persecutors and cruel legislators. 

Persecution in England increased the population of New England till it 
aroused 'the jealousy of the English monarch and bishops, and repeated attempts 
were made to stop further emigration. In 1643 the colonies of Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, Plymouth, and New Haven formed themselves into one confederacy; 
but Rhode Island was rejected because she refused to be merged into a corporation 



(7) Will. Amer., p. 173. (8) Ibd. 175, § 15. Ben., pp. 653-7. (9) Idm. 657. (1)654. (2)655. 
(3) 658. (4) Will. Amer., pp. 179-85. Bep. 367-9. 
— 54 



850 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

with the Plymouth colony. In A. D. 1634 Roger Williams, minister of Salem, 
a fugitive from English persecution, had sought in Massachusetts an asylum among 
those of his own creed, but finding the same kind of religious intolerance among 
them, earnestly raised his voice against it. He maintained equal protection to 
all religious sects ; entire freedom of conscience in principles of religion and modes 
of worship. For these sentiments he was banished, and he became the founder of 
the Rhode Island colony. In A. D. 1637 Mrs. Hutchinson was banished. ^ The 
order of the day was fines, imprisonments, and banishment, A. D. 1638-44.^ 
The scourging of Obediah Holmes was most brutish cruelty. Lady Moody fled 
to the Dutch on Long Island, and others removed to Rhode Island. '^ The Puritans 
of England sent remonstrances, but the Puritans of New England justified their 
conduct. 

The united colonies, including Plymouth, concurred in a law prohibiting the 
introduction of Quakers, A. D. 1657, and, by advice of their commissioners, 
Massachusetts passed a law, A. D. 1658, inflicting death upon those returning 
from banishment, and four were executed according to the law. During the trial 
of the last, another of the banished entered the court and reproached the magis- 
trates for shedding innocent blood. The prisons were soon filled with victims 
eager for martyrdom ; but public opinion turned in their favor, and the law was 
repealed, A. D. 1661. ^ In Boston, after A. D. 1692, these laws of intolerance 
were not rigidly enforced, and the brethren there suffered far less than those in 
the country, ^ and when the second Baptist church in Boston was organized (A. D. 
1743), the authorities had concluded that cruelties and penalties were not adapted 
to enlighten the understanding or control the conscience. ^ When the last perse- 
cution took place, or the odious laws were repealed, I have not found, but perhaps 
from A. D. 1700 the true churches of Christ could be nourished in all New 
England, in sight of princes nnd prelates. Virginia and Massachusetts were the 
fields in the New World on which the contest about toleration was decided, and 
both parties came from England and brought the controversy with them. 

Rhode Island: Banished from Massachusetts, Roger Williams fled to the 
wilderness and took refuge among the savages of the forest. He purchased the 
land from the Indians, lived in peace with them, and saved the New England 
colonies from massacre. He took his principles of toleration with him, and 
Providence became an asylum for the pursecuted of the neighboring colonies, and 
the peace of the settlement was never disturbed by the various and discordant 
opinions which gained admission. It was found that the numerous and conflicting 
sects of the day could dwell together in harmony, and the world beheld with 
surprise the novel experiment of a government where the magistrate ruled in civil 
matters only and God alone was respected as the Ruler of the conscience. His 
political principles were as liberal as his religious opinions. For the preservation 
of peace, all the settlers were required to subscribe to an agreement to submit to 
such rules, not affecting the conscience, as should be made for the public good by 
a majority of the inhabitants. He reserved no political power to himself, and 
the territory he had purchased of the nations he freely granted to all the inhab- 
itants in common, excepting two small fields planted by his own hands. In 
A. D. 1644, he obtained from parliament a free charter of incorporation, and after 
the restoration of royalty he obtained another from Charles II. 

In A. D. 1647, the general assembly of the several towns met and organized 
a government democratic ; adopted a code of laws, and closed with the declaration 
that all men might walk as their conscience persuaded them — every one in the 
name of his God, without molestation. The assertion that Catholics were 
excluded from voting, and that the Quakers were persecuted and outlawed, is 
wholly erroneous. Rhode Island has ever cherished all her early religious freedom 
and her civil rights. ^ 



(5) Will. Amer., pp. 185-6. (6) Ben. 369-70. (7) 370-92. (8) Will. Amer., 190-1. (9) Ben. 
332. (1) 391-4. (2) Will. Amer., pp. 315-18. Ben. 423. 



CHAPTER CLXI. I SECTION II. 851 

Williams was born in Wales, A. D. 1598 ; landed in America A. D. 1630-1; 
banished A. D. 1635; settled at Providence A. D. 1636; in A. D. 1638 he took 
twelve partners into the purchased territory, and afterward fourteen more. ^ In 
A. D. 1639 the first Baptist church in America was formed by twelve reformers 
from Massachusetts. They regarded themselves unbaptized, and kad no one to 
baptize them. Ezekiel Holliman was chosen to baptize Ro^er Williams, and 
then Williams baptized Holliman and the others.* Though English and Welsh 
Baptists and ministers emigrated after this to Rhode Island and other parts of 
America and formed churches, the Baptists of America must be classed among 
reformers, whether their baptizers came from Providence, in Rhode Island, or 
from England, or Wales ; and if they are the true churches of Christ they must 
prove it from the Scriptures, for they can not trace their genealogy in hereditary 
succession from the apostles on the page of history. But here in Rhode Island 
the true church can, and has been, nourished without molestation since A. D. 
1638, and whenever this colony ceases to be a wilderness the woman will not need 
to be nourished there in a wilderness. 

Pennsylvania : In A. D. 1681 William Penn obtained a charter from Charles 
II. for Pennsylvania, and also purchased all the territory from the Indians. His 
aim was to open in the New World an asylum where civil and religious liberty 
should be enjoyed, and where, under the benign influences of peace, those of 
every sect, color, and clime might dwell together in unity and love. With the 
Indians, the Swedes in his territory, and the duke of York, who had claims on 
the Delaware territories, Penn treated in fidelity, peace, and generosity, and 
secured peace and prosperity. He framed a government and code of laws, but 
submitted them to the people of his province for their approval. In A. D. 1683 
he gave them a charter of liberty and a representative democracy. Thus, Penn- 
sylvania and Delaware furnished unmolested homes for freedom and truth by the 
grant and influence of the persecuted Quakers. ^ Penn's influence extended to 
Sew Jersey and New York. To induce settlers, the proprietors of New Jersey 
published a liberal constitution for the colony, promising freedom from taxation, 
except by the act of their assembly, and securing equal privileges and liberty of 
conscience to all. In A. D. 1665 Lord Berkeley sold his share of New Jersey 
to Fenwick in trust for Byllinge and his assignees; A. D. 1674 Byllinge made an 
assignment to William Penn and two other Quakers; Jersey was divided by 
them with Carteret; Carteret received east Jersey. The assignees gave the 
western proprietors a free constitution, granting all the important privileges of 
civil and religious toleration, and four hundred Quakers settled there A. D. 1677. 
After the death of Carteret, his portion, or east Jersey, was offered for sale; 
and it was purchased by William Penn and eleven other Quakers, who governed 
it till A. D. 1690.6 

New York: New York was first settled by Hollanders. Here we find 
religious liberty, and here Lady Moody removed from persecution in Massa- 
chusetts. "^ Through the advice of William Penn, the duke of York, James II., 
instructed the governor, Dongan, a Catholic, to call an assembly of representa- 
tives, A. D. 1683. A charter of Hberty was established, and among other 
things was. That no person professing faith in God by Jesus Christ should,^ at 
any time, by any way, be disquieted or questioned for any difference of opinion 
in matters of religion. When the duke of York became king of England, as 
James 11. , he instructed Dongan to introduce French priests among the Iroquois 
Indians ; but Dongan, clearly seeing the ambitious designs of the French for 
extending their influence among the Indians, resisted the measure. Governor 
Fletcher (A. D. 1693) labored with great zeal to establish the English church, 
but the people demanded toleration, and the assembly resolutely opposed the 
pretentions of the governor. ^ Such was the extensive and good influence of 
William Penn and his principles. 

(3) Ben. 44L (4)450, (5) Will. Amer. 246. (6) Will Amer. 236-8. (7) Ben. 870. (8)WiU. 
Amer. 228-31. 



852 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Maryland : Maryland was colonized, by Lord Baltimore, as a refuge for 
Catholics, who were then persecuted in England (A. D. 1621) under James I. 
The charter made out by Charles I., A. D. 1632, secured to the emigrants equality 
in religious rights and civil liberty, and an independent share in the legislation 
of the province; but the majority must rule. Christianity was the law of the 
land, but no preference was given to any sect. ^ Lord Baltimore paid the Indians 
for their lands; a representative government was established A. D. 1639; decla- 
ration of rights was adopted ; the powers of the proprietor were defined, and the 
citizens were confirmed in all the liberties enjoyed by British subjects at home. 
In A. D. 1649 it was enacted by the legislative assembly that no person pro- 
fessing to believe in Jesus Christ should be molested in respect to his religion, 
or the free exercise thereof; and any one reproaching his neighbor with oppro- 
brious names of religious distinction should be fined. Bozman maintains that a 
majority of the assembly were Protestants. ^ Parliament in England having the 
power under Cromwell, the Protestants in Maryland excluded the Catholics from 
the legislature and declared them not entitled to the protection of the laws of 
Maryland. A battle was fought, A. D. 1655 ; the Catholics were defeated, and 
some were killed and some executed. Royalty being restored in England, the 
ancient order of things was restored in Marland, A. D. 1660, and religious equality 
was reestablished by Charles Calvert Baltimore. 

On the ascension of William, prince of Orange, to the throne of England, 
suspicion and rumor created another revolution. The Catholics yielded the gov- 
ernment by capitulation. In A. D. 1691 the king of England usurped the 
government ; religious toleration was abolished ; the church of England was 
established and supported by taxation A. D. 1692. After twenty years the heir 
of Lord Baltimore obtained his rights, and so remained till the American revo- 
lution. ^ It is hard to tell whether or not the woman of the wilderness could be 
nourished here. The violation of the toleration laws appears to have been by 
the Protestants against the Catholics. The Mennonites and Tunkers had churches 
here, but how they were treated I do not find in histories ; and the Baptists had 
none till A. D. 1742. ^ 

The Carolinas and Georgia: The charter of North Carolina, A. D. 1665, 
granted by Charles II., secured religious freedom to the people and a voice in 
the legislation of the colony. ^ An attempt to establish monarchy was defeated 
by the people A. D. 1670. The two Carolinas were separated A. D. 1729, and 
royal governments established over them. ^ Dutch from New York and Holland, 
and Huguenots from France migrated to South Carolina, and I believe were 
never persecuted for their religion. In A. L). 1704 the Episcopal church became 
the established church, and the dissenters were excluded from the legislature; 
but they carried the case up to parliament and the act was declared contrary to 
the laws of England and to the charter of the proprietors; and the laws of dis- 
franchisement were repealed A. D. 1706, but the church of England remained 
the state church till the revolution. ^ 

Georgia was colonized, by James Oglethrope, as an asylum for the poor of his 
country and for persecuted Protestants of all nations, where they all might 
worship without fear of persecution, A. D. 1733. In A. D. 1752 the charter was 
resigned to the king, but the people were favored with the same liberties and 
privileges enjoyed by the Carolinas. "^ Thus, by English charters, religious free- 
dom was secured to Maryland, Georgia, and the Carolinas; in Phode Island, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey by the proprietors, Roger Williams, 
William Penn, and his brethren ; in New York it was enjoyed by the Dutch from 
Holland; and, after the English possessed York, it was secured by the advice and 
influence of William Penn with the duke of York, and was maintained by the 
governor, Dongan. Virginia and Massachusetts, with her colleagues (Connecticut, 

(9) Will. Amer. 240-1- (1) 242-3, note ♦. (2) 244-6. (3) Ben. p. 631 . (4) Will. Amer. 25L 
(5)252-5. (6)259-9. (7) Will. Amer., 261-6. 



dttAPTER ctxi.: SECTION III. 853 

Pljmouthj and New Haven), resisted toleration in religion until subdued by the 
martyrs suffering for it, A. D. 1661, ^ or A. D. 1692. ^ Persecution or toleration 
by individuals, families, or neighborhoods belongs not to my subject. Such 
persecution continues yet in places, and advocates for toleration have appeared, 
during the most relentless persecuting times, among papal princes; and they took 
the sword to defend their heritical subjects. 

Liberty of conscience has been planted in the American English colonies, 
and as they became independent sovereignties their -flags have protected it at 
home and abroad ; and as they ceased to be a wilderness the true church of Christ 
could be nourished under the shadow of their capitals. After A. D. 1689 the 
necessity of the woman to continue in the wilderness no longer existed in Great 
Britain, and from about A. D. 1700 no such necessity existed in any of her col- 
onies. Wherever the flag of Great Britain or of the United States of America 
floats a true church of Christ can build her temple, ring her bell, and perform her 
worship. But this the true church could not do in the state sovereignties on the 
■continent of the Old World before this nineteenth century, as the history of 
Onken and his brethren shows. ^ 

3. Dates of Sojourning in the Wilderness. — The persecutions of the 
Novatians and Donatists may be dated A. D. 331, 375, 413, 432. Persecution 
was stopped in Africa by the Vandals A. D. 439, ^ and in Italy by the Goths A. D. 
476, when those countries were subjugated by them.^ Hence, the woman was 
seen flying into the wilderderness A. D. 331-476; to these add 1260 years and 
we have A. D. 1591-1736. She was seen coming out of it A. D. 1626-1689. 
This can not be disputed. Kow, take 1260 from A. D. 1626-1689 and we are 
carried back to A. D. 366-429, which nearly corresponds to the persecution above 
dated, A. D. 375-432, making nine years difference on the first, and three on the 
last. Holland was acknowledged as an independent sovereign state by all the 
powers of Europe, A. D. 1648, in the peace of Westphalia. She planted col- 
onies in Asia and America, planted toleration in JS^ew York, sent the first colony 
of Puritans to America, gave a dynasty and freedom of conscience to England. 
Had the woman disappeared suddenly and reappeared suddenly we might fix the 
dates with certainty ; or, had her disappearance and reappearance been every- 
where at the same time we could determine the exact time : but to me the time 
of sojourning in the wilderness, from under the eyes of princes and prelates, is 
satisfactorily verified by history. The woman is now out of the wilderness and 
is preaching the Gospel to the worshipers of the dragon, of the beast, and of his 
image. We have given more minute calculations in more minute accounts of 
true churches, t (Continued in chap. 170.) 



(8) Will. Amer. 188-91 . (9) Ben. 392. (*) See G. W. Lehman's Hist, of Bapt. in Germany since 
A. D. 1834. Miss'ry Sketches p. 286-358. (1) WiU. p. 232. (2) Ben. p. 10. (t) Chap. 128, § 6. 175. 



CHAPTER CLXII. 



THIRD BOWL, OR YIAL. A. M. 5663-5797. (Continued from Chap. 157.) 

1. The Position According to the Divine Pkogramme. — And the third 
angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and into the fountains of waters, and 
they became blood; and 1 heard the angel of the water saying: Righteous, O 
Lord, art Thou, Who art, and Who wast the Holy One, because Thou didst judge 
thus, or these things, for they have poured out the blood of saints and prophets, 
and Thou gavest them blood to drink for they are worthy. And I heard another 
out of the altar saying : Yea, O Lord God the Almighty, true and righteous are 
Thy judgments. 3 Rivers and fountains are tributary to the sea, and if they 
remain pure and healthful, the sea may be supplied with fresh water and replen 
ished with living occupants ; but here these tributaries are turned into blood, and 
the inhabitants must drink blood, but do not die. The waters on which the 
harlot sat are said to represent peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. * Hence, 
we conclude, fountains and rivers represent the tributaries to the papal power, or 
Holy Roman empire, into which they concentrate their power, wealth, and influ- 
ence. The vitality of the empire being destroyed, and the tributaries turned 
into blood, though their nationalities, energies, and governments be not destroyed, 
the sea of empire can not be restored. Some of these tributaries still have the 
papal church, and others have some Protestant church united with the civil gov- 
ernments, and all have schisms and have shed blood to prevent or to heal these 
grievous sores. 

JVfow, veneration for universal consolidated power and influence in church 
and state might cause the state church sovereignties to restore the sea of papal 
empire. But, evidently some discord among them has caused mutual slaughters, 
and though not fatal to their existence, power and influence, and vital energies, 
it makes union in one sea of empire impossible for some time. Emperors and 
popes have deluged the earth in blood, what will the state system and reformed 
state churches do ? Will they give peace and happiness to the earth ? Will they 
restore the holy Roman empire ? Will they spill one another's blood ? The wars 
of successions gave the nations which formed the holy Roman empire blood to 
drink. 

2. Wars of Louis XIY. of France. — Louis XIY. repudiated the treaty of 
the Pyrenees; laid immediate claim to the Spanish Netherlands in right of his 
wife. Securing the neutrality of Austria, he poured his legions over the Belgian 
frontier and reduced most of the fortresses to the Scheldt; fortified the captured 
towns and garrisoned them with the best troops of France; and Franche-Compte 
was conquered before Spain was aware of danger. A, D. 1667-8. Protestant 
Holland, Sweden, and England formed an alliance to defend Catholic Spain 
against Catholic France. Louis receded before the league, and to become better 
prepared concluded the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Louis XIY. purchased the 
alliance of England from the profligate and semi-Catholic, Charles IL, bought 
the neutrality of Sweden and the neighboring princes of Germany, created a 



(3) Rev. 16:4,7. (4) Rev. 17:15. 



CEtAPTER CLXII. t SECTION 11. $55 

navy of one hundred vessels, increased in army one hundred thousand men, 
introduced the bayonet, and then sought revenge in Holland for defeating him by 
the triple alliance in A. D. 1668. In A. D. 1672 Louis invaded Holland, which 
had only thirty thousand men for self-defense, ^ and rapidly advanced toward 
Amsterdam, the metropolis. By the influence of Cromwell of England and 
John DeWitt, pensionary of Holland, the stadtholdership was suppressed and 
the reign of the prince of Orange about ended. But, on the invasion of Holland, 
William III. of Orange was proclaimed stadtholder and captain-general, and 
after this became king of England. The Hollanders, opening the dikes, sub- 
merged the country and saved their metropolis, but the French wintered triumph- 
antly in the conquered provinces. 

Prince William III. of Orange, whose mother was a sister to Charles II. of 
England, ^ was a general of twenty -two years, and detached England from the 
French alliance. Catholic Austria and Spain prepared to send troops to aid Pro- 
testant Holland, and by A. D. 1674 nearly all Europe was leagued against the 
French monarch, Louis was obliged to abandon Holland, but in the Spanish 
Netherlands the allied armies of all Europe were kept at bay for awhile. With 
the loss of her two generals — Conde and Turenne — French valor slumbered 
awhile on the land, but Duquesne, a Protestant seaman, almost annihilated the 
Dutch fleet. This man was reproached by Louis for being a Protestant. He 
replied : When I fought for your majesty I never thought of your religion. His 
son was afterward banished for his religion, and carried with him the bones of 
his heroic father. 

France and Holland, equally exhausted, a treaty was signed A. D. 1678. 
Holland had nearly perished, but at last lost nothing and gained a barrier. Louis 
retained most of his conquests in the Spanish Netherlands, French Flanders, and 
Franche-Compte, and the allies all lost something. '^ Louis bombarded Algiers 
and Gena, humbled the pope, expelled some German princes from their terri- 
tories, devastated the Spanish provinces by maurading parties in time of peace, 
increased his army to four hundred and fifty thousand men. "^ In A. D. 1685 he 
revoked the edict of Nantes, forbid Protestant worship, banished all ecclesiastics 
that would not recant, afterwards closed the ports against the fugitives, sent to 
the galleys those attempting to escape and confiscated their property, dragooned 
them that did not attempt to escape, and he lost by these measures from two 
hundred thousand to five hundred thousand of his best subjects, ^ beside thirty 
thousand who suffered death. These cruelties roused the Germans, Dutch, and 
English into a league, A. D. 1686. Spain joined it; Sweden, Denmark, and 
even Savoy were gained to it afterward. Louis, undaunted, sent an army against 
Germany, A. D. 1688, which ravaged the palatinate with fire and sword ; another 
into Flanders, another into Italy, another to check the Spaniards in Catalonia, 
and a fleet and an army to Ireland to aid James 11. to recover the throne of 
England. ^ 

The butchery of the Waldenses in Savoy, the effort to reestablish popery in 
England, and the persecution of the Protestants in France was instigated by the 
pope and confessor of Louis XI Y., but was planned and ordered by Louis — and 
perhaps he hoped to make himself emperor. But an overruling Providence 
mixed up political interests with state religions so that a concentration of civil 
and ecclesiastical power could not be effected, and truth and freedom were 
advancing to complete emancipation. 

In A. D. 1690 Savoy was overrun by the French, and so was Flanders. The 
combined squadrons of England and Holland were defeated and a descent made 
on the coast of England. In A. D. 1692 Namur was taken by the French, in 
spite of William and the allies; but the French were defeated in a terrible naval 
battle off Cape La Hogue, which decided the fate of James 11. , and marks the 



(5) Will. 380-1. (6) Rev. Eurp. 2:32. (7) Will. 382r3. (8) Idm. DowL, pp. 593-5. 



856 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 



era of England's dominion over the seas. In A. D. 1693 the French gained the 
bloody battle of Nerwinden over King William, defeated the duke of Saxony at 
Marseilles, made progress against the Spaniards in Catalonia, and gained some 
advantage at sea, but succeeding campaigns were not superintended by Louis and 
became less decisive in results. France was exhausted, and all parties were anx- 
ious to terminate a war in which much blood had been shed, much treasure 
expended, and no permanent acquisitions made. ^ They got blood to drink, and 
that is all. William held the throne of England still, and Louis XIY. still held 
his territory and claims to the Spanish succession. 

3. England and Holland, and Others. — The effort of Cromwell to consol- 
idate the Protestant nations of England and Holland resulted in a bloody war 
between them. A. D. 1652, bloody and obstinate battles were fought, and peace 
concluded A. D. 1654, advantageous to England. ^ Charles 11. provoked another 
war with Holland, A. D. 1664, by seizing some Dutch settlements. A few 
indecisive battles were fought. A Dutch fleet, sailing up the Thames, burned the 
ships at Chatham. The capital was threatened with the miseries of a blockade, 
and for the first time the roar of foreign guns was heard by the citizens of London. 
After two years' war, Charles II. was forced by the voice of parliament and the 
bad success of his arms to conclude the treaty of Breda, A. D. 1667, when New 
Netherlands (now New York) in America was confirmed to England. 

In A. D. 1672, Charles 11. was induced by Louis XIY., of France, to join 
in the invasion of Holland. The combined armies reduced Holland to the brink 
of destruction. But William III., prince of Orange, being promoted to the chief 
command of the Dutch forces, roused the courage of his countrymen. The dikes 
were thrown open, the whole country except the cities submerged, and the invaders 
were forced to save themselves by a precipitous retreat. William III., of Orange, 
married Lady Mary, daughter of James, duke of York and brother of Charles II., 
and induced England to forsake France and espouse the cause of Holland; and 
when the duke of York, James II. of England, was dethroned, William and Mary 
took the throne.^ Thus, Holland conquered England by family alliance, and 
transfused her principles of religious toleration through England and her colonies, 
and in the peace of A. D. 1697 England obtained the recognition of the king of 
her choice. 

Poland was occupied during the seventeenth century with domestic contentions 
among the nobility and foreign wars with Sweden, Russia, and Turkey. John 
Sobieski, king of Poland, with a small force conquered eighty thousand Mussul- 
mans, leaving forty thousand of them dead in the precincts of the camp, A. D. 
1673. A revolt of the Hungarians from Austria and their alliance with the Turks 
brought nearly three hundred thousand men against Vienna, the capital of Austria, 
which was defended by the citizens and a garrison of a little more than eleven 
thousand men. Sobieski, with eighteen thousand resolute veterans, came at the 
request of the Austrian emperor, and with fifty-two thousand Austrians he 
discomfited the Turks, took their camp of one hundred and twenty thousand tents, 
and the spoils loaded the ground. The name of Sobieski, an eclipse of the moon, 
and the furious charge of the Polish infantry struck panic into the enemy, and 
the wave of Mussulman power retired, nevermore to return, A. D. 1683. 

Sobieski gave the glory to God, and received but little gratitude from the 
jealous monarch whose person and country he had rescued from irretrievable 
ruin. 3 This event marks the era of the decline of the Ottoman power. A 
powerful league, formed between Austria, Russia, Poland, and Venice, followed 
this defeat, and in A. D. 1687 the Turks were finally driven from Hungary and 
dispossessed of the greater part of southern Greece. In A. D. 1697 they sustained 
a total defeat by the famous prince, Eugene, with the loss of thirty thousand men. 
The treaty of Carlo witz, A. D. 1699, completed the humiliation of the porte. 



(9) Will. 184. (1) 367-8. (2) Will. 372-8. (3) Will. 386-8. 



CHAPTER CLXII.: SECTIONS IV. -V. 857 

Transylvania, Sclavonia, and Hungary were given to Austria. Podalia and other 
portions of the Ukraine remained to Poland. Russia retained her conquests on 
the Black sea, and Morea, or southern Greece, was ceded to Venice. ■* (Continued, 
chap. 166.) 

4. Spanish Successions. — Louis XIY., of France, lived to plunge Europe 
into another bloody war, called the War of the Spanish Succession. On the death 
of Charles II., of Spain, A. D. ITOO, Archduke Charles^, of Austria, and Philip 
of Anjou sought the crown, but by gold and promises Louis XIY. obtained the 
throne for his nephew, Philip. Archduke Charles determined to support his 
claims with the sword ; and fear that, on the death of Louis XIY., Philip would 
unite with Spain the crown of France, and thus destroy the balance of power, 
induced England, Germany, and Holland to espouse the cause of Charles of 
Austria and to declare war against France, while Bavaria alone supported France. 
A. D. 1702, Austria commenced by pouring into Italy a large army under Prince 
Eugene, and the English duke of Marlborough, with the Dutch and English 
forces, entered Flanders. The war rolled over Flanders, northern Italy, along the 
Rhine, the coasts of southern Spain, western Spain, and on the Danube in Bavaria. 
Forty-three thousand killed, wounded, and taken prisoners, the French retreated 
from Germany. Portugal joined the coalition. Spanish peninsula was invaded 
by the Austrians, and Gibralter was stormed by the English. The French again 
penetrated into Germany; defeated in Spanish Netherland and routed; driven out 
of Italy; Madrid captured and recaptured, and Barcelona was surrendered to the 
allies.^ Louis made overtures of peace, which were rejected, and war continued; 
French won a complete victor3% A. D. 1707, which established Philip on the throne 
of Spain. In A. D. 1708 the allies defeated a powerful French army and recov- 
ered places in Belgium. Again Louis sought peace with Holland, but was repaid 
all his past insults and pride ; was compelled to renew the war; was driven from 
his position in France, with about thirty thousand killed, but was successful in 
Spain. Domestic misfortunes fell upon Louis XIY. The emperor of Austria 
died A. D. 1711. The succession of Archduke Charles to the sovereignty of 
Austria threatened a union of Spain and Austria — as much dreaded as the union 
of Spain with France. 

The peace of Utrecht, A. D. 1712-13, and of Padstadt, A. D. 1714, termi- 
nated the war of the Spanish Succession. England obtained Gibralter, Minorica, 
Newfoundland, Hudson Bay territory, and the Island of St. Christopher. Spain 
remained to Philip of Anjou on his renouncing forever all right of succession to 
the crown of France. Austria received Naples, Milan, Sardinia, and Spanish 
Flanders in lieu of Spain, and the Spanish monarchy lost its possessions in Italy 
and the Netherlands. Louis retained the Fortress of Lisle and French Flanders, 
and the Rhine was the frontier on the side of Alsace. ^ 

In this revolution the gain to England was a gain for Protestantism. Popery 
gained nothing but some more blood to drink. Louis XIY. died A. D. 1715. 
Charles Y., Ferdinand II., Philip II., and Louis XIY. were the four great 
champions for popery controlled by civil monarchy, and were great enemies to 
schisms in the church. They worshiped the first beast, animated, but not con- 
trolled, by the second. The image of civil sovereignty controlled by ecclesiastical 
monarchy they did not worship. To bring the ecclesiastical monarch in subjection 
to the civil sovereignty and yet prevent schism was a hard task. 

5. Bloody Streams in the North of Europe. — When the Spanish Succession 
turned the south and west tributaries of the holy Roman empire into blood, the 
northern tributaries shared the same fate, and all worshipers of the beast, or of 
his image, had to drink blood ; and the}^ deserved to do so. The czar of Greek- 
church Russia, with his allies, Protestant Denmark and papal Poland, began 
hostilities upon Protestant Sweden, A. D. 1700. Charles XII., of Sweden, a 



(4) Will. 389-90. (5) 402-4. (6) Will., pp. 404-5. 



858 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 



boy of eighteen years, placed himself at the head of his armies ; conquered Den- 
mark; with ten thousand men attacked the Russians, killed eighteen thousand, 
and captured thirty thousand ; conquered Poland and gave her a king, and reduced 
the Saxon states. Peter the Great wisely trained his barbarian Kussians in 
defensive and aggressive movements, and sometimes gained advantages. 

In A. D. 1707, Charles undertook to conquer Russia and rejected offers of 
peace; but the czar desolated the country as he retreated before him, so famine 
and incessant attacks wasted the Swedish army, and an action commanded by the 
czar with overwhelming numhers proved the irretrievable loss of the Swedes. 
Charles escaped, with about three hundred horsemen, to the Turks, abandoning all 
his treasures and spoils to the enemy. Thus, Charles lost the fruits of nearly 
one hundred victories and nine years of successful war ; and had not the Austrian 
emperor and maritime powers interfered the Swedish monarchy would have been 
rent to pieces. While in exile, Charles raised the Turks against Russia in superior 
numbers, and Russia lost sixteen thousand men in battle with them on the Pruth, 
A. D. 1711. 

Though these wars did not effect very much in the papal sea of empire, as 
Russia belonged to the Greek church, they prevented a Protestant concentration 
of power in northern Europe and gave Turkey a taste of blood. Had Charles 
succeeded in his plans, he intended vengeance on the pope. '^ These wars educated 
the Russians in the science of war ; and while Charles XII. left nothing behind 
him but ruins, Peter founded a mighty empire wedded with the Greek church, 
and Russian influence and interference may yet be felt by pope and caliph in the 
development of the kingdom of God. 

6. Austrian Succession. — France, England, and Holland formed the triple 
alliance, A. D. 1717, to guarantee the fulfillment of the treaty of Utrich. Philip Y. 
of Spain, had violated the treaty and conquered Sardinia Island from Austria 
and Sicily from Savoy. Austria joined the alliance to check the ambition of Spain. 
The Spanish fleet was destroyed by the British squadron. The Austrians invaded 
Sicily, and Philip Y. was compelled to respect the treaty. In A. D. 1739, a war 
broke out between England and France, about their rights in the American waters. 
Powerful armaments were fitted out on both sides, and pirates harassed the home 
trade of England. ^ While this war continued, the war of the Austrian Succession 
broke out, presenting a scene of the greatest confusion and eclipsing the conflicts 
on the American seas. 

Charles YI. of Austria died, A. D. 1740, without any male issue, and left his 
dominions to the eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, queen of Hungary. Charles 
Albert, elector of Bavaria, claimed it; so did Augustus III., king of Poland and 
elector of Saxony, and Spain claimed the whole Austrian succession. Frederick 11. , 
the young king of Prussia, marched in and took possession df Silesia. France 
sought to dismember the Austrian empire. England offered her aid to Maria 
Theresa to preserve the integrity of the Austrian dominions. In A. D. 1741, 
two French armies crossed the Rhine, joined the Bavarians, seized Prague, and 
made important conquests. They threatened Yienne; compelled Maria Theresa 
to flee into Hungary. In A. D. 1742, the imperial crown of Austria was given 
to Charles Albert, through the influence of France and Prussia. The swords of 
the Hungarians flashed in the air, and they declared with a shout to die for their 
queen. The day Charles Albert was crowned emperor his own capital fell into 
the hands of the Austrian general ; Bavaria was plundered, and he was compelled 
to flee his own dominions. But Austria had to purchase peace with Prussia by 
surrendering Silesia to Frederick II. The French losses on the ocean by England 
were great. They were driven from Prague and forced to recross the Rhine. In 
A. D. 1744, Frederick II. renewed hostilities, captured Prague and eighteen 
thousand men ; but, his French allies failing him, he had to retreat with a loss of 



(7) Will. 407. (8) Wm. 418. 



OHAPi^Eit CLXii. : SECTION VII* 859 

twenty thousand. ^ The death of Charles Albert (A. D. 1745) might have ended 
the war, but the national animosity between England and France prevented peace. 
The French gained a victory over the Austrians, Dutch, and English, and con- 
quered Austrian Netherlands and Dutch Flanders. Prussia was successful in 
Silesia and Saxony, and by treaty at Dresden was confirmed in the possession of 
Silesia. 

The German states elected Francis I., husband of Maria Theresa, for emperor, 
and in the treaty Frederick acknowledged him. In Italy, the combined armies 
of France, Spain, and Naples were successful against the Austrians and held 
possession of Lombardy and Piedmont. Charles Edward, grand-son of James 
11. , supplied with money and arms by France, landed in Scotland. Joined by 
many Highland clans he took Edenburgh ; defeated the royal forces at Preston- 
pans ; entered England and advanced within one hundred miles of London ; was 
compelled to retreat into Scotland ; defeated the royal forces a second time, but 
was utterly ruined by the bloody battle of Culloden ; and the surrounding 
country was pillaged and devastated. Charles escaped to France, but numbers 
of his adherents perished on the scaffold and multitudes were transported to 
America, A. D. 1745. ^ In A. D. 1746 the English became masters of the French 
colonies in North America, and the French naval armament for devastating the 
colonies was so wrecked by storms that the colonies escaped the destruction. In 
A. D. 1746-7 hostilities were carried on with varied success by the French and 
Spaniards on one side and the English, Dutch, and Austrians on the other. By 
sea, the French lost nearly their last ship and the English had scarcely a rival. 
On the continent, northern Italy and the Netherlands were the chief seats of war. 
The French were driven from Italy and the Austrians and their allies from the 
Netherlands. The peace of Aix4a-Chapelle was concluded A. D. 1748. All 
conquests during the war were to be released, prisoners all restored without 
ransom, conflicting claims of England and Spain left unsettled, and France aban- 
doned the pretender's claim to the English throne. Neither France nor England 
obtained any recompense for the enormous expenditure of blood and treasure; 
the Austrian dominion, excepting Silesia, was preserved, and the European 
balance of power was maintained, ^ and a nominal peace of eight years followed. 
They got blood to drink ! and that was all ! 

7. France, England, and the Colonies. — The colonial rivalry between 
France and England continued ; the ambition of Frederick II. and the jealousy 
of Austria and Prussia remained. We keep an eye on these colonial move- 
ments, as they may hereafter effect the development of the kingdom of God. 
They do not properly belong to our present subject, which is : "The Bloody 
Wars of Imperial Christianity; or, State-Church Sovereignty, as a Plague Inflicted 
on the Antagonisms to the Kingdom of God." Such are the complicated relations 
and interests of European nations that one war introduces another, and those 
colonial difficulties placed France *knd England on opposite sides in European 
wars. Frederick II., of Prussia, anticipating an eftbrt of Austria to reconquer 
Silesia, and distrusting the French, formed an alliance with England ; and thus 
France and Austria, enemies for three hundred years, were compelled into an 
alliance. Russia, Sweden, and Poland joined Austria out of fear or hatred to 
Prussia, and France joined out of rivalry to England — two Protestant powers 
against one Greek, one Protestant, and two papal powers. England was powerful 
on the seas and ocean, and might divert or counteract the power of France ; but 
on the continent she could give but little effective aid to her ally. The partition 
of Prussia was already planned and her days appear to be numbered. Though 
Frederick may have been an infidel, he had about as much genuine Christianity 
as any of the sovereigns of his day, and his early training made him a man of 
desperation — just the man for the time and place. His marches and counter- 
marches, his victories and defeats, invading and being invaded, triumphant and 

(9) Will. 419-20, (1) 420. 



860 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 



crushed to the brink of ruin, the same determination to deliver his country or 
be buried in its last rains, animated to deeds of heroism and rashness unsur- 
passed by Charles XII. of Sweden, John Sobieski of Poland, or any other general 
of Christendom ; and the result is that this day there is an empire whose power is 
felt by popery. But the land was dyed in blood ! and the blood of Prussia was 
profusely mingled with the blood of France, Austria, Saxony, Poland, and Kussia. 

The armies of Frederick's enemies, on foot and preparing to march against 
him, A. D. 1757, were estimated to exceed seven hundred thousand men ; while 
his forces, with his English allies, were but little more than two hundred and 
thirty three thousand. He won the battle of Prague, but twelve thousand five 
hundred Prussians lay dead or wounded on the battle field. His English and 
Hanoverian allies were rendered inactive by a capitulation, but Frederick's victory 
at Possback restored them to action. On the plain of Lissa the Austrians lost 
seven thousand four hundred killed and wounded, and the Prussian loss was 
five thousand. 

Mr. Pitt, prime minister of England, said : The American French colonies 
were to be conquered in Germany. Money was supplied by England, and an 
army was sent into Germany. In A. 1). 1758 Ferdinand, duke of Brunswick, 
commanded the English and Hanoverian arms in Germany, and drove the French 
beyond the Rhine in three months. The Russians were ravaging the province 
of Brandenburg, sparing neither age nor sex. Frederick, with thirty thou- 
sand, encountered the Russians, fifty thousand strong; and nineteen thousand 
Russians and eleven thousand Prussians lay dead or wounded on the battle 
field. At Hunersdorf, A. D. 1759, the Russians and Austrians were ninety-six 
thousand men, defended by strong entrenchments, and the Prussians forty-eight 
thousand ; eighteen thousand Prussians were killed or wounded, and nearly six- 
teen thousand Russians and Austrians met the same fate. Surrounded by 
Austrians in the defiles of Bohemia, out of fourteen thousand Prussians eleven 
thousand were killed or wounded. Surrounded, A. D. 1760, by one hundred 
and seventy thousand Russians and Austrians, Frederick outgeneraled them and 
cut to pieces one division ; attacked the entrenched camp of Marshal Daun, 
determined to end the war or perish with his whole army, and fought the 
bloodiest battle of the war. He recovered all Saxony but Dresden and com- 
pelled the Russians, Swedes, and Austrians to evacuate the Prussian dominions. 
Ferdinand, of Brunswick, attacked the French seventy thousand strong and 
obtained a complete victory, and thus saved the English Hanoverian dominions. 
The French fleets were destroyed ; they were deprived of all their settlements on 
the coast of Africa; lost Fort Duquesne, Louisburg, and Canada; while the 
English gained the preponderance in India, A. D. 1758-9. 

In A. D. 1760 France and Spain formed the family compact. Spain lost 
Cuba and Manilla to the English ; the French were divested of all their pos- 
sessions in the East Indies ; Belle Isle was captured, and Martinico, Guadaloupe, 
and other West India islands were added to the list of British conquests. Peace 
was concluded A. D. 1763. England retained Canada, Cape Breton, and New- 
foundland in America. In six years of alliance with Austria, France lost more 
men and money than in all her wars with that empire. Prussia retained Silesia, 
but all other conquests and prisoners were mutually restored by both parties. ^ 
In Europe the belligerants ended where they begun, and got nothing but to 
drink blood. But Protestantism gained an ascendency over popery. Prussia 
became a rival power to Austria; France lost her ascendency; England gained 
supremacy on the seas, and got possession of the Indies and of the North 
American colonies ; Russia has got another good schooling in the art of war and 
is becoming a power that may directly or indirectly deliver the Greek church 
from subjugation to Mahometan despotism. What Protestantism lost in the 
decline of Holland it gained in the rise of England. 

(2) Will. 423-33. 



CHAPTER CLXII. : SECTION VIII. 861 

8. Rise of the United States. — After repairing the ravages and desolations 
of war, Prussia became mighty on the continent. In A. D. 1768 Russia gave 
Turkey a series of defeats and took Moldavia and Wallacia, and was desirous to 
keep them; but Austria, fearing the preponderance of Russia, opposed it. To 
settle the difficulty papal Poland, which had designed to dismember Prussia, was 
parted between Greek, Russia, Protestant Prussia, and papal Austria. ^ England, 
with her growing colonies, might think to give civil and religious laws and 
influences to the world. Freed from French intrigues among the Indians, and 
French power on the seaboard, the American colonies may grow into nations 
and subdue all the western continent, and the East Indies may rule all Asia; and 
thus England may become mistress of the world, and her state-church may 
become the Rome, Constantinople, or Mecca of Protestantism. But such was 
not the decree of Heaven. He that wears a robe dipped in blood and has many 
crowns on His head, and engraved on the armor of His thighs has the titles, 
Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, has decreed that the New World shall have 
new laws and a religion untrammeled by state governments, and a new flag the 
nations never saw must float to the breeze in every port under Heaven, 

England undertook to rule her American colonies as a despot would rule his 
vassals. The colonies demanded representation in their government. With all 
her toleration, England holds truth and freedom in subordination to the will of 
the sovereign. The sovereign may change, persecution may follow, and truth 
and freedom may be lost. But truth and freedom must be supreme ; princes 
and prelates must be in subordination to them. But Satan never yields a posi- 
tion or territory without a war. War ensues; the colonies declare themselves 
free and independent sovereignties; the enemies of England become friends to 
the United States, not because they loved truth and freedom, but because they 
hated that English supremacy which she wrested from their hands. England 
planted these colonies and gave them charters, securing liberty of conscience and 
representation in government. The soil was new and these principles took deep 
root and outgrew any plants in the royal gardens. England was astonished at 
the development and changed her policy; but too late. The King anointed over 
the holy hill of Zion, having all power in Heaven and earth, had ordered the 
planting and given the growth; and man can not reverse the order. France 
gave material aid, Spain gave secret favor, and the war cloud rolled back to 
Europe and over to India. 

Holland was forming a commercial treaty with the united estates, now 
become sovereign states, when England declared and commenced war upon her 
shipping and settlements. In the United States of North America blood was 
shed, sufi'erings endured, and property destroyed, which appeared great to these 
weak colonies in this wilderness, but are unnoticeable compared with the blood 
and carnages in the Old World. A. D. 1776 gave the Declaration of Independ- 
ence to the world of a new nation on a new basis — a national government without 
a state religion, and yet the most religious people in the world. The war in 
America was soon ended, 1781, but the war between England and her European 
enemies continued and much destruction of property was effected at Gibralter. 
Minorca surrendered to the Spanish, and the British settlements in the East 
Indies suffered. In A. D. 1783 peace was concluded. The independent nation- 
ality of the United States was acknowledged by Great Britain. France restored 
to Great Britain all conquests in the West Indies made during the war, excepting 
Tobago. England surrendered to France St. Lucia. On the coast of Africa, the 
Senegal settlements were ceded to France, and those on the Gambia to England. 
In the East Indies, France recovered all places lost in the war and others of 
importance. Spain retained Minorca, West Florida, and received East Florida 
for the Bahamas. The expense of blood and treasures in this war cost England 



(3) Will. 433-4. 



862 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

enormously; nor did her European antagonists suffer mucli less severely, and the 
United States was the only country that could claim any beneficial results.* But 
revolutions did not stop here. Hostility to English supremacy had caused mon- 
archial power in Europe to encourage republican principles in America to their 
final triumph, and those principles of freedom were borne back to the Old World 
and shook the nations and convulsed France. "^^ 

9. Streams of Blood in France. — In France the principles of freedom were 
united with principles of infidelity and insatiable licentiousness, and hurried for- 
ward the French revolution. Though French blood and treasures had been pro- 
fusely expended in other countries, yet her own rivers and fountains had not been 
turned into blood since they flowed with the blood of Albigenses and Huguenots. 
The nobility, courtiers, and state clergy opposed any sacrifice on their part that 
was required by wholesome reformation till revolution or ruin was inevitable. 
The court threw itself upon the representatives of the whole people, hoping they 
would defend the throne against the nobility and clergy. Reforms were pro- 
posed and discussed. The clergy held one-third of the lands, the nobility 
another third, and the remaining third was burdened with all the expenses of gov- 
ernment. In elections the nobility chose those attached to their interest; the 
clergy chose those who would uphold Catholic hierarchy, but somewhat inclined 
to political freedom, and the commons chose firm republicans ardently desirous of 
extending the power and influence to the people. The court, the nobility, and 
the clergy united, but in the assembly they were lost in the overwhelming 
majority of the people. Mutiny, revolts, and mobocracy ensued. The peasantry 
of the provinces followed the rabble of the capital, regiments of the line declared 
for the people, nobles were expelled or massacred, and much of their property 
was burned. The aristocracy and clergy descended to a level with the peasantry, 
the privileged classes were swept away, and France was changed. Mobs ruled 
the nation and governed the throne. The Jacobin club acquired power, fomented 
sedition and anarchy, overturned the government, and sent forth the sanguinary 
despots who established the reign of terror. 

About seventy thousand nobility abandoned their country, resolved to seek 
the restoration of the old government by foreign intervention. They attempted 
to stir up rebellion in the provinces and solicited the king to sanction their plans 
and join their armaments. In attempting to escape, Louis XYI. and family were 
captured and brought back as prisoners. The government fell into the hands of 
the constitutionalists and republicans. The jacobins were anarchists, without 
any principle or attachment to any particular form of government, but they 
acquired a preponderance that bore down all opposition. To put down the rebel- 
lion and restore the king to his rights and throne, the king of Prussia and 
emperor of Austria entered the French territories with one hundred and forty 
thousand men under the duke of Brunswick. France was aroused in every part 
to resistance, and the court was accused of leaguing with the enemy. The 
Jacobins extended their network over the whole kingdom ; prisons were filled 
with victims; forced loans were exacted with rigor; the guillotine was put in 
requsition to do the work of death, and the power of death was relentlessly 
wielded by a combination of monsters. In A. D. 1792, the prisons being full, 
■Q^ve thousand persons were massacred in five days. The king was executed A. D. 
1793, and nearly all who voted his death were themselves executed on the scaf- 
fold afterward. ^ 

The invading armies of Prussia and Austria were repulsed, and the French 

crossed the Belgian frontier and gained, by battle, possession of all the Austrian 

•Netherlands; but England and Prussia combined to check the French progress 

in Holland. ^ While France was drenched in the blood of her own citizens, the 

invasion on the north had been defeated and driven back from the Rhine, the 

(4) Will. 433-4. (*) Continued from Chap 169. (5) Will. 445-7. §§ 1-27. (6) Idm., §§ 22, 29. 



CHAPTER CLXII. I SECTION IX. 863 

Spaniards had recrossed the Pyrenees, the English had retired from Toulon, and 
the revolt of La Yende had been extinguished, while an army of one million 
stood ready to enforce and defend the principles of the revolution against all the 
crowned heads of Europe. '^ 

The fall of Danton and his associates, A. D. 1794, was followed by the 
unqualified submission of every part of France to the central power. The higher 
orders of opposers first, and then the middling classes had been cut off, and yet 
no limit appearing to the onward course, humanity began to revolt at the cease- 
less flow of human blood and courage arose out of despair. In the convention 
itself, long stupefied by terror, a conspiracy arose against the tyrant Robespierre, 
who, with twenty of his associates, perished on the scaffold, and next day sixty 
members of the municipality of Paris met the same fate. Thus terminated the 
reign of terror that had overturned the throne and the altar, had driven the nobles 
of France into exile and her priests into captivity, and had shed the blood of 
more than one million of her citizens. 

France had become a military camp of one million two hundred thousand 
men. Of these, seven hundred thousand were ready for offensive war, and all 
the monarchies of Europe could not equal it. France was irresistible on the land, 
and England, at the head of the allies, was mistress of the seas. At the begin- 
ning of A. D. 1793 the allies were pressing heavily on all the frontiers. At the 
close of it the Spaniards, being defeated, were suing for peace. The Italians, 
driven over the Alps, were trembling for the fate of their own country. The 
allied forces had everywhere recrossed the Rhine. Holland had been revolu- 
tionized and subdued, and the English troops had returned home, or had fled for 
refuge into the states of Hanover. '^ Thus, we^have seen the fountains and rivers, 
or tributaries, of the papal empire have been turned into blood, and though 
neither the ecclesiastical nor civil policy of these state church sovereignties were 
destroyed, but still survived and were strong, yet the princes, prelates, and citi- 
zens had blood to drink. Their national interests and antipathies were increased, 
and their combination in the restoration of the holy Roman empire is hopeless. 
Why should these nations, having reformed their religion, have blood to drink ? 
They profess to be Christian establishments and yet shed the blood of one 
another. They have shed the blood of saints and prophets to prevent schism. 
They show that they are not constituents of the true kingdom of God, and Christ 
shows they are not under His peculiar favor and protection, nor has He delegated 
His power to them. They shed the blood of Christ's witnesses. Christ gives 
them up to discord, and they slaughter one another. Such is the justice and 
equity of God in all His judgments. So said the angel before the altar, where 
the prayers of the saints ascend with the sweet incense. 



(7) Will. 448, §§ 37-41. 



CHAPTER CLXIII. 



THE FOUKTH YIAL OF WEATH; OR, SCORCHING TYRANNY. 

A. M. 5799-5819. 



1. General Yiew According to Divine Programme. — The fourth angel 
poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given unto him to scorch the men 
with fire, and the men were scorched with great scorching; and thej blasphemed 
the name of God, who had power over these plagues, and they repented not to 
give Him glory. ^ The period of the French revolution, of not more than twenty- 
live years, contains more lessons of important instruction than the two preceding 
centuries. In that time the condition of Europe was entirely changed. The 
political system, which had cost the combined labor of three hundred years to 
rear, was overturned from its basis, burying kingdoms and whole nations in its 
ruins. Virtues and vices were displayed, extremes of suffering and violence, of 
meanness and magnanimity, were exhibited. Kingdoms rose and disappeared by 
turns. Europe was subdued and enslaved in the name of liberty and equality 
first, and afterward to gratify the ambition of one man. 

The system of political equilibrium invented in the fifteenth century and 
established by the treaties of Westphalia, was totally overthrown by France. 
Three despotic powers dismembered Poland for their own convenience and 
aggrandizement. Napoleon dismembered and disposed of kingdoms as he 
pleased ; founded a universal monarchy under a new form, called it the federative 
system, and ruled it at his will. ^ If the sea represents the papal empire, and the 
fountains and rivers represent its tributaries, then the sun may represent the 
imperial power so much venerated by the men in it — princes, nobles, and clergy. 
As the sun is the largest luminary in the heavens, and was worshiped by Poly- 
theists as the supreme god, so it may represent the greatest power in the holy 
Roman empire; and this power did scorch the men who worshiped concentrated 
ecclesiastical and political power. The king of Persia reckoned himself a sun, 
and complimented the Roman emperor as another. But, in more ancient times, 
Alexander told Darius that the earth could not have two suns at one time;^ and 
Napoleon, the Frank-Roman emperor, shined among the sovereigns of his day as 
the sun among the luminaries of the sky. The psalmist said: The sun was 
created to rule the day, and the moon and stars to rule the night. - So, in a 
divine programme the sun may represent a supreme ruling power or person, as 
well as the chief source of light and heat. But, we may not restrict this emblem 
of supreme power to one person, and, as in in other divine programmes, this 
despotic power may be exercised by two, three, or more. Thus, Russia, Prussia, 
and Austria disposed of Poland without regard to emperor, pope, or state system. 

2. French Despotism. — The pope himself was scorched. Bonaparte invaded 
the ecclesiastical states, and the pope renounced Avingnon and the Yenaissin, 

■ and ceded Ferrara, Bologna, and Romagna. ^ Pius YI. protested against the 
spoilation of the church in the union of Avingnon and the county of Yenaissin to 



(8) Rev. 16:18, 19. (9) Rev. Eurp., Vol. II., 140-1. (1) Gbn., Vol. IL, chap. 7, p. 113. RoU., 
Vol. Y., p. 84. (2) Ps. 136:7-9. (3) Rev. Eurp. 2; 163-4. 



CHAPTER CLXIII. : SECTION III. 865 

the Roman republic, A. D. 1Y91, and was treated as an enemy. The truce of 
Bologna, A. J). 1796, cost him twenty million francs and many of the finest 
specimens of art. He set on foot an army of forty-five thousand men ; but Bona- 
parte compelled him to the peace of Tolentina, to pay fifteen million francs more, 
to cede the three legantines of Bologna, Ferrara, and Romagna, to renounce 
Avingnon and Yenaissin, A. D. 1797, and the Roman republic was proclaimed, 
A. D. 1798. ^ Bonaparte annexed the states of the pope to the French empire 
and declared Rome a free imperial city. The pope thundered a bull against 
Bonaparte and his adherents, counselors, and coadjutors. The pope was more 
closely imprisoned and was removed from Rome to Savona for three years. ^ In 
A. D. 1796 Rome had been pillaged by the French. Priestly robes were burned 
for the gold in their embroidery. Palaces and churches were ransacked and their 
treasures of art carried away or destroyed.^ The clergy were scorched. 

France and Austria disposed of the Yenitian territory; traded around coun- 
tries and provinces in a perfectly despotic manner, and indemnified themselves, 
or paid the boot to each other, out of the pockets or possessions of other sover- 
eignties, A. D. 1797. Napoleon overturned the Yenitian republic and occupied 
the city with his troops ; united the provinces ceded by Austria into the Cisalpine 
republic on the model of the French republic, and obliged the Genoese to change 
their government into the Ligurian republic. Kapoleon dictated the conditions 
to Austria. Austria accepted the trade, and the other nations had to grant the 
indemnity. '^ 

France desired the left bank of the Rhine, and promised indemnity to those 
German princes who should be dispossessed ; but this indemnity must be got in 
Germany, but not in Bavarian nor Austrian possessions, although Austria, supported 
by Russia, desired the dismemberment of Bavaria. France anticipated a strict 
alliance with Russia, and expected to dictate its own conditions of peace. ^ War 
became inevitable in consequence of the numerous aggressions committed in 
different countries by the executive directory of France. The Cisalpine republic 
was obliged to accept a treaty of alliance with France, which was a treaty of subju- 
gation, and had to support twenty-five thousand French troops at an expense of 
eighteen million francs per annum. The directory excited a revolution in 
Switzerland, and under pretense of an invitation from one party sent troops and 
overturned the government, and then established the Helvitic republic, entirely 
subject to their own authority. Bonaparte got possession of Malta by some rebel 
knights, and, though at peace with the porte, he undertook the conquest of Egypt. 
Charles Emanuel lY., of Sardinia, insulted in every way by French generals and 
the Cisalpine and Ligurian republics, obtained French protection on condition of 
an alliance offensive and defensive and a surrender of the citadel of his capital, 
A. D. 1797. ^ Thus, princes and nobles were scorched. 

3. Tyrants Combine to Resist Tyranny. — A second combination against 
Catholic France was formed by Protestant England, Greek-church Russia, 
Mahometan Turkey, Catholic Austria, and the two Sicilies. Thus, the four great 
Monotheistic religions leagued in war and showed they were not the peaceful 
kingdom of Jesus Christ, and mutual confidence could not be obtained among 
those in the league. By a stretch of arbitrary power the directory prevented a 
reactionary revolution in France and annulled the elections of A. D. 1798, and 
introduced the military conscription, which was a scorching expedient. The king 
of the Sicilies expelled the French from Rome, but being defeated afterward took 
shelter in Sicily. Naples fell into the hands of the French, and the Parthenopean 
republic was proclaimed. ^ The French directory made the war with the Sicilies 
a pretext to declare war with Sardinia, which was in alliance with France. The 
king was compelled to renounce the exercise of all power and to command his 



(4) Rev. Eurp. 186. (5) 231. (6) Thai. 369. 871, (7) Rev. Eurp. 2; 164. (8) Idm. 165-^6, 
(9) 166-7. (1) Rev. Eurp., Vol. II., pp. 167-8. 
—55 



S66 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEYELOPED. 

subjects to obey the provisional government to be established by France. The 
congress at Kastadt was dissolved by Count Metternich and its decisions annulled. ^ 

The Russian army under Suwarow arrived in Italy. The French were driven 
out of Italy by the allies, excepting in Genoa, and the Roman and Parthenopean 
republics fell to pieces. Prince Korsakoff arrived in Switzerland. Desperate 
battles were fought. The allies were generally successful, and in Germany the 
French were forced back upon the Rhine. ^ During the French reverses in Europe 
Bonaparte had subdued the greater part of Egypt, but learning from some papers 
the state of things at home he returned secretly and found France about ready for 
a new revolution. Bonaparte seized the reins of government with a firm hand, 
and by decrees organized the most complete despotism, quashed insurrection, 
made peace, and restored the Catholic religion, A. D. 1801 ;4 but he appointed 
the archbishops, and indemnified princes out of the territories of the church. All 
former sees in France were suppressed. In Germany two ecclesiastical electorates 
disappeared. A third was transferred. An archbishopric was made an electorate 
and bestowed upon, or traded to, Ferdinand for the grand duchy of Tuscany. ^ 
Prelates as well as princes and nobles were scorched. 

The czar of Russia, attributing the bad success of his arms to the allies them- 
selves, had withdrawn from the coalition; but Pitt, prime minister of England, 
was determined to overthrow the revolutionary despotism of France. War was 
recommenced by Austria in Italy. But Bonaparte took the whole of Lombardy, 
and after more defeats Austria made peace without consulting England, and yielded 
to the despotic demands of Napoleon the Belgic provinces and other counties. The 
boundary line between Austria and the Cisalpine republic was traced. Dukedoms 
were taken by Bonaparte and indemnity promised out of Germany. All the left 
bank of the Rhine was given to France, and the despoiled princes were promised 
compensation out of the German empire ; and, lastly, the Germanic body should 
ratify the peace within thirty days, which was the percursor of its annihilation. 
Ferdinand lY., king of Kaples, was despoiled of territory by treaty of peace or 
forced to trade. Portugal concluded a peace with France for fear of invasion, 
and shut her ports against England. ^ 

4. Despots Unite to Tyrannize. — France and Russia formed a mutual 
agreement to regulate the sovereignties of Europe and the indemnification out of 
the German empire for those princes despoiled in the despotic disposition of 
countries, provinces, and cities. When Pitt quit the English ministry, England, 
France, and Russia, made their own regulations about the nations. ^ Thus France, 
Russia, and England held the destinies of the nations in their hands, and all 
despoliations and indemnifications must be at the expense of others, who must 
work, fight, and make peace at the option of these tyrants. England was despotic 
on the seas. At one time she holds sacred the principles of free commerce for 
neutral states because such was her interest ; but when supreme on water she is 
silent on that subject in her treaties with neutral powers,^ and invaded Denmark 
and Sweden without provocation. England and Russia established t^a-annical 
laws on the seas. ^ Russia was supreme in her own northern regions, and dictated 
policy in a peremptory manner to Denmark and Sweden. ^ France ruled the 
papal and German domains. The Netherlands, a flourishing portion of Germany, 
Geneva, Savoy, and Piedmont were incorporated with her territories. The Dutch 
and Cisalpine states had bowed their necks to the yoke of the first consul. The 
Swiss, enslaved by the directory, had not recovered their ancient independence. 
Tuscany and the Ligurian republic dare not dispute the will of the conqueror. 
Spain was reduced to a state of subservient and degraded alliance with France, 
and England had ruined her maritime power. Russia and the porte, as French 
allies, waged war with her. Portugal, by treaty with France, had to shut her 
ports against England and cede places to Spain. ^ 



(2) Rev. Eurp. 169 (3) Will., p. 473. (4) Rev. Eurp. 170-3. (5) Thai. 378-9. (6) Rev. Eurp. 
2; 173-7, 179. (7) 177. (8) Rev. Eurp. 2; 178. (9) Idm. 183, 197. (1) 182. (2) 179. 



CHAPTER CLXIII. I SECTION IV. 867 

Holland was ruined by her two parties. On enterance of the French army 
the patriots, or middle class, gained the ascendency, abolished the Stadtholder- 
ship, became an ally to France, and ruined their country, which became reduced 
to the condition of a neglected province of France called the Batavian Republic. 
The English, espousing the Stadtholdership's party, stripped the republic of its 
colonies, destroyed its marine, and annihilated its commerce, A. JD. 1795-7.* 
Intrigue, two parties, fire and sword enabled France to subjugate Switzerland 
and to compel her to renounce her independence and neutrality.^ Excepting a 
part of the Yenitian territory united to Austria, all of Italy had been yielded to 
the dominion of France at the time of the peace of Amiens, A. D. 1792. The 
king of the two Sicilies — l^aples and Sicily — alone had still maintained a sort of 
independence, but in A. D. 1792 he was obliged to acknowledge that first of all 
sovereigns — the French republic. ^ The sovereignty of Sardinia was undermined 
by revolutionary principles, and Piedmont was annexed to France. The Cis- 
alpine republic (composed of Austrian Lombardy except Mantua, which was 
added afterwards ; the dutchy of Modena, three legatines from the pope. Pious 
YI.; part of the Yenitian territory, with additions of Yatetine, Chiavenna, and 
Bormia from the Grisons of Switzerland; Novarese, and the country beyond 
the Sesia from the Piedmontese) was wholly at the disposal of France. The 
victories of the Russians and allies, under Suwarow, put an end to this for a time; 
but after the battle of Marengo this state of things was restored. 

The republic of Genoa was compelled, by innovations at home and threat- 
enings from England and France, to accept a constitution from the hand of 
Bonaparte, A. D. 1797; paid large sums of money, and with additions to its terri- 
tory was called the Ligurian Republic. The grand duke of Tuscany was deprived 
of his estates, which were given by Bonaparte to the prince of Parma. ^ And 
Naples was subjugated and had to receive sixteen thousand French troops.'" 
Russia and Turkey created the independent republic of the seven islands, A. D. 
1800, and it was acknowledged by France and England. ^ Germany had been 
divided into two parts at the peace of Basle — the north, under Prussia, and the 
south, under Austria. Disaifection between Prussia and Austria was dexterously 
turned by France to her own account, and Alexander, 'of Russia, could not 
reconcile them. Prussia had to cede the left bank of the Rhine to France, but 
was promised full compensation, A. D. 1796 ; and the provinces on the left bank 
of the Rhine were incorporated with France, and the downfall of the German 
empire was approaching. Russia wished to engage the Poles in an alliance 
against the Turks, but was disappointed by Prussia instigating them against 
Russia in consequence of engagements with England. Poland was conquered, 
and Russia dictated the peace of A. D. 1792. ^ 

Again Russian, and also Prussian troops spread over Poland, and she was 
forced to yield up the provinces seized by them.^ Insurrection took place; 
Austria joined the coalition and sent an army; Poland was conquered and divided 
between Russia, Prussia, and Austria, and ceased to exist, A. D. 1794. ^ The 
condition of the papal, or holy Roman, empire depended on three despotic 
powers — France, England, and Russia. Power was concentrated into their hands 
and they used it upon all inferior authorities, whether princes, nobles, or pre- 
lates. Of these despots France was the greatest luminary and scorched wherever 
she touched, and her whole power became concentrated in Napoleon Bonaparte. 
Bonaparte's object was to secure to himself the empire of the world and make 
the monarchal government hereditary in his family. He intended to extend the 
boundary of France and surround it with petty monarchies that must stand or fall 
with his own dynasty. ^ He remodeled the governments of the annexed coun- 
tries to his monarchal idea and ruled France itself with a despotic hand. In 
concert with Alexander, czar of Russia, Napoleon was the principal arbiter for 

(3) Rev. Eurp. 183. (4) 184. (5) 2; 186. (6) 184-6. (7.) 186-7. (8) 187. (9) 2; 188. (1) 189^ 
yi. (^j lyo-'O. (o) i9o. 



868 THE KINQDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

indemnifying the despoiled princes of the Rhine ;4 and the German empire had 
the mortification of seeing its interests regulated by two foreign powers, and did 
not even protest against this violation of its territory. ^ 

Bonaparte attached himself to the Jacobine party in France and was pro- 
claimed emperor by the senate, and the dignity was made hereditary in his family. 
The pope was invited to Paris to crown him. The ceremony was performed in the 
chm'ch of Notre Dame, A. D. 1804. Napoleon pat the crown on his own, and 
then on the head of his spouse.^ Pope Pius YII. made the journey to Paris in 
order to bless the coronation of the new Caesar, who had fixed the seat of his 
universal monarchy on the Seine instead of the Tiber. It was, in truth, a second 
though brief revival of the western empire, against which the obsolete pretentions 
of the Hapsburgs availed no more than had those of the Byzantine Caesars 
against the first Prankish emperor. Napoleon constantly maintained the parallel 
between himself and Charlemagne,'^ A. D. 1804. The Cisalpine republic was 
transformed into the kingdom of Italy. Bonaparte was proclaimed king of Italy 
by a decree of the estates of the Italian, or Cisalpine, republic. He repaired to 
Milan and was crowned with the iron crown of Charlemagne, which belonged to 
the emperors of Germany, who were thereby constituted kings of Italy. ^ This 
crown was the true emblem of the papal empire. It was first given by Pope 
Gregory I. to Theodolinda, queen of the Lombards, as a reward for converting 
her husband from the Arian heresy to the Catholic religion ; and it is said to 
have been forged from one of the nails of the true cross. ^ 

Napoleon placed this crown on his head with his own hands, saying: God 
has given it to me; beware of touching it. ^ A. D. 1805. Napoleon had restored 
the Catholic religion which had been abolished by the revolution in France ;2 
and hence the Bonaparte djniasty, though short, was the seventh dynasty crowned 
with the iron crown of Charlemagne as kings of Italy. Though Bonaparte was 
crowned at Paris by the sanction and blessing of the pope as emperor of the new 
universal French empire, he was not crowned at Rome with the golden crown of 
the Roman empire. However, the council of Constans decided that the German 
emperor was the Roman emperor by virtue of his election, without being crowned 
at Rome by the pope,* and none of the Hapsburg dynasty was so crowned but 
Charles Y., and none of the German emperors were crowned emperors of 
Germany by the pope. Hence, we conclude the Bonaparte dynasty was the legit- 
imate seventh head of the papal beast, or of the holy Roman empire. Such he 
was in fact, and ruled it for a time with a scepter of iron. Eugene Beauharnis, 
son of the Empress Josephine, was his viceroy. The Ligurian republic was 
united to the French empire; the republic of Lucca was erected into a principality 
with a new constitution and a prince of the Bonaparte family; and the states of 
Parma were organized according to the French system. ^ Nopoleon conferred 
the title. King of Rome, upon his son, annexed the papal states to his dominion, 
and revoked the donations of his predecessors, the Frank emperors.^ 

5. Despots Scorch One Another and Their Own Dependents. — Bonaparte 
annulled the capitulation of Suhlingen and took Hanover, and England block- 
aded the mouths of the Elbe and Weser rivers. Holland had maintained thirty- 
four thousand French and Batavian troops ; furnished five war ships, five frig- 
ates, transports and sloops of war for sixty-one thousand men and four thousand 
horses. Naples was reoccupied by the French, in pretext of war with England, 
A. D. 1803. Spain thought to purchase neutrality, but was dragged into the 
war. Portugal did purchase neutrality.^ Thus, the minor sovereignties suffer 
in the wars between France and England for universal supremacy. Alexander, 
czar of Russia, demanded that the French troops be withdrawn from Naples; that 
Russia should be consulted in Italian affairs; that the king of Sardinia should be 



(4) Rev. Eurp. 202. (5) 203-4. (6) 2; 205. 207. (7) Thai., p. 380, § 61. (8j Rev. Eurp. 2; 
208. (9) Thai. 24, § 22. (1) Will. p. 484. (2) Rev. Eurp. 2j 200. (8) 2; 208-9. (4) Thai. 380, 
§ 61 and note. (5) Rev. Eurp. 2; 204-5. 



CHAI»TER CLXlli.: SECTION V. 869 

indemnified and Hanover be evacuated; and formed a treaty with Prussia and 
Austria to raise three hundred and fifty thousand men and set bounds to Bona- 
parte's ambition. ^ 

William Pitt, being restored to the British ministry, conceived the idea of a 
European league for wresting Bonaparte's conquests from him and reducing 
France to her ancient limits, and war was resolved on, headed by England and 
Russia. '^ Several divisions of Austrians were obliged to lay down their arms, 
and General Mack surrendered his army of twenty-five thousand men to the 
French and Bavarians. The battle of Austerlitz, which Bonaparte fought with 
the combined army of Austrians and Russians, decided the campaign in his 
favor. Vienna, the capital of Austria, fell into the hands of Bonaparte, who 
dictated the armistice A. D. 1805. ^ Austria acknowledged all the claims of 
Bonaparte, and ceded to him the ancient states of Venice, with Dalmatia and 
Albania, to be attached to his kingdom of Italy ; and to his allies, the elector of 
Baden and new king of Bavaria and Wurtemburg, the Tyrol and all her heredi- 
tary possessions in Swabia, and engaged to send back the Russian army and to 
quell the insurrection in Hungary. ^ 

The French fleet set out to levy contributions on English possessions, but 
the combined French and Spanish fleets were ruined off Cape Trafalgar by the 
English fleet under Nelson, and left England secure in command of the sea, 
A. D. 1805. The Russian and English troops landed in Naples and were 
received as friends by the Bourbon king. Napoleon declared the Bourbon dynasty 
ended in Naples. Ferdinand IV. embarked for Sicily, when the Russians and 
English abandoned Italy and the French army appeared, and Joseph Bonaparte 
was created king of the two Sicily s, or Naples and Sicily, A. D. 1806. ^ Bona- 
parte adopted his stepson, Eugene Beauharnis, and declared him his successor in 
the kingdom of Italy, but reserved to himself the right of determining the com- 
mon tie which was to unite all the states composing the federative system of the 
French empire. He declared the whole peninsula of Italy to be part of the grand 
empire, and established, by a constitutional statute in the French empire, an 
absolute supremacy over all the sovereigns of the imperial family. He created 
duchies out of ceded and wrested territories and bestowed them on his relations 
and favorites, to be held as hereditary fifes of the empire. The continuation of 
the history of Bonaparte presents a series of new usurpations and aggressions, 
disregard to treaties and despotic dispositions of whatever countries he could 
seize and control. Louis Bonaparte was created hereditary and constitutional 
king of Holland, the title to descend to his male issue. ^ 

Again, Alexander of Russia and Napoleon of France attempted to regulate 
the destiny of the holy Roman empire, but could not agree; and it was evident, 
as Alexander said to Darius, the world will not permit two suns nor two sover- 
eigns. ^ The confederation of the Rhine, which entirely changed the state of 
Germany and gave the last death blow to the German empire and German head- 
ship of the papal, or holy Roman, empire, was concluded at Paris, A. D. 1806, 
between Bonaparte and sixteen of the German princes. The declaration of the 
French ambassador and of the confederate estates, remitted on the same day to 
the diet at Ratisbon, intimated to that assembly that the German empire had 
ceased to exist. Frances II. of Austria, the German emperor, resigned the 
crown, as he was no longer able to fulfill the duties nor exercise the prerogatives 
attached to it. ^ The French ambassador at Ratisbon notified the diet that his 
master, having accepted the protectorate of the confederation, no longer recog- 
nized the existence of the empire. Frances II. retained his herditary crown of 
Austria, but resigned the elective crown of Germany and of the holy Roman 
empire. This placed at Napoleon's immediate disposal an army of seventy-five 



(6) Rev. Eurp. 2; 207-8. (7)209-10. (8) Will. 485. (9) Rev. Eurp. 2; 211-12. (1)2; 213-14. 
(2) Idm. 214-15. (3) Roll., Vol. V., p. 84. (4) Rev. Eurp. 2; 216-17. 



StO THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOI*ED. 

thousand men, and by the enlargement of the confederation it was increased to 
one hundred and twenty thousand, ^ and the population of the grand empire was 
increased by sixteen millions. ^ 

This transaction had been kept secret from Prussia, which was now invited 
by Bonaparte to form a similar confederation in the north of Germany; but, at 
the same time Napoleon had privately negotiated with the electors of Hesse and 
Saxony to prevent them from uniting, and declared that the cities of Bremen, 
Hamburg, and Lubec should not become parties to it. In negotiations with Eng- 
land he proposed to indemnify, with these three cities, the king of the Sicilys, 
and he offered to England the electorate of Hanover, which he had forced upon 
Prussia, as an indemnity for spoliations upon the Rhine; and he offered to the 
elector of Hesse what he had given to the house of Orange. 

Prussia, discovering the deception of Napoleon, made a last demand of 
France. Napoleon treated these demands as extravagant and insulting, and com- 
menced hostilities. Prussia was unprepared and the French troops were already 
in the heart of Germany. Prussia was vanquished. Berlin, the capital, fell 
into the hands of Napoleon, who played the despot with friends and foes. In 
the armistice Prusia was further despoiled of Breslau, Glo^an, Colberg, Grau- 
dentz, and Dantzic; and the circle of Cotbus, belonging to Prussia, was given to 
the elector of Saxony, who joined the Phinish confederation.'^ A Russian army 
of ninety thousand men arrived in Prussia. Prussia formed an army of forty 
thousand. Several actions took place till the battle of Eylau, where the French 
lost thirty thousand slain and twelve thousand wounded, and the Russians lost 
seventeen thousand. Hostilities were suspended on February 8, A. D. 1807, but 
recommenced in June, when the battle of Friedland decided the campaign. Gen- 
eral Bennengsen defeated the divisions of Lannes and Mortier; but, seeing no 
more of the enemy, the Russians slackened their energy, supposing the battle 
over. But in the evening Bonaparte arrived with the corps of Ney and Victor, 
and taking advantage of the confusion, completely routed the Russians. Kon- 
ingsberg opened her gates to the conquerer; the Russian and Prussian armies 
passed the Niemen, and Bonaparte entered Tilsit. ^ From opposite shores the 
two imperial monarchs met on a raft in the middle of the river Niemen. Napo- 
leon displayed the joys of arbitrary power and unlimited dominion and the 
advantages of a union of counsels and cooperation, so that Alexander was ready 
to form a new alliance. The next day the king of Prussia was present at a second 
interview, and objecting to some parts of the proposed treaty, he was insulted 
with a hint of his being completely conquered and not entitled to consultation. 

Bonaparte demanded of Alexander the dismission of one minister, and of 
the king of Prussia the dismission of another, and was obeyed; and, probably, he 
dictated the whole treaty with Russia. ^ Alexander recognized the three brothers 
of Napoleon : Joseph Bonaparte, as king of the Sicilys: Louis, as king of Hol- 
land; and Jerome, as king of a new kingdom of Westphalia. It had been pro- 
posed in the French cabinet to blot Prussia out of the map of Europe ; but, at 
the intercession of the czar, Frederick William was permitted to retain his crown 
and somewhat more than half of his dominion. ^ Thus, Alexander consented to 
the spoliation of half the estates of Prussia, his ally. The Polish provinces were 
ceded to the king of Saxony, Napoleon's ally, and was called the duchy of War- 
saw. The kingdom of Westphalia — composed mostly of the princes of Prussia, 
with nearly all the estates of the elector of Hesse and of the duke of Brunswick, 
a district of the electorate of Hanover, the principality of Corvey, and the county 
of Rittberg — was bestowed on Jerome Bonaparte. Alexander recognized the 
kings made by Bonaparte, the confederation of the Rhine, and engaged to make 
common cause with Napoleon against England unless she acceded to free com- 
merce on the seas. Napoleon modeled these new acquisitions and gave them 

(5) Thai , p. 382. (6) Will. 485-8. (7) Rev. Eurp. 2; 217-19. (8) Idm. 220-1. (9)221-2. (1) 
Thai., p. 385, § 72. 



OHAPl'ER CLXIli. : SECTION V. 8?1 

constitutions, and, like other possessions taken from Germany, they were gov- 
erned entirely for his interest and disposed of at his convenience. The provinces 
left to Prussia were ruined by Bonaparte, and new sacrifices had to be made.^ 

While the armies of Napoleon were occupied in Prussia, Spain resolved to 
throw off the French yoke. But Charles lY. and his son, Ferdinand, were, by 
Napoleon, compelled to abdicate ; the house of the Bourbons was overthrown, 
and the crown was given to Joseph Bonaparte, king of Naples, and Naples was 
given to Murat for his military services. ^ An insurrection or rebellion caused 
Joseph Bonaparte to abandon Madrid. Napoleon, with an army of one hundred 
and eighty thousand, reinstated Joseph, and the English, under Sir John Moore, 
were driven out. Portugal was divided into three parts and distributed by 
Napoleon; but the prince regent embarked, with all his treasures, for Brazil, 
South America, and there established his throne.^ But though Alexander had, 
at Tilsit, approved the dethronement of the peninsular monarchs, yet England 
espoused their cause and sent a new army under Sir Arthur Wellesley, or Lord 
Wellington. ^ In these wars between France and England other sovereignties were 
scorched by both. England declared that no neutral vessels would be permitted to 
trade with any port belonging to France or her allies, or occupied by their troops, or 
under their dependence. Napoleon ordered the confiscation of all English mer- 
chandise in the Hanseatic towns which had been occupied by his order. England 
prescribed a rigorous blockade of the Elbe and Weser. Napoleon forbade all 
commercial and diplomatic connection between England and the continental 
powers. England declared all ports where the British flag was excluded, and all 
ports belonging to her enemies or their allies, to be under blockade, and all vessels 
trading with them should be examined and pay tribute at British ports. Napoleon 
declared all ships searched by British vessels, or paying any tax whatever to the 
English government, to be denationalized and regarded as English property, and 
to be captured wherever found, and declared the British Isles blockaded by sea 
and land. Pope Pius condemned the exclusion of English commerce from the 
continent and her intercourse with the nations. Rome was occupied and the 
provinces of Urbino, Ancona, Macerata, and Camerion were taken from the states 
of the church and annexed to the kingdom of Italy. Prussia had to pay annually 
one hundred and forty million francs for the evacuation of her provinces. Alex- 
ander got it reduced to one hundred and twenty millions, but Stettin, Custrin, and 
Glogau were retained by the French as security for the payment. ^ Austria was 
about to enter the coalition with Russia and Prussia when the peace of Tilsit was 
made, and from that time prepared secretly for war, to raise herself from that 
abasement into which she was sunk. ^ An interview between the emperors 
Napoleon and Alexander took place at Erfurt, A. D. 1808. The negotiations 
are not known; but from that time friendship subsisted between France and 
Russia for two years. ^ Perhaps Napoleon took all the papal and Protestant coun- 
tries and Alexander took all the Mahometan and Greek-church territories. Russia, 
the only power that could cope with Napoleon on the land, was changed, for a 
time, from a foe to an ally. '^ 

Austria made another desperate effort in war while the best French troops 
were occupied in Spain, A. D. 1809 ; but after great battles she was subdued and 
Napoleon dictated the terms of peace in Yienna, and Austria was compelled to 
cede territory containing three and a half million of inhabitants. ^ Pope Pius YII. 
thundered a bull of excommunication against Napoleon for annexing the papal 
states to the French empire. ^ For this he was conveyed a prisoner to France, 
where he died, A. D. 1814. ^ The pope, the ecclesiastical head, the animating 
soul, and the uniting attraction of the holy Roman empire, was imprisoned and 
dies in France! The house of Austria, the imperial head of this holy empire, is 



(2) Rev. Eurp. 222-3. (3) Idm. 223-4, 226-7, 236. Will. 488, (4) Rev. Eurp. 2; 224-6, 237. 
(5) 2; 227, 237. (6) 225-8. (7) Thai,, p. 385. (8) Rev. Eurp. 2; 229. Will. 490-1. (9) Rev. Eurp. 
2; 231. (1) Will. 491. 



St^ THE EINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOt»Ef>. 

subjugated, despoiled, and forced to resign the Roman and German headships. 
The German empire dissolved and despoiled; Italy annexed to France; France, 
Spain, and Portugal held in the grasp of the Bonapartes ; church and state. Cath- 
olic and Protestant, princes and prelates, were scorched in the fiery glance of 
Napoleon ; but, whether they blasphemed the name of God maliciously, or 
presumptuously denounced curses on their enemies in the name of Father, Son, 
and Holy Spirit, or invoked them, history docs not inform me ; but, judging from 
the character of the men, I suppose they did all three, and we know^the pope did 
curse in the name of the Holy Trinity, but did not repent. 

6. The Sun Scorches as It Declines. — Bonaparte had now arrived at his 
meridian^ and was master of all the crowned heads of Europe ;3 but he must 
decline, though he may scorch till he touches the horizon. Having no children, 
the marriage relation between him and Josephine was dissolved by a decree of 
the senate, with the consent of both parties, and the ecclesiastical court of Paris 
confirmed the divorce. Another decree of the senate, A. D. 1810, conferred on 
the eldest son of the French emperor the title of king of Rome, and ordained 
that the emperor of France should be crowned a second time, at Rome, within 
the first ten years of his reign. Soon after the divorce E^apoleon espoused the 
Archduchess Maria Louise, eldest daughter of the Austrian emperor. Neither 
father nor daughter dared to refuse the demand. ^ The provinces, or territories, 
ceded by Austria, Bonaparte united into a single state, under the name of the 
Illyrian provinces, to be governed by himself without their annexation to France. ^ 
The English possessions in Hanover he ceded to Jerome, king of Westphalia. ^ 
The kingdom of Holland, given to his brother, Louis, he annexed to the French 
empire, A. D. 1810. Some months after he annexed the republic of Yalais, and 
he annexed the Hanseatic countries situated on the coast of the North sea.* The 
produce of the colonies was allowed to be imported on paying tifty per cent, duty 
ad valorem into the treasury; but all English merchandise found in France or her 
dependencies were seized and burned, and France, Switzerland, Italy, and Ger- 
many were covered with bonfires.* 

All the ecclesiastical princes of the German body but one lost all their 
territories and endowments to indemnify despoiled princes or to aggrandize 
favorites. t Holland was ruined by soldiers, revenue officers, inundations, and 
fires. :j: Swiss industry was paralyzed. Italy was oppressed by enormous contri- 
butions and military conscriptions. T[ Austria was reduced to a third-rate kingdom, 
cut off from the seas. || Prussia was despoiled and impoverished, and all Ger- 
many was used up. ' 

In scorching the clergy of the state churches. Napoleon gave freedom of 
conscience to the victims of persecution. When he abolished the inquisition in 
Spain, A. D. 1808, multitudes of victims, found in a most deplorable condition in 
the horrid dungeons, were restored to liberty and homes. ® Napoleon levied 
contributions on the clergy and masters of the inquisition, quartered his soldiers 
upon them, and reduced their images to coin. He imprisoned refractory prelates 
and forced others to do his pleasure. ^ He preserved the religious orders in Spain, 
but restrained the number of monks. Those he thought fit remained in the con- 
vents ; others must secure their existence from the surplus of the convents. He 
provided for the parish priests and abolished the inquisition. ^ 

The only hope of Europe was in Protestant England, fioating on the bosom 
of the ocean, and in Greek-church Russia, safely snowed up in her northern 
regions. In opposing the scorching tyranny of France, England exercised an 
equal despotism. Believing Napoleon, with the connivance of Alexander of 
Russia, intended using the fleets of Denmark and Portugal against her, England 



(2) Rev. Eurp 2; 231. (8) Thai., p. 389, § 83. (4) Thai. 389, § 83. (5) Rev. Eurp. 2; 230. 
(6) Idm. 232. (*) 233. (f) 241. {%) 239. (^T) 240. (||) 245. (7) Idm. 241-4. (8) Dowl. 610. (1) 
Rev. Eurp. 2; 258. (2) Nap. Pen. Wars, p. 104. 



dSAt^feR CLXlll. : SECTION tl* ^73 

sent a powerful squadron against Denmark, A. D. 1807, and demanded the instant 
surrender of the Danish fleet and naval stores, to be held in pledge till the end 
of the war. Upon refusal Copenhagen was bombarded, and the fleet surrendered. 
Denmark resented the insult by joining France. The navy of Portugal escaped 
France by sailing, at the instigation of Britain, to Rio Janeiro, capital of Brazil, 
with the royal family and treasures on board. ^ England took possession of the 
Danish colonies and ruined their commerce.^ Alexander of Russia imperiously 
demanded of Sweden to shut the Baltic against the English. Upon refusal 
Sweden was invaded by Russia. After wars and insurrection Sweden adhered to 
the continental system of Kapoleon, and ceded Finland, East Bothnia, and a part 
of West Bothnia to Russia, made peace with Denmark and France, renounced 
the importation of colonial produce, and was permitted to repossess Pomerania. ^ 

Russia, England, and t'rance intrigued against each other in the Turkish 
divan, ^ but Russia continued growing in extent, power, and importance, and 
England, defended at home by the waters, sent her fleets abroad and transported 
men, money, officers, and supplies to countries bordering on the seas. Portugal 
and Spain were trodden and retrodden by French and English armies, and their 
countries were wasted and their armies exhausted in wars between despotic 
nations contending for empire. ^ The extension of the French empire to the 
Baltic excited the apprehensions of the brother despot of the north, and Alexander 
abandoned the continental system, imported colonial produce, prohibited French 
goods, and secured the cooperation of Sweden by the promise of Norway. 
Formerly the Roman emperors gave and bartered countries ; next, the pope 
would bestow the territories of one prince upon another; then the state system 
determined the partition and augmentation of the nations; but now, for a time, 
these despots take and possess, or trade, the country, provinces, and property of 
sovereignties as suits their own conveniences, and keep the nations in perpetual 
war. Kapoleon raised an army of Ave hundred and eighty-seven thousand men 
out of France and his confederate dependent kingdoms, and annexed provinces 
and marched against Alexander, who had but two hundred and sixty thousand 
men, and many battles were fought. Bonaparte stimulated his troops by recounting 
former victories. The Greek priests passed through the Russian ranks and blessed 
the kneeling soldier and invoked the aid of God in driving the invader out of 
their country. The Russians retreated into their own land, destroying all means 
of subsistence, and their numbers increased daily, while those of the French 
diminished continually. In the battle of Moscow sixty-five thousand Russians, 
French, and allies, were left dead on the battlefield, besides the desolations of 
countries on the route of the campaign, and Moscow was destroyed by fire. 
Bonaparte was forced to retreat, incessantly harassed by the Russians, winter, 
storms, and famine. ^ It is reckoned one hundred and twenty-five thousand of 
Napoleon's army perished in battle, one hundred and thirty-two thousand died of 
fatigue, hunger, and cold, and nearly two hundred thousand were taken prisoners, 
making a loss of four hundred and fifty-seven thousand. ^ The lo.'=s to Russia is 
not known, A. D. 1912. 

Bonaparte returned to Paris, raised a new army of three hundred and fifty 
thousand men, renewed the war, and met the enemy in Saxony. Prussia and 
Sweden had joined the Russians ; battles were fought; Austria abandoned the 
cause of Napoleon and joined the alliance ; more battles were fought ; the Saxons, 
Hanoverians, and Hollanders threw off" the French yoke, A. D. 1813 ; Wellington 
expelled the French out of Spain, A. D. 1814, and crossed into France; Barna- 
dotte, the old companion of Napoleon, now king of Sweden, was marching against 
him with one hundred thousand men, and Murat, of Naples, formed a treaty with 
Austria to expel the French from Italy. 



(3) Will , pp. 487-8. (4) Rev. Eurp 2; 249. (5) Idm. 249-52. (6) Rev. Eurp. 253-8. (7) 2; 
259-60. (8) Idm. 261-4. Will. 495. (9) Will. 498. 



874 tHE atNGbOM OF GOi) l)EVt:LOt»ED. 

The military talents of Napoleon shined with great luster. Many brilliant 
victories were gained, but the allies overwhelmed and outgeneraled him. Paris 
was compelled to capitulate; Napoleon had to abdicate the thrones of France and 
Italy and repair to the island of Elbe, and the allies undertook to restore things 
as they were before the time of Napoleon. Suddenly Napoleon reappears in 
France, A. D. 1815, and in one month was at the summit of power with an army 
of two hundred and twenty thousand veterans. But the battle of Waterloo term- 
inated his career, and he expired an exile on the island of St. Helena ; ^ and one 
million two hundred and sixty thousand men are said to have been sacrificed to 
his relentless ambition, besides the numbers of his enemies who perished in 
battle. 2 Conscriptions, forced loans, confiscations, revenue duties, forced con- 
tributions, spoliations, dismembering and distributing sovereignties, and disposing 
of princes and prelates were infiicted by imperial authority upon the men who 
worshiped the concentration of political and ecclesiastical power. The allies 
now (A. D. 1815) regulated the states and condition of Europe. France was 
narrowed down to about her status in A. D. 1790; condemned to pay the expenses 
of the war and spoliations inflicted on others during the revolution; her frontier 
fortresses were placed in the hands of her enemies; the vast treasures of art, 
trophies of one hundred victories, were restored; her pride was broken, and she, 
too, was scorched. Like the former wars, all suffered; but none were enriched 
by the wars and revolutions. But the German-Koman empire is no more in 
form or fact. 

Scenic representations may begin abruptly and close at once, and every 
scene be distinctly separated and bounded, but in the historical development 
these events may overlap and the division line be hard to determine. The 
French revolution certainly turned the streams of France into blood, but it began 
scorching other nations before Napoleon became the supreme luminary; and the 
streams of Europe continued their bloody flow during his scorching empireship. 
But the peculiarity of the former period was bloodshed without accomplishing 
an object or making any material change. The most singular character of the 
latter was absolute imperial power scorching everything for a time without 
destroying vitality. But the worshipers of ecclesiastical and civil power con- 
centrated in the hands of the civil magistrate found it as intolerable as when in 
the hands of an ecclesiastic despot. Still, the struggle between civil and eccles- 
iastic despots for the supreme power goes on, and they combine to subjugate 
the people. Both dread to see freedom of thought, word, and action, the clear 
development of truth, and the increase of intelligence among the people. 



(1) Will., 498-502, (2) Rev. Eurp. 2; 275*^ 



CHAPTER CLXIV. 



EEPUBLICANISM MAKES PEINCES, NOBLES, AND CLERGY BITE 
THEIR TONGUES AND BLASPHEME. FIFTH YIAL. 

A. M. 5820-5850. 

1. Republicanism and Religious Toleration Developing. — Far removed 
from the despotic control of prince or prelate, truth and freedom had taken deep 
root in the wilds of America and grown into a great tree that cast a shadow on 
every nation in the Old World, and had drawn the attention of all people. In 
America the word of God could be translated into any language; every one might 
read and understand it for himself, believe its teachings and practice its precepts 
without fear or intimidation. In the Constitution of the United States every 
one is secured in his life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and his right to worship 
God according to the dictates of his own conscience; and in the Declaration of 
the National Independence, which is the chief corner-stone of the republic, these 
rights are said to be inalienable. These doctrines must be death to all ecclesi- 
astical and civil tyrants; and wherever they prevail about despotic thrones must 
throw darkness over their dominions, and make princes and prelates, nobles and 
clergy gnaw their tongues for pain. The grievous sore of schism and the divine 
doctrines of truth and freedom will make the men who worship concentrated 
civil and ecclesiastical power blaspheme God, who alone has power to prevent 
the abases of these principles, and the destroying plagues that may grow out of 
their pervertions. Ever since the fourth century pious frauds and persecution, 
even to death, have been the distinguishing characteristics of the wild beast, 
v^hile truth and freedom have been characteristics of the two witnesses; and 
these two witnesses, or martyrs, of Christ's have, do, and will torment the ven- 
eraters of the wild beast or of his image. 

These principles came out of the wilderness and located in Holland A. D. 
1646, and migrated to England A. D. 1689. They both germinated in and emi- 
grated into America, where, grown into full development, they have unfurled 
the flag of the United States of North America, rolled back their influence over 
the mother country, convulsed France, and shook all the nations which were or 
had been constituents of the holy Roman empire. The labors and writings of 
Wickliff placed England foremost in the great Reformation till she was out- 
stripped by her American daughters, and since then she has followed closest of 
all nations on their heels. The house of lords and bishops represent the old 
despotic element in England, which element was badly shattered while truth and 
freedom were a transplanting into America; and the house of commons repre- 
sents the people demanding truth and freedom. The despotic element in England, 
taught by experience, yield to the demands of the people; and the people taught 
in the light of Protestantism, do not confound freedom with licentiousness and 
anarchy; and England has been approximating truth and freedom without those 
convulsions which lately shook the continent. 

In France, Protestantism had been banished or drowned out in the blood of 
the Huguenots, and the despotic princes and tyrannical prelates kept the people 
walking in the somber shades of ignorance, vice, and infidelity. When the 



8^6 THE ^INaDOM OF OOD DEVELOiPfiC. 

glorious news of American independence and nationality were flashed upon their 
darkness they thought it was the unbridled licentiousness of their clergy and 
philosophers, and plunged into revolution, anarchy, and slaughter. Out of that 
chaos arose a despotism that scorched pope and emperor, princes and prelates, 
provinces and bishoprics, palaces and inquisitions, and at last sank into that 
desolation it had made. Truth and freedom are still marching onward, while 
imperial despotism and papal tyranny, struggling with infidel licentiousness and 
French republicanism, are opening up the way for the final triumph of the 
kingdom of God. At one time the crown and the mitre are tumbled in the dust, 
at another the prince and prelate are firmly seated on their thrones. If princes 
and prelates would welcome truth and freedom they might sit on their thrones 
in peace and safety; but they prohibit truth and suppress freedom, and revolt, 
insurrection, and licentiousness will destroy them. 

On the downfall of Napoleon the holy alliance was formed by Greek-church 
Russia, Catholic A^ustria, and Protestant Prussia to give each other every aid, 
assistance, and succor on every occasion. This alliance was said to be in con- 
formity with the principles of the Holy Scriptures, and designed to substitute 
the peaceful reign of the Gospel in place of the empire of the sword. England 
did not sign it, but before long nearly all the continental powers became parties 
to it. 3 The intention may have been good, but its practical operation was to 
prevent any reformation in their national religion and politics, and thus prevented 
the onward march of truth and freedom. The twenty-five years' war with France 
had exhausted the treasures of Europe and covered the countries with desolation 
and mourning; but the contest between despotism and democracy revived. 

The power of the United States of America on the religions and govern- 
ments of the Old World was first felt in A. D. 1815. Involved in war with 
England, on account of her despotism on the seas, they were unable to protect 
their commerce on the Mediterranean. From A. D. 1795 to 1812 the Mahometan 
Algeriens had exacted tribute, and then they commenced a piratical warfare on 
all American vessels. In A. D. 1815 Commodore Decatur captured several 
Algerine vessels, compelled Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis to release all American 
prisoners, pay large sums of money, and relinquish all future claims to tribute 
from the United States. The next year England followed the example, and with 
shot and shell compelled these Mahometan powers to abolish the slavery of 
Christians forever and to restore twelve hundred captives to their country and 
friends; and three thousand, or more, were liberated at Algiers, Tripoli, and 
Tunis. Since that the Mahometan power has declined, Algiers has become a 
state of Christian France, and the Ottoman empire is saved from dissolution only 
by the jealousies of its Christian neighbors. * 

2. In England the Men are in Darkness and Gnaw Their Tongues. — The 
people obtained a reduction of taxes in A. D. 1816, though other demands were 
not granted, and some lives were destroyed in A. D. 1817-19. ^ England was 
agitated till A. D. 1830 by a continued struggle between the whigs and tories. 
In A. D. 1828 the reform party obtained the abolition of the test act, which still 
imposed disabilities on Protestant dissenters, and in A. D. 1829 the exclusion of 
Catholics from the legislature was removed. A reform bill for England, Scot- 
land, and Ireland, regulating representation, was lost in the house of commons 
by a majority of one. In a new parliament, A. D. 1831, a reform bill passed the 
commons by one hundred and thirteen majority, but was rejected by the house of 
lords by forty-one majority. Popular resentment was manifested against the 
nobilities, riots occurred, public buildings and an immense amount of property 
were destroyed and ninety persons killed. In A. D. 1832 a reform bill passed 
the commons by one hundred and thirteen majority, but was defeated in the house 
of lords and bishops by forty majority. The ministry resigned. The people 



(3) Will., pp. 506-7. (4) Idm., pp. 509-10. (5) Will. 508-9. 



CHAPTER CLXIV. I SECTION III. 877 

determined, without riots, to assert their just rights. The king yielded to the 
force of public opinion ; the ministry were reinstated with assurance that the bill 
would be passed; many of the lords and all the bishops left their seats on the 
final passage of the bill. Thus, by a bloodless revolution in English politics the 
electoral franchise was extended, not to all, but to a large body comprising 
the middle classes of society, who were thus invested with supreme power in the 
British empire, and an entire change in the foreign policy of the country was the 
consequence. 

The Russian autocrat, marching to put down republicanism in France, was 
arrested on the Vistula by the last Polish insurrection. ^ Whether the lords and 
bishops gnawed their tongues with pain and blasphemed when they left their 
seats on the final passage of the reform bill, my history does not tell ; but, I 
judge they did. But the house of lords and bishops still exists, and the national 
church has to be supported by tithes paid by all denominations of Christians, 
Jews, and infidels. I do not know that the consummation of the kingdom of 
God requires the nations to adopt a republican state government, but love to our 
neighbor and the obligation to do to others as we would have them do to us, 
obliges them to secure to every man life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, 
freedom to know, worship, and serve God to the best of his abilities, and to judge 
for himself what God requires of him. It is the province of civil government to 
judge when a man infringes on the rights of another, and to protect the injured. 
But the nobility and the clergy, in all national church sovereignties, are sustained 
by the industrial part of the community, and have generally sacrificed the lives 
and rights of the middle and lower classes to their own ambition and aggrandize- 
ment, and when these classes assert and vindicate their rights the domineering 
classes exhibit anguish and wrath. 

3. In France, before the great revolution, the clergy held one-third of the 
lands of the kingdom, the nobility another third, and the remaining third was 
burdened with all the expenses of the government. The clergy, nobility, and 
magistracy obstinately refused to surrender their exclusive privileges, and the 
oppressed desired to break up the whole system of society and reconstruct it after 
the model of the [Jnited States of America;'' and such, more or less, was the 
condition of the whole papal empire, whether Catholic or Protestant, and the holy 
alliance was formed to prevent any reformation in church or state. The first 
revolution terminated in a scathing despotism upon the nobility, clergy, and 
hereditary princes, and the men of church and state were scorched by their ven- 
erated imperialism, whether they were Greek, Latin, or Protestant. On the 
restoration of royalty in France, the punishment of the revolutionists and the 
restoration of the powers and privileges of the nobility and clergy were violently 
demanded by the Royalists. The party feuds of centuries between Catholics and 
Protestants broke forth anew in the south of France. Political zeal, combined 
with religious enthusiasm, aroused the worst passions of the people and incited to 
numerous massacres, and in despite of the king the guilty parties were acquitted 
in the face of the clearest evidence of their guilt. ^ The king, Louis XYIIL, was 
compelled to ally himself with the Republicans, the natural enemies of his cause, 
in order to check the Loyalists in their thirst for vengeance. By a despotic act 
of the king, A. D. 1816, the Liberals and Bonapartists got control of the govern- 
ment. The Royalists were unwilling to resign the control of the government, and 
the struggle between them and the Liberals continued to increase in violence till 
the revolution of A. D. 1830, when the monarchy was overthrown. ^ 

Louis XYIIL died A. D. 1824, and the crown fell to his brother, Charles X., 
who bitterly opposed revolutionary principles, and, governed by the counsels of 
bigoted priests, labored to build up an absolute monarchy, with a privileged nobility 
and clergy for its support. In A. D. 1829 an ultra Royalist ministry was 



(6) 530-1. Rev. Eurp. 2; 336. (7) Will. 448. (8) 511. (9) Idm. 512, 



878 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

appointed, headed by an old Royalist, an early adherent of the Bourbons, and the 
king announced his determination to overcome by force any obstacle to his govern- 
ment, and acted accordingly. ^ The chamber of deputies, which represented the 
people, was dissolved ; the law of elections was changed, nearly extinguishing 
the representative system, and the liberty of the press was suspended. A revo- 
lution ensued, in which General Lafayette took command of the ^National Guards. 
Several regiments of the line went over, and the insurgents completed the revo- 
lution by the installation of a provisional government. Louis Philippe, duke of 
Orleans, was elected to the throne, and took the oath to support the constitutional 
charter. ^ 

This revolution in France, in defiance of the holy alliance, alarmed the sover- 
eigns of continental Europe. The emperor of Russia, the most firmly established 
monarch in Europe, was preparing to vindicate the dignity of the alliance and 
restore Charles; but the passage of the reform bill in England placed her on the 
side of France and raised obstacles that arrested his measures, and the breaking 
out of the Polish revolution gave him sufficient employment near home. ^ After 
abdicating his throne Charles was permitted to leave France. His ministers, 
endeavoring to escape, were arrested, imprisoned, and released. ^ Whether the 
nobles and clergy, who constituted the Loyalists, gnawed their tongues in anguish 
and blasphemed in rage my histories do not tell, but I think they did ; and certainly 
this political seat of the beast was covered with darkness. 

Louis Philippe was indebted for his election to Lafayette, who thought the 
French unfit for a republican government, and the middle and lower classes, disap- 
pointed A. D. 1830 in their expectations, in A. D. 1848 accomplished the revolution 
without any previous conspiracy. Louis Philippe abdicated and escaped to Eng- 
land, and so did his ministry, and the French republic was adopted and proclaimed 
to the nation. Royalty had been banished almost without a struggle, and the 
army, the clergy, the press, and the people gave in their adhesion to the new 
republic. ^ 

The revolution of A. D. 1848 was accomplished by the union of the Moderates 
and the Red Republicans. The Moderates advocated the rights of self-govern- 
ments, civil and religious liberty, and universal sufi'rage. The Red Republicans 
advocated communism at the expense of the rich, and the distribution of property, 
and labor, and food by government regulations. ^ The monarchy being over- 
thrown, animosities arose between these two parties. The Moderates controlled 
the provisional government and the Reds determined to overthrow them. Demon- 
strations of numbers were made, but the fidelity of the National Guards and the 
following elections confirmed the Moderates in power. ^ The national assembly 
was afterward surrounded by the populace and dispersed ; the Reds took their 
seats and declared a contribution of one billion francs should be levied on the rich 
for the benefit of the poor; another billion for Poland; the national assembly 
should be dissolved, and the guillotine should be put in operation against their 
enemies. But they were dispersed by the guards ; Paris became a vast battlefield ; 
five thousand were killed and wounded, and it terminated in the unconditional 
surrender of the Reds, or Communists. A constitution was adopted A. D. 1848 ; 
the republican form of government was adopted, with one legislative assembly 
and a president elected by universal sufi'rage. Its principles were declared to be 
liberty, equality, and fraternity; and its basis the family, labor, property, and 
the public order. ^ 

The cry, "Long live the republic," was terrible in the ears of despots, and 
had been unheard for forty-four years in France. The mob took the Tuileries, 
made a bonfire of the throne, and planted trees of liberty in all public places. ^ 
If communism should triumph throughout the papal empire, I would consider 
it the crisis of the outpouring of the fifth vial of wrath. But to strip the men 



(1) Will. 523. (2) Rev. Eurp 2; 336. (3) Will, p. 533. (4) Ibd., §§ 11, 12. (5) Idm., § 14. 
(6) Thai., p. 412. 



CHAPTER CLXIV.: SECTION IV. 879 

of church and state of their position and wealth and elevate the poor by these 
means, will make them both bite their tongues and blaspheme God for permitting 
it. Either Paris, in France, or Vienna, in Austria, or both, was the political seat, 
or throne, of the holy empire, or papal beast, and the republican revolutions of 
A. D. 1848 cast darkness over both, and made the nobles, princes, and prelates 
gnaw their tongues with pain, and maliciously or presumptuously blaspheme God, 
if they believed in an overruling Providence. 

Louis Napoleon, son of Louis Bonaparte, was elected president by the people, 
and when inaugurated swore to remain faithful to the democratic republic and to 
fulfill the duties which the constitution imposed upon him. Twice had he attempted 
to excite revolt against Louis Philippe; had been imprisoned five years; escaped 
from the Castle of Ham, and now was acknowledged by the Bonapartists as the 
legitimate representative of the Emperor Napoleon and heir of the empire; but 
he had not the confidence of the assembly. Both president and assembly were 
false to their trust; imposed severe restrictions on the press; placed the entire 
control of education in the hands of the Catholic clergy ; restricted suffrage to the 
exclusion of three million electors, and sent an army to crush the rising republic 
of Kome. '^ The president and assembly were at strife, tending to anarchy and 
civil war; the president quietly filled the city with troops at night; by a decree, 
posted on every wall, he announced the dissolution of the assembly ; restored 
universal suffrage, and established martial law throughout Paris, having seized 
the chief of the assembly and generals in their beds and had them imprisoned. 
Thus, Louis Napoleon was absolute dictator of France. None but government 
journals were allowed to appear; no quarters were granted to insurgents; about 
one thousand were killed, and in three days all resistance was quelled. The army 
and people sanctioned the usurpation by a majority of about seven million votes, 
and before one year he was emperor, commander-in-chief of the army and navy, 
had control over legislation, the power to declare war and make treaties. ^ Thus, 
again did despotism enthrone itself on the ruins of freedom, and the choice of the 
people became the tyrant over the better classes of society, and Napoleon IIL 
became the eldest son of the papal church. But the end was not yet. The holy 
alliance did not dethrone him, though they had decreed that none of the Bonaparte 
family should ever sit on the throne of France. ^ 

4. The Men in Nations, Not the Throne of the Beast but His Worshipers, 
Experience the Same Revolutions. — The news of the events at Paris set all 
Europe in a blaze. The long smoldering conflict between absolute and popular 
principles of government became open and violent. ^ Spain, under the rule of the 
restored Ferdinand, was in a state of constant political agitation from A. D. 1815. 
In A. D. 1820 an insurrection of the soldiery compelled the king to restore to his 
subjects the free and almost republican constitution of A. 1). 1812. But the 
Republicans showed but little wisdom and moderation, and a large party, directed 
by the monks and friars and supported by the lower ranks of the people, was 
formed for the restoration of monarchy. Several European powers — the holy 
alliance* — resolved to support the king in opposition to the constitution which he 
had granted. England stood aloof, and to France was entrusted the execution of 
the odious measure of suppressing democratic principles in Spain, A. D. 1823. 
All liberal principles in religion and politics were completely suppressed in Spain, 
and the ancient abuses were revived which had so long disgraced her. England 
and the United States censured France for it, and recognized the independence of 
the Spanish South American republics. ^ 

A revolution in Portugal, A. D, 1820, resulted in a free constitution, based 
on the abolition of privileges, the legal equality of all classes, freedom of the 
press, and the formation of a representative body in the national legislature. 



(7) Will. 559, §§ 1, 4. (8) Will., ibd., §§ 7-9. (9) 506, § 1. (1) Thai. 413. (*) Idm. 402. (2) 
Will. 512, §§ 1, 2. . , 



880 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

This constitution being violently opposed by tbe clergy and privileged classes, 
M^ho formed the Apostolic party, was suppressed A. D. 1 823. A state of mon- 
archy continued till A. D. 1826, when the crown fell to Don Pedro, emperor of 
Brazil, who resigned it to his infant daughter, Donna Maria, and gave Portugal 
a constitutional charter, and appointed his brother, Don Miguel, regent, who 
took an oath of fidelity to the charter. Miguel, by means of an artful priesthood, 
caused himself to be proclaimed sovereign of Portugal, and the charter was 
denounced as inconsistent with the purity of the Poman Catholic faith. Don 
Pedro repaired to Europe, and, after a sanguinary struggle, placed his daughter 
on the throne, and tranquility was restored. ^ 

Naples was restored A. D. 1815, by the allies, to Ferdinand, who neglected 
education and internal improvements. Insurrection broke out A. D. 1820, a 
representative constitution was granted, and the Neapolitan parliament was 
opened. But the holy alliance, with ministers from most of the European 
powers, resolved to put down the Neapolitan republic by force of arms, without 
regard to the king's grant. England was neutral. France approved the measure. 
Austria invaded Naples. Ferdinand received them as friends. The king's 
promise of amnesty was forgotten, and court-martials and executions ended the 
Neapolitan revolution. ^ Also, a revolution in Piedmont was suppressed by 
Austrian troops on the side of tyranny. ^ 

Republican principles passed into Turkey and caused the men of Mahomet- 
anism trouble and anguish, while the men of state Christianity witnessed the 
butchery of fellow Christians with approbation, and said, "Let them obey their 
lawful rulers." Republicanism and revolutions cast a darkness over all thrones 
of the beast and his worshipers and caused them to gnaw their tongues, for a 
time at least. The Greeks sustained a terrible war with the Turks for their inde- 
pendence, and suffered greatly. The Turks were Mahometans, and the Greeks 
were Christians of the Greek church ; yet, such was the sympathy for despotism 
and fear of freedom and human rights that Greek, Latin, and Protestant, state 
church Christianity, suffered the Turks to butcher the Christians in the most 
horrible manner for eight years (A. D. 1821-29. However, when the Greeks 
had about achieved their own independence, then the despotic allies interposed 
and formed Greece into a monarchy under a Bavarian monarch, A. D. 1833. ^ 

The French revolution of A. D. 1830 produced a powerful sensation through- 
out Europe and aroused a spirit of insurrection wherever zeal or fancied wrongs 
existed, and the continental sovereignties, alarmed for the safety of their thrones, 
looked with jealousy on every political movement originating with the people, 
and prepared to suppress, by military force, the incipient efforts of rebellion. 
Compelled by the allies, the Belgians were united in one government with the 
Hollanders. But the Dutch king treated them as vassals instead of subjects, so 
they dissolved the union with a people foreign to them in religion, language, 
manners, and interest, and declared themselves independent. As the Belgians 
adopted a monarchal government, the five great powers — France, England, 
Prussia, Austria, and Russia — stopped hostilities, and France conquered Antwerp 
from Holland and transferred it to Belgium."^ 

That part of Polish Prussia erected into a duchy by Napoleon and conferred 
upon the king of Saxony, was given to Russia by the allies at Vienna. Tyranny 
drove the Poles to rebellion, and an effort was made, A. D. 1830, to unite and 
secure the dismembered kingdom. Their intention was patriotic and their efforts 
were desperate, noble, and for a time successful. Russia demanded absolue sub- 
mission, and the holy alliance completed the entire subjugation of Poland and 
extinguished her nationality forever. ^ Thus, Catholic Poland was destroyed by 
Greek-church Russia, Protestant Prussia, and Catholic Austria; and that freedom 
or republican principles caused anguish to the men in power is evident from the 
fact that the liberty of the press and public debate were abolished in Poland. 

(3) Will. 513, §§ 1,2. (4) 514, §§ 1-3. (5) 515, §§ 1,2. (6)516-23. (7)526-7. (8)527-30. 



chapter clxiv.: section v. 881 

5. The Same Darkness and Anguish in Vienna a Throne of the Beast 
AS WELL AS Paris. — The French revolution of A. D. 1848 set all Germany in 
commotion. The people demanded a political government that should give them 
a share in legislation, establish the liberty of the press, and otherwise secure 
them in their just rights. In Baden they obtained the liberty of the press, trial 
by jury, the right to bear arms, to meet in public, and a more popular represen- 
tation in the national diet at Frankfort. Similar demonstrations were made in 
nearly all the German states; in some places riots imprisoned the authorities and 
forced from the governments the demandeH concessions. And within a week 
from the revolution in Paris the demands of the people had been acceded to 
throughout nearly all the south and west of Germany. The federal diet invoked 
the different states for a new constitution granting a representation to the people. 
Frederick William, king of Prussia, after resisting in vain a popular revolution 
in Berlin, took the lead in the reform party, hoping to reunite the German states 
into one empire under himself as emperor. The king of Saxony was compelled 
to grant the request of his subjects of the reform party. The king of Hanover 
yielded, with reluctance, rather than lose his crown. Sleswick and Holstein 
waged a sanguinary war with the king of Denmark and solicited admission to 
the German confederation, but foreign intervention terminated the contest. 

The downfall of Louis Philippe in Paris was a shock in Vienna — the other 
political throne of the beast — that vibrated throughout the whole Austrian 
empire. The people expressed themselves freely on the subject of reform; the 
royal family were panic-stricken, and most of them were ready to make con- 
cessions to the people. An immense concourse of citizens, headed by the 
students of the university, marched to the hall of the assembly and presented 
their petition for a constitutional government, a responsible ministry, freedom of 
the press, a citizen's guard, trial by jury, and religious freedom. After some 
opposition the demands of the people were granted, and a convention of deputies 
to form a new constitution was promised. The event was celebrated by triumphal 
celebrations and illuminations. Thus, the first struggle terminated with a triumph 
for the people, and the government seemed sincere in their grants and promises of 
reform.^ Such concessions must have been painful to the sovereigns, and the 
clergy confederated with them. The different nationalists were jealous of each 
other, their wants and requirements were dissimilar; the people were unprepared 
for free institutions; the government was undecided as to what extent concessions 
should be made; mobs guided by students often acted disgracefully and ruled 
Vienna; the press degenerated into licentiousness; a shameful literature flooded 
the city; violations of law and order were frequent; the reign of terror com- 
menced; the emperor secretly left the city and repaired to Innspruck, in the 
Tyrol. The students and democratic clubs usurped the entire control of the city 
and exercised a most cruel and unmitigated despotism. 

The emperor returned. The Bohemians of Slavic origin demanded a con- 
stitution and national existence equivalent to that of the Hungarians. Their 
demands being refused, a fearful and bloody conflict ensued; Prague was bom- 
barded ; the city capitulated ; the Slavic congress was broken up ; the visions of 
Bohemian nationality vanished; their national feeling and hatred to the Magyars 
and Germans rendered them the chief supporters of the Austrian throne and 
government. The Hungarians were striving for the peaceful maintenance of 
their rights against Austrian encroachments. The Croats, instigated by Austria, 
revolted against them ; Austrian troops were marched against Hungary to sup 
port the Croats ; the people sympathized with the Hungarians ; another revolution 
in Vienna resulted in a bloody contest ; the insurgents triumphed ; the ministry 
was overthrown ; the minister of war was murdered ; the emperor fled to 01m utz 
attended by the troops faithful to him. But a large and faithful army in other 



(9) Will. 538-41. 
—56 



882 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

parts of the empire enabled him to invest and bombard the capital; and after a 
great destruction of life and property Vienna was compelled to an unconditional 
surrender. Reaction had taken place in the popular mind ; peace under imperial 
rule began to be preferred to the unrestrained excesses of the mobs which dis- 
graced republicanism. For a time this throne of the beast was filled with 
darkness, and the men of wealth, influence, and authority gnawed their tongues 
in anguish — and I expect blasphemed the name of God. But Austria regained 
its old despotic position. In Prussia, Frederick William imitated Austria ; 
called the army to his aid ; dissolved the assembly he had called to construct a 
constitution; forfeited his promises of reform and constitutional liberty. The 
smaller German states, divided in their counsels, could do nothing while Prussia 
and Austria were against them. ^ 

6. The Ecclesiastical Throne of the Beast Covered with Darkness. — 
Since the fall of Napoleon, Austrian influence predominated in Italy, and in 
adherence to despotism had exacted treaties from all the princes of Italy — most 
of whom were of the house of Hapsburg — stipulating that no constitution should 
be granted to their subjects. Austria suppressed, by force of arms, the consti- 
tution of the Neapolitans of A. D. 1820, in A. D. 1821 interfered in Piedmont, 
and in A. D. 1831-2 in the papal states for the suppressing of all liberal ten- 
dencies, whether in the government or among the people. The election of Pope 
Pius IX. (A. D. 1846) threatened the subversion of Austrian influence in Italy. 
The pope commenced the work of reform, pursued a liberal course, and revived 
the spirit of nationality throughout the entire peninsula; and the right of Italian 
states, not under Austrian rule, to choose their own forms of government seemed 
to be conceded. The French revolution of A. D. 1848 precipitated a revolution 
in the Austrian states in Italy, and the Austrians were driven out of Milan, 
Parma, and Pavia; and nearly all the Venetian states were in insurrection. 
Charles Albert, king of Sardinia, proclaimed in favor of Italian nationality, and 
marched into Lombardy to aid in driving out the Austrians. The Austrian gen- 
eral, Padetsky, retreated till he concentrated all his forces, and then reconquered 
all their former cities and states. Charles Albert retired to his own dominions ; 
was invaded and defeated by the Austrians, and abdicated in favor of his own 
son, Victor Emanuel, who purchased peace for fifteen million dollars. Venice 
was blockaded by the Austrians, and the republic of St. Mark, proclaimed A. D. 
1848, fell in A. D. 1849 ; and Austria recovered her authority throughout all 
northern Italy. In southern Italy republicanism met the same fate ; and the 
Neapolitans and Sicilians submitted to the former sway of Ferdinand as the 
unlimited monarch of the two Sicilies. ^ 

For a time the pope and his people were united in the political regeneration 
of Italy, but the people outran the pope. He granted liberty to the press, and 
its license alarmed him. He placed arms in the hands of the people, but could 
not control the use of them. He named a council to assist him in the adminis- 
tration of civil affairs, but was dismayed at the cries for a representative assembly 
to share in the government of the country. In A. D. 1848 reaction took place. 
The pope refused the demand and appointed for prime minister, Rossi, an enemy 
to democracy. - Attempting to conciliate all sides, Pius was suspected of favoring 
foreign tyrants. His minister, Count Rossi, was murdered, and he himself was 
attacked in his palace on the Quirinal, which was taken b}' storm; but not until 
the pope had escaped in a servant's livery^ and fled from Rome to Gaeta, in 
Naples. ^ Garibaldi entered Rome with an army of Italian volunteers A. D. 1849. ^ 
A national assembly, elected by the people, was opened. The pope's temporal 
power was declared at an end. A democratic government was adopted, and 
named, the Roman Republic; The chief mover was Mazzini, who, with Armel- 
lini and Saffi, constituted the executive power of the new republic. ^ The pope 



(1) Will. 538-43. (2) 543-6. (3) Thai. 416, § 150. 



CHAPTER CLXIV. I SP:CTION VII. 883 

hoped the people would recall him to Rome, but he had to appeal for foreign 
aid, and the crowned heads of Austria, Naples, Spain, and France answered to 
his call and papal authoritj^ was reestablished on the ruins of the Roman republic. 

Pius IX. returned stealthily to Rome in the night. His zeal for reform was 
changed into the most embittered feelings toward all democratic institutions. 
Political tolerance gave place to the most determined support of absolutism, and 
the blessings of the people on him were changed into curses.* The vascilating 
conduct of the pope, Austrian emperor, kings, and princes shows that American 
republicanism had been poured out upon both ecclesiastical and political thrones 
of the beast, but especially upon the throne of the pope, of the emperor of 
Austria, and the king of France, who had to leave their thrones and liee from 
their capitals. Darkness had filled the holy Roman empire so that princes and 
prelates could not see, for a time, what to do, and the men of wealth and posi- 
tion were filled with anguish and may have literally knawed their tongues, and 
no doubt but they did blaspheme Gfod. They acknowledged His power over 
these schisms and insurrections which tormented them, and which they had 
anathematized in the name of the Holy Trinity. Schism and republicanism are 
destroying the holy Roman empire in civil and ecclesiastical aff*airs, and are still 
progressing, while both pope and emperor are in vain striving to crush them. 
This vial may not be exhausted yet. 

Communism and socialism are still active, and if their future actions do not 
belong to the seventh vial, seventh trumpet, and sixth seal, princes, nobles, and 
clergy may be involved in greater darkness yet and writhe in deeper anguish. 
(Continued, chap. 176, § 6.) 

7. Despotism Restored. — After the fall of Napoleon I., the Austrian empire 
regained the nominal prerogative of Roman headship and held its possessions in 
Italy, though it had lost the imperial crown of Germany and was saved from 
ruin by the czar of Russia, of the Greek church. The Austrian empire was com- 
posed of Austria proper, Bohemia, and Hungary, which were separate nations 
and each one governed by laws of its own, and the emperor took an oath at his 
coronation to respect the rights, liberties, and independence of Hungar3^ 
Encroachments were made on these privileges by the emperor in establishing an 
absolute monarchy. Hungary herself was composed of difierent tribes, and by 
sowing discord among these, Hungary was finally vanquished aftea a desperate 
struggle. But, before Hungary was conquered Austria had to invoke the main 
despot of the holy alliance, thus showing the Austrian headship of Rome was 
without power and was dependent on Greek church Russia for existence. Russia 
is the main fortress of despotism, as the United States of America is the home 
and fortress of republicanism. But, the revolutions of A. D. 1848 have not 
ended the conflict, and the greatest darkness and anguish to princes, nobles, and 
prelates may be yet in the future. 

Viewing these events as national movements may not be interesting to the 
devout servants of Jesus Christ; but, when we remember that all power and 
authority in Heaven and earth is given to Christ, and that He is Head over all 
things to the church, these movements become most interesting. These nations 
claim to be Christians; these clergy claim to be the authorized rulers of the 
church and expounders of the word of God; these sovereigns, anointed, crowned, 
and blessed by these prelates, claim to be the divinely constituted despots of the 
kingdom of God, acting by the authority of God, and united in a holy alliance 
in accordance with the sacred Scriptures. Hence, we must regard them as the 
civil vicegerents of the Lord Jesus Christ, or as usurpers of His Kingly authority, 
and they must conquer all opposition to themselves or he destroyed before the 



(4) Will. 543-8. 



884 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

glorious trmmphs of His saints. And as these are the seven last plagues, it is 
interesting to ascertain their distinctive characteristics and fulfilluaent, and to 
know where we stand in the divine programme and what judgments are yet to be 
inflicted. The governments of these princes and prelates, or nobles and clergy, 
are wholly incompatible with the teachings and laws of the kingdom of God, 
and, identified with their state churches, they can not be recognized as the gen- 
uine kingdom of God and must be destroyed. (See chap. 176, §§ 1, 2.) 



CHAPTER CLXY. 



FIFTH YIAL. DARKNESS AND ANGUISH CONTINUED, AND THE 

HEADSHIP OF THE POPE, EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA, AND 

EMPEROR OF FRANCE SUPERCEDED. 

A. M. 5856-5870. 

1. Austrian Pule in Italy Overturned. — Napoleon III. was styled, 
''Emperor of the French people by the grace of God."^ He promised the sol- 
diers that he would renew their former glory, ^ and the first great event of his 
imperial reign was the Crimean war, "^ the result of which was that Mahometan 
Turkey was taken into European alliances and the integrity of her dominions 
was guaranteed. 8 With Napoleon III., the contest between Austria and France 
for the headship of the papal empire was renewed, and ended in the defeat of 
both, the restoration of the German empire with a Protestant headship, the united 
kingdom of Italy, and the subjection of the pope to the civil government of Italy. 
In its general discussion of European affairs, the congress of Paris complained 
of the occupation of the papal states by French and Austrian troops. Since 
A. D. 1849 the French had occupied Pome, while the Austrian forces held the 
provinces north of the Apennines, known as the Legations, and neither nation 
could withdraw without leaving the other absolute ruler of central Italy. Austria 
exercised a controlling influence in every Italian state except Sardinia. Her 
generals exercised a tyrannical military control in the name of Francis Joseph. 
Pobbery and murder were perpetrated with impunity on men, women, and children, 
and neither the papal nor ducal authorities interfered. 

Yictor Emanuel might have established an absolute despotism with the favor 
and support of Austria, but he preferred to reign as a constitutional sovereign 
over Sardinia and to become the champion of Italian independence. In A. D. 
1859 hostilities began to threaten ; volunteers, escaping by stealth from every 
state in Italy, flocked to his camp by scores and hundreds, and the hope of Italy was 
in the house of Savoy and in the expected intervention of France. Napoleon III. , 
professedly deriving his power from the will of the people, found grounds of 
difference with Francis Joseph, of Austria. Joseph's claim to Italy was founded 
on his hereditary imperial crown of the holy Roman empire, while Napoleon 
asserted the right of national unity and the solidarity of races, and found his 
national allies in the Latin nations of the two peninsulas, and, out of hostility to 



(5) Thai, p. 419, § 154. (6) 418. § 153. (7) 419, § 155. (8) Thai., p. 422. 



CHAPTER CLXV.: SECTION II. 885 

Austria, France cooperated with Sardinia in efforts for the unification of Italy. In 
this work Count Cavour, prime minister of Sardinia, displayed the abilities of a great 
statesman. 9 Austria demanded the reduction of the Sardinian army to a peace 
footing ; the demand was refused ; the Austrian forces crossed the Ticina the same 
day ; a French army had already landed at Genoa ; the dukes and duchess of Tus- 
cany, Modena, and Farma fled from their capitals. The armies of Tuscany were 
incorporated with the Sardinians under Victor Emanuel, which cooperated with the 
French. The Austrians were defeated in every battle, and the two emperors met at 
Yilla Franca to arrange the preliminaries of peace. Lombardy was transferred from 
Austria to Sardinia. Tuscany, Modena, Farma, and the papal province of Romagna 
petitioned and were added to Sardinia. The kingdom of Italy, thus constituted, 
A. D. 1859, was increased the next year by the conquest of Sicily by Garibaldi 
and his volunteers, by the capture of An con a and a great part of the papal terri- 
tories, and by the flight of the Bourbon Francis II. from Naples. Bj a unanimous 
vote of the people the two Sicilies were united to the kingdom under Yictor 
Emanuel. In A. D. 1860 Yictor Emanuel was acknowledged king of the whole 
country from the Alps to the most south point of Sicily, the city of Rome and 
its immediate territories and Yenetia being the only exceptions. ^ Thus, while 
Austria and France were contending for the rule of headship of the papal empire, 
Italy itself became acknowledged to be an independent kingdom of Europe. But 
the work was not finished. 

2. Prussian Ascendency. — Prussian interests required some provinces of 
Denmark; a pretext claimed them; Prussia and Austria conquered them from 
Denmark; Schleswig and Lauenburg were assigned to Prussia, and Holstein to 
Austria. Prussia, under the diplomacy of Count Bismarck, the prime minister, 
determined to wrest the German headship from Austria. Bismarck secured the 
non-interference of France, the inaction of England, and the favor of Russia. 
Austria refused to sell Yenetia to Yictor Emanuel, and he formed an alliance with 
Prussia. It was agreed to not end the war till Italy acquired Yenetia, and Prussia 
a corresponding increase of territory in Germany. A dispatch to Berlin from 
General Lamarmora said : Peidmont began, in A. D. 1859, the task of freeing 
Italy with the aid of France. We desire that within no distant period that task may 
be accomplished. * -J^- * Perhaps by a war of independence, fought side by 
side with that nation which represents the future of the German people in the 
name and on the principle of an identical nationality. Saxony, Hanover, and 
Hesse, refusing to take part in the war, were occupied with Prussian troops. In 
western Germany the Prussian army under General Manteuffel was opposed by 
the forces of the confederacy under the princes, Charles of Bavaria, and Alexander 
of Hesse. In the east the crown prince and his cousin. Prince Frederick Charles, 
crossed into Bohemia and met the main Austrian army under Marshal Benedek. 
The Yenetian troops in the Austrian army contingent sought the earliest oppor- 
tunity to surrender to the Prussians, whom they regarded as friends and allies. 
After furious battles (in which the Prussians prevailed over the valiant and 
disciplined Austrians, and the Austrian cavalry, hitherto the most celebrated in 
Europe, were driven in flight by the Ulans and thousands had fallen), Yenetia was 
ceded to France, to be presented to Yictor Emanuel. Thus, the unity of Italy 
was accomplished with the unity of Germany by the same stroke. The Yenetians 
accepted Victor Emanuel as their sovereign by an almost unanimous vote and by 
a personal welcome, and they celebrated the great event with thanksgiving in the 
church of St Mark. 

In Germany the victories of the seven weeks' war were confirmed by the 
treaty of Prague. The German confederation was dissolved ; Austria acceded to 
the aggrandizement of Prussia; agreed to take no part in the reconstruction of 
Germany, and the ascendancy in Germany passed from the house of Hapsburg 



(9) Thai. 422-3. (1) 423-4, §§ 164-5. 



886 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

to the more ancient house of Hohenzolleru.^ Whether this transfer of German 
headship from Cathohc Austria to Protestant Prussia, and the independent nation- 
ality of Italy, which had always been the most prominent gem in the crown of 
the beast, filled his throne with darkness and caused anguish to the men we shall 
leave the reader to judge. Austria ceased to contend for the headship of the 
papal empire, and left France as the protector of popery ; and Napoleon III. was 
the eldest son of the church. 

Confining himself to the government of his hereditary dominions, Francis 
Joseph sought, by wise and needed reforms, to raise them from the state of pros- 
tration and despair to which they had been brought by the terrible reverses of 
war. His finances were ruined; his armies were nearly annihilated, and the 
several nationalities which had been forcibly united under his scepter were ready 
to revolt against an absolute policy which deprived them of civil and religious 
liberty. ^ Austria goes into reformation ; the hopes of the Liberals revived ; repre- 
sentative assemblies, now reestablished, gave to the people their just share in the 
burdens and privileges of the government. Hungary has her own diet and sepa- 
rate ministry. In A. D. 1867 Francis Joseph received the crown of St. Stephen, 
at Pesth, and the next year an imperial decree changed the title of his domain to 
the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, recognizing the separate nationality of his 
subjects east of the Leitha. In one session of the parliament the despotisms of a 
thousand years were swept away. In A. D. 1870 the concordat with the pope, 
disregarded in the acts of reformation, was annulled and perfect toleration was 
established. The magnates, or nobility and clergy, naturally resisted; but the 
emperor was firm and his new policy was established.^ The magnates, I doubt 
not, gnawed their tongues for pain, blasphemed the name of God, and swore 
some hard oaths, though they claimed to be genuine Christians and faithful 
Catholics. Light began to dawn on the throne of New Austria, and the darkness 
rolled back upon the ecclesiastical throne of the scarlet wild beast. 

3. The Fall of the French Throne of the Wild Beast. — The Bonaparte 
dynasty, having witnessed the fall of Austria from the headship of the papal 
empire, the leadership in Germany, and the crown of Italy, now dreads the rising 
power of Prussia, which the French cabinet under Napoleon I. had once resolved 
to blot out from the map of Europe. ^ The rapid and successful movement of 
the seven weeks' war disappointed Napoleon III. and created uneasiness in France. 
France demands provinces on the Rhine, which was promptly refused by Prussia; 
an attempt to purchase Luxemburg from the king of Hanover was defeated by 
Prussia, and the annexation of Belgium to France failed. A revolution in Spain 
hastened the crisis which was to change the whole states system of Europe. 
Queen Isabella fled to France; a provisional government was formed; some of 
the best men desired a republic, but a majority preferred a liberal monarchy. 
Then followed a search for a king, and after various selections Prince Frederick, 
a distant relative of the king of Prussia, was chosen ; but the choice was trans- 
ferred, A. D. 1S70, to Frederick's elder brother, Leopold, which the war party 
in France denounced as a Prussian aggression. In vain the king of Prussia 
disclaimed any knowledge in the matter, or any power to forbid Leopold's accept- 
ance of the Spanish crown, and in vain did Leopold withdraw his name. The 
French ambassador demanded an apology for permitting it, and a pledge that the 
like should not occur again. 

Bismarck published the French proposal to annex Belgium in A. D. 1867, 
which caused great excitement throughout Europe, and especially in England. 
England, having guaranteed the independence of Belgium, demanded most ample 
securities of Napoleon III. for the observance of Belgian neutrality. French 
troops began their march toward the Phine, and war was declared. This move 
ment of the French perfected the united German nationality, and Bavaria, 



(2) Thai. 424-6. (3) Thai. 427, § 178. (4) 427, §§ 173-4. (5) 385, § 72. 



CHAPTEK CLXV. : SECTION III. 887 

Wii'temberg, and Baden put their armies at the disposal of King William. The 
French were continually defeated. Ten thousand horse and one hundred and 
eight thousand men fell into the German hands at Sedan. Kapoleon III. surren- 
dered himself to the king of Prussia. In France, in corps legislature it was 
declared that the empire had ceased to exist. Crowds of people demanded the 
fall of the Bonapartists. The empress regent fled with her son and took refuge 
in England, and a provisional government was formed. This new government 
would have made peace, but Prussia had already placed Alsace and Lorraine 
under German administration, and demanded their permanent cession as the 
price of peace. The German armies were already surrounding Paris, and the 
crown prince took up his quarters at Yersailles. Paris had become a fortress, 
surpassing anything of the kind since the fall of Babylon, and it was assailed and 
defended with skill and valor. The fall of Strasbourg, after a bombardment that 
shattered its beautiful cathedral tower and destroyed its library, sent a thrill of 
grief and rage throughout France. Then Mentz surrendered with an army of 
one hundred and seventy-nine thousand and flfty-three officers and men and an 
immense train of artillery. Northern France fell into the hands of the Germans. 
Prince Frederick Charles prevented succor from the country to Paris. Orleans 
was cccupied by the Germans, and the French government emigrated from Tours 
to Bordeaux. 

Both besieged and besiegers suffered severely from the rigorous winter, and 
the city suffered from bombardment and starvation, want of light and fuel, and 
nearly five thousand died within its walls every week. In the meantime, Ger- 
many resolved itself into an empire and invited King William to assume the title 
of German emperor. Frederick William IV. had refused the title in A. D. 1849, 
but now, A. D. 1871, the title and crown were accepted by King William I., in 
the palace of Yersailles, still resplendent with the magnificence of Louis XIY., 
and he hoped to deserve the Roman title. Semper Augustus. 

Reduced by famine, Paris surrendered. A provisional government was pro- 
claimed, and M. Thiers was elected its chief executive. Peace was concluded. 
Alsace and Lorraine were ceded to the new German empire, and France paid a 
war indemnity of five billion dollars. ^ The imperial crown, or headship, of Ger- 
many, formerly worn by papal Austria, was bestowed upon Protestant Prussia, in 
the royal palace of papal France, while the crown of Italy was worn on the 
head of papal Emanuel, and the pope's temporal power has vanished. 

Thus fell the Bonaparte dynasty, the seventh and last head of the papal scarlet 
wild beast, or holy Roman empire, and unless restored under the son of Napoleon 
III., this dynasty, or headship, did continue but for a short time. The thrills of 
anguish and rage experienced in France may be taken as a sample of the pains 
and anguish experienced in the overthrow of all despotic governments. The 
communist, or socialistic, element also inflicted anguish, while darkness covered 
this throne of the seventh head of the scarlet wild beast. Peace was concluded 
with Germany, but Paris was like a seething caldron, in which all the vicious 
elements of despotism and freedom of religion and atheism, Catholicism, and 
Protestantism were in ebulation, and civil war ensued, doing more injury to Paris 
than all it had suffered from the German conquerers. The communists occupied 
Paris, and the government, assembly, and army established themselves at Ver- 
sailles. The government had to ask permission of Germany to increase its army 
against the communists. The communists fired the Louvre, the Tuileries, the 
palais-royal, and pulled down the column of the Place Yendome, which was the 
proudest monument of the first empire. The archbishop of Paris and other 
hostages were shot, a number of Dominican monks were murdered, and other 
atrocities were committed, to the detriment and disgrace of republicanism. But, 



(6) Thai. 445-52, §§ 216-232. 



888 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

at length the communists were defeated, and a terrible vengeance was enacted on 
them by the government at Yersailles, which ordered the death of a multitude of 
men and women. '^ 

4. Rome and the Pope. — In ten months one empire had fallen, and another, 
of different materials and organized on wholly different principles, had arisen in 
Europe. The Spanish crown was given to Amadeo II., son of Yictor Emanuel, 
A. D. 1870, and a liberal constitution established civil and religious freedom in a 
nation long under the curse of despotism. The difficulties between the Liberals 
and the Carlists, supported by the perpetual intrigues of the priests, induced 
Amadeo to resign the crown, A. D. 1873, and a republic was proclaimed. ^ Priests 
were always with despots, and are part of the men who worship the beast or his 
image, and who are scorched and pained and afflicted with sores by these vials 
of wrath. The kingdom of Italy, without taking any part in the Franco-German 
war, reaped its important advantage. Rome, abandoned by its French pro- 
tectors, was quietly occupied by the troops of Emanuel. The pope was confirmed 
in possession of the Leonine City, or Vatican quarter of Rome, and in all his 
honors and dignities as head of the Roman church ; but the territories formerly 
under his sovereignty were declared to be part of the kingdom of Italy, and were 
annexed by a unanimous vote of the people. And the government of the 
kingdom was transferred to Rome, the ancient capital, July 1, A. D. 1870.^ 
Whether darkness or light enveloped the ecclesiastical throne of the scarlet beast; 
whether the clergymen enjoy pleasure or suffer anguish, may be inferred from 
the wailing of the pope, A. I). 1875. ^ 

''In Italy, the churches and religious communities have been despoiled; 
the bishops have been driven from their homes ; the license of the press has 
been more and more scandalous ; protection and power are assured to the 
apostates ; the Catholic schools are closed in order that the teachers may be 
replaced by persons selected by the government to inculcate falsehood and error, 
in order that the sect may extend its sphere of action. After having robbed the 
convents they now wish to put their hands on the funds of the charitable insti- 
tutions — that is, on the property of the poor, the sick, and the infirm — and on the 
institutions established for the purposes of Christian education. They go farther 
still. They drive the bishops from their homes, under the pretext that they have 
not accomplished the requirements of the law ; and whilst they are reduced to 
the terrible condition of misery, the small incomes, which we pay them out of 
funds furnished us by the faithful, are heavily taxed. Would to God the church 
could be assisted in this terrible state of affairs ; but unfortunately not one of the 
governments comes to our help ! All abandon her under some pretext or other, 
and several join in the persecution she receives from Italy. We behold a northern 
empire (Russia) studying every possible means to destroy the Catholic religion. 
Another empire more recently established (Germany) endeavors within the limits 
of its own territory to annihilate the church. All the world is aware of the per- 
secution which is going on in several cantons of Switzerland. If we cross the 
seas we shall find in America states where Masonry is directing fearful blows 
against the church of God, by imprisoning bishops, and priests, and the religious 
of both sexes, by depriving them of their revenues, and even by exiling them." 

The pope considers himself a prisoner in Rome, and his eye rests upon a 
Bible depository as he looks from the Vatican. ^ (Continued in chap. 176, § 12.) 

5. The Conclusion. — I think the fifth vial has been entirely poured out and 
that future influences of republicanism will come under the harvest and the battle 
of Armageddon. It was poured out on the throne of the beast. ^ Throne may be 
taken in the singular, for the thrones of the horns or powers sustaining the papal 
empire, or for the thrones of the two powers contending for the headship — as 
Paris and Yienna — or, for Rome, the throne of the uniting, animating soul of the 



(7) Thai. 452, § 233. (8) 453, § 235. (9) § 234. (1) Miss. Mag., April, 1876. (2) Rev. 16:10, 11. 



Chapter clxvi. : section i. 88D 

holy Eoman empire. It was true of all those. Eepublican movements filled the 
papal empire with darkness, and the sovereign monarchs, the pope and papal 
court, knew not what to expect or what to do ; and had not Eussia interfered in 
the Polish and Hungarian insurrection, or wars, poperj and papal monarchies 
would have been overthrown entirely. The monarchs of France and Spain were 
dethroned; the emperor of Austria fled from his capital ; the pope left his apos- 
tolic throne and his dear children in Eome. The political and ecclesiastical 
worshipers of the beast were certainly in darkness in respect to their destiny. 
They might deplore the sore of schism in church and state that had dissipated 
their power ; they might writhe in anguish under the loss of power, position, 
property, and the sufferings of civil and internal wars and revolutions; and, I 
doubt not, they blasphemed the name of God in prc^'ane and abusive epithets 
which they applied to heretics, schismatics, and revolutionists. Most likely they 
maliciously cursed God for permitting these evils to come upon them ; or, said it 
was useless to pray to Him for He could not, or would not help them; or, that He 
knew nothing about it, and had nothing to do with it. The immoral and hypo- 
critical character of both princes and clergy authorizes me to conclude that this 
part of the programme was verified ; but I have not the narrative of any converts 
from them, and none others would be likely to know or willing to tell. They 
burnt the translations of the Bible and writings of the reformers; they anathe- 
matized reformers, and reformations, and the truth of God, as damnable heretics 
and heresies, and thus indirectly blasphemed God and charged all these evils 
upon Him. All the other characteristics of this vial are conspicuous on the page 
of history. (See chap. 176, § 6.) 



CHAPTER CLXYI. 



THE SIXTH YIAL OF WEATH. TUEKISH EMPIEE DEYING UP. 

A. M. 5520-5742. (Continued from Chaps. 149-50, 

§§ 4, 5, and 162, § 3.) 

1. The Position and Programme. — The sixth vial, or bowl, was poured out 
upon the great Euphrates; the waters were dried up; the way for the kings of 
the east was prepared ; three frog spirits were discovered at work throughout the 
whole world inducing nations to concentrate their powers against Christ and His 
faithful followers, which culminated in the battle of Armageddon. ^ The mention 
of the Euphrates reminds us of the sixth trumpet, and the four angels loosed 
from it and destined to destroy the last third part of the great Eoman empire. 

We have followed the Turkish sultanies till they were headed by the Ottoman 
empire and completed the destruction of the Eoman empire, and verified a pre- 
diction of Daniel's as to the manner of conquest and the fixing of the out-post 
boundary of the Ottoman empire. The Mogul woe accompanying that trumpet 
has been noticed;^ but the woe to the western empire has yet to be traced out on 
the page of history. The woe falling upon Christians under the Turkish govern- 
ment has to some extent been noticed under their tail policy; but, in addition, 



(3) Rev. 16:12-16. (4) Chap, 149, §§ 3, 5. 



890 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED* 

Cliristains were liable to become victims of revenge when the Moslems were 
defeated or threatened by any Christian power. The great Mahometan empire 
may be regarded as existing in five grand divisions — the Hindoostan or Mogul, 
the Persian, Turkish, Arabian, and North African. The Christian powers come 
in contact with the Moguls by their colonies in India and possessions in Tartary. 
Russia comes in contact with Persia on the north, and other powers touch it on 
the soutli by commerce. 

The power of Arabia is now but little felt, yet it contains the holy cities of 
Mecca and Medina, where the Mahometans concentrated and bestowed their 
gifts and perform devotions. The iN^orth African states have tormented the coasts 
and islands of the Mediterranean, and Turkey has become involved in the 
European balance of power system. Under Mahomet II. the empire of the 
Greek Caesars was finally destroyed, and not only Constantinople but the Greek 
islands and peninsula became the prey of Asiatic hosts, ^ and their power was a 
continual menace to the peace of Europe. Selim I. drove back the Persians to 
the Tigris, ^ and subdued a great part of Persia and Mesopotamia — Diarbeker 
and Algezira'' — the whole of Syria and Egypt, '^ Mecca and Palestine,^ and sev- 
eral tribes of Arabia, A. D. 1517. ^' Solyman the Great conquered Bagdad and 
Irak-Arabia, A. D. 1534 ; Morad lY. took Bagdad on the Tigris from Persia, ^ 
A. D. 1623. The Tigris is the most eastern river of Turkey, but the Euphrates 
is properly the river of Turkey, or Ottoman empu'e, and when used as a national 
emblem it must designate Turkey, or the eastern part of it; and the overthrow 
of the Turkish power on both sides of it would open the way for the eastern 
nations to invade Palestine. 

The Ottoman power came to its hight under Solyman II., A. D. 1520-66. 
His fleet nearly controlled the Mediterranean, and his Janizaries, then the most 
effective infantry in the world, were equally formidable on land.^ Before the 
fall of Constantinople, John Hunniades, general of the Hungarians, and Scan- 
derbeg, a Greek prince of Albania, successfully resisted and repulsed the Turks. ^ 
Matthias Corvin, king of Hungary — like his father, Hunniades — was a terror to 
the Turks during his reign, A. D. 11:58-90 ; took Bosnia from them, and kept 
Transylvania, Wallacia, Moldavia, Sclavonia, and Servia, in dependence on his 
crown, against the incessant efforts of the Turks to rescue those provinces. He 
was succeeded by Uladislaus, or Ladislaus. ^ 

2. The Woe Inflicted on the Western Empire. — The death of Ladislaus 
and the minority of his son, Louis II., left Hungary, exhausted by a peasant war, 
an easy prey to the Turks, but it was reprieved for few years by a revolt of the 
Janizaries and the death of Selim I. ^ Solyman II. concentrated his efforts upon 
the conquest of Hungary and Rhodes. The small army raised in the south of 
Hungary could offer no effective resistance, and in A. E). 1521 Sabatz, Semlin, 
and Belgrade fell into his power. ^ With a force of three hundred ships and one 
hundred and ten thousand men he compelled the Knights of St. John to surrender 
the isle of Rhodes after a long and valiant defense. The German emperor gave 
the island of Malta to the surviving knights of the order. ^ Having subdued 
Egypt and shaken the Persian kingdom to its foundation in five years, he turned 
toward Europe, declared himself emperor of the west as well as of the east, and 
aimed to make Constantinople the capital of the world again. Hungary, reduced 
to extreme poverty and weakness by the war of the nobles, was his flrst point of 
attack, with an army of three hundred thousand men, and the smoke of a burning 
town announced his approach."^ 

In the battle of Mohacz, A. D. 1526, the Hungarians lost their king, Louis 
11. The principal of their nobility, twenty-two thousand Hungarians, were left 
on the battle-field. The whole kingdom lay at the mercy of the conqueror, and 

(5) Thai., p. 127. (6) Lipp. Gaz., Irak, hist. of. (7) Rev. Eurp., Vol. I., pp. 279-80. (8) Thai. 
160, § 76. (9) Lipp. Gaz., Turk., hist. of. (1) Guth. Geog., Vol. TL, p. 481. (2) Thai. 140. (3) 
Rev. Eurp. 1; 205-6. (4) Idm., 276. (5) Thai. 160, § 76. (6) 170, § 99, (7) Thai. 178, § 122. 



CHAPTEK CLXVI. : SECTION 11. 891 

Solyman proceeded as far as Raab, laying waste the country with lire and sword, 
and carried several hundred thousand prisoners into slavery. ^ After two weeks' 
residence in the capital, Buda, he carried away the valuable library of Matthias 
Corvinus and several works of art to adorn Constantinople. 

The death of Louis 11., in his twentieth year, left the crowns of both Bohemia 
and Hungary vacant, and Ferdinand of Austria, brother to Emperor Charles Y., 
having married Anne, sister to Louis IL, claimed them and was crowned at 
Prague, A. D. 1527. The crown of Hungary was disputed by John Zapolya, 
the lord of seventy-two castles, the count of Zips, palatine of Transylvania, and 
greatest of the Hungarian magnates. Zapolya, opposed by Ferdinand with a 
large army and being defeated in battle at Tokay, did homage for his crown to 
the sultan. Solyman had conquered the greater part of Bosnia, Crotia, Dalmatia, 
and Sclavonia, and now, A. D. 1529, with the entire Turkish army, supported by 
a fleet on the Danube, laid siege to Vienna, the capital of Austria. All Ger- 
many united in this moment of danger, and the defense was as determined as the 
attack was formidable. After a loss of nearly eighty thousand men the Turks 
retreated, leaving Zapolya to settle his dispute with Ferdinand. ^ 

The Emperor Charles Y., having received from the pope at Bologna the iron 
crown of Lombardy and the imperial diadem of Rome, crossed the Alps into Ger- 
many to settle religious difficulties and concert measures against the Turks. The 
threatening movements of Solyman induced a more conciliatory tone toward the 
Protestant princes, and thus the Moslem hosts became the unconscious allies of 
the Reformation, A. D. 1530. ^ The progress of the Turks compelled the emperor 
to conclude the first religious peace at JSIuremburg, A. D. 1532. It was confirmed 
by the diet of Ratsbon, and granted full liberty to preach and publish the doc- 
trines of the Augsburg confession.'^ In A. D. 1532 Solyman advanced into Hun- 
gary with three hundred and fifty thousand men. Many fortresses sent him their 
keys, but at Guns his whole army was detained three weeks and repulsed eleven 
times by a garrison of seven hundred men. 

The operations of Andrew Doria in the Morea and the defeat of his cavalry 
at Sommeringpass caused his hasty defeat, leaving only sixty thousand men at 
Essek to support the interests of Zapolya. Peace was made between the emperor 
and porte the next year. ^ Solyman reduced the provinces of Moldavia and 
Wallacia, and made their princes vassals and tributary to his empire. He took 
into his service the pirate Barbarossa, king of Algiers, and created him grand 
admiral, or Cpitan pasha. ^ The Mediterranean coasts were infested, A. D. 1534, 
by Mahometan pirates, especially by the flying squadrons of Barbarossa. From 
Gibralter to Messina, along the borders of Spain, Italy, and France, no man slept 
securely, and on the African coast a multitude of captives, reduced to a most 
degrading servitude, were waiting to be ransomed. Barbarossa took possession 
of Tunis and was a terror to Europe. The Emperor Charles Y., commanding 
his forces in person, landed on the coast of Africa, took fortress Goletta by storm, 
routed Barbarossa, took possession of Tunis, restored Muley Hasson to his throne 
of Tunis and obligated him to suppress piracy, protect all Christians in the exer- 
cise of their religion, and pay a yearly tribute of twelve thousand ducats. Thou- 
sands of liberated captives, clothed and equipped by the emperor, preceded his 
return, and with ardent gratitude spread his fame through their various coun- 
tries. ^ In A. D. 1540 the fleet of Barbarossa was again pursuing ravages in the 
Levant and conquering nearly all the islands of the Archipelago. Yenice lost 
these and several places on the mainland, and had to pay a ransom which 
exhausted her resources and left her dependent on the protection of France. ^ 
The ruin of the republic of Yenice was completed by the Turks. Dragged into 
the war of Charles Y., they lost fourteen islands and were obliged to surrender 
Malvasia and Napoli-di-Romagna in the Morea. ^ 

(8) Rev. Eurp. 1; 276. (9) 276-7. Thai. 178-9, §§ 123-4. (1) Thai, 179. (*) Chap. 157. (2) 
Thai. 180. (3) Rev. Eurp. 1; 280. (4) Thai. 182. (5) 184. (6) Rev. Eurp. 1; 245. 



892 tHJE KINGDOM OF GOt) DEVELOPED, 

On the death of Zapolya his prime minister, Bishop George Martinuzzi, 
proclaimed his infant son, John Sigismond, king of Hungary, and invoked for 
him the protection of the Turks. Solyman undertook the protection of the child, 
but banished him and his mother to Transylvania, which, with other districts of 
Hungary, he confirmed to them ; but he seized Buda, the capital, with the greater 
part of Hungary and Sclavonia, ^ and established both government and religion 
upon a Mahometan basis, which continued nearly one hundred and fifty years. 
Ferdinand offered to hold Hungary as a tributary to the porte. Solyman replied 
by demanding a yearly tribute for Austria. Town after town fell into the hands 
of the Turks till A. D. 1547, when, desiring to turn his arms against Persia, he 
consented to a truce of five years. ^ The emperor, Charles Y., had been over- 
whelmed with disasters in his expedition against Algiers. Rain had spoiled his 
ammunition, turned his camp into a swamp, and spoiled his provisions ; the winds 
swept away his tents and wrecked his fleet; a pestilence carried away the greater 
part of his army, and he had to return with the shattered remains, to the great 
joy of the French king. ^ 

The Turkish freebooters were the most disgraceful allies of France. Ravaging 
the south of Italy, they burned Reggia, destroyed all vineyards and olive orchards 
near the coast, carried off all the people they could find, and, appearing at the 
mouth of the Tiber, they threatened Rome. The French ambassador interfering 
for the protection of the pope, Barbarossa steered for Marseilles and found a ready 
market for his captives from Italy. Because the French were not prepared for a 
proposed enterprise, Barbarossa was enraged, and to pacify him an attack on Nice 
was ordered ; but the fleet of Dora and a Spanish army arriving in time, the forces 
of the French and Turks were compelled to retire. The city of Toulon was given 
to Barbarossa for winter quarters, and for a time was converted into a Mahometan 
town. At Toulon, as if in an enemy's land, they seized men in the royal galleys 
to serve in their own fleet, and made slaves of all they could capture in the 
surrounding country. The king of France was forced to rid himself of these 
unmanageable allies by paying them nearly a million crowns. Barbarossa sailed 
for Constantinople, ruining and wasting the coasts of Italy as he went along. i 

Bishop George Martinuzzi, guardian of the infant of Zapolya, ofifered the 
province of Transylvania and the crown of Hungary to Ferdinand of Austria for 
a cardinal's hat and the governorship of the province. The Turkish army imme- 
diately entered Transylvania and overran all southern Hungary, and their customs 
of government and worship remained established there till A. D. 1716. They 
were compelled to retire from Erlau by Maurice, ^ but held the greater part of 
Hungary. ^ The Turkish pirate, Drahut, ravaged the Mediterranean coasts A. D. 
1553. From every cliff and castle anxious lookouts watched his approach, and 
columns of smoke too frequently signified his approach to the terrified inhabitants 
of the villages. Richly laden merchantmen were captured on the sea and the 
inhabitants of the islands were carried into slavery. In Corsica they quarreled 
with their allies, and while they seized all the Corsicans fit to row their galleys, 
they also seized several French nobles, \Nfhom they destined for ransom. * 

The Turks besieged in great force, A. D. 1565, Malta, which belonged to the 
Knights of St. John. The fort, St. Elma, was taken, but St. Michael held out 
till, exhausted by desperate attacks, they retired to Constantinople. ^ The 
Moriscoes in Spain were wasted by inhuman massacres. A. D. 1568-71.^ The 
sultan, supporting the claims of John Sigismond, son of Zapolya, took the fortress 
Szigeth, but the noxious air of the marshes proved fatal to Solyman himself, A. D. 
1566. '^ Selim 11. determined to capture Cyprus, A. D. 1570, and attacked it with 
an army of fifty thousand — though the Venetians had given him no cause for 
hostilities — and completed the conquest before the succors from jSpain and the pope 



(7) Rev. Eurp. 227. (8) Thai. 185, § 142. (9) Thai., p. 186. (1) Thai. 187. (2) 195. (3) 198. 
(4) Thai. 196. (5) Thai. 208, § 212. (6) § 211. (7) 213. 



CHAPTER CLXVX.: SECTION III. 893 

arrived, and then he retired within the gulf of Lepanto. The help arrived, and 
the Venetians and allies, with three hundred ships under Don John of Austria, 
achieved a great victory. The Turks lost two hundred and twenty-four ships and 
thirty thousand men, and their fame for invincible bravery and fortune ceased to 
be a terror to the nations of Europe. Greece might have been delivered, but 
discord and rival interests dispersed the fleet. Venice made a separate peace 
with the Turks, A. D. 1573; surrendered Cyprus, and consented to pay a yearly 
tnbute for her ancient boundary in Dalmatia. Selim II. died the next year, but 
the first collision with Russia had begun the series of contests that are yet going 
on. ^ The decline of the Ottoman empire is dated from the battle of Lepanto, 
A. D. 1570. ^ The second woe has been severe in Europe, as it had been in Asia, 
and it is not ended yet, nor will it be ended till the two witnesses be slain and 
resurrectionized. 

3. Decline of the Turkish Power, or Drying- of the Euphrates, Begins. — 
Schism was a plague inflicted on the Mahometan empire in the headship of the 
Saracens, and it had three heads, or caliphs, at one time. Mutual slaughters 
often turned the Moslem sea of empire into blood and destroyed mutual cooper- 
ation in support of religion and power. Mahometans have been scorched by 
tyrants, enshrouded in darkness, and gnawed their tongues for anguish ; but the 
Ottoman empire has been contracted by the outside encroachments of Christian 
nations. The Turkish sultan is the caliph of Mahometanism; his throne is now 
(A. D. 1878) full of darkness, and the men that would rule have anguish enough. 
But none of the last plagues appear to have fallen at the same time and in the 
same order with those on the papal empire, and the sixth appears to be wholly 
and particularly restricted to the Ottoman empire. Moslemism is divided into 
innumerable sects, and the civil sovereignties have but little sympathy for one 
another. The Turks profess to be of the sect of Omar, but these are split into 
as many sectaries as their neighbors, the Christians. ^ The mufti, or shiek-Islam, 
is the supreme chief of the religion of Mahomet in Turkey, the oracle who is 
consulted, and who solves all the questions put to him; his decisions are called 
fetwahs. The sultan has recourse to him in all difficult cases, and promulgates no 
law, makes no declaration of war, establishes no impost, without having obtained 
a fetwah. The mufti girds on the sultan's sword on his accession to the throne, 
at the same time reminding him of his obligation to defend the religion of the 
prophet and of promulgating its creed. ^ The religion of Mahomet is the uniting, 
animating, and controlling spirit of the Turkish empire. 

War between the Ottoman and German empires began with the defeat of 
the Turkish governor of Bosnia near Sissek, A. D. 1593. The sultan, Amurath 
III., immediately raised a great army and captured Yesprim, but in turn was 
defeated by the Austrians. Next year Moldavia, Wallacia, and Transylvania 
revolted from the Turks and allied themselves with the emperor, A. D. 1594. 
The campaign of A. D. 1595 was disastrous to the Turks ; the Austrians took 
Gran and received the submission of Wissegrad and Waitzen. In A. D. 1596 
Mahomet took the field in person, captured Erlaw, defeated the Austrians in a 
three days' battle at Kerestes, who lost fifty thousand men and one hundred 
guns and all their treasures. Terror seized Vienna and spread through Europe. 
The war continued ten years, and resulted in Emperor Rodolph 11. paying down 
a large sum and being relieved of annual tribute. And the limits of the two 
empires remained nearly the same, A. D. 1607. ^ 

Their war for Candia with Venice, A. D. 1645-69, terminated in the sur- 
render of the city of Candia, after a siege of two years and four months and a 
loss to the Turks of one hundred thousand men,^ though the French made vain 
attempts to relieve it ; and the island remained nearly two hundred years in the 
undisputed possession of the Turks. In A. D. 1663 the Turks, two hundred 

(8) Thai. 209. Rev. Eurp. 1; 245. (9) Rev. Eurp. 1; 280. (1) Guth. Geog., Vol. XL, p. 464. 
(2) Guth. Geog. 2; 464-5. (3) Thai. 234. (4) Rev. Eurp.- 2; 56. 



894 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 



thousand strong, under the grand vizier, Acmet Koproli, invaded Hungary ; 
several fortresses were taken, and Morovia was ravaged nearly to Olmutz, by a 
horde of Tartars. Aided by men and money from France, Italy, and the pope, 
and the aid voted by the imperial diet, Montecuculi, the imperial commander 
routed the Turks by a total defeat at St. Gothard, A. D. 1664; but instead of 
prosecuting the war Austria made a twenty years' truce with the invaders. 

The Turks retained all their conquests, received a tribute in the name of a 
gift of two hundred thousand florins, and Michael Abaffi, tributary and protage 
of the porte, continued in Transylvania, A. D. 1664. ^ The Turks and Tartars 
seized Kaminice and Padolia, and imposed tribute on Poland, A. D. 1672. The 
Ukraine was abandoned to the Cossacks under the protection of the Turks. This 
treaty was not ratitied by Poland, and John Sobieski, grand general of the 
crown, gained a brilliant victory over the Turks near Choczim, A. D. 1673, 
relieved Poland from tribute, and recovered some posts to the Ukraine; and he 
was chosen for king of Poland at the death of Michael. ^ 

Civil oppressions and religious persecutions of the Hungarians by the 
emperor gave rise to repeated attempts at revolt, until, in A. D. 1678, Count 
Tekeli, more fortunate than his predecessors, defeated the imperial armies in 
upper Hungary. In A. D. 1682 the grand vizier, Kara Mustapha, joined the 
count at Essek with a large army and marched upon Yienna. The emperor and 
his court fled from his capital, followed in one day by sixty thousand persons. 
After two months' siege and the loss of six thousand of its garrison, by battle and 
pestilence, Yienna was saved by the arrival of John Sobieski, king of Poland, 
A. D. 1683. He increased his army to eighty-three thousand by German rein- 
forcements under the imperial general, the duke of Lorraine. The Turks were 
defeated with great slaughter, and their vast encampment, with treasures of money 
and jewels, horses and materials of war, remained to the victors. Pursued in 
their retreat they were again defeated ; and the fortress of Gran, held nearly one 
hundred and fifty years, was wrested from them. 

The next year the duke of Lorraine captured Wissegrad, Waitzen, and Pesth, 
but besieged Buda without success, losing twenty-three thousand men. Two 
years later Buda was taken by assault and restored to the Hungarians, having 
been a Mahometan city one hundred and forty-five years. In A. D. 1884 the 
emperor, king of Poland, and the Yenetians joined the pope in the holy league 
against the Turks, and the holy war lasted till A. D. 1699. In three years Aus- 
tria regained all Hungary, Transylvania, and Sclavonia. In the battle of Mahacz 
the Turks were defeated on the field of their former memorable victory. Alexis, 
the czar of Russia, or Muscovia, joined the holy league A. D. 1686. but failed to 
conquer the Crimea from the Turks. The Yenetians gained brilliant victories 
over the Turks in southern and central Greece (among other places we notice 
Corinth and Athens), and the conquest of the Morea was completed in A. D. 
1690. '' Belgrade was taken by the imperialists, and a great part of Bosnia over- 
run. The sultan's demand for peace was refused, for now the emperor imagined 
it possible to annihilate the Turkish power in Europe and recombine the eastern 
and western empires. 

In the campaign of A. D. 1689 several passes of the Balkans and forts on 
the Danube were taken by the margrave of Baden, who wintered in Wallacia. In 
A. D. 1690 the grand vizier, Mustapha Koproli, recovered to the porte almost all 
he had lost. But, in the battle of Salankeman, the Turks were defeated and the 
Yizier Koproh slain, A. D. 1691. In the battle of Zenta, or Zenta, A. D. 1697, 
where Eugene, prince of Savoy, commanded the imperialists, the grand vizier, 
seventeen pashas, and two-thirds of the Ottoman army were left dead on the field 
of battle. Meanwhile, the Yenetians had made many conquests in Dalmatia and 
Albania, ^ and the peace of Carlowitz, A. D. 1699, was the result. The Turks 

(5) Thai. 285. (6) Rev. Eurp. 2; 46. (7) Thai. 285-7. Rev. Eurp. 2; 51-2. (8) Thai. 287. Rev. 
Eurp. 2; 53-4. 



CHAPTER OLXVI. ! SECTION IV. 895 

ceded to Austria nearly all their conquests in Hungary, Transylvania, Sclavonia, 
and part of Crotia ; to Venice, several Dalmatian fortresses, the isles of St. 
Maria and Aegina, and the entire southern peninsula of Greece; to Poland, 
the Ukraine, Padolia, and Hameniek. Unwilling to admit his powerful neighbor, 
Russia, to share the Black sea navigation, the sultan delayed till A. D. 1702, 
when Azov, with eighty miles of coast, were ceded to Peter the Great, who soon 
made the fortress one of the strongest in the world. ^ 

Thus, the Turkish empire, once so formidable, has gradually fallen from the 
summit of grandeur, its resources exhausted, and its history marked by nothing 
but misfortunes. ^ When the third treaty of Vienna was signed, A. D. 1738, 
the Ottoman empire was so far gone into decline that it continued to exist chiefly 
through the mutual jealousies of the European powers, neither of which would 
permit the others to be aggrandized by the absorption of the Turkish provinces. ^ 
Yet, her power is by no means dried up, so as to permit the nations east of the 
Tigris to cross the Euphrates and meet the western nations on the field of 
Mageddon. Her further decline in power and territory has been by the encroach- 
ments of Russia, and her subjugation by Russia has been prevented by the inter- 
vention of Austria, Prussia, France, and England. Therefore, her further decline 
will be considered in the history of Russia. The Turkish direct influence on the 
papal empire is ended, but its use in the European state system may yet continue 
its woe to be felt. 

4. Russia's First Conquest of Turkish Territory. — Russia interposed in 
favor of religious freedom in Poland, but the Catholics, with the assistance of the 
French ambassador at the porte, stirred up the Turks against the Russians. ^ 
Turkey declared war against Russia A. D. 1769, and in A. D. 1770 Russia con- 
quered Moldavia and Wallacia, gained a great victory over the Turkish fleet off 
bcio, burned their ships in the gulf of Smyrna, and mastered the Crimea and 
island of Taman. But, the premature or insincere effort to liberate the Greeks 
and erect a new Greek empire on the ruin of the Ottoman, resulted in misfor- 
tune. Other plans of Russia requiring the withdrawal of her troops from the 
Mediterranean, the Greek insurgents were left unprotected to the vengeance of 
the Turks, and the Morea became the scene of terrible barbarities.^ This mas- 
sacre of the Greeks is justly chargeable to the Christian nations, for religion had 
sunk far below political interests. Fearing the ever increasing power of Russia 
they combined against her to circumscribe her aggrandizement or share her spoils 
of Turkey and Poland, and in A. D. 1770 Austria and Prussia, by armed forces, 
took possession of Russia's coveted prize, and in A. D. 1772 one-third of Catholic 
Poland was distributed between her Catholic, Greek, and Protestant sisters. 

The Russian-Turkish war was ended A. D. 1774. The sultan purchased the 
restoration of Moldavia, Wallacia, Georgia, Mingrelia, and some other territo- 
ries by acknowledging the political independence of the Tartars north of the Black 
sea, while they continued to acknowledge the supremacy of the sultan as caliph, or 
successor of Mahomet the prophet. Russia was confirmed in the free navigation 
of the Black sea and all Turkish waters for the purpose of commerce. In A. D. 
1783 the Crimea, Cuban, or Little Tartary, were formally annexed by Russia. 
Resistance was suppressed by terrible massacres, and thirty thousand perished. 
Catherine visited her newly acquired territories A, D. 1787, and received the 
homage of her Tartar subjects. She was joined by the exiled king of Poland 
(the victim of her cunning) and by the Austrian emperor, Joseph XL, in disguise, 
with whom she discussed their plans for the spoliation of Turkey. No sooner 
returned than her minister at the porte was imprisoned, and Turkey declared war 
against her.^ The Turks were repulsed, and their entire fleet was destroyed near 
Ozakoff, which was also besieged six months and then taken by storm. 



(9) Rev. Eurp. 2; 56-7. (1) Thai. 323. (2) Rev. Eurp. 2; 102-8. (3) Thai. 340. (4) Rev. 
Eurp. 2; 136-40. 



896 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

The Austrian emperor, Joseph II., declared war against the porte without 
effecting much. Sweden made a diversion for the Turks and prevented the Rus- 
sian fleets saihng for the Mediterranean. Denmark, in aid to Russia, invaded 
Sweden, but England, Holland, and Prussia compelled the Danes to remain neu- 
tral, while Prussia entered the war as an ally to Turkey. The sultan lost many 
fortresses. Austria made peace with Prussia A. D. 1790, and with Turkey A. D. 
1791. In A. D. 1790 the Russians gained several victories by sea and land, 
especially by the storming of Ismail and the destruction of the Turkish fleet near 
Sevastopal. The summer of A. D. 1791 was not less disastrous to the Turks, 
but Prussia and England were now in arms to enforce peace upon Russia, and 
peace was signed A. D. 1792 at Jassay, and the Dniester was recognized as the 
boundary between Russia and Turkey. ^ 

5. The Reconquest of Tuekey. — The Mahometan Turkish power in Egvpt 
was invaded by J^apoleon L, A. D. 1798; an army of thirty thousand Mama- 
lukes and Arabs were defeated, and Cairo was captured. Put the English fleet, 
under Nelson, destroyed the French fleet ; the sultan congratulated Nelson and 
bestowed magnificent gifts upon him ; made a treaty with Russia, and entered 
into the coalition of Christian powers against France — the first Christian ally of 
Turkey — and aided in capturing Rome. ^ Napoleon I. invaded Syria, A. D. 1799, 
and took Gaza and Jaffa ; but Acre was defended by the English. A Turkish 
army was wholly destroyed at Aboukir by Napoleon I. ^ By the peace of Amiens, 
A. D. 1802, Egypt, which had been distracted by civil wars, "^ again submitted to 
the Turkish dominion, and the Ionian islands were recognized as an independent 
republic under the joint protection of Turkey and Russia.^ Thus, we see the 
second, or ecclesiastical, wild beast has lost his supreme animating and controlling 
power, whether papal or Mahometan, and the first beast has made religion sub- 
servient to civil power, and Russia, at the head of the Greek church, and the true 
representative of the Constantine empire, is fast rising to the seventh headship 
of the Monotheistic world, or empire. 

To prevent Russia from sending supplies to Prussia, Napoleon I. instigated 
the porte to a war with Russia, and the French envoy directed the diplomacy of 
the divan, or court, for a time against Russia and England. But the Russians 
were victorious in Servia, Bulgaria, and on the frontiers, in Asia, of the two 
empires, A. D. 1807-8. The defeat of the seraskier of Erzerum prevented the 
Persians from making a diversion in favor of the Turks, and the Russian fleet 
defeated the Turkish fleet under Capitan Pasha. The English took Alexandria, 
but in six months they were obliged to surrender it to the governor of Egypt. ^ 
France and Russia having decided on the subjugation of Turkey, England obtained 
the control of the divan, and war was continued. The Russians, though some- 
times repulsed, took possession of the Turkish camp, by main force, after much 
blood and terrible carnage. The whole Turkish fleet and several places were 
captured, and the Russians were masters of the whole right bank of the Danube. 
The Servians and Russians took the last fortress which the Turks still held in 
their country. ^ 

Prince Kutusoff, having sent five divisions of his army into Poland, acted 
on the defensive against the Turks, and caused the fortress of Silistria to be demol- 
ished, preserving only Rudschuk, on the right bank of the Danube. Jusuff Pasha 
being superseded by Achmet Aga, and the Turks reinforced by thirty-five thousand 
men, composed mostly of excellent cavalry, and supported by formidable artillery 
served by French oflicers, the Russians were attacked, driven back to their 
intrenchments, dislodged, and driven into Rudschuk, where they repulsed the 
Turks. In the night they evacuated it and passed the Danube, but were prevented 
from carrying ofi* their artillery and ammunition, and, weakened by disease, they 

(5) Thai., p. 341-3. (6) 372. (7) Rev. Eurp. 2; 253. (8) 378, § 5. (9) Rev. Eurp. 2; 254-5. 
(1) pp. 257-8. 



» CHAPTER OLXVI.: SECTION VI. 897 

were unable to prevent the Turks from taking possession of the islands of the 
Danube and invading Wallacia. Reinforced by lifty thousand, Hutusoff turned 
the victory to the Russians, and the porte ceded (A. D. 1812) about one-third of 
Moldavia, as far as the Pruth, the fortresses of Choczin and Bender, the whole 
of Besarabia, Ismael, and Kilia, and granted amnesty to all Servians. In 
A. D. 1814, Persia ceded to Russia Daghistan, Shirvan, Debant, and, in general, 
the whole western coast of the Caspian sea ; renounced her pretensions on Georgia, 
Imiret, and Guriel, and recognized Russia's exclusive right to the navigation of 
the Caspian. Thus, Greek-church Russia extended her domain at the expense of 
Mahometan Turkey and Persia. A concurrence of fortunate circumstances has 
saved the Ottoman empire from that ruin which more than once threatened it, 
and for which the total dissolution of social order in the provinces has long 
prepared the way; and if it still survives these evils its preservation may be 
ascribed to the holy alliance. ^ But the Turkish empire shall come to its end and 
none shall help it. ^ 

It is not love to Turkey but dread of republicanism and fear of despotism 
that induces the Christian sovereignties to protect the Ottoman empire against the 
insurrections of her provinces and the encroachments of Russia. Desire for 
freedom and self-government have infected the Ottoman empire and achieved the 
independence of Greece, produced the insurrection in Candia, and has continued 
to agitate other provinces; and a dread of republicanism has caused Greek, Cath- 
olic, and Protestant sovereignties to suffer the Mahometans to massacre and 
brutalize the Greek Christians. Russia fears to aid the Greek Christians to throw 
off the Turkish yoke and establish self-governments, lest her own provinces should 
follow the example ; and other Christian nations fear to let Russia overthrow 
Turkey, lest she become powerful enough to rule them, too, 

6. The Greek Revolution. — The selfish despotism of the Christian sover- 
eignties is seen in their cold indifference to the inhuman butchery of the struggling 
Greeks until Turkish victories compelled them to fear lest the increase of Mahom- 
etan power should endanger their own interests. In A. D. 1481, Greece had been 
conquered by the Turks after a sanguinary contest of more than forty years; but 
the Venetians did not permit these Mahometan masters to enjoy a quiet possession 
of the country, and during the sixteeenth and seventeenth centuries it was the 
theater of obstinate wars and woes, till A. D. 1718, when the Turks were confirmed 
in their conquests by treaty, ^ and Turkish officials, hardly less violent and rapacious 
than the highwaymen, whose robberies they permitted and whose spoils they 
shared, ruled the land. 

The relation of conquerors and the conquered never ceased, and zeal for the 
Greek church had done much to preserve the separate nationalities ; but the 
Turkish rule was quietly submitted to till A. D. 1821. ^ Exorbitant levies, ^ discrim- 
inating and oppressive taxation of the Christians, desire for freedom^ and to save 
the Christian faith and restore the ancient character of the country,''' the calls of 
Russia to shake oft' the Turkish yoke, and the spread of literature and increase 
of knowledge were the moving causes of the Greek Revolution. The Greeks had 
been called upon by Russia, in A. D. 1769, 1786, and 1806, to shake off the 
Turkish yoke, and a society for the liberation of Greece was formed in Paris, 
A. D. 1809. ^ The whole Hellenic race sprung to arms for the recovery of their 
liberty, at the call of Catherine II., to further her own plans against the porte; 
but that crafty empress abandoned them to the vengeance of the Turks, and that 
sedition was quenched in blood, A. D. 1769.^ Alexander I., in his zeal for abso- 
lutism, had no sympathy for the oppressed members of his own church, and the 
holy alliance condemned all revolutionary movements, whether in Greece, Italy, 
or Spain, and they uttered that cruel sentiment: "Let the Greek rebels obey their 
lawful sovereign. "Q 

(2) Rev. Eurp. 2; 300-2. (3) Dan. 11 :45. (4) Will. 5^16. Thai. 407. (5) Rev. Eurp. 2; 343. 
(6)340. (7) Will. 517. (8) Thai. 340. (9)408. 
—57 



898 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

An association called the Hetaria, with its headquarters at St. Petersburg, 
was formed, A. D. 1814, for the liberation of the Greeks. ^ Disappointed of 
aid from Kussia, they commenced a revolution themselves and encountered the 
hostility of Christian despots abroad, and of civil discords and treachery at home; 
but the people under these despots and in the United States of America aided 
them with provisions and clothing.- The movement in Servia, A. D. 1817, was 
defeated by treachery, betrayal, and murder. ^ In A. D. 1821 Prince Alexander 
Ypsilanti, leader of the Hetaria and a major-general in the Russian army, pro- 
claimed from Moldavia the independence of Greece, assuring his countrymen of 
Russian aid. But the Russian emperor disclaimed the movement and declined 
intervention, 3 while the porte took the most vigorous measures against the 
Greeks and called upon all Mussulmen to arm against the rebels for the pro- 
tection of Islamism. And the Greeks fought to save the Christian faith.* 

This was a war for religion and civil rights. In Moldavia the bloody struggle 
was terminated with the annihilation of the patriotic army, after deeds of des- 
perate valor. Ypsilanti fled to Catholic Austria, where he was imprisoned by 
that Christian government. ^ The Hetarists, falling into the hands of the Turks, 
were impaled alive, and children were hung up alive, along the roads, by the feet. 
The monasteries were entered and the inmates were butchered. The sultan 
issued orders to disarm all the Greeks in his empire, and a war of extermination 
at the capital was commenced. ^ The venerable Patriarch Gregorios, of Constan- 
tinople, with three bishops and eighty priests, were hanged in their robes before 
the gate of the church on the day of the greatest festival of the Greek church. 
The patriarch's body and others were dragged through the streets by Jews, and 
several hundred churches were destroyed. ^ 

The Turks committed great depredations on the Greek towns on the coasts 
of Asia Minor and on the islands, and where no insurrection had appeared the 
inhabitants were disarmed; the archbishops, bishops, and priests were mur- 
dered; villages were burned, and the country desolated. When the Greeks 
captured Turkish fortresses they retaliated, and in Tripolitza eight thousand 
were put to the sword. In Cassandra three thousand Greeks were put to the 
sword, women and children were carried into slavery, and that peninsula was 
converted into a desert waste. But in most of the southern districts the Turks 
were driven from the country and shut up in towns, A. D. 1821% ^ 

In A. D. 1822, the first national congress of New Hellas proclaimed the 
national independence, adopted a provisional constitution, and appointed officers. 
The Greek fleet appeared on the coast of Scio. The people arose in arms and 
put the Turkish garrison to the sword; five thousand of most barbarous Asiatic 
Turkish troops were landed and the island was given up to indiscriminate pillage 
and massacre ; the paradise of Scio was changed into a scene of desolation ; 
twenty thousand were put to the sword ; a greater number (forty-one thousand*^) 
of the most accomplished women and children were sold in the slave markets of 
Smyrna and Constantinople. ^ The Turks bought them at Constantinople for the 
pleasure of putting them to death. The pasha of Saloniki boasted that he had 
destroyed fifteen hundred women and children in one day. And one hundred 
and fifty villages and five tliousand Christians experienced the fate of Scio. "^ 

The Turks prepared to conquer western Greece ; but, after some success, 
they experinced a series of defeats from Greek valor and fire ships, and more 
than twenty thousand Turks perished by the sword. Out of a fleet of thirty-five 
vessels seventeen were destroyed, and the strong fortress of Napoli di Romania 
was carried by assault. ^ 

7. Christian Despots Encourage the Woe. — A proclamation to the 
European powers was issued, which the holy alliance considered incompatible 

(l)Rey. Eurp. 2; 340. (2) Will. 517. (3) Rev. Eurp, 2; 341-2. (4) Will. 516. (5) Thai. 408. 
Will. 517. (6) Will. 517-18. Rev. Eurp. 2; 342-3. (7j Idm., p. 344. (8) Will. 519. Thai. 409. 
(9) Will. 519-20. Rev. Eurp. 2; 344. 



CHAPTER CLXVI. I SECTION VIII. 899 

with their views of legitimacy, and dissensions among the Greek leaders had an 
unfavorable influence on their cause with European cabinets. ^ But though the 
governments were indifferent, and those embraced in the holy alliance expelled 
the Greek fugitives from their borders, yet the people in those governments sent 
supplies of money, arms, and men to aid in the combat for freedom. Among 
these adventurers was Lord Byron, who ended his romantic life atMissolonhigh.^ 
During A. D. 1823 the war was carried on with results generally favorable to 
the Greeks. ^ But dissensions prevailed among the Greek captains, ^ and in A. D. 
1824 the Turks began the campaign with much more vigor than previously. 

Peace being concluded with Persia and the rebellious pasha of Acre having 
submitted to the porte, the Turks were enabled to send forces from Asia and also 
those of Wallacia and Moldavia. To destroy the Greek navy, the Capudan 
pasha, Khosru, sailed from Mytzlene with a large fleet, which contained a number 
of neutral transport ships belonging to Kussia, Austria, and others, from the Dar- 
danells. Here were Catholic Austrian, Italian, and Spanish vessels engaged 
against the liberties of Christian Greece, and in support of Mohamedan Turkey. 
To oppose this formidable armament the Ipsaroits had but four thousand men. 
The Turks landed silently in the ni^ht, and the most horrible butchery was per- 
petrated. In Fort St. Nicholas afflicted mothers cast themselves and children 
into the sea, while five hundred Albanians defended themselves and killed half 
of the flrst assailants. Having performed prodiges of valor they opened the 
gates and admitted two thousand assailants, then blew up the fort, enemies, and 
themselves. Four thousand Christians perished; all their property and one hun- 
dred vessels of diflerent sizes were destroyed, and nothing but ruin and heaps of 
putrid corpses were found when the Greek fleet arrived. 

The Capudan pasha's attempt on Samos was defeated by the Greek fire 
ships destroying gun frigates, corvettes, and transports, and dispersing two fleets. 
The Turks formed a junction with vessels from Egypt, but the Greeks with their 
flre ships destroyed more of them, astounded them with deeds of valor, and 
drove them to the Dardanells. The Egyptians were damaged on the northern 
coast of Candia, and the Greeks repelled their invasion by land. The campaign 
of A. D. 1824: was glorious to the Greeks ; their government began to assume 
harmony and strength, and their commerce revived. * " 

8. Woe Continued by Help from Egypt. — The sultan, unable to reduce the 
Greeks with his own forces, called in Mehemet Ali, the almost independent 
viceroy of Egypt, promising to make his step-son, Ibrahim, pasha of the Morea. ^ 
To subdue and desolate the Morea, Ibrahim Pasha sailed from Alexandria with 
nine frigates, four corvetts, forty brigs and galliots, two hundred and forty trans- 
ports, and eighteen thousand troops; and, after a delay of some months, united 
with the Turkish fleet in the gulf of Bodroun, where Kanaris blew up a forty- 
four-gun Egyptian frigate and a brig; and the Turks returned to Constantinople. 
Miaulis attacked Ibrahim's fleet off Candia and destroyed a frigate, ten small 
vessels, and fifteen transports. Thus, frustrated in his designs on the Morea, 
Ibrahim retired to Rhodes, further weakened by the plague on shipboard. And 
so ended the campaign of A. D. 1824.* 

In A. D. 1825 dissensions and treachery among the ambitious chiefs of 
Greece permitted Ibrahim Pasha to land in the Morea sixteen thousand troops, 
most of whom were drilled by French oflicers; while Redschid Pasha, aided by 
the fleet of Capudan Pasha, besieged Missilonghi. Ibrahim took Navarino, 
Calamata, Tripolizza, and went on destroying everything till reaching Argos. 
Here, checked by Coloctrani's army, he fell back to Tripolizza; and, finding the 
Greeks would not submit to his authority, he put the men to death, carried the 
women and children into Egypt for slaves, and desolated every place within his 



(1) Rev. Eurp. 2; 345. (2) Thai. 409. (3) Will. 520. - (4) Rev. Eurp. 2? 146-8. (5) Thai. ,409. 
(*) Rev. Eurp. 2; 348. 



900 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

reach. Missilonghi was defended by Noto Botzaris, the first among the brave, 
against thirty-nine thousand land and sea forces, and the Turks were defeated 
with the loss of nine thousand men. The brave Miaulis, arriving with his fleet, 
burned several of the Turks' vessels and forced their fleet to retire. 

But the pasha landed more troops into the Morea for a winter campaign, 
and the Greeks had scarcely six thousand men under arms to withstand him; and 
the money furnished by the friends of Greece was squandered by the capitani. 
Missilonghi was besieged the fourth time, and was defended by sea and land. A 
body of troops sent against Corinth, by Ibrahim, was destroyed by Niketos, and 
Miaulis put to flight the Capudan pasha's fleet and threw supplies into Mis- 
silonghi. Ibraham Pasha dismissed Capudan Pasha, and blockaded Missilonghi 
with the Turk and Egyptian fleets with twenty-five thousand men and forty-eight 
cannon bought from the French, and he was aided by Pierre Boyer, a Bonapartist 
French general, notorious for his cruelties in Egypt, Spain, and St. Domingo. 
All demands for surrender were rejected by the garrison, and an attack by sea 
and land was repulsed with a loss of four thousand besiegers. But, provisions 
were prevented, the situation became deplorable, and persons died hourly with 
hunger; and, reduced to a heap of ruins, Missilonghi fell, April 22, A. D. 1826. 
At midnight two thousand men, accompanied by women and children, rushed out 
on the enemy's batteries. Five thousand fell on the spot, while the rest — eighteen 
hundred, under Xotos Botzaris and Kitzos Isavellas — reached Salona, and 
afterward fought at Athens. About one thousand women, children, and old men 
blew themselves up by the mines prepared tor that purpose. The plain between 
the city and the mountains was covered with dead Suliots. Many escaped to the 
mountains. Three thousand pairs of ears were sent to Constantinople, and above 
five thousand women and children were made slaves. A Swiss editor wrote : A 
few days more and these brave men will be angelic spirits, who will accuse before 
God the indifl'erence of Christendom for a cause, which is that of religion. We 
are drawing near our final hour. History will render us justice; posterity will 
weep over our misfortunes. 

Ibrahim now possessed Modon, Coron, Navarino, and Patras. He had 
removed three pashas, and had only to gain Kapoli di Romania to be master of 
the islands of the Archipelago. He was still desolating the Morea, and the strug- 
gling Greeks, a prey to every kind of horror, were dying of hunger. Athens 
capitulated to Reschid Pasha on June 17, A. D. 1827. Lord Cochran now 
arrived with steam vessels from England to aid the sufi^ering Greeks, and General 
Church commanded the land forces. New dissensions arose at Napoli di Romania. 
The executive fled to Agina. The Greeks looked to Russia, and chose Count Capo 
d'Istria for president, A. D. 1828. 

9. Christian Despots Find They Have a Sympathy for Hu^ianity and 
Fellow-Christians. — Greek, papal, and Protestant sovereigns, united in the holy 
alliance; could witness with indifterence the brutal treatment and cruel butchery 
of Greek Christians by Mahometan Turks ; could aid the brutal Turk with cannon, 
ships, generals, and drill ofiicers, and in subjugating Christian Greeks to a most 
degrading slaver3^ But, when the conquests of Ibrahim Pasha endangered their 
own interests and laid the foundation of a slave-holding state in Europe, they 
became friends of humanity, defenders of the oppressed, and the abettors of 
national independence and self-government, and a treaty was formed, A. D. 1827, 
between England, France, and Russia, stipulating that the Greeks should govern 
themselves but should pay tribute to the porte. To enforce this treaty, their 
squadrons combined and sailed for the Archipelago. The sultan rejected their 
intervention, and their combined fleet entered the harbor of Navarino and 
destroyed nearly the whole Turco-Egyptian fleet. The sultan was enraged and 
prepared for war. In A. D. 1828 Russia declared war against Turkey; crossed 



(6) Rev. Eurp. 2; 349-53. 



CHAPTER CLXVI.: SECTION I^. 90l 

the Prutli with one hundred and fifteen thousand troops, captured seven fortresses, 
and forced the sultan to accept the treaty ot Adrianople and acknowledge the 
independence of Greece; and the holy alliance gave to Greece a king — Otho of 
Bavaria — with three thousand five hundred Bavarian soldiers.''' Alexander I., 
the projector of the holy alliance, having died, A. D. 1825, his brother, Nicolas, 
was either more zealous in protecting his Greeck church brethren or more 
desirous to conquer territory from Turkey, and France and England, alarmed at 
the aggrandizement of Mehemet Ali of Egypt, furnished him an opportunity to 
encroach on Turkey,^ and hostilities between Eussia and Turkey commenced at a 
period most fortunate for the safety of Greece. The porte breathed vengeance, 
and, intent on exterminating the entire Greek population, would not listen to any 
terms of accommodation offered by the allied powers. Considering Russia as 
secretly favoring the Greek cause, the porte took possession of Moldavia and 
Wallacia and put restrictions on the maritime commerce, in violation of the treaty 
of Bucharest. Nicolas issued his ultimatum, A. D. 1826, and the porte promised 
to restore Moldavia and Wallacia, and also surrender all the fortresses in Asia to 
Russia. But the porte refused the intervention of Russia, France, and England 
in the settlement of Greece, and attempted to rally all his subjects — from nine- 
teen years to fifty years old — for war. ^ 

Russia declared war against Turkey A. D. 1828, to obtain the acknowledge- 
ment of past treaties, inviolable liberty of commerce on the Black sea, free navi- 
gation of the Bosphorus, fulfillment of the convention for the pacification of 
Greece, and the payment of all the expenses of the war. The result of the Rus- 
sian campaigns in Europe and Asia was signal success in Persia. Two principali- 
ties were taken, three pachalics, fourteen fortresses, and three castles. 

The sultan prepared for a new campaign, A. D. 1829, and in it lost Silistria; 
seven thousand nine hundred killed, eight thousand prisoners from the garrison, 
and the armed inhabitants ; two hundred and sixty-three cannon, eighty-six stand 
of colors, two three-tailed pashas and their whole fiotilla, ammunition, wagons, 
and baggage. The Russians crossed the Balkan mountains and captured Mesam- 
bria, Achioli, Bourgas, Aides, and Adrianople. The Turks lost thousands of 
killed and prisoners, and cannons, standards, tents, and military stores in abun- 
dance, and a whole camp. 

A treaty of peace was signed at Adrianople. Russia restored Moldavia, 
Wallacia, and all the towns occupied by them in Roumelia. Moldavia was to 
have an independent administration and free trade; the Russians, freedom of 
commerce throughout the Ottoman empire, as in former times; free commerce 
and navigation in the Black sea to all nations at peace with Turkey. The porte 
paid the expenses of the war and the losses of Russian subjects, and acceded to 
the terms of Russia, France, and England for the settlement of the affairs of 
Greece. ^ 

Thus, after European Turkey was conquered and her power dried up by 
Russia, it was restored to the porte by the diplomacy of France and England for 
fear of Russian aggrandizement. Turkey received another mortal blow from 
Mehemet Ali, the viceroy of Egypt. His stepson, Ibrahim Pasha, being defeated 
by the allies, had to evacuate the Morea with his troops and to set his Greek 
prisoners at liberty, ^ but he received the sovereignty of Crete. Dissatisfied, he 
sent Ibrahim to conquer Syria. The sultan forces were defeated on the Euphrates, 
and he died A. D. 1839. The French desired to place Mehemet on the sul- 
tan's throne, or at least make him the independent sovereign of Egypt and Syria. 
But England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia opposed this dismembering of Turkey. 
The allies defeated Ibrahim Pasha, and restored Syria and Crete to the porte 
A. D. 1840, and English influence controlled the counsels of the sultan for many 



(7)Rev.Eurp. 357. Will. 521-2. Thai. 409-10. (8) Thai. 409. (9) Rev. Eurp. 2; 354. (1) Rev. 
Eurp. 2; 358-61. (2) Will. 522. 



902 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DETELOPED. 

years. "^ Thus, we find the Ottoman empire cruel and dependent, though not 
dried up. And these characteristics are implied in the prophecy of Daniel: He 
shall go forth to destroy, but he shall come to his end, and none shall help them. ^ 

10. The Crimean War. — In A. D. 1853 the czar of Russia made secret pro- 
posals to England to join him in the partition of the spoils of the "sick man" of 
Europe, or Turkey. England rejected these overtures and drew closer her rela- 
tions with the other great powers, but especially with France, in order to resist 
any aggression on the part of Russia. Nicolas mustered a great fleet at Sevas- 
topol. He demanded an increased control of the holy places of Syiia and Pales- 
tine and a protectorate which would have involved a sovereignty over the ten or 
twelve millions of Russo-Greek Christians in the Turkisk provinces, and occupied 
Moldavia and Wallacia with his armies. ^ 

We have now the great Monotheistic wild beast represented at Jerusalem by 
four grand religious divisions. The Mahometan, under the protection of Turkey, 
has the dominion, and holds the area of the Temple of Jehovah for His palace. 
It has usurped the prerogative of the Jew, who has no political representative 
there. The papist, falsely called Catholic, claims some places made sacred by 
Christian associations ; he is responsible to the pope whose interests are pro- 
tected by the French. The Protestant has builded churches there and seeks to 
establish his peculiar views and customs in the land of promise ; and England 
protects the Protestants, and her power is augmented and spread abroad by their 
influence and missionary operations. The Greek church, under four patriarchs, 
were the original Catholics of the east, but now are under the cruel and brutal 
oppression of the Turk. The only sovereign in the world identified with the 
Greek church and disposed to uphold and defend its interests is the Russian 
monarchy. The czar demanded the right to protect them, and England and 
France, fearing the influence of Russia, induced the porte to refuse the demand. 

The English minister at Constantinople, having power to summon a British 
fleet from Malta, encouraged the Turkish ministry to persist in a refusal of the 
czar's demands, while a congress, at Yienna, of Austrian, Russian, French, and 
English ambassadors endeavored to settle the difference and maintain peace. 
But in vain. 

The sultan declared war A. D. 1853. His general, Omar Pasha, crossed 
the Danube and gained a victory at Oltenitza. After an assault of four days 
upon the Turkish lines, at Kalafat, the Russians retreated. A fleet from Sevas- 
topol destroyed a Turkish squadron at Sinope and bombarded the town, four 
thousand Turks being slain. The czar refused to withdraw his troops from the 
Danubean provinces, as required by France and England, so they concluded a 
close alliance with Turkey and declared war against Russia, resolving to destroy 
the forts guarding the harbor and the immense military magazines at Sevastopol. 

The allied armies were conveyed by sea to the Crimea. The Tartar inhab- 
itants of the country, though professing contentment under Russian rule, betrayed 
no hostility toward their fellow Mahometans or their allies, but steadily sold to 
them food and beasts for the armies. 

In these battles of Catholics, Protestants, and Mahometans against the 
Greek church protector, the Turk is so insignificant he can not be seen. Both 
parties displayed skill and valor, and both suff'ered. Peace was made, in A. D. 
1856, by the ministers of England, France, Sardinia, and Turkey, who were 
allies, and of Russia under the mediation of Austria. 

Turkey was admitted into the European States-system, and the integrity of 
the dominions was guaranteed. Conquests were mutually restored, the Danube 
and Black sea were thrown freely open to the commerce of all nations, but the 
latter was closed against ships of war. Servia, with her native prince, acknowl- 
edging a sort of dependence on Turkey, was placed under the protection of the 



(3) Thai. 410. (4) Dan. 11 :45. (5) Thai. 420. 



Chapter clxvi. t section t. 903 

five powers. A few years later Moldavia and Wallacia were erected into nearly 
independent states, under the name of Romania. Their sovereign is elected by 
the people, subject to the approval of the sultan. In the meantime, Russia had 
made conquests in the Trans-Caucasian provinces of Turkey.® Thus, we see 
Russia watching the Turkish empire, which holds the Greek church in abject 
bondage, as intently as the farmer watches his ripening harvest, and as conspic- 
uously as a man sitting on a white cloud. She has resources of wealth and 
great military preparations, and is ready for a suitable opportunity to reap the 
harvest. The Ottoman empire, though dried up a little more, is kept in being 
by the European States-system, which now embraces the territory of the odd 
Roman empire, with the additions on the north ; and it contains four national 
Monotheistic religions — the Mahometan, the Greek church, the Papal, and the 
Protestant. 

The Greek church and the Protestants acknowledge the state sovereign as 
the supreme in authority. The papal and Mahometan submit through necessity, 
but maintain the supremacy of the pope and caliph. Though the integrity of 
the Turkish empire is guaranteed by the States-system, yet its power is drying 
up, as John predicts. And Daniel says: ''He shall come to his end, and none 
shall help him; and tidings out of the east and north shall trouble him." Russia 
has troubled him on the north, but we have not yet received the troublesome 
tidings out of the east ; perhaps Russian influence will bring it, but some com- 
plication in European diplomacy must prepare the way. The power of Turkey 
as a barrier against eastern invasion is not yet dried up, so that nations from the 
sun-rising can not congregate with the western nations on the field of Mageddon; 
but the empire is disintegrating, and an insurrection in Candia, put down by 
cruel butchery of men, women, and children, while European sovereignties, 
dreading republicanism, looked on with approbation, shows the woe accom- 
panying the sixth trumpet is not ended yet. Turkey still has her old brutal, 
savage disposition, and when opportunity presents itself she shows it. (Con- 
tinued in chaps. 174 and 176. 



(6) Thai. 420-22. 



1 



CHAPTER CLXYII. 



ENGLISH POWER AND INFLUENCE IN THE WORLD. 

A. M. 5791-5892. 

1. Position and Relation to Turkey and Russia. — Before we can form a 
decision in regard to the overthrow of Mahometanism and poperj we must con- 
sider the position and relation of England and Russia to these domineering 
religions. Russia, on the north of Turkey, is a dangerous neighbor, and her 
designs on Turkey are not concealed. Bordering on the north of Persia, Tartary, 
and China, bj conquest or diplomacy she might bring in Persia or Tartary, or 
both of them, on the east, and destroy Turkey on the Euphrates, while she took 
Constantinople and Asia Minor. But French power and influence in North Africa 
and Egypt, and English power and influence in southern Asia, might counter- 
balance Russia on the north, and Austrian and Prussian jealousy might perpetuate 
the existence of Turkey in Europe. But, if Russia and England combined, 
invasions on the north and east would soon dry up the Turkish power, and might 
restore Palestine to the Jews. 

The power and influence of England in southeastern Asia are very great, and 
her influence in Persia and Turkey may prevent Russia, for a time, from consum- 
mating her grand object in Asia. France and England prevented Russia's subju- 
gation of Turkey in the Crimean war; but France has been conquered by Prussia, 
and, for the present, has sunk in the scale of nations. England is still growing 
and furnishing a protecting wing to missionary operations. She lost the United 
States of North America, but this loss has proved a gain to her and the world by 
the moral and political influence it has infused into religion and politics, and this 
day missionaries from the United States are Christianizing, civilizing, and educating 
the barbarians under the British government. British arms have broken into 
Mahometan and pagan nations, and United States diplomacy and peaceful nego- 
tiations have influenced them to adopt civil and religious toleration and freedom. 

2. England Gets Control of the Mogul Empire. — Connected with the 
revolutions of Europe was the successive doctrine of the Portugese, Dutch, and 
French power and influence in Asia, and England has acquired that trade power 
and influence. The three presidencies, Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta, were 
organized before A. D. 1700, '' and Calcutta grew into a magniflcent city of palaces 
and became the capital of Hindoostan. In the eighteenth century the Mogul 
empire, which was Mahometan, had unabated pretensions without power to enforce 
them, and the twenty-one nations of Hindoostan owed as little allegiance to the 
court at Delhi as Prussia did to the court of Vienna. The ruling race were Mahom- 
etans, but the mass held to the ancient Hindoo superstitions. Contending chiefs 
sought foreign alliances, and England and France engaged on opposite sides in 
these Indian hostilities. France originated the idea of superseding the Mogul 
dominion by the European and training Sepoys, or native soldiers, to serve under 
European officers. 



(7) Thai. 318. 



CHAPTER CLXVII. : SECTION^ III. -IV. 905 

Clive, by his conquests, is considered the founder of the British-Indian 
empire. The French dominion fell rapidly, and within another hundred years 
the English had subdued the great Indian peninsula and become the rulers of one 
hundred and eighty million of people. This was accomplished by purchases and 
by participating in the quarrels of the native princes ; ^ and. though better than 
the native despots, the government was stained by acts of aggression and oppression 
incompatible with Christianity. ^ These British dominions in India were governed 
exlusively by the trading company, chartered by Queen Elizabeth, till A. D. 1784; 
then the officers were rendered somewhat responsible to the home government, 
and a more humane and liberal policy was adopted. Tippoo Saib, secretly aided 
or instigated by the French, carried on war with the English for many years. 
This sultan begged for peace, A. D. 1792, and gave two sons as hostages ; but, 
having renewed the war, A. D. 1799, he fell on the walls of his capital, Seringa- 
patam. ^ Successive wars with the Mahratas, the Goorkas of the Nepaulese 
mountains, and Pindarries of the interior ended in the enormous additions to the 
company's territories, and, in A. D. 1819, its commerce was greatly extended 
and an English colony was founded at Singapore as a market for the rich produc- 
tions of the Indian Archipelago. 

3. China Opened to Foreign JN^ations. — In A. D. 1833 the company's charter 
expired, and, though the government of Hindoostan was conferred on them for 
twenty years more, the Indian trade was thrown open to all British subjects; the 
opium, traffic was extended to China ; its importation was prohibited by an imperial 
edict, on account of its pernicious effects on the people; officials were bribed and 
the opium was smuggled in ; the Chinese government interfered, and a two years' 
war was the result ; the Chinese were defeated ; Hongkong was ceded to the 
British ; the ports of Canton, Amoy, Foochoo, Ningpoo, and Shanghi were opened 
to foreign trade, and China paid a war indemnity of twenty-one million dollars, 
A. D. 1842. This was the first of a series of events which have opened the oldest 
empires to the intercourse of the world, which had been prohibited for centuries. ^ 
Thus, the way for missionary operations in China was secured, though England's 
conduct was an imposition and tyrannical act. The Afghans were conquered, 
A. D. 1838-43, and rebelled and murdered the retreating English, but lost the 
province of Scinde, on the lower Indus. ^ 

4. The Sikhs and Kingdom of Gude. — The Afghan war stirred up old enmities 
between the Sikhs or military rulers of the Punjub and the English, and, in A. D. 
1846, they crossed the river Sutlej and invaded the British province. The Sikhs 
were defeated with heavy loss; seven million five hundred thousand dollars war 
indemnity was imposed, and they left their boy king under the guardianship of 
the English, pensioned from his hereditary revenues, and their whole domain was 
annexed to the British empire. They renewed the war and were more completely 
overthrown, and their celebrated magic diamond. Koh-i-noor, was taken and added 
to the crown jewels of England. By kindness and justice of policy the conquered 
people were reconciled to the government ; the warlike chiefs were won to acqui- 
escence, and their sons flocked to English colleges to prepare themselves for 
positions in military and civil service. The great mass of Hindoos and Mahom- 
etans early submitted to a change of masters, who gave them greater security of 
life and property than they ever enjoyed. The Punjub became the rallying point 
of British authority; the Sikhs were the most loyal subjects of the queen, and 
their fidelity saved her empire in India from an overthrow in A. D. 1857. In 
A. D. 1856 the great kingdom of Gude was annexed to the British possessions. 

5. The Sepoy Rebellion. — The native troops employed by the East India 
company — two hundred and thirty-two thousand two hundred and twenty-four 
men — were better fed, equipped, and paid than ever before, and were contented 



(8) Thai. 428-9. (9) Ibd. § 179. (1) Thai. 430, § 180. (2) Ibd. §§ 181-2. (3) Thai. 431. 



906 THK KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

under British officers; they were confiding and obedient, but exceedingly super- 
stitious. The beef tallow in their cartridges affronted their superstition, and other 
causes aroused and spread discontent among the regiments in Bengal, Oude, and 
the province of Delhi. The middle and lower classes of the people joined the 
Sepoys in rebellion ; but the chiefs and great landholders, understanding the 
British power and having more to lose generally, remained faithful to the govern- 
ment. English residents at Delhi and Meerut were nearly all massacred — men, 
women, and children. Delhi, capital of the insurgents, was taken by storm, its 
king transported to Burmah, and his two sons were put to death. At Cawnpore 
the English, under Wheeler, were attacked by the Sepoys formerly under his own 
command, led by Nana Sahib, rajah of Bithor. Two hundred English withstood 
a siege of seventeen days ; half of their number were slain, the rest surrendered 
on condition they were permitted to retire down the Ganges with six hundred 
British residents. The treaty was violated by the Sepoys ; the men were slain ; 
the women were crowded into one narrow room, and on the approach of General 
Havelock they were murdered and thrown into a well. 

Havelock, with his little army, defeated four or five times his number, retook 
Cawnpore, and pressed on to Lucknow, the capital of Oude, to relieve a Scotch 
regiment besieged by a large native army. The excellent governor, Laurence, 
fell, in the beginning of the siege, by a shot. In advancing to the relief, Havelock 
gained four victories over the insurgents; but, his few hundreds of men being 
exhausted, fell back, and the garrison of Lucknow were reduced almost to despair. 
Being reinforced, Havelock recrossed the Ganges; his presence renewed the 
courage of the besieged, but it was impossible to withdraw. After almost five 
months' investment the survivors were rescued by Sir Colin Campbell (November, 
A. D. 1857); but Havelock, worn out by exertions and anxieties, died a few days 
before the abandonment of Lucknow. The capture of Lucknow the next spring 
and occasional fighting during the summer ended the rebellion. An act of parlia- 
ment transferred the government from the company to the crown. Social changes 
have in a great degree broken up the superstition of the higher classes; young 
men of rank and wealth are educated at English colleges in London, and English 
governesses are admitted into the secluded apartments of Hindoo women. The 
cruel and degrading observances of the old religion are losing ground among the 
educated classes ; the division of castes promises to give way to modern civilized 
life. Internal improvements and the diffusion of knowledge have begun to bring 
the great mass of the Hindoo population into community of ideas with the western 
world. * But the missionary operations in these countries under British govern- 
ment is the most important subject of attention. 

6. Australia and Other Places. — Within a century Great Britain has 
established another dominion in the east, more extensive than that of India. The 
vast island or continent of Australia, used for banished convicts, has, by refor- 
mation, improvement, and education, become a prosperous and important part of 
the British possessions in the east. ^ 

Borneo, cleared of its pirates, freed from rebellions, and its natives conciliated 
by a wiser and more beneficent rule than they ever had before, has been added 
to the British empire. ^ Thus, we find England superseding and bounding the 
great Mahometan powers on the east, while Russia has superseded and bounded 
them on the north. These two empires are the most powerful and widespread 
and extended powers in the world, and a combination between them, or a war, 
might bring destruction upon Turkey from the north and east; and insurrection 
and rebellion in the west might terminate Turkish rule in Europe. The English 
possessions in nearer and farther India, and Russia's possessions on the north of 
Tartary and China, place them between the Mahometan and pagan powers of Asia, 
and so they must act a conspicuous part in the future or final development of the 
kingdom of God. (England now, A. D. 1887, possesses Bavaria and Cyprus.) 

(4) Thai. 431. (5)434. (6)436. 



CHAPTER CLXVIII. 



KUSSIA AS HEAD OF THE WILD BEAST OF THE ABYSS. A. M. 

4866-5860. (Continued from Chap. 158, § 5.) 

1. Origin Of. — The Russian empire may be said to have come out of the 
bottomless pit, whether we take this emblem to denote intricate and fathomless 
obscurity, or a sure and hopeless prison. Also, civil and ecclesiastical headship, 
lodged in the civil sovereign, was cast into a hopeless prison when popery and 
Mahometanism destroyed the last remnant of the Greek-Roman empire. Then, 
civil and ecclesiastical headship throughout the Monotheistic world was lodged 
in the pope and caliph, and the civil head had to acknowledge his authority to be 
derived from and sanctioned by the ecclesiastical. Civil sovereignty was only 
an image of the Constantine empire, animated and controlled by the pope or 
caliph, and the only exception to this was in the frozen north. 

East and south of the Scandinavian kingdoms were the numerous Sclavonic 
tribes which were gradually gathered into the empire of Russia. The cradle of 
that empire was a narrow territory extending from Kiev along the banks of the 
Dnieper and north to J^ovgorod. '^ In the eighth century Harald Harfagre, of 
Norway, united many petty sovereignties under his sway and tried to clear his 
dominions of pirates. The nests being broken up, the marauders swarmed over 
Europe ; some crossed the Sythian plains and reappeared upon the Hellespont— 
and the Byzantine sovereigns were glad to buy their services with liberal donations 
of gold. And these Varangians, or exiles, became to the eastern empire in its 
decline what the Franks and Goths had been to the west. A few years later, 
A. D. 862, two excessive bands of Northmen put an end to the Slavic kingdoms 
of Novgorod and Kiev, and thus laid the obscure foundation of the greatest 
empire of our time. The Scandinavian conquerors, comparative few in number, 
adopted the language of their subjects ; but Ruric, the chief, imposed the name 
of his own Russian tribe upon the united nation. ^ Many separate principalities 
were formed by successive chieftains who owned a sort of feudal allegiance to the 
family of Ruric. ^ 

The Normans, so long concealed by a veil of impenetrable darkness, impa- 
tient of a bleak climate and narrow limits, suddenly burst forth, grasped their 
arms, sounded their horns, ascended their vessels, and explored every coast that 
promised either spoil or settlement. The primitive Russians of the Ladoga paid 
a tribute to them in the skins of white squirrels, and they were called Yarangians 
or Corsairs. But their tyranny was expelled, their valor was recalled, till at 
length (A. D. 862) Ruric, a Scandinavian chief, became the father of a dynasty 
which reigned about seven hundred years. When the Scandinavian chiefs had 
struck a deep root into the soil they mingled with the Russians in blood, religion, 
and language. Waladimir advised the fresh streams of Yarangians to seek a 
wealthier master than him and embark for Greece, where, instead of squirrel 
skins, they would be rewarded witb silk and gold. They obeyed and assembled 
at Constantinople, and became the guard of the Greek emperor and the strength 
of his army, and were faithful to the last. 



(7) Will. 309. (8) Thai. 43. (9)50. 



908 THfi J^tNGDOM 0:6' GOD DEVELOPED. 

In A. D, 950 the Russian monarchy occupied a vast place in the map of 
Constantine ; and if confined on the east by the hordes of the east, their western 
frontier was enlarged to the Baltic sea and the country of the Prussians, while 
their northern reign ascended above the sixthieth degree of latitude, over the 
Hyperborean regions, which fancy had peopled with monsters or clouded with 
eternal darkness ; to the south, they followed the course of the Borysthenes to 
the Black sea. The tribes that dwelt or wandered on this ample circuit were 
obedient to the same conqueror, and insensibly blended into the same nation; 
and the two capitals, Novgorod and Kiow, are coeval with the first age of the 
monarchy. ^ The spirit of commercial enterprise pervaded the sea and land from 
the Baltic to the Euxine, from the mouth of the Oder to the port of Constanti- 
nople ; and from their inaccessible center they navigated the Oder to the Baltic, 
and the Boristhenes to the Black sea, and infested the coasts or trafficked with 
the cities. ^ 

2. Efforts to Get Out of the Pit. — Russia has resembled a powerful wild 
beast endeavoring to get out of a deep pit, but often prevented by superior force. 
As we have seen in her contest with Turkey, she has enlarged her borders and 
elevated her position, but much territory conquered by her sword has been 
relinquished in consequence of European interposition. Turkey had been 
absorbed by Russia had not France, England, and other nations prevented and 
forced Russia back to her northern retreat. 

Christianity was introduced at an early period by missionaries from Cherson 
and Constantinople, and in A. D. 955 Queen Olga, widow of the son of Ruric 
and regent of the empire, was baptized in the latter city. Yaldimir the Great, 
who married a sister of the Greek emperor, Basil 11. , after his baptism estab- 
lished churches and schools throughout the empire, A. D. 980-1015, which he 
had enlarged by the conquest of Gallacia, Lithuania, and Livonia. In A. D. 
1036 Yaroslav contributed greatly to their civilization by reclaiming waste lands, 
multiplying towns, churches, and schools, ordering the translation of Greek books 
and the Scriptures into the Slavonian language, completing the first code of 
Russian laws, and allying himself by marriages with France, Norway, and 
Hungary. 3 ^ 

Darkness rested for a long time on early Russian history; but it is now 
known that in the tenth century it had attained an extent and importance as great, 
comparatively, among the powers of Europe, as it now boasts at the present day. 
In the eleventh century, the empire became distributed among the children of 
successive monarchs. In the thirteenth century the Tartar hordes made an easy 
prey of these disunited Russian states; and during two hundred and fifty years 
Russia, under the Tartar yoke, sufi'ered the direst atrocities of savage barbarity 
and despotism. At length, about A. D. 1480, John HI., duke of Moscow, the 
restorer of his country, abolished the ruinous system by which the regal power 
had been fritted away, threw oflf the Mogul yoke, and repulsed their last invasion 
of his country. Many of the divided principalities were consolidated, and at the 
end of the thirteenth century Russia, though scarcely emerged from its primitive 
barbarian darkness, was one of the great powers of Europe. At that time the 
three Scandinavian kingdoms of the north and Russia formed, as it were, separate 
worlds, having no connection with the rest of Europe. And Poland, the ancient 
Sarmatia, supplied the connecting link with the German tribes.* 

The present dynasty of the Romanoffs ascended the throne A. D. 1613, on 
the extinction of the Ruric line, ^ and Alexis, the second of the Romanoffs, 
begun that policy of civilizing his nation and assuming his just place in the 
European States-system, A. D. 1645-77, which was more especially to distinguish 
his son, Peter the Great, A. D. 1689. ^ Peter was both a statesman and a war- 
rior. He extended the empire to the Baltic and to the Black sea, constructed 

(1) Gib. 2:16; 292. (2) Ibd. 293. (8) Thai. 50. (4) Will. 809. 311. (5) 247. (6) Thai. 282. 



CHAPTER OLXVIII. : SECTION II. 909 

the first Kussian navy, commenced a system of internal improvements to open 
water communication between the Baltic and the Black seas, laid the foundation 
of St. Petersburg, and trained an army in a war with the greatest general of that 
age — Charles XII., of Sweden."^ Peter reformed the national church and the 
schools, granted liberty of conscience to those using other liturgies and insti- 
tutions, abolished the penal laws against those diifering from the national church, 
but prohibited the Jesuits from teaching or missionating in Russia; declared 
himself the supreme head of the Eussian church and regulated its affairs. ^ 

The empire Catholic church, before the schism between the Greek and Latin 
branches of it, was subjected to ^ve patriarchs — that of Jerusalem, Antioch, 
Alexandria, Constantinople, and of Rome. In the Kremlin, at Moscow, centers 
the swelling tide of the Russian faith, resplendent with churches stored with 
gems and gold. The sacred city of Moscow became, A. D. 1587, the seat of the 
fifth patriarchate, and assumed, in the opinion of the east, the place made vacant 
by the apostacy of the Roman see. ^ Peter changed the constitution and declared 
himself the supreme head of the Russian church, committed the functions of the 
patriarch to the holy synod, which has been admitted to an equality with the 
patriarchal office by the patriarchs of Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Con- 
stantinople. 1 Thus, we see that the Russian emperor at the head of the five 
patriarchs of the Greek church is the most legitimate successor of Constantine, 
and the Russian empire is, of all the seven heads, the most apposite representa- 
tive of the great Monotheistic wild beast; and if it should subvert Turkey and 
the ten independent sovereignties of the papal empire, give their cooperation, the 
Constantine empire would be restored. The supreme civil sovereignty holding 
the ecclesiastical power in subjection would be raised out of the bottomless pit, 
and then the -papal church would be broken to pieces. 

The demands of Russia for the protectorate of the holy places in Syria and 
Palistine, which produced the Crimean war, shows such to be the ambitious 
designs of the imperial head of the Greek church; and had he not been forced 
back within his prison bounds by England and France, his object would most 
likely have been accomplished. But now Russia stands the counter-poise of 
England, while papal France and Austria are held in prostration before Germany 
and Italy. Such are the facts and prospects this 14 th day of October, A. D. 
1875. (Continued in chap. 174.) 



(7) Thai. 807-11. Will. 388-9. (8) Mosh. 17:2; 1, 2, § 5. (9) Hrp. Mag., Aug., 1872, pp. 416 
and 417. (1) Hrp. Mag., p. 421; and Mosh. as above, §§ 4, 5. Note *. 



CHAPTER CLXIX, 



THE UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA. A. M. 5882. (Continued 

from Chap. 162, § 8.) 

1. Turning to the New "World, we find the United States of North America, 
with her free religion and institutions, surpassing all the other states or colonies, 
exhibiting a material growth and prosperity before unknown in history, and 
ranking as one of the first nations of the world in power and influence. By pur- 
chases, conquests, and treaties with the civilized and the savage, her territories, 
states, and cities have been extended from ocean to ocean, and she has become 
neighbor to Christian Europe and pagan China, Japan, and India. By internal 
improvements she has opened water communication from the Northern lakes to 
the Gulf of Mexico ; made an iron highway for travel from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific. Her flag floats over her commerce with every nation in the world, and 
is respected in all waters of the oceans and their tributaries, and her power 
for good or for evil is and will be felt by all the tribes on the earth. 

Her aggressions on the Indians and on Mexico may not be any more justifiable 
than those of European sovereignties upon weaker nations, yet humanity, pros- 
perity, intelligence, and religion have been advanced by them. Mexico, the states 
of the isthmus, and South America have imitated her example, and by revolution 
have emancipated themselves from ecclesiastical bondage and brought the 
churches and clergy under the inspection and control of the civil government. 
The British possessions on the north keep closest in her rear, having the permis- 
sion and aid of the mother country freely given. 

But the United States, with all her advancement, have not arrived at that 
happy period when the citizens may beat their swords into plowshares and spears 
into pruning-hooks, and no more learn mutual slaughters. Slavery had been 
planted in the colonies by England, and though the Declaration of Independence 
asserted civil and religious freedom to be the inherent and inalienable right of 
all men, yet that slavery was perpetuated, revived, and imposed on all the states 
for protection. This crime called down the vengeance of Heaven. The slave- 
holders rebelled and inaugurated a war to dismember and destroy the govern- 
ment. Slavery was abolished, and the government restored. But the unchris- 
tian character of professed Christians was fully displayed. They regarded neither 
their religious ties nor their denominational relations, but held open communion 
at long range with powder and ball, and close communion by swords and bayo- 
nets. Six hundred thousand are supposed to have perished in the armies, and if 
all the disabled and maimed for life were added, the victims would probably 
number one million. Immense property was destroyed and an enormous debt 
incurred. Still, the institutions and exertions to relieve the wounded and sick 
soldiers showed humanity to have gained upon barbarity, and European nations 
have since practiced on the example. About one-fourth of the Indian tribes have 
become civilized, and one-tenth of the Indian population are citizens of the United 



CHAPTER CLXX. I SECTION I. 911 

States. The old pagan empires of China and Japan have been opened to the 
United States by treaties and without war, and her commerce, institutions, and 
instructions are welcomed to their coasts. 

We have now explored the history of all the nations coming in contact with 
revealed religion, but have not found any one that could be called the kingdom 
of God. We shall now turn to the programme in Revelations ^ and trace it down 
to the end of history, then collect the unfulfilled prophecies and form a judgment 
respecting the future development of the kingdom of God till its consummation. 



CHAPTER CLXX. 



CONQUESTS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. A. M. 5185-5883. (Con- 
tinued from Chap. 161, and especially Chap. 155, §§ 1, 2.) 

1. Sufferings Before Conquests. — The special programme of the suffer- 
ings and advancement of the kingdom of God^ is placed between the consumma- 
tion of the beast antagonism ^ and the seven last plagues by which it is to be 
destroyed. 4 It gives an internal view of the kingdom of God and of the condi- 
tion, direct agency, and work of the saints which synchronize with the events, 
and the servants of Christ are to be instructed by it in respect to their situation 
and advancement. ^ The successful development of the beasts and their persecu- 
tion of the saints was very discouraging to the Sons of Oil, but the sight of the 
Lamb, standing on Mt. Zion with His one hundred and forty-four thousand fol- 
lowers, fills them with joy, and their music, songs, and shouts were as audible as 
the roaring of the seas and the pealing of thunder. A new song appeared to be 
sung around the throne, in the midst of the aggressive and stationary forces of 
the kingdom, because the King had appeared to withstand the beast and recover 
His holy hill. But none outside the throne could learn or sing that song, except 
that virgin band that had openly followed the Lamb from the beginning. 

The first sealed members of this virgin band were elected out of the tribes of 
Israel, but now all nationality has disappeared and they are chosen out of every 
nation. In the conflict with the Red Dragon these sealed followers of the Lamb 
loved not their lives above death, but braved every difficulty and suffering, and 
came off triumphant. To live was Christ, to die was gain ; and they had no 
preference. To live was for the glory of God, the service of Christ, and the 
advancement of the kingdom of Heaven ; to die was to seal their witness-bearing, 
defeat the adversary, and enter into the felicity of Heaven. Whether living or 
dying, they were the Lord's. These can sing the martyr's song of triumph in the 
inquisitions, in the flames, and under all kinds of persecutions ; none others can 
either learn or sing it; nominal followers of Christ can not sing a song of triumph 
in the face of persecution. In the pagan persecutions the saints rejoiced when 
any of their number witnessed a good confession under severe tortures, but when 
any apostatized out of fear or under torture they were dejected. So now the Sons 
of Oil were triumphing over the beast, or his image, by suffering for the truths 
of God and laws and institutions of Jesus Christ. This faithful army of one 
hundred and forty-four thousand has been filled by recruits out of the enemy's 



(2) Rev. 14. (3) 13, (4) 15, 16. (5) Rev. 1:1. 



912 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

ranks, and bj their faith, purity, truth, and suffering they will defeat the beasts, 
and when they appear before the throne they are pronounced faultless : their King 
is well pleased with their conduct and rewards them gloriously. 

This scene ^ represents the condition and work of the true church, or woman 
in the wilderness; of the seed of the woman, or reformers from the beast and 
false prophet; of Christ's two witnesses, or Sons of Oil, whether they be advo- 
cating the cause of the woman or inciting her to vigilance and activity, or tormenting 
the venerators of the beast or his image; and it commenced when the beast, or 
Monotheistic antagonism, was matured, and continued until the Reformation found 
protection under civil governments.''' Soldiers of this army seal their testimony 
with their blood and depart to Heaven, and their places are filled by new recruits 
just as faithful. If the angels rejoice over repenting sinners, how much more do 
these redeemed martyrs, when safe in Heaven, rejoice when their fellow soldiers 
yet on earth stand firm in every trial ! Before the Reformation they did stand 
firm, and during the conflicts raised by the Reformation many sealed their testi- 
mony with their blood. 

This scene is followed by another,^ indicating a time when the Gospel could 
be preached as conspicuously as an angel flying in mid-heaven and proclaiming it 
with a loud voice. The facts recorded in history show such was the result of the 
Reformation. Civil rulers protected the Reformation with success, and since that 
time the Gospel messenger has safely occupied as conspicuous a position as mid- 
heaven, and has spoken with a voice so loud that dragon, beast, and false prophet 
have heard him distinctly. ^ This doctrine was preached in secret before. 

2. Missions. — The conspicuous proclamation of these everlasting glad tidings 
is not restricted to those dwelling on the earth, or empire of the beast and false 
prophet, but it is extended to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. This was 
not fulfilled during the time of the Reformation, but it is progressing at the present 
time, and the Scriptures are being translated into all languages. The character- 
istics of this missionary Gospel are given : Fear God and give glory to Him, for 
the time of His judgment is come. Give not glory nor fear to the beast, nor to 
his image, nor false prophet that animates and controls that image, nor to the 
dragon. Give no glory, nor fear, nor honor to them, for the vials of God's wrath 
are about to be poured out on them ; but worship God alone, the Creator and 
Possessor of all things! However the reformers differed in other points, Luther, 
Zuingle, Calvin, Menno, and all their adherents and reformers on their reforma- 
tions, and all home churches and foreign missions unite in this message of the 
angel. The progress of these reformations, where Protestant civil governments 
have existed in Europe and America, have been traced. ^ It now remains to notice 
the rise and present result of foreign missions. 

3. Papal Missions. — The papal missions belong not to this divine pro- 
gramme; for they did not preach the tidings proclaimed by this angel, but taught 
to worship the cross, saints, the virgin Mary, relics, images, the pope and his 
hierarchy, and to fear the pope and the princes recognized by him. Mahometans 
teach to fear and reverence Mahomet as superior to Jesus Christ, and the caliph 
as his vicar, and the sultan as the lieutenant of the caliph. These missioos belong 
to the frog spirit out of the mouth of the false prophet. I have not any history 
of the modern missionaries of Moslemism. Put at present we are told that 
Mahometanism is taking on a new lease of life, and is again becoming aggressive. 
Its missionaries in Japan, Corea, and elsewhere work with the zeal of the old 
Jesuits, and are gaining force and strength. ^ 

The papal missionaries were very laborious, self-denying, endured many 
sufferings and cruel deaths to convert the nations to popery. Wherever the Port- 
uguese and Spaniards possessed territories in Asia, Africa, and America, these 



(6) Rev. 14:1-5. (7) Chap. 152, and those connected. (8) Rev. 14:6, 7. (9) Chaps. 155, 157, 161. 
(1) Chaps. 159, 160. (2) Standard, Sep. 7, 1876. 



CHAPTER OLXX.: SECTION IV. 913 

missionaries profess to have done exploits in spreading Christianity. This they 
accomplished by superstitious impositions and dreadful cruelties. For a time the 
Dominicans, Franciscans, and other orders performed these missions, but the Jesuits 
eclipsed all of them. In A. D. 1549 the Jesuits propagated their faith through 
most of the Indian continent and Ceylon; in Japan they once numbered about 
six hundred thousand; in China they founded a church which continued about 
one hundred and seventy years. They established their missions in Chili and 
Peru, A. D. 1580. They labored to convert the Greeks, Nestorians, Monophysites, 
Abyssinians, and the Copts to the papal yoke, but did not succeed to any extent. 
In A. D. 1622 the pope established a congregation of cardinals, for propagating 
their faith, amply endowed with revenues and liberally supplied with everything 
that could forward the missions. In A. D. 1627 Pope Urban added the college 
for the propagation of the faith to instruct missionaries in the languages of the 
pagans. Jesuits, Dominicans, and Franciscans vied with each other in these enter- 
prises and penetrated the wilds of America; visited the untried regions of Siam, 
Tonquin, and Cochin China; entered the Chinese empire and numbered their 
converts by millions, and boasted one thousand converts in one year baptized by 
one missionary on the coasts of Malabar, and their churches remain in China to 
this day. But these missionaries of the Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, and 
Capuchins quarreled among themselves and publicly accused each other with the 
bitterest reproaches and invectives: with want of zeal in the service of Christ; 
corrupting Christian doctrines for ambitious purposes ; teaching and approving 
immorality, profane and superstitions rites and customs ; with accumulating wealth 
by rapacious avidity in dealing ; with employing adulation, seduction, and bribery 
to gain their object ; engaging in civil affairs, cabals, and intrigues of courts, and 
with inciting intestine commotions and civil wars. Their corrupt conversions and 
civil intrigues in America are substantiated by history. After great success in 
Japan they were banished or put to death, and many of the native converts evinced 
the sincerity of their belief by heroically suffering cruel deaths. But the Jesuits 
have perverted and corrupted almost every precept and branch of morality — sapped 
the very foundation of it. ^ 

4. Protestant Missions. — Protestants became incited to propagate a purer 
form of Christianity among the nations groveling in pagan darkness and idolatry, 
and the Lutherans were solicited by eminent persons to embark in this pious 
undertaking. A society was planned for the purpose, but was prevented from 
accomplishing the object by several circumstances — a principal one was the fact 
that very few Lutheran princes had territories, forts, or settlements beyond 
European boundaries. The Dutch and English, whose ships covered the ocean 
and sailed to the most distant corner of the globe, and had sent colonies to Asia, 
Africa, and America, had opportunities for spreading Christianity among the 
unenlightened nations.^ This missionary angel's proclamation has aroused the 
dragon, beast, and false prophet to action, the conflict ending in Megiddon. 

The English independents, who emigrated to America to enjoy religious 
freedom, claimed the honor of carrying thither the first rays of divine truth, and 
of beginning a work that has been continued with zeal and abundant fruit. 
Several families that had settled in Holland emigrated to America in A. D. 1620, 
to transmit their doctrine, pure and undefiled, to future ages. These were 
followed, in A. D. 1629, by a second emigration, who had groaned under the 
oppression of bishops and the severity of the court. After exertions to ward off 
the horrors of famine, these exiles labored successfully for the conversion of the 
Indians. Elliot learned the Indian language, translated the Bible and other 
useful books into their language, collected them into regular congregations, 
accommodated his instructions to their dull intellects, and obtained the title of 
"Apostle of the Indians." 



(3) Encp. R. K., Missions and Jesuits. Mosli. 16:2, §§ 2, 3, 17:1, §§ 1-16, 18, 19, and Index in 
Mosh.. Jpsuits. (4) Mosh. 17; 1, § 17. 

— 68 



914 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

This unexpected success drew the attention of parliament and the people of 
England, A. D. 1647 and 1661, and the Society for the Propagation of the 
Gospel in Foreign Parts was formed A. D. 1701 ; and as its numbers, influence, 
and revenues increased, it renewed and augmented its efforts for the instruction 
of the pagans in all parts of the world, and particularly in America. Its pious 
undertakings have been followed with success. ^ Large contributions were raised 
by many of the bishops and clergy, and missionaries were sent to the British 
colonies in America, and since that time to the West Indies. ^ 

The American provinces, taken from the Portuguese by the Dutch, imme- 
diately became an object of zeal, and the Dutch began to spread the light of the 
Gospel among the wretched inhabitants of these benighted regions. But this 
prospect was beclouded when the Portuguese recovered their lost possessions, 
A. D. 1644.^ The Dutch opened a church in the city of Batavia, capital of 
Java, and from thence sent ministers to Amboyna, where, in A. D. 1796, the 
Protestants numbered seventeen thousand eight hundred and thirteen. At Ley- 
den, ministers and assistants were educated and sent east, and thousands embraced 
the Chrisiian religion at Formosa, Columbia, Java, Malabar, etc.; and though 
the work declined in some places churches remain in Ceylon, Sumatra, Amboyna, 
etc. "' As soon as the Dutch gained firm footing in the East Indies they planned 
with wisdom, and executed at a great expense, before A. D. 1677,*^ various 
schemes for instructing the natives in the doctrines of the Gospel. But as the 
Dutch colonies fell into English hands by conquests and treaties, so their mis- 
sions were superseded by those of England. In A. D. 1705, Frederick lY., of 
Denmark, applied to the University of Halle, in Germany, for missionaries to 
preach the Gospel on the coasts of Malabar, in the East Indies, and upwards of 
eighteen thousand gentoos were brought up to the profession of Christianity. ^ 

The London Itinerant Society, in A. D. 1896, supplied religious instruction 
to villages within fifteen miles. Sunday schools were established and supplied 
with teachers and books, and thus it originated itinerant preaching stations and 
settled churches. ^ The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge originated 
A. D. 1698, after the example of the Dissenters, whose missionary labors and 
success in America had been noticed with admiration by some clergymen of the 
established church. It was designed for circulating Bibles and other religious 
books in the colonies, and seeing the success in the American colonies and the 
West Indies, several missionaries were sent out for the instruction of the colonies, 
and measures were taken to render it permanent in its operations. But it became 
inactive till the establishment of the British and Foreign Bible Society, when 
rivalship gave it new life. ^ A Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in 
the Highlands and Islands of Scotland was formed at Edenburgh, A. D. 1709. 
It was sanctioned by the general assembly, incorporated by Queen Anne, and sup- 
ported by large contributions. It also afforded help to the Susquehannah and 
Delaware Indians, and Brainerd, whose labors and success have scarcely been 
surpassed, was greatly supported by it. ^ 

The Moravians have exceeded all others in their missionary exertions. They 
have various missions, and by them above twenty-three thousand of the most 
destitute of mankind in different regions of the earth have been brought to a 
knowledge of the truth. Yast numbers of the Danish islands and English islands 
have been brought to worship God in spirit and in truth by their ministry. In 
Greenland and Labrador they have undergone most astonishing dangers and dif- 
ficulties. Indians, negroes, and Hottentots have been collected into bodies of 
faithful people by them. They have labored to illuminate the Coromandel coasts 
and the Nicobar islands ; to penetrate Abyssinia, Persia, Egypt, and the mount- 
ains of Caucasus, and have numerous missionaries still employed in different 



(5) Mosh. 17:1; §§ 17, 20. (6) Encp. R. K., Soc. Prop. Gospel in Foreign Prts. (7) Encp, Mis- 
sions, and Gaz. Amboya. (8) Mosh. 17:1, § 17, and note I. (9) Encp. R. K., Missions. (1) Idm., 
in Apndx., Ben. Societies, 



CHAPTER CLXX. : SECTION V. 915 

parts of the world. Their missions date from A. D. 1722 to this present time. ^ 
In A. D. 1750 the Book Society for Promoting Religious Knowledge Among the 
Poor was founded in England by persons of the dissenters and churchmen, to 
circulate, at the lowest price possible, Bibles, hymn-books, catechisms, tracts, and 
standard writings of the most eminent authors of different denominations, and its 
operations are extensive, increasing, and most valuable. ^ 

5. A New Impetus to Missions. — Missions had been undertaken before the 
nineteenth century, but it is only in our times that the attempts of British sub- 
jects, with that view, have assumed a regular and systematic form. Desultory 
attempts were occasionally made for the conversion of the slaves in the colonies 
and of the neighboring savages, and after the establishment of the Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, zealous and adventurous clergymen 
or pious and well educated laymen were regularly employed in that salutary 
work. Yet, their operations were conducted on a small scale, and the govern- 
ment merely suffered it to take its course under that nominal encouragement 
derived from a royal charter. But a new ebulition of zeal in this cause appeared 
before the close of the eighteenth century, and it has so far increased in vigor as 
to form the marked features of the age in which we live. 

The first stimulus in our time appears to have been given by a mechanic 
named William Carey, and by John Thomas, an equally zealous Christian. Carey 
being strongly inclined to preach the Gospel, had solicited and obtained ordi- 
nation among the Baptists, and at a meeting of his brethren he proposed a 
question relative to the practicability of an effective diffusion of evangelical truth 
among the pagan communities. As the other ministers concurred with him in 
the affirmative opinion, he went with his family to India, accompanied by his 
friend, John Thomas, who had already preached to the Hindoos in Bengal. They 
were afterward joined by some other missionaries, but were checked in their 
pious operations by the British government. Then they took refuge in the 
Danish town, Serampore, where they opened a school, and some of the natives 
were converted to Christianity. At length the Marquis Wellesly allowed them 
to travel in those provinces under his government; and, though arbitrarily 
resticted, the missionaries prosecuted their course without murmuring, and in 
some measure diminished the number of pagans. 

William Carey was a shoemaker and the son of a poor man. Upon his con- 
version he undertook the acquisition of the original languages of the Scriptures, 
supporting himself by his trade at first and then by teaching a school. As he 
became more acquainted with the condition of the various nations he felt great 
concern for the heathen and longed to commence a Baptist mission. A friend 
furnishing the money to print, he wrote and circulated a treatise on the obligation 
of Christians in the conversion of the heathen. The missionary spirit arose 
among his associates, while he acquired a knowledge of the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, 
French, Dutch, and Italian. And the Baptist Missionary Societv was formed, 
A. D. 1792. ^ 

John Thomas had first gone out, A. D. 1783, as surgeon on the Oxford East 
Indiaman, obtained his discharge from the ship, learned the language, preached 
the Gospel to the natives, and returned to England A. D. 1791, and was chosen, 
with Carey, as missionary to India. 

Carey and Thomas sailed, A. D. 1793, in a Danish East Indiaman, but 
without funds. Thomas proposed to maintain himself by his profession as sur- 
geon, and Carey by some occupation till he could acquire the language. Under 
extraordinary difficulties he succeeded in translating the Scriptures into Bengalee, 
by the aid of Mr. Fountain, another missionary. In A. D. 1799 four more were 
added to their mission — but now they were banished from British territory by the 
East India Company. Carey and Fountain removed across the Ganges, sixteen 



(2) Encp, R. K., Miss, ajid Morav. (3) Idm., Benev. Societies. 



916 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

miles from Calcutta, to Serampore, a Danish settlement, where the government 
protected and encouraged them; and Serampore has ever since been the principal 
station of the Baptists in India. 

The Serampore mission was established, A. D. 1800, by Carey, Marshman, 
Ward, and others, and became independent of the parent society in England 
A. D. 1827. The Baptist Missionary Society, thus founded at England and 
Serampore, had many stations in different parts of India, Arracan, the West 
Indies, and other places ; and many thousand have been converted. In A. D. 
1806 they were printing the Scriptures in six languages and translating them into 
six more, and in A. D. 1819 they were printing or translating them into twenty- 
seven languages. ^ 

The Sunday School Society, London, dates its organization A. D. 1785, and 
was originated by Kobert Kaikes, a Churchman, and William Fox, a Baptist 
deacon. A provisional committee was appointed to call a public meeting to 
form a society for the education of the poor. A society for the establishment 
and support of Sunday schools throughout Great Britain was formed. The plan 
was immediately adopted by several bodies of Dissenters and Methodists. In a 
few years almost every congregation had a Sunday school attached to it ; thus, 
many nurseries were established for the increase of Christian knowledge and the 
enlargement of the church of God. The scholars, the Bibles, the Testaments, 
and the books were computed by thousands. ^ 

The London Missionary Society was formed A. D. 1795 through the insti- 
gation of Dr. Edward Williams, an Independent minister of Birmingham, and 
in it were united Churchmen, Independents, Scotch Seceders, and Calvinistic 
Methodists. The South Sea Islands were first occupied by its missionaries, and 
after nearly twenty years of discouragement the whole population of several 
islands renounced idolatry, destroyed their idols, and embraced Christianity, 
and native teachers were raised up as missionaries to other remote islands. The 
African islands and South Africa have heen blessed by means of the agents of 
this society. The East Indies have many successful laborers from it. China has 
been blessed by the ministry of Dr. Morrison, who, assisted by Dr. Milne, has 
translated the whole of the Scriptures into Chinese and compiled a dictionary 
and grammar of that difficult language. Its converts, Bibles, books, and expen- 
ditures are numbered by the thousands. '^ 

While Carey and his associates were actively employed, a scheme of con- 
version was formed on a grand and comprehensive plan, A. D. 1800, by the 
ministers and friends of the established church of England, and the Church Mis- 
sionary Society was formed;^ but it did not receive the approbation of the 
prelates and dignitaries of the church. Its schools and labors have not been in 
vain, though not so successful as others. ^ 

The Baptist Home Missionary Society, England, dates from A. D. 1797, 
and was formed to supply the destitute villages of Britain with the means of 
evangelical instruction. Its labors have been great and prosperous, and its 
advance has been progressive. The voices of its preachers are heard from Wales 
to the opposite shore, and from the Land's End almost to the Orkneys. It 
supports two hundred and thirty-six Sunday schools.^ 

The London Religious Tract Society dates A. D. 1799. Before this the cheap 
repository tracts and village tracts had obtained extensive circulation ; but on May 
17, A. D. 1799, Joseph Hughes, A. M., a Baptist minister of London, and four 
lay gentlemen were appointed to effect the object of the friends present. Thus 
formed, it consisted of Churchmen as well as Dissenters. The publications were 
to consist of pure truth uncontaminated with error, undisturbed with human 
systems, expressed in the words of Scripture, or restricted to those evangelical 



(4) Mm., pp. 1199-1200, 1253. Calcut. (5) Idm. 1266. B. M. S. En?. 1253, Carey. (6) Idm. 
1273, (7) Encp. R. K. 1271. (8) Mosh., Yol. II., Cent. 19i p. 421. (9) Encp., p. 1268. (,*) 1270. 



dMApTER OLXX. : SECTION y. 917 

principles of the Reformation on which Luther, Calvin, and Cranmer agreed. 
Every year the operations of this society have increased, but to do justice to its 
principles, proceedings, and publications is impossible. Its publications in cir- 
culation number hundreds of millions, and many of them are translated into 
various languages of the east and of Europe. ^ 

The London Sunday School Union dates from A. D. 1803, and was formed 
for advancing all Sunday school work, and both the foreign and home success 
shows it has received the divine blessing on its labors. It reports Sunday 
Schools in France, Denmark, Malta, New South Wales, South Africa, America, 
Canada, New Brunswick, the West Indies, and Jamaica. In A. D. 1833 its 
schools were 11,275; teachers, 128,784; scholars, 1,158,354; and its circulating 
capital is computed by the hundreds of thousands of dollars.^ 

The London Hibernian Society was formed A. D. 1806, for the Scriptural 
education of the poor in Ireland, and it is generously supplied with the Scriptures 
by grants from the Bible Society. The report of A. D. 1831 gives 1,595 schools 
and 85,755 scholars. Of the latter, about one-half are Roman Catholics. The 
only books supplied by the society are the spelling books and the Scriptures. ^ 

The Jews' Society for promoting Christianity among them dates from A. D. 
1808, and is now under the Episcopalians. Some Israelites are acting as mission- 
aries under its patronage. ^ 

The British and Foreign Bible Society was instituted A. D. 1804. It origi- 
nated in the endeavors of Thomas Charles, of Bala, the principal leader of the 
Calvinistic Methodists, to supply his countrymen with the Scriptures in their 
native language. The subject being mentioned before a committee meeting of 
the Religious Tract Society, its secretary, Mr. Hughes, suggested the idea of a 
general society for supplying the whole world with Bibles. It was composed of 
all persons, without regard to denominations, who will concur in its operations, 
and it has been the means of organizing similar institutions in most parts of the 
world where the Bible is believed, conveying immortal blessings to all nations. 
Directly and indirectly it had printed the Scriptures in one hundred and fifty-three 
difi*erent languages before A. D. 1835.^ 

Other and Continental Societies: The Paris Bible Society had distributed, at 
the above date, one hundred and thirty thousand; the Geneva Society had circulated 
nineteen thousand nine hundred and twenty-one; the Basil, one hundred and 
sixty-one thousand five hundred and seventy-five; the Prussian and its auxiliaries, 
nine thousand three hundred and sixty-seven Bibles and thirty-seven thousand five 
hundred and seven Testaments; the Danish, one hundred and twenty thousand four 
hundred and seventeen; Russia, twenty-two thousand; from Malta, four thousand 
two hundred and sixty-one in one year, and more from other places.^ In Europe 
we have the Irish Evangelical Society, A. D. 1814; the Irish Society, A. D. 1816; 
the Irish Baptist Society, A. D. 1814; the Irish Society of London, A. D. 1832 
— all for disseminating the Gospel throughout Ireland. ^ 

The Home Missionary Society (English) dates from A. D. 1819, and was 
formed for the evangelization of the unenlightened inhabitants of the towns and 
villages of Great Britain by preaching the Gospel, distributing religious tracts, 
and establishing prayer-meetings and Sunday schools. In A. D. 1831 sixty agents 
were employed, and in a population of two hundred thousand souls in two hundred 
villages, four thousand children were under its care, and appeals have induced it to 
exceed its funds. But thus many flourishing churches have been formed, and 
some of them support their own pastors without further aid. ^ 

The Christian Instruction Society dates from A. D. 1825, and originated with 
some dissenting ministers in London, who deeply felt the degradation of thousands 
of the inhabitants. The society was formed by the principal dissenters to carry 



(1) Encp. R. K., p. 1275. (2)1271-2. (3) Idm. (4) Encp. R. K. 1267. (4)Ibd. 1267. (5)1270. 



918 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED* 

forward an organized system of visiting the lanes, courts, and wretched districts 
of the metropolis, to establish prayer-meetings, Sunday schools, and preaching 
stations, and especially to distribute religious tracts by weekly loans. Many 
congregations of London have adopted these plans with the most signal divine 
blessings. In A. D. 1831 there were sixty-five associations engaging the benevo- 
lent attention of one thousand one hundred and seventy-three gratuitous visitors, 
who visited thirty-one thousand five hundred and ninety-one families. Religious 
tracts and books were placed in reach of at least one hundred and fifty thousand 
individuals ; ninety-three stations for reading the Scriptures and prayer were 
occupied, and many eminent ministers cooperated in outdoor and tent preaching 
and lectures to mechanics, with happy results. ^ 

6. Missions of the New World. — The Home Missionary Society of Con- 
necticut dates from A. D. 1798, and assisted in establishing about four hundred 
churches in the Western Reserve, Ohio. The Massachusetts Missionary Society 
dates from A. D. 1799. In A. D. 1816 the Domestic Missionary Society was 
formed, but united with the former in A. D. 1827, and they both became auxiliary 
to the American Home Mission Society. '^ 

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions dates from A. D. 
1810. It originated with a number of Andover divinity students in a petition to 
the general association of Congregational ministers, met at Bradford, Massa- 
chusetts, A. D. 1810, for counsel and advice in regard to devoting themselves to 
missionating among the heathen, and whether they might expect patronage and 
support from a society at home or commit themselves to the direction of a European 
society. This paper was signed by Adoniram Judson, Samuel J. Mills, Samuel 
Newell, and Samuel Nott. The first missionaries who left under the patronage 
of this board were destined for Culcutta. These were Judson and Newell, with 
their wives, and left Salem, February 19, A. D. 1812, in the ship Caravan, and 
about the same time Hall, Nott, and Rice left Philadelphia in the Harmony. 
The enterprise was regarded with favor by the whole church, and the immediate 
superintendents of the mission felt encouraged to go forward and enlarge their 
operations in successive years. This board occupies a distinguished place among 
the benevolent institutions of the world, and has twelve missions in southeastern 
Asia, at Bombay and Ceylon, in the countries around the Mediterranean, at the 
Sandwich Islands, and among the North American Indians. In A. D. 1835 these 
missions embraced sixty-five stations, ninety-six ordained missionaries, fifteen 
farmers and mechanics, and one hundred and fifty-one females, five native preach- 
ers, and thirty-nine assistants. The schools were one thousand two hundred and 
seventy-three ; scholars, thirty-nine thousand eight hundred and tweuty-four ; 
native churches, forty; members, two thousand three hundred and sixty, and their 
presses had printed eighty-eight million pages in sixteen different languages. ^ 

The Baptist Board of Foreign Missions dates from A. D. 1814, and owes the 
origin of the interest excited among the Baptists in the United States by the 
accession of Judson and Rice to their denomination from the missionaries sent to 
India by the American board, A. D. 1812. These two men, among the pioneers 
of American missions, before having fairly entered on their mission work, had 
their minds attracted to the subject of baptism, which resulted in their entire 
change of principles and practices and a separation from their native church and 
fellow-missionaries. Mrs. Judson writes: These things are very trying to us and 
cause our hearts to bleed for anguish ; we feel that we have no home in this world 
and no friend but each other. A renunciation of our former sentiments has caused 
us more pain than anything which ever happened to us through our lives. Thus 
perplexed but not in despair, cast down but not destroyed, they reached Rangoon, 
which was then the capital of the Birman empire, and established themselves in 
what they regarded as their future home. Here, remote, unfriended, and solitary, 



(6) Encp. R. K„ p. 1268. (7) Ibd. 1270. (8) Ibd., pp. 1265-6. 



CHA1»TER CtXX. I SECTION Vt. 9l0 

reft of every stay but Heaven, they were destined to pass nearly two years before 
their hearts could be cheered by the intelligence from America of the general 
interest awakened for them in the denomination with which they had connected 
themselves, and of the formation of the Baptist board of missions. Of one thing 
they must have felt sure : that they were conducted there by the special providence 
of God, and that the Burman mission is. to be ascribed to God and not to the 
Baptist denomination in America. ^ 

Luther Rice came back and preached up missionary work, setting the churches 
ablaze with missionary zeal. A missionary society was formed ; Rice was retained, 
forming branch societies till all were aroused, but Judson and wife had remained 
in India and no tidings had reached them of the uprising for missions in America. ^ 
In A. D. 1835 this board had missions at Ava, Rangoon, Mulmein, Chummerah, 
Mergui, and Tavoy, in Burmah ; at Bankok, in Siam ; at Liberia, in west Africa; 
among several tribes of North American Indians; at Paris, and at Hamburg. 
Stations, twenty-one ; missionaries and assistants, one hundred and nine ; mission 
churches, sixteen ; baptized on profession of faith, one thousand five hundred. ^ 
Report for A. D. 1874 makes one hundred and thirty-nine missionaries, nine 
hundred and seventy-three native preachers, seven hundred and forty-one churches, 
fifty-five thousand five hundred and sixty-seven members, two hundred and nine 
schools, eight thousand seven hundred scholars, eighteen Bible women, four 
colportures in China, a mission begun in Japan, one college, one press, and one 
theological seminary. Pages printed at Rangoon, A. D. 1873-4, of Scriptures, 
one million seven hundred and sixty thousand eight hundred ; of tracts, two million 
six hundred and fifty-two thousand in Burmese, Pow, Shan, and Sgaw languages, 
and of school books four million two hundred and seven thousand pages. Issued 
from depository, of Scriptures, pages, one million eight hundred and eighty-one 
thousand one hundred and fifty-two ; of tracts, one million eight hundred and 
twenty-one thousand six hundred and thirty; of school books, seven hundred and 
twenty-three thousand. Stations and outstations not given. ^ 

The Methodist Missionary Society dates from A. D. 1819. Its object is to 
assist the several annual conferences to extend their missionary labors through 
the United States and other countries. In A. D. 1833 it had thirty missionaries 
and fourteen schoolmasters among the Indians, and fifty domestic missionaries. 

The Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society dates from A. D. 1817, and has 
increased its operations with evident tokens of the Divine blessing in the conver- 
sion of sinners.^ 

The American Tract Society at Boston, A. D. 1814 ; it became auxiliary to 
the one formed at New York A. D. 1825. The object of these is to diffuse a 
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of sinners, and to promote 
the interest of vital godliness and sound morality bj^ the circulation of religious 
tracts calculated to receive the approbation of all evangelical Christians. Its 
printed and circulated pa^es are counted by the millions, and are distributed at 
home and abroad. In A. D. 1835 its auxiliaries and branches numbered four 
thousand five hundred and ninety-five. Besides this we have the Connecticut 
Religious Tract Society, A. D. 1807 ; the Vermont Religious Tract Society, A. D. 
1808 ; the Protestant Episcopal Tract Society, A. D. 1810 ; the American Doc- 
trinal Tract Society, A. D. 1829, ^ and the General Tract Society (Baptist), A. D. 
1824, which has one hundred and fifty auxiliaries and a number of branches, 
and in A. D. 1834 it had published about twenty-seven millioa pages of tracts. ^ 

The American Bible Society dates A. D. 1816, and its whole object, as stated 
in the constitution, is to encourage a wider circulation of the Scriptures without 
note or comment. It was formed by a convention of delegates from over thirty 
various Bible societies then existing in various parts of the country. In A. D. 
1833 its auxiliaries were eight hundred and forty-eight, and the number of churches 

(9) Lives of Three Judsons, pp. 35-6. (1) Miss. Mag., Nov., 1871, pp. 397-9. (2) Encp. R. K., 
p. 1266. (3) Miss. Mag., July, 1875. (4) Encp., p. 1272.. (5) 1274-5. (6) 1269. 



920 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOt*fit). 

was much greater. Its issues of Bibles and Testaments (in English, French, 
Spanish, German, Welsh, Irish, and Indian,) numbered ninetj-one thousand one 
hundred and sixty-eight for that year, and since its formation to then one million 
five hundred and thirty-three thousand six hundred and sixty-eight. '^ 

The General Assembly's Board of Missions dates from A. D. 1818. Its 
principal operations are domestic. In A. D. 1832 its missionaries were two 
hundred and twenty-six, and Sunday schools in the cong^regations assisted by it 
were from twelve thousand to t^fteen thousand. Hopeful conversions were two 
thousand, and funds employed twenty thousand one hundred and thirty dollars 
and twenty-one cents. 

The American Sunday School Union was formed at Philadelphia, A. D. 1824, 
out of the Philadelphia Sunday and Adult School Union, at its seventh anniver- 
sary. In A. D. 1833 its auxiliaries were seven hundred and ninety; schools, 
nine thousand one hundred and eighty-seven; scholars, five hundred and forty- 
two thousand tour hundred and twenty; and teachers, eighty thousand nine hun- 
dred and thirteen. Teachers and scholars reported to have become pious in A. D. 
1832 were six thousand four hundred and forty-four, and during the eight years 
of its existence, twenty-six thousand three hundred and ninety-three. A resolution, 
made A. D. 1830, to establish within two years a Sunday school in every destitute 
place practicable throughout the valley of the Mississippi, has to a very consid- 
erable extent been carried out." 

The American Home Missionary Society was formed in I^ew York, May 10, 
A. D. 1826, and was instituted with the concurrence of other domestic missionary 
societies, and sustains the general charater of a parent institution to them all. In 
A. D. 1832-3 the ministers employed were six hundred and six; number added 
to churches, six thousand and forty-one ; conversions, three thousand four hundred 
and thirty-five; Sunday schools, seven hundred and seventy; scholars, thirty-one 
thousand one hundred and forty ; Bible classes, three hundred and seventy-eight; 
pupils, eleven thousand one hundred and ninety-five; churches and districts aided, 
eight hundred and sixty-one. ^ 

The American Baptist Home Missionary Society dates from A. D. 183'2. Its 
great object is to preach the Gospel to every creature in our country, but its chief 
attention is directed to the extensive west. The Baptist state conventions and 
domestic missionary societies throughout the Union have become auxiliary to it. 
In the first year of its existence fifty missionaries were employed, and in A. D. 
1834: its resources were increased, and ninety-two missionaries and agents were 
employed. ^ 

The American and Foreign Bible Society dates from May, A. D. 1836.- 
When, in the course of the years A. D. 1835 and 1836, it became painfully evident 
that the numerous and excellent versions made by our brethren into the lan- 
guages of the heathen would receive no further aid from the Bible societies, either 
in this country or in Great Britain, and its dependencies, which we had helped to 
originate and sustain, except on the abandonment of the principles of full and 
faithful translations, on which our agents had always acted, the call for the con- 
vention in which this society originated was deliberately set forth, and one year 
was allowed to elapse before it met. ^ The Baptist missionaries transferred no 
word that could be intelligibly translated, and consequently translated baptidzo 
and its cognates by words conveying the idea of immersion. For a time the 
British Foreign Bible Society, or its auxilliary Calcutta society, granted aid to 
print these translations, and the Baptists in England had been most efiicient in 
originating and organizing this Bible society and were constantly among its 
uniform and consistent supporters. 

At the request of three Pedobaptist missionaries to not give assistance to any 
Indian version in which baptidzo was translated immerse, all further aid was 



(7) Encp 1266-7. (*) Encp. 1274. (8) 1270. (9) Amer. and For. Bible Society, quarterly, 
July, 1852, p. 7. 



OaAt^TER CLXX. : SECTION Vt. 92l 

l*efxised. The American Bible Society, in its reports, frequently spoke in terms 
of strong commendation of the versions made by the Serampore and Calcutta 
Baptist missionaries, and also of Dr. Judson's translation into Burmese, for which 
the society occasionally made appropriations. In July, A. D. 1835, aid was asked, 
for printing the Bengali New Testament, which aid had been refused by the Cal- 
cutta Bible Society. This aid was refused by the American Bible Society, and 
the resolution adopted, that no money should be appropriated for any versions 
but for those conforming in the principles of their translation to the common 
English version, at least so far as that all denominations represented in the society 
could use and circulate it in their schools and communities. ^ That such men as 
Judson, who have experienced the inconvenience of an ambiguous translation 
coupled with a sectarian education, would consent to impose the same ambiguity 
upon the heathen was not to be expected. These missionaries would not yield. 
Many of their brethren turned their contributions into another channel, and the 
American and Foreign Bible Society was neccessarily formed. The only report 
of this society in my possession is the Statement of Scriptures, issued from the 
depository of the mission press from October 1, A. D. 1866, to September 30, 
A. D. 1867, in different languages: Books, 13,311; pages, 2,859,122.3 

Of many other missionary institutions I have no documents at hand. Educa- 
tional societies and theological seminaries should be noticed under the flight of 
this angel, and the latest reports of all the above institutions should be given, 
showing their great increase and usefulness; but they are not in my possession. 
However, enough have been cited to enable us to identify the open proclamation 
of this apocalyptic angel. The glad tidings which this angel proclaimed has been 
conspicuously and audibly preached by all these Protestant institutions, and it is 
an everlasting glad tiding to the saints wherever found. They may not all pro- 
claim every truth and some may teach some falsehoods, and all may be imper- 
fect and their teachings not faultless; but all of them preach what the angel 
proclaimed. The earthly retreats of the Red Dragon have been surrounded and 
penetrated; the dominions of the beast and false prophet have been invaded and 
shaken openly. The Scriptures have been translated into over two hundred lan- 
guages and dialects, and distributed among almost all accessible nations and 
tribes. The map of the world is begemed with missionary stations, as the sky is 
bedecked with stars of light. This angel's voice is still heard, and his message 
still calls attention and makes impressions. Fear, love, and serve the true God. 
Reject the dragon, with all his demons and idols; reject the wild beasts with all 
their blasphemous titles and usurpations, with all their false teachings, legends, 
saints, and relics: and the three frog spirits are aroused to action. I do not know 
that every missionary station proclaims the proximity of the approaching judg- 
ments as the angel did, but in Europe and America the students of prophecy 
since the Reformation have unhesitatingly announced the approaching wrath of 
God upon paganism, popery, Mahometism, and all anti-Christian establishments. 

We must not forget the countries that have furnished the great body of these 
missions and missionaries, and the civil governments that broke open the pagan, 
papal, and Mahometan countries in the Old and New Worlds to the Gospel, and 
whose flags protect them there; and then we may understand what the revolutions 
of nations, emblemized by the seven last plagues, have to do with the kingdom 
of God. The sword of England and the diplomacy, influence, and example of 
the United States have opened the world to the Gospel, and this proclamation 
will continue till victory. 

The Missionary Magazine of April, A. D. 1876, just come to hand, gives: 
Missionaries and physicians, 2,264; native laborers, 18,530; actual members, 
502,497; scholars, 445,734; income of the missionary societies, $5,584,970.3 I 



(1) Dr. S. H. Cone's Hist., Bible Specialties, pp. 20-7. (2) Ann'l. Rep. 31st, A. D. 1868. (3) 
Miss. Mag., April, 1876, p. 104. 



922 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

find, in A. D. 1875, the Protestant native Christians of India number 225,000; the 
increase in ten years was sixty-one per cent., while the natural increase of the 
Hindoo population has been but live per cent; and only five hundred and seven- 
teen Protestant missionaries to two hundred million people, with all the inveterate 
hatred of fanatical Mahometanism and all the power and prestige of a vener- 
able Bramanism against them. The Church of Christ is, as a matter of fact, 
gaining on the world to-day in India as rapidly as in the most favored sections of 
America. ^ Other societies exist, but, as I have no documents giving their origin, 
I can not venture to give it on my own responsibility. (Continued in chapter 
176, § 15.) 



CHAPTER CLXXI, 



BABYLON FALLEN, OPENLY DECLARED, AND DEBASED. (Con- 

tinued from Chap. 165.) 

1. The First Announcement. — The next scene presented in this programme 
is that of another angel following in the pathway of the first,, and as conspicuously, 
saying: Fallen, fallen is Babylon, the great; for of the wine of the wrath of 
her fornication has she given all nations to drink. ^ Babylon is one of the con- 
spicuous titles of the great harlot, drunken with the blood of the saints, and she 
is that great city which hath kingship over the kings of the earth. ® Cities in 
themselves are nothing in divine programmes, but they are used to designate 
those systems of which they are the source and center of power and influence. 
Mt. Zion, or Jerusalem, designates the source and center of the power and influ- 
ence of the kingdom of God. This drunken harlot is the papal church which 
originated in Rome, where her influence centers, and whence she exercises her 
ghostly power. The wine of the wrath of her fornication denotes the wrath of 
God, provoked by her luxury, drunkenness, and debaucheries, and her fornication 
denotes her unlawful union and cooperation with civil sovereignties in persecuting 
Christ's witnesses and in perverting the truth and corrupting the institutions of 
the kingdom of God. '^ 

The false teachings and debauching practices of the papal church have been 
given to all nations of the earth, whether civilized or savage. Her power and 
influence were supreme in Europe till the Reformation, then she sent them by 
her missionaries to India, China, Japan, Persia, Turkey, Egypt, Abyssinia, and 
to the savages of North and South America, and enumerated her converts by 
millions. ^ But she has fallen. I have not any documents containing the declar- 
ation of statesmen or ecclesiastics that such is the fact, and I do not need them. 
The fact is as conspicuous as an angel in mid-heaven, and every modern history 
proclaims it. Compare her power and influence before the Reformation with her 
feeble, whining and impotant excommunications of the present day, ^ and the 
voice of thunder could not proclaim her fallen condition more audibly. The 
horns of the wild beast she rode, or of the holy Roman empire, have secularized 
much of her wealth and stripped her of the power to control or persecute. Even 



(4) Miss. Mag., Nov., 1875. (5) Rev. 14:8. (6) 17:5. 18. (7) Chap. 153. (8) Chap. 170, § 3. 
(9) Chap. 165, § 4. 



CHAPTER CLXXI,: SECTION II. 923 

poor priest-ridden Spain has told her that religious freedom shall be retained in 
the constitution. But the powers that casts her down, which are the wild beast 
out of the bottomless pit and the ten horns, may claim the veneration and 
authority of the first wild beast and of his image, and be doomed to perdition;^ 
so this programme stops the account of her fall to give warning against worship- 
ing this resuscitated wild beast, and exhibits two harvests of wrath. ^ Then, 
another scene is produced exhibiting the seven last plagues by which this harlot 
was dethroned and her power broken ;3 then is exhibited this Babylonian harlot 
and the wild beast she rode and guided;* then her fall is taken up again and 
described to its consummation. ^ The woman and her beast we have already 
traced out in history to the fall of the seventh head, or Bonaparte dynasty, ® and 
now we shall examine the second angelic announcement of her fall. 

2. The Second Proclamation of Her Fall and of Her Abominations. — 
This second angel descended from Heaven. He had great authority, and the 
earth was illuminated with his glory. The first angel, like a peaceful missionary, 
kept his pathway in the blue sky and did not approach this Babylon, which has 
already been clearly defined or identified; but this second one descends conspicu- 
ously, without apprehending danger. He has great authority, like a military 
chieftain or civil sovereignty, and perhaps has a disposition to use his power, and 
the earth, or empire of the beast, or Rome itself, was illuminated with his glory, 
or influence. His announcements correspond with the predictions of the old 
prophets respecting old Babylon, which were fulfilled literally on that city, and 
so may these be on the new Babylon. But if these be fulfilled literally, the 
time must be yet in the future, for the catastrophe is not yet inevitable. The 
annunciations in the first three verses, standing before the warning to "Come out 
of her. My people," indicates something before the final destruction, leaving an 
interval for escaping the last shock, and this may be an open, fearless, and clear 
exhibition of her character, conduct, and fate. 

The facts on the page of history are these : Men of eminence, intelligence, 
and authority have fearlessly exposed her as a den of moral filth and cruel mur- 
ders, and have denounced her relation to civil governments. Before me are 
Dowling's History of Romanism, Cummins on Romanism, Six Years in Italy, 
and accounts of unearthing of inquisitions and their infernal instruments of tor- 
ture and of calcined bones, which are but a few of many messengers who have 
illuminated Europe and America in regard to the papal church. Some of her 
teachings are so obscene and filthy that neither Dowling nor Cummins dare to 
translate them out of their Latin hold of concealment from public view, and the 
various predictions of her fate have been fearlessly applied to her. Gavazzi 
established himself against her in Italy and advocated her destruction. In his 
lectures in this country he said he was not a Protestant, but a destoyer. Luther 
and others protested, but he said : Destroy her, for she could not be reformed. 
Garibaldi labored to destroy her political power. Mazzini and others deposed 
the pope and proclaimed a Roman republic. All that this angel announced has 
been proclaimed in Italy and before the world by eminent, fearless, illustrious 
persons in defiance of princes and prelates, and no one could hurt them. The 
great Babylon has fallen, and her immoral, filthy character has been exposed, 
but her utter destruction has not yet come. 

A voice from Heaven, whether loud or not we are not told, said : Come out 
of her. My people, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and receive not of 
her plagues. Ample instruction and protection having been given, those who 
refuse to reform shall participate in her plagues. If this voice calls them out of 
the papal empire, or Italy, or Rome, it has not yet been heard, for no such catas- 
trophe has appeared. But if it calls them out of the papal church, it has been 
heard ever since the Reformation. In Italy, and in Rome itself, has this voice 

(1) Rev. 17:8. (2) 14:9-20. (3) 15, 16, and chap. 155, and continuations. (4) Rev. 17, and 
chap. 158. (5) 18. (6) Chap. 165. 



924 I'HE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVl2L0l»£D. 

been heard lately ; and I have seen an account of one priest who renounced and 
was anathematized, but who could not be punished because of the protection of 
the civil government. And, before me is the account of a secession of one hundred 
and twenty in a body, in Nova Scotia, declaring themselves Protestants.'^ But 
this voice may become louder and more emphatic, and her perdition more visible 
and inevitable, before she is sunk, like a mill stone, in the sea. 

3. The Destkoyek, and Destruction. — The power that destroys her is the 
beast out of the bottomless pit and the ten horns. The holy Roman empire is 
now divided into ten horns, or independent sovereignties — England, France, 
Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and Denmark. 
Belgium is not a power, but its independence is guaranteed by England ; Holland, 
also, is no longer a power. 

These horns have already been stripping the papal church and secularizing 
her wealth ; but she is not yet naked, nor all her wealth or flesh consumed, and 
her bones or fabrics have not yet been burned with fire. At the present time 
Prussia, at the head of the German empire, is carrying on a contest with the 
pope for the purpose of bringing the papal clergy and churches under the com- 
plete control of the civil government ; and if the pope will make another effort 
to regain his authority in Europe the ten horns may unite under one headship 
and destroy the papal power with all its institutions and orders of clergy. At 
present Kussia appears to be the best situated and prepared for this headship. 

That popery contemplates such an effort appears from different announce- 
ments. Cardinal Manning said recently : INTow, when the nations of Europe 
have revolted * * ^ and dethroned, as far as man can dethrone, the vicar 
of Jesus Christ, ^ * ^ and have made the usurpation of the holy city a 
part of their international law, ^ * ^ there is only one solution of the 
ditiiculty, namely, the impending terrible scourge of a continental war, * * -^ 
which will exceed the horrors of any of the wars of the first empire. I do not 
see how this can be averted, and it is my firm conviction that in spite of all obstacles 
the vicar of Jesus Christ will be put again in his own rightful place. ^ His right 
place is in the lake of fire and brimstone. ^ When such an effort is made, the 
beast and ten horns will combine and destroy the papal church. 

In an interview between M. Thiers, of France, and Prince Gortchakoff, 
premier of Pussia, the prince sees only one dark spot on the horizon, namely, 
clericalism, which is at war with Germany, Russia, Italy, and the Austro-Hungarian 
chambers. He said : Its head only is in Pome, while its treasury, arm, and sword 
are in France. 

The downfall of Theirs was regarded by European cabinets as a great clerical 
victory. Though the cabinet which succeeded him has left ofiice, their spirit 
remains. The present government did not resist the university bill, which, in 
Prince Gortchakoff 's belief, has created international perils for France, which the 
good will and sympathies of Russia would be alone powerful to ward off. The 
haste and resolution evinced by the French bishops, guided by the Jesuits, in 
taking advantage of the bill, prove that they deem it a stepping-stone to enterprises 
in reserve. Europe could not but be uneasy if France threatened to become a 
kind of Champs de Mars of ultramontanism. ^ Thus, we see that, in the judg- 
ment of this prominent statesman, the hope of popery is in France ; and it might 
yet be that the Bonaparte headship of the holy Roman empire will revive, and then 
war with Germany would result and bring on the great confiict. Travelers say: 
War of France upon Germany in revenge and for recovery of territory and honor 
has been avowed by the French of all religions, politics, and grades of society. 
(Continued in chap. 176, § 5.) 



(7) Standard, Nov. 11, 1875. (8) Ibd., Sep. 9, 1875. (9) Rev. 19:20. (1) United Presbyterian, 
Oct. 21, 1875. 



CHAPTER CLXXII. 



THEEE SPIRITS LIKE FROGS. 

1. Character. — When the sixth angel poured out his vial of wrath John 
discovered three unclean spirits at work. They were like frogs, keeping out of 
pubhc view, and were the spirits of demons, doing signs or tokens, as among the 
Polytheistic priesthood. They were working extensively, and working among 
and in all the sovereignties of all the earth, and the consummation of their work 
was the concentration of all the nations on the field of Magiddon, to the battle of 
that great day of God Almighty. These spirits had come out of the mouths, or 
were the result of the teachings, of the three antagonisms to the kingdom of God. ^ 

2. Spirit of the Dragon. — The religion of the dragon spirit is: No god at 
all, and you may do what you please without any accountability; or, a god for 
everything, and you can do as you please under the sanction and protection of some 
god. This spirit develops itself in forming priesthoods, circles, and combinations 
of various kinds — religious, social, and political. These always reject Jehovah, 
Christ Jesus, Divine Revelation, and the kingdom of God. It may profess to 
recognize the existence of a God, but represents Him so ambiguously, indefinitely, 
and pervertedly that He has no influence on human notions, actions, or character. 
It makes God an impersonal, unconscious something. Philosophers have always 
supported Polytheism in opposition to Christianity, and have labored to discredit 
and overthrow Revelation and positive religion. It opposes all wholesome laws 
restraining vice and promoting virtue; it forms secret combinations to subvert 
governments not subservient to its interest; it can attach itself to the beast or to 
the false prophet, and it can labor to subvert both. 

As the beast occupies the throne and exercises the power and authority of 
the dragon, and the false prophet exercises all the authority of the first beast 
and speaks with the voice of the dragon,^ this frog spirit permeates all their 
institutions, schemes, and governments — sometimes cooperating with them and 
sometimes defeating them. It makes a shrewd Jesuit and cruel Inquisitor, and 
sometimes it respects neither pope, caliph, emperor, nor sultan. It can acquiesce 
in any form of government, but secretly works the power into its own hands 
and endeavors to govern the republic or monarchy. It prefers a monarchy 
wedded with its priesthood, and hence all republics of pagan antiquity terminated 
in monarchies. 

This spirit claims to be a philosopher, and talks about natural religion as 
opposed to revealed or positive religion ; and in the third and fourth centuries, 
when Polytheism was falling in the Roman empire, the philosophers came forth 
with all their wisdom to give to it some kind of decent and rational character, 
and ever since they have been trying to disparage revealed religion and to recom- 
mend Polytheism. 

Gibbon labored twenty years in writing the Decline and Fall of the Roman 
Empire, embracing every opportunity insidiously to discredit the miracles and 
predictions of the Bible, prefering Mahometan historians to the Christian records 



(2) Rev. 16:13-16. (3) Rev. 13:2, 4, 11, 12. 19:20. 



926 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

of events, but giving the Polytheistic philosophers' accounts the highest credit, 
as I have often noticed. But, we might excuse Gibbon, for, unintentionally, he 
has written the best commentary on the Revelations and on some parts of Daniel 
that I have seen. Without Gibbon 1 could never have succeeded in tracing out 
in history the divine programme of the kingdom of God. 

I have observed among some modern travelers the same spirit, eulogizing 
pagan governments as superior to our own. It must, however, be remembered 
that these pagan governments are armed with terrors which the wicked fear, 
while in our country some mistaking philanthropists have undertaken to govern 
the impious by the laws only adapted to govern the pious. But the wicked can 
not be governed except by fear of loss and penalties inflicting suffering and 
death. But, wherever the genuine Christian appeared. Gibbon acknowledged 
his superiority to the Polytheist; and so have others of Gibbon's school. The 
Polytheist, the self-styled philosopher, the beast, and the false prophet, are all 
antagonistic to the kingdom of God ; and however they may disparage and 
oppose one another, they all combine against Christ, and they shall be over- 
thrown on the iield of Megiddon. 

But, it is the modern development of this spirit that John noticed. Every 
system that denies Jehovah, the God of Israel, to be the Only True God, and 
denies the Scriptures of the prophets and apostles to be the only divine revela- 
tion to man, belongs to this frog spirit: Spiritual circles, philosophical substi- 
tutes for God's word and institutions, eclectic religions that assert Christianity to 
be a failure, and propose to select a religion from Polytheism, Monotheism, 
Christianity, and philosophy, and various other modifications, which the pastor 
at home and the missionary abroad frequently meets. Its political development 
has been witnessed in France in the reign of terror,^ and is known under the 
names of Communism, Socialism, Nihilism, etc. ^ 

3. History of It. — The French revolution and reign of terror were induced 
by civil and ecclesiastical oppression, checkmated by a philosophy that discarded 
the fear of God and rights of men. But this philosophy must have a god, or 
goddess, which it called reason. This goddess was personified by a prostitute," 
and all the filthy rights of Polytheism were authorized and practiced. Ven- 
geance was taken on the votaries of the beast and false prophet.^ To some 
extent communism developed itself in Paris during the last invasion and revolu- 
tion. ^ The Jacobin society had its recognition signs instituted by this frog spirit. 
Communism permeates the countries of Europe under various names and dis- 
graces republicanism, and Cardinal Manning now threatens the governments with 
something worse unless they restore the pope to his prerogatives and powers. 

Communism, or something else of the same godless, vicious kind, and Poly- 
theistic superstition and madness have permeated all the nations of the world. 
We have the communists in France, the socialists in Germany, the nihilists in 
Russia, and one or other of these have shown themselves in Italy, Spain, and the 
United States, and the Sepoy rebellion in India shows the genuine dragon spirit 
is still alive in Asia. This spirit is most appositely described by Paul in his 
epistle to the Romans. ^ It begins with impiety, passes down through idolatry, 
and ends in something worse than brutality. 

4. Frog Spirit Out of the Mouth of the Beast. — The spirit of the wild 
beast is Monotheistic and acknowledges Jehovah to be the Only True God, the 
Bible to be His word, and its teachings to be true, inspired, and obligatory; but 
as civil governor it claims the divine right to control all religions. If he sees 
proper all under his government must have but one opinion about their own faith 
and practice, and if he sees proper they may differ on some things and not on 
others ; and if he permits, their faith and practice may be untrammeled, but he 



(*) Town. New Test., p. 203. (4) Chap. 162, § 9. Will , p. 457. (5) 165, § 3. 162, § 9. 176, 
§§6,13. (6) Rom. 1:21-32. 



CHAPTER CL:5:XII. : SECTION IV. 927 

claims a divine right to permit, enjoin, and prohibit. The dragon emperor 
believed in many gods, and sometimes required all his subjects to reverence them. 
Sometimes he did not venerate any, but out of regard to the laws he enforced 
their demands in regard to religion ; and sometimes he cared for neither gods, 
priests, nor laws, and allowed the people to do as they pleased. 

The Jew and the Christian refused to venerate the gods and \(^ere persecuted 
by superstitious emperors instigated by the priests, and sometimes by those who 
simply designed to sustain respect to the laws. The beast sovereign believed in 
but one God — the true God — and in one revelation, and sometimes he required all 
his subjects to worship that one true God, to teach and believe the same things, 
to observe the same rites, and to perform the same practices, ,and to do all in 
the same manner. Sometimes he required unity in some things but not in others, 
and sometimes he allowed his subjects to believe and practice as they pleased. 

The Monotheistic sovereigns claimed and exercised the same authority over 
the religion of his subjects that the Polytheistic sovereigns did. He only believed 
or supported a different religion. He required all to have the same god, the same 
faith, and the same practice, and all to be under and obedient to himself. He 
required prelates to consecrate him as the anointed of the Lord, the sovereign of 
His kingdom, defender of the faith, and protector of His people. Sometimes 
Christians in Persia incurred persecution on account of their real or suspected 
attachment to the Roman empire, while heretics were not molested. This beast 
was sometimes a Trinitarian, and persecuted Unitarians and others. Sometimes 
he was a Unitarian, and persecuted Trinitarians and others. He claims the right 
to convene ecclesiastical councils to decide questions of faith and practice and to 
enforce submission to those decisions, or he will dissolve these and call others 
that will decide according to his wish. He caressed or abused the clergy as he 
chose ; promoted and degraded, banished and recalled, protected or put to death 
— ks he pleased. 

This is the genuine spirit of the first wild beast established by Constantine. 
After this power was divided into heads and horns, the Greek, Frank, and Ger- 
man heads and the resuscitated Koraan head (the pope) were Trinitarians, and 
so were five of the horns — England, France, Spain, Italy, and Germany — while 
the Saracen and Turk heads were Unitarian, and so were the five horns — the 
Mogul, Persian, Ottoman, Arabian, and North African.' After the power of 
this beast was lost the spirit remained and troubled the second beast. In the 
Mahometan empire the caliph and emperor became united in the Ottoman 
sultan, and we can not well distinguish the two powers. 

In the papal empire this first beast spirit, arising out of the chaos of the 
French revolution, developed itself in the scorching despotism of Napoleon I. 
He imprisoned the pope, convened councils, disposed of prelates, coined their 
images, taxed the different orders of the clergy, abolished the inquisition, and 
was sustained by the civil and military powers. ^ Napoleon fell, but the spirit 
remains and is still at work to restore the first beast, or Constantine empire. It 
is closely watched by the pope, caliph, and European State-system, but it will do 
its part in collecting the nations or their armies upon the field of Magiddon. 
Emperor and pope, sultan and caliph are only the concentrations of power, but 
every government in the papal and Mahometan world is pervaded with this spirit, 
though somewhat modified by the Reformation and circumscribed by constitu- 
tions in Europe. The sultan of Turkey not only sits on the throne of the Greek 
Caesars, but also claims to be the legitimate caliph, and rules the Ottoman empire 
with a despotic scepter. In Persia and all the independent Mahometan sover- 
eignties the sultan appears to have supreme political and religious power, but still 
the laws are founded on the Koran. ^ 



(7) Chap. 151, § 6. (8) Chap. 163. (9) Guth. Geog., Vol 2, pp. 490, 502. 



928 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

The different sects of the Greek church in Mahometan countries may not 
recognize the sultan's right to govern them, but their subjugation requires them 
to submit to their tyrannical sceptres, and the archbishops and patriarchs must 
be approved or confirmed by the sultans and slaughtered at his will, and^mission- 
aries must receive permission from sultans, viceroys, or governors throughout 
Asia and Africa before they can establish a mission; and the savage butchery of 
patriarchs, archbishops, clergy, and people during the Greek revolution shows 
the true spirit of both the beast and of the false prophet. In some European 
governments the missionaries of some denominations must have the permission 
of the civil authorities before they can escape persecution, as the history of the 
Baptist missions in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Russia shows. ^ In these 
United States ci»vil government protects all, dictates to none, and disclaims every 
relation to this spirit. May it continue to do so till Christ's second advent."^ 

5. Spirit Out of the Mouth oe Teachings of the False Prophet. — The 
false prophet is the soul and body of the second wild beast, or the beast himself. ^ 
He acknowledges Jehovah to be the only Living and True God ; the Scriptures 
of the prophets and apostles to be the Revelation to man from God ; the partiarchs, 
prophets, and apostles to be His servants, and that Christ Jesus was sent into the 
world by Him as His apostle and greater than any of the divine messengers, but 
He has superseded all divine revelation and authority by self-constituted vicarage. 
This false prophet claims the prerogative to decide all controversies in religion, to 
define, enforce, alter, annul, and to institute any teaching, law, rite, and practice 
in the kingdom of God, and requires all civil governments to submit to his 
authority and to enforce his decrees. In exercising these prerogatives he convulsed 
and shattered the great Roman empire and caused its ruin. Trinitarian and 
Unitarian isms, and those isms growing out of them, occupied his councils till at 
last on the ruins of that empire he reared two antagonistic horns — the papal and 
Mahometan powers. 

Mahometanism acknowledges the divine origin and authority of the Scriptures 
and prophets, and regards Christ as the greatest of divine messengers or apostles, 
but reckoning every new messenger supersedes all former ones, and that Mahomet 
was later and greater than Christ and had a divine right to supersede Him and 
alter or annul His teachings and institutions, but denies Christ's divinity. He 
says: At the day of judgment Christ will condemn the Jews because they rejected 
Him as a divine messenger, and the Christians because they worshiped Him as 
the Son of God. Thus, Mahomet has superseded Moses and Christ, claims to be 
the vicar of God, and has given the Koran as a later revelation to supersede the 
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. 

Popery acknowledges Jehovah, the Scriptures, the prophets, and apostles; 
maintains the Divine Sonship of Christ; but claiming to be Christ's vicar on earth 
and able to create God by turning the wafer into the real body of Christ, he 
disposes of all divine laws and institutions and teachings, and thus, like Mahomet, 
he falsifies the word of 'God while professing to speak by His authority. The 
pope and the caliph are both horns of the false prophet. 

The body and soul of the false prophet developed themselves at first in 
eccuraenical councils, where, not satisfied with giving decisions, it importuned, 
sanctioned, and cooperated with the emperor to fine, imprison, confiscate, banish, 
and put to death in order to enforce its decrees. A dispute exists in the west, 
whether supremacy lies in the council or in the pope. When the pope had the 
power, he annulled, anathematized, and dispersed councils ; when the emperor or 
sovereign had the power, the supremacy belonged to the council, and sometimes 
deposed the pope. ^ In the east the sultans have the power, and all Christian 
councils must submit, though they may not recognize the right of the caliph nor 



(1) Lehman's Hist Bap. Churches in Germ'y, A. D. 1834. and Miss. Sketches, pp. 286-358. (*) 
Continued, chap. 176, § 7. (2) Chaps. 138. 139. (3) Chap. 151, § 6. 



CHAPTER CLXXII.: SECTION V. 929 

sultan. In Europe, since the Keformation, ecclesiastical councils and sovereigns 
have an understanding how they can work together. Whether the pretensions 
of any of tliese councils of Protestants or Greeks are so presumptuous as to con- 
stitute them integral parts of the false prophet, I shall not stop to examine — that 
question will be determined in the battle of Armageddon, when the beast and 
false prophet shall be cast alive into the lake of fire and brimstone. 

The spirit out of the mouth of the false prophet is vicarage, and as vicar of 
God, or of Christ, it has falsified the messages of God to man. This second 
beast, or false prophet, arose out of the earth, or Monotheistic empire. Both 
horns are angels from the bottomless pit, generated and sent forth by a mixture 
of Polytheistic, Jewish, and Christian facts, fictions, rites, powers, and specula- 
tions. This spirit claims supremacy over the first beast, and when it modeled 
and galvanized into action an image of the first beast it did exercise that authority, 
and civil powers had to do its bidding. Mahometanism originated the Saracen 
empire, and the caliphs were successors of the prophet and issued commands to 
the lieutenants and governors, who did their bidding. But the Turks conquered 
the Saracens; the caliphs became dependent; the Abbasidese became extinct, 
and the sultans usurped their ghostly prerogatives. The popes restored the Roman 
city and influence ; demanded, by forged letters from Heaven, the protection and 
obedience of the Franks ; negotiated the holy empire to the Germans ; demanded 
and obtained implicit obedience from civil sovereigns, and ruled church and state. 
But French and German sovereigns rebelled ; subdued the pope, stripped him 
of his political power, and his ghostly power is usurped and exercised to some 
extent by various ecclesiastical organizations claiming apostolic authority. 

But this vicar spirit is at work to obtain its lost prestige. Cardinal Manning 
is threatening Europe with all the horrors of a continental war unless the pope is 
reinstated in his prerogatives, and the Jesuits and other orders are everywhere 
working and croaking like frogs to accomplish the same. If no other controversies 
agitated the world, the contest would soon be ended in favor of the first wild 
beast; but the dragon frog will complicate the matter in the name of Republicanism, 
but in favor of communism and licentiousness. In the east the Greek church 
and its sects are ready to fight for their freedom and religion, as they did in Greece; 
the true Mahometans are ready to denounce a sultan of liberal policy. Papal 
emissaries are watching the papal interests in every country, and will complicate 
every movement. The dragon spirit has its throne in China, Japan, Burmah, 
and India, and has not met his defeat yet by the Mahometans or Christians. The 
final result is yet in the future, and two harvests of wrath must precede the great 
battle in Armageddon. (Continued in chap. 176, §§ 4, 5.) 



-59 



CHAPTER CLXXIII. 



THE JEWS. (Continued in Chap. 174, § 4, and 176, § 9.) 

1. We have now traced the divine programmes through the pages of history 
down to the last page in mj possession, but the hope of Israel has not yet been 
realized and the kingdom of God has not been consummated. 

At the close of Revelations we left the Temple destroyed, Jerusalem laid 
waste, and the Jews dispersed. Wherever we have found them since they still 
manifested an implacable hatred to Christianity, till a corrupted and perverted 
Christianity ascended the throne of the Caesars and began to shed the blood of 
the saints, then the Nazarenes, or Christian Jews, compelled to abandon their 
Jewish peculiarities or suffer conliscation, banishment, or death,- soon disappear 
from the pages of history ; and unbelieving Jews, compelled to profess Chris- 
tianity or suffer persecution, are said to have been converted in multitudes. Still, 
a multitude of them persisted in the religion of their fathers, acquired great 
wealth, and often lived in prosperity. In Arabia they were sacrificed to Mahom- 
etan zeal or transplanted into Syria. In Spain they combined with the Mahom- 
etans in slaughtering the Christians. On the Moselle and on the Rhine their 
numerous rich and happy colonies — learned, hospitable, and generous — and 
living in eager hope of their Messiah, were pillaged, massacred, and destroyed 
by the first crusaders. In Syria they met with the same fate as the Mahometans, 
and inflicted the same wrath as the Moslems upon the crusaders. They experi- 
enced the cruelties and injustice of papal intolerance and the despotic rapine of 
princes ; but still they persisted in the religion of their fathers and hostility to a 
corrupted and persecuting Christianity. 

When the time came that the true church of Christ could be nourished out 
of the wilderness and the two witnesses could put off their sackcloth, the Jews, 
too, found rest and toleration, and now they enjoy all the rights of citizens in 
these United States, in Great Britain, and some other European countries. In 
all their dispersions and persecutions they have still retained their distinctive 
nationality and religion. They reject the Christian's Savior and the Moslem's 
prophet, but they stand a witnessing monument of the existence of a God who 
makes covenants, oaths, promises, and threatenings and fulfills them in due 
time. In them have been fulfilled the threatenings, predictions, and many 
of the promises given by Moses and the prophets ; and Jerusalem has been 
destroyed, as the Savior foretold, and will continue to be trodden under foot by 
the nations until this predicted time of the gentiles be fulfilled. The Mahometan 
mosque of Omar still pollutes the area of the Temple, and the Jews are permitted, 
by paying for the privilege, to approach the ancient wall supporting the area of 
the Temple and utter wailings. Here they shed floods of tears, and read prophecies 
and psalms, and renew their expiring hope. 

Ezekiel's prophecy, in his vision of the Yalley of Dry Bones, has, in part, 
been fulfilled. A large assembly of their rabbi resolved to strike out of their 
liturgy the prayers for the coming of their Messiah and return to their own land. 
Thus they have said, in the language of the prophet: Our hope is perished ! the 
Messiah will never come ! We are cut off, for our part, from the promised land. 



OHAPTEK OLXXIV. : SECTION I. 931 

Doubtless many Jews have often thought this, but an open avowal of it by 
hundreds of their rabbi may be regarded as a point in prophecy demanding our 
attention. After this expiration of hope has reached its boundary we may expect 
the predicted blowing of the spirit, that will reanimate them to hope and act. 
This indicates the approaching end of this intermediate age: They shall be 
brought in with the fullness of the gentiles. Before the winds of God's wrath 
began to blow upon corrupted Christianity, one hundred and forty-four thousand 
Israelites were sealed, and in every age some Israelites have embraced the 
religion of Jesus, without compulsion or hope of gain, and followed Him through 
prosperity and persecution, though their distinctive nationality has not been 
exhibited. At the present time numbers of them are true Christians, and many 
pious Jews are still waiting for the consolation of Israel; but many are said to 
have become infidels. (Continued in chap. 176, § 9.) 



CHAPTER CLXXIY. 



MASTERY OF THE WOMAN AND HER WILD BEAST. (Continued 

from Chap. 168, § 2.) 

1. The Eighth Head of the Third Beast. — The wild beast that carried the 
woman was the third beast in these divine programmes, which is the papal 
empire, blasphemously called the holy Roman empire. This wild beast she has 
ridden from its origin, and though she had many a contest with the head and 
horns about managing the animal, yet she managed to keep her position till the 
seventh head had fallen ; and if it revives, she may remount and ride a while 
longer. Bat I think the dominion of the heads is over. 

This third beast was e^ly the image, or part of the image, of the first beast 
which once did exist, but kt this time, when the woman was drunken with the 
blood of the saints, had no existence. But this image had as much of an exist- 
ence at this time as it ever had ; and the pope and clergy acted as shamefully 
and as senselessly, on the St. Bartholomew massacre, as any set of drunkards — 
and then the sixth, or Austrian, head was in power. Under Charles Y., when 
the wars of the Reformation first began, and under Ferdinand II., when the last 
wars transpired, it had as much vitality and did as much execution as under any 
of its headships. The holy Roman empire, under the image of civil sovereignty, 
did exist, and acted with power; hence, reference must be to some other beast. 

When she took her last heavy draught of blood from her cup-bearer, the 
Duke of Savoy, at the bidding of Louis XIY., the Austrian headship was not 
equal in power and energy to the French horn, but the beast itself had its power 
still, and used it against the saints through the hornship of Louis X.IY.^ monarch 
of France. Hence, we understand the angel to mean : The beast which thou 
sawest represents the beast which once existed, and now does not exist above 
ground in open view ; but it will ascend out of the bottomless and go into perdi- 
tion, or the lake of fire and brimstone. This is according to the Hebrew idiom 
common in the New Testament, and agrees with the facts of history and with 
the other descriptions of the first beast and his image. 



932 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

This revived or restored beast was not a natural or physiological head of the 
woman's beast, but became a head by some means ; and the ten natural horns 
cooperated with it, and gave their power to it, till the words of God were finished, 
or accomplished. This resuscitated beast is, of, or out of (ek) the seven kings; 
and he is an eighth. But, is he out of the seven heads of the first, or of the 
third ? If the Revelations were plain history for every one to understand, 
instead of complex and intricate mysteries to be understood by the servants of 
Christ, the narrative would require us to understand the reference to the third 
beast, and would denote dynasties; and then the eighth head must be one of the 
seven dynasties, or be composed out of a number of them. But no one of these 
dynasties had existed as a wild beast power, but only as a head of a power; and 
no combination of these dynasties, or of part of them, ever existed as a power 
distinct from the horns to which they belonged. The first and seventh dynasties 
belonged to the French horn, and the others belonged to the German horn. 

The heads of the first beast were empires, but the heads of the third were 
dynasties ; and as dynasties can not be empires, represented by a beast in contact 
with the kingdom of God, so the extinct beast must be a former empire or sover- 
eignty, recognized in the divine programmes as a wild beast. 

When this empire is resuscitated it must be under the headship of one of 
the seven empires or dynasties. But as all the dynasties of the third beast before 
the sixth, or Austrian, had become extinct beyond recovery, they could not be 
both the extinct beast and the head of the third bea^t : for the eighth head of 
the third beast is a beast itself. The German empire was a head of the first 
beast, but it was not extinct when the woman was drunk and the Austrian 
dynasty was the sixth head of the third beast. The Frank empire, as an inde- 
pendent civil sovereignty, was extinct, but, being held together by the pope, had 
some shadow of existence, and its revival at that time was not so hopeless as a 
wild beast in a bottomless pit, and is nowhere called a beast. 

2. The Fourth Beast Under Russian Headship. — The first development 
of the Monotheistic antagonism to the kingdom of God was in the Constantine 
Roman empire, which, as a development, may be called the first beast. For 
above one thousand years this supreme civil sovereignty maintained its position 
upon the face of the earth, but in the fall of Constantinople this first beast 
became extinct in the great movements on the earth, and to all appearances was 
as hopelessly lost as a wild beast in a very deep pit, which is often called bottom- 
less. Since then Russia has become the best representative of that beast, and 
the seventh head, and it might be said that the first beast fled into Russia and 
hid in the inaccessible retreats of the dark and frozen north, without the least 
hope of reappearing in the great conflicts of the kingdom of God with the 
powers of darkness. But here, under the headship of Russia, he arose again to 
eminence and attempted to reestablish himself in his former territories, and was 
driven back by European powers to his snowy retreats, where hundreds and 
thousands of pursuers under Napoleon met a terrible fate. Again and again he 
seeks his former throne and dominion, but is driven back to his inaccessible 
retreat and prescribed prison bounds. 

Now, if Russia should absorb or destroy Turkey — as she desires and intends 
to do on the first opportunity — receive the cooperation of the European powers, 
destroy popery and Mahometanism, and emancipate and establish the Greek 
church under five patriarchs, we would have the first beast restored as in the time 
of Constantine, under the leadership of the last of the seven heads. At the 
present time Prussia has partly restored the German empire destroyed by Napo- 
leon I., since the drunkenness of the woman, and is menacing the papal church, 
which looks like the predicted work of a horn; and in France the clergy are 
deprived of much of their influence. However, changes and rechanges may 
occur often before the end. 



CHAPTER CLXXIV.: SECTION II. 933 

The eastern church seemed transplanted without a change to the boundless 
wilds of medieval Russia. ^ The manners, looks, dress, and carriage of the 
people of Constantinople were transferred to the towns and cities of Kussia. 
The czar boasted a descent from the successors of Constantine, and traced a 
lineage back to Philip and Alexander, revived in their families the classic names 
and ceased to be altogether barbarous. Nor did the four eastern patriarchates 
see without exultation the rise of the vigorous power whose devotion to the creed 
of Nice might prove a safeguard against the ambition of Rome, and in some 
distant hour release Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Jerusalem from 
their bitter subjugation to the Turks. ^ From A. D. 1,000 Russia begins its 
career as a Christian nation, was the spiritual offspring of the Byzantine church, 
received its bishops from the schools of Constantinople, obtained an alphabet 
from the Greek, read the Scriptures in the Sclavonic tongue, etc. ^ The sacred 
city, Moscow, in A. D. 1587, became the seat of the fifth patriarchate, and, in 
the opinion of the east, assumed the place made vacant by the fall of the Roman 
see. Jeremiah, a wandering patriarch from Constantinople, consecrated his 
brother. Job of Moscow (Rostow*). The Kremline resounded with thanksgiving; 
the happy czar loaded the Greek prelate with generous gifts. Antioch, Alex- 
andria, and Jerusalem welcomed the new representative to the Nicene faith. ^ 
Peter the Great reformed the Russian church and changed the constitution, and 
he placed the control of all ecclesiastical affairs in a holy synod in place of the 
single patriarch ruling at Moscow. ^ 

Now, it is evident that Russia is regarded by the Greek church as its civil 
head and hoped for deliverer, and legitimate successor of the Constantine empire; 
and if Turkey was destroyed and the papal horns would delegate the papal head- 
ship to Russia, and cooperate, then would this Russian Greek-Roman Csesar be 
the eighth head of the papal empire, or third beast, and also one of the seven 
heads of the first beast. (Continued, chap. 176, §§1-3.) 

Then would all who dwell on the earth, citizens of this vast empire and 
members of this vast state church establishment, and all not true or genuine 
Christians, wonder, admire, and adore this wonderful prodigy of the state church 
sovereignty, acknowledging the supremacy of the political sovereign which once 
existed, then ceased to appear, was superseded and imprisoned by an image 
animated and controlled by the second beast or false prophet, was hopelessly lost, 
but has revived, reasserted his prerogatives, and triumphed at last. They would 
consider this the final triumph of the kingdom of God and the morning star of 
the millennium. ^ And had 1 not been apprised of the wonder by the divine pro- 
gramme, I, too, would shut my mouth and wonder at the strange phenomenon, 
and say : The hope of Israel is lost ! But those whose names are registered in 
the Lamb's book of life will remember the third angePs warning : If any worship 
the beast or his image, or become his open or secret devotee, even he shall drink 
the strongest wine of divine vengeance and be tormented in fire and brimstone 
night and day into ages of ages, before the holy angels and the Lamb. Then 
will be manifested the reward and importance of the faith, obedience, and 
patience of the saints. ^ 

This warning and development of the beast follows immediately after the 
first announcement of the fall of Babylon, or the papal church, ^ and before the 
second, ^ and this enables us to locate these events. This developed beast comes 
out of the bottomless and goes into perdition with the false prophet. This per- 
dition is the lake of fire and brimstone, ^ into which they are cast after the battle 
of Armageddon. 



(1) Harp. Mag., Aug., 1872. (2) Ibd., p. 413; If 2. (3) 415; H 2. (*) Mosh., Vol. II., p. 74. 
(4) Harp. Mag., idm., p. 417, TT 2. (5) 421, U 3. (6) Rev., 17:8. (7) 14:9-11. (8) 14:8, 9. (9) 
18:1-3. (1) 14:8. 19:20. 



934: THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

3. The Harvests. — After the above-mentioned announcement, John saw 
King Reaper occupying a very conspicuous position, surveying the field he desired 
to reap, but he had to wait for permission from an angel in the Temple. ^ If this 
personage may be seen now, the characteristics designate Russia. Russia occu- 
pies a most conspicuous position among the nations ; is rich, having many internal 
resources, and, as it were, crowned with gold; has a sharp sickle, or great military 
preparations. The nations see her and know what she is looking after, and fear 
her. Popery and Mahometanism fear and hate her, and would unite in a crusade 
against her, and she has no love for them. She is waiting for an opportunity to 
subjugate Turkey, and every statesman knows it. The Turkish power must be 
expelled from Syria, or at least from Palestine, before the Hope of Israel can be 
realized. And Daniel^ says : Tidings out of the east and north shall trouble 
Turkey. The tidings out of the north must be from Russia, and those from the 
east may be Persia and rebellions of the provinces on the Euphrates, excited by 
Russia or some other European nation. However, it might be an invasion from 
China and Tartary, coming around on the north and south of the Caspian sea 
and attacking through Armenia and Persia. 

On account of these troubliDg tidings Turkey shall go forth from Constanti- 
nople in great fury to destroy and make away many; as in the Greek revolution, 
he will murder patriarchs, archbishops, clergy of all ranks, and Christians in the 
revolted provinces. He shall pitch his royal tents between the Mediterranean 
and the Dead seas, in the delightful holy mountain. He may still hold Constan- 
tinople and Asia Minor, but make Mount Zion and the mosque of Omar the base 
of his cruel, devastating military operations. Or, he may be driven from Con- 
stantinople and Asia Minor by Russia and revolting provinces, and make Jeru- 
salem his last capital ; or, his royal tent may be the mosque of Omar, pitched at 
first ; but I think not. Put he shall come to his end and none shall help him ! 
Not even England. For many years the Ottoman empire has been protected 
from Russia and the viceroy of Egypt by the European States-system, ^but at last 
they will not, or can not help, and that power will come to an end, as the prophet 
foretold. The angels in the Temple, or missionaries, are busily engaged in trans- 
lating and circulating the Scriptures and preaching a purer Christianity in the 
dominions of the dragon beast and false prophet; and Christ's two witnesses are 
yet praying : Lord, spare the barren fig tree till we have cultivated it. When the 
Gospel has been preached, rejected, and disregarded, and the Scriptures have 
been read, perverted, and disobeyed, then the witnesses will say : Enough, 
Lord ! reformation is hopeless; now cut it down. Then will the angel come out 
of the Temple and call to King Reaper : Send thy sickle and reap, for the hour 
of reaping is come and the harvest of the earth, or empire, is dried. This voice 
will be heard by King Reaper when he sees the European powers interlocked in 
wars, secured by treaties, or convulsed by internal rebellions so that they can not 
interpose. 

Now, if Cardinal Manning, with his coadjutors, or the communists are ready 
to incite the horrors of the French revolution on the nations, there will be a 
bloody harvest ; and before it is ended the ten horns of the papal empire may 
find it necessary to give their power and cooperation to Russia for destroying 
Turkey and firmly establishing the Greek and Protestant state churches and sup- 
pressing republicanism. The relation of the Greek church and Protestant state 
churches to civil sovereignties is not very difi'erent, but popery and Moslemism 
claim supremacy over civil magistrates and will not let them rest unless they obey 
the clergy, pope, and caliph. Monarchies must have state churches, but wish to 
have them under their own control, as did Con stan tine the Great. Agencies cal- 
culated to produce these results are now at work. They are the three frog spirits. 
After the grain harvest the grape harvest is announced, but I think some other 
predicted events intervene. 

(2) 14:14-16. (3) Dan. 11 :44, 45. 



CHAPTER OLXXIV. : SECTIONS IV. -VI. 935 

4. The Prospect of the Jews.^ — When the Ottoman power comes to its end 
then Michael shall stand up for the children of Israel. There shall be an 
unprecedented time of trouble, and the registered children of Israel shall be 
delivered. 4 This regathering may occupy some time, and, like the return from 
Babylon, may be accomplished by immigrations at different times. An ensign is 
to be lifted up to the nations — a political object — and the nations shall convey the 
Jews to Palestine by all kinds of conveyances. ^ 

Russia has frequently conquered provinces from Turkey and then restored 
them to satisfy other powers, but latterly she secured the right of self-government 
to Moldavia and Wallacia, Servia and Bulgaria. If Kussia conquers Syria, the 
powers may demand or negotiate it for the Jews, and all unite to establish an 
independent government of Jews in Syria to preserve the balance of power. The 
European balance of power will require this when Turkey falls. This will be the 
beginning of the restoration of the Jews and of the fulfillment of the gracious 
promises to that people, but many commotions, concursions, and revolutions will 
synchronize with these fulfillments. The Turkish power being destroyed, the 
fate of Mahometanism will be sealed. Daniel says : It shall be broken without 
hands. ^ Mahometanism never prospered till it was advanced by the sword, and 
when its power to govern are destroyed and stringent laws made and enforced 
against polygamy, slavery, and other brutish practices, the religion that incul- 
cated these lascivious and debasing incentives to action will become powerless, 
and die out without any violent measures being decreed against the Koran, or 
the belief in it. It will be broken without hands, and the Greek church will be 
reestablished the empire, or state church of the east, or at least to the Euphrates, 
and maybe to the Indus. But the papal church will go down with violence, and 
the restored beast and the ten horns of the third beast will do it in or about the 
same time. ^ 

5. The Harlot Destroyed. — The Euphrates, or Turkish, and perhaps the 
Persian power, being dried up, the seventh vial of wrath is poured into the air, 
and the voice of prophecy out of the Temple in Heaven and from the throne 
was heard saying : It is done. Then great and unprecedented commotions and 
revolutions transpired. The great harlot city, or papal church, or the restored 
state church, and influence became three capital parts : Dragon, beast, and false 
prophet advocates. Politically developed they are : Republicanism, monarchy, 
and clericalism ; and the capitals, or power and riches of civil governments, fell, 
or revolutionized. 

The bloody harlot, or papal church, was remembered before God — to receive 
her doom. Mountain and island powers, influences, or governments, were 
destroyed or revolutionized, and invasions like hail-storms from outside the 
papal empire, or restored state church empire, caused the nobility and state 
clergy to blaspheme God. Internal commotions, revolutions, mutual contentions, 
or foreign invasions will cause the men to show their true characters and blas- 
pheme God. As the Euphrates is now dried up these invasions may be from 
the east — Tartars, Chinese, Afghans, and all the Red Dragon powers, or by 
Russia. As this is the last of the plagues, these events must synchronize with 
some other events. ^ Suddenly, in one day, death, sorrow, famine, and confla- 
grations will utterly destroy the papal church, ^ and all her supporters, unable 
to save her, will lament for her fate ; but the saints will rejoice. ^ 

6. The Witnesses Slain by the Fourth Beast. — This beast out of the bot- 
tomless will slay Christ's two witnesses. When this fourth, or resuscitated, beast 
power is established with its subordinate state church or churches, and all the 
world or empire admiring and worshiping it, Christ's witnesses will still testify 
for every truth and for liberty to publish it and to obey Christ's commands, and 
thus they will continue to torment the worshipers of the beast or his image. 

(*) Continued, chap. 176, § 9. (4) Dan. 12:1. (5) Isa. 11:11, 12. 49:22, 23. 60:5-9. Jer. 31. 
(6) Dan. 8:25. (7) Rev. 17:16. (8) Rev. 16:17-21. (9)18:7,8. (1)18:9-24. 



936 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

This beast will, however, make war upon them, and exterminate them, and 
no one will be allowed to preach without ordination from this empire church, nor 
publish a printed page without permission. Now, neither the Greek church 
with its various sects, nor the Protestant state church receives all the truths of 
Christ nor obey all His commands, and can not endure to be instructed or 
reproved. It is not probable that their confederation or consolidation will suffer 
these witnesses to torment any more. 

This resuscitated empire church, or combination of state churches, though 
not yet so blood-stained as the Babylon church, may most appositely be called 
Sodom of Egypt. There may be such men as Lot in Sodom and some Israelites 
in Egypt, but the Greek church with all its sects, and the Protestant state 
churches, have an immoral history, with spots of blood and marks of intolerance 
on its binding, and they give no signs of reformation. In them Christ has been 
crucified afresh and put to an open shame. ^ Constantinople may be the center 
or capital of this church empire, and the application of Sodom and Egypt are 
most suitable to it and its religious systems, whether Christian or Moslem; and 
in its territories was Christ crucified at first, and in Jerusalem has He been often 
crucified — and even in Jerusalem may the last two witnesses be exposed to mar- 
tyrdom and reproach. 

In the struggles between monarchy and republicanism in France, many of 
the republicans, finding they had but monarchy or anarchy to choose, supported 
monarchy as a matter of necessity. Communism, socialism, nihilism, and 
tramps have disgraced republicanism and freedom, and when the impending 
crisis between government and anarchy comes, the advocates of truth, freedom, 
and government will support monarchy, or state church government, as a matter 
of necessity, to put down anarchy. 

If communists and their associates make the first attack upon civil govern- 
ments, clericalism, papal and Mahometan, will follow and bring on their own 
overthrow and the reestablishment of civil supremacy in church and state; but, 
church and state united will be governed by princes and prelates, with constitu- 
tions, creeds, and laws, enforced by despotic and arbitrary power. All truth 
and obedience to Christ not received or recognized in those creeds, and all 
freedom to think, speak, and act not granted by these constitutions and laws, will 
be suppressed. 

To this despotism Christ's witnesses will never submit ; and the beast will 
make war upon them and put all to death that will dare to witness for every 
truth and obey every command of Christ. Princes, prelates, and all worshipers 
of concentrated civil and ecclesiastical power will rejoice and exult over them, 
and will congratulate each other and send portions to one another ; because these 
witnesses always tormented the venerators of such establishments. They will 
not let their defunct bodies be forgotten, but calling them communists, socialists, 
nihilists, heretics, and schismatics, the rulers will make stringent laws and form 
holy leagues to prevent any innovation or reformation. In every age, since Chris- 
tianity entered the embraces of political sovereignties, have Christ's witnesses 
been branded with the names and crimes of savages, rebels, and oppressed, who 
demanded freedom, rights, and prosperity, and rejected the corrupt and despotic 
religion of the oppressor. But, keeping their dead bodies, or defunct power and 
influence, in their royal city or cities, and before their legislative eyes, became a 
dangerous business. 

Many who aided to put down anarchy, popery, and caliphism were repub- 
licans, dissenters, anti-church and state men; and now, seeing an end to all 
freedom and reformation; secretly combined, and suddenly the advocates for truth 
and freedom were on their feet, princes and prelates were panic stricken, for 
they saw and heard them. The triumph was short, or, in prophetic language, 



(2) Heb. 6;6. 



CHAPTER CLXXIV.: SECTION VI. 93? 

three years and a half. A loud voice from Heaven, or voices from every 
quarter, accompanied with inevitable signs of power or divine protection, filled 
princes and prelates with consternation. Another earthquake, or revolution, 
instantly followed ; the tenth part of the Sodom and Egypt city fell. In this 
revolution were slain seven thousand men of titles or names of distinction, and 
if every man of name commanded one thousand, the slain would be seven million. 
The rest became frightened, and instead of blaspheming they gave glory to the 
God of Heaven and not to the beast. ^ The woe accompanying the sixth trumpet 
is completed ; the Turkish, or Ottoman, empire is ended, and it was the tenth 
horn of the Monotheistic wild beast. ^ The trumpets and woes belong primarily 
to the east division of the first beast; and the seventh trumpet announces the end 
of the mysteries of God, as foretold by the prophets;^ and this end is: the king- 
doms of this world have become the kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ, and 
He shall reign forever. The revolution accompanying the resurrection of the 
witnesses may be the same as the grape harvest ; if seven million were slain on 
the rise of the witnesses it might be denoted by the river, or sea of blood, out of 
the wine press. 

The mover of the grape harvest was not so conspicuous as King Reaper ; he 
came out of the Temple in Heaven, and may denote one of these unforeseen rev- 
olutions that spring upon nations suddenly, like the resurrection of the witnesses 
and attending earthquake; and coming out of the Temple may denote an avenger 
of the saints growing out of the divine teachings of truth and freedom. On the 
slaughter of the witnesses all reformation becomes hopeless ; no prayers for the 
barren fig tree are offered with incense upon the golden altar. The officiating 
angel comes forth and cries, with a loud voice that awoke the slain witnesses and 
startled their enemies: Send thy sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the earth- 
vine, for her grapes are fully ripe. The grape harvest of the beast's empire was 
gathered and trodden without the city, and the river of blood flowed two hundred 
miles, and so deep the reins of the cavalry bridles dipped in it. This may denote 
civil wars in the west by the communists and clericals while Russia is conquering 
Turkey, and before the final conflagration of the Babylon city, or Rome ; and the 
wine press being out of the city may intimate this fact. But it may designate the 
revolution attending the resurrection of the witnesses and the destruction of the 
Sodom and Egypt city, or Constantinople. 

Thus, the grain harvest may refer to the east and the grape harvest to the 
west, and the resurrection of the witnesses may belong to the battle in Arma- 
geddon, when the beast and false prophet are captured; or, the grain harvest 
may end with the slaughter of the witnesses, and the grape harvest may commence 
with the resurrection of the witnesses and extend to the battle of Armageddon. 
But the harvests, the earthquakes, and the battle of Armageddon may denote 
diff^erent campaigns and revolutions verifying Daniel's time of trouble such as 
never had been. But in the slaughter of the witnesses the fourth beast and false 
prophet, having lost his caliph and papal horns, did make war with the Lamb and 
His white robed followers ; and in the resurrection of the witnesses and the 
accompanying earthquake the Lamb did overcome them, and showed Himself to 
be Lord of lords, and King of kings, and those following Him proved them- 
selves to be called chosen and faithful;^ and the interposition of Heaven in 
behalf of His witnesses became obvious to all students of prophecy. And the 
students of Scripture exulted over the utter destruction of Babylon in the west 
and the prospects of New Jerusalem in the east. '^ 

We have now a clue to the time when the seventh vial of wrath began 
to be poured out and the seventh trumpet began to sound. The woe accompanying 
the sixth trumpet ended with the revolutions attending the resurrection of the 
witnesses, and the third woe follows quickly, and tiiis woe belongs to the seventh 

(3) Rev. 11:7-14. (4) Chap. 151, § 6. 176, § 2. (5) Rev. 8:13. 10:5-7. (6) Rev. 17:14. 19:11-21. 
(7)19;M0. 



938 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

trumpet. The seventh trumpet sounds, and, with other events, the Temple is 
opened and the smoke lias cleared out of it, and the ark of the covenant is seen 
distinctly. Now, the smoke was to fill the Temple so that no man could enter 
till the seven last plagues were fulfilled. Hence, the seventh vial must have 
commenced pouring out before the seventh trumpet sounded, about the time King 
Keaper received orders to thrust in his sickle, and its outpouring includes the two 
harvests and the revolutions attending the resurrection of the witnesses and the 
battle of Armageddon, for it contains the last of the last plagues, and the seventh 
trumpet ends the mysteries of God foretold by the prophets. And the sixth seal 
includes both seventh trumpet and seventh vial. 

7. The Battle of Armageddon. — The armies mustered by the three frog 
spirits were now concentrated about Armageddon for a last and desperate battle. 
In the resurrection of the witnesses the advocates of truth and freedom became 
strong, and republicanism, including much of the intidel element, showed itself 
in revolutions; and monarchy with revived clericalism undertook to put it down. 
These three conflicting elements in religion and politics had pervaded all nations 
and concentrated their armies for the final struggle. If England and Russia 
continue to occupy the same territories in Asia as now, Russia will have influence 
in the northern tribes and England in the southern, and the European nations 
will be divided according to the predominent element within them. 

It now becomes observable to all discerning minds that Christ has been man- 
aging all revolutions of the nations ever since He sat down on the right hand of 
the throne of God, or in the throne on the right hand of the Father. He is the 
head over all principalities and powers in Heaven and earth, for the preservation 
and triumph of the true church. The moving force and energy of His kingdom 
was always, from the first, pure and white ; as seen in the first seal, Himself was 
the guiding intelligence ; He commissioned His disciples to disciple the world to 
Him, but not to destroy or take vengeance on the nations ; but He reserved the 
vengeance to Himself, and wore a robe often dipped in the blood of His enemies. 
His victories were many, and He wore many diadems upon His head; on the 
armor of His thighs was engraved, "Lord of Lords and King of Kings." He 
had obtained many crowns and vanquished lords and kings by His wisdom and 
strength, and He wore the emblems of the same. "Those Mine enemies that 
would not that I should reign over them, bring hither and slay them under My 
footstool." A sharp sword proceeded out of His mouth ; or. His word or com- 
naand was as a sharp sword, and slew the nations ; He rules the nations with a 
rod of iron, or an irresistible scepter ; and He Himself, and not His servants, 
treads at all times and places the wine press of the fierce wrath of God Almighty. 
His counsels stand firm and sure, and He executes all His purposes. He is faith- 
ful and true to His word of promise or of threatening; in righteousness He judges 
and makes war, and His eyes behold everything, and strike terror into His ene- 
mies. His followers were not commissioned to take the sword, as was Israel of 
old; and if any did take it, they had no promise of protection or aid as Israel 
had, but they were liable to fall by the sword, which devours without distinction. 
When the sword is needed to advance or defend the cause of Christ, He com- 
mands his enemies to use it, as he commanded Israel, Assyria, and Nebuchad- 
nezzar of old. The moving force and energy of His kingdom is the pure white, 
and His heavenly guiding intelligence must present the true Christian character 
and maintain the pure word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ. They are 
the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and the pillar of truth. Christ 
opens the way by the word of His mouth, or by revolutions and invasions, and 
His servants follow with the Gospel of Christ and the Christian character. All 
this will be as conspicuous as a shining army, coming down out of the blue sky, 
when the last onset is made in Armageddon. 

The resuscitated beast and the false prophet were taken alive, and judged and 
consigned to their final destiny, and the rest were slaughtered on the battle-field. 



CHAPTER CLXXIV. : SECTION VIII. 939 

The judgment wilJ sit ; Christ, who judges the living and the dead, at His 
appearing and the consummation of His kingdom, will adjudge these civil and 
ecclesiastical usurpers of his prerogatives to their final destiny without inflicting 
death ; all the rest will be killed by mutual slaughter. This may be the battle 
of Gog, predicted by Ezekiel, but I think not. The time for the battle of Gog 
will be after the Jews return and have accumulated wealth, so must be after the 
wonders foretold by Daniel and before the most blessed time. After this, the 
hope of Israel will be realized; all the covenants, oaths, and promises be indis- 
putably fulfilled, and atheism. Polytheism, and scepticism will not dare to open 
the mouth for one thousand years ; and thus the Red Dragon will be chained and 
securely imprisoned forever, or till the resurrection and judgment of the dead. 

The next antagonism to the kingdom of God will be the Diabolian. The 
dragon will be cast into the pit, but the devil himself will come out of it. 
(See chap. 117.) 

8. A Short View of the Sixth Seal and the Present Time. — The sixth 
seal comprehends all these last catastrophes, and will begin to be historically 
opened when King Reaper thrusts in his sharp sickle. Christ's witnesses have 
had a time of rest from persecution, and of open prosperity; wore white robes, 
preached an everlasting Gospel to all nations of the world, talked of vengeance 
coming on their persecutors, and have discovered that they must witness again in 
persecution and slaughter. This seal opens on the redevelopment of church and 
state concentration under civil supremacy. The witnesses are slain, and restored 
to life; harvests, earthquakes of l-e volutions, invasions, great day of wrath, 
treading the wine press of the wrath of Almighty God, and battle of Megiddon 
—the last of the plagues is finished; the mysteries of God foretold by the 
prophets' are ended; the kingdoms have become the Lord's and his anointed's, 
and the palm-bearing victors appear before the throne, and the time for the judg- 
ment has come. 

The beast and horns had subdued and exhausted the papal and Moslem 
churches, but had not burnt them, and sovereigns and clergy, eastern nations 
and republicans, had concentrated their armies on Megiddon. The revolutionists 
of the grape harvest, or of the resurrectionized witnesses, may burn Rome and 
Mecca, all cathedrals, churches, and mosques, and every relict of state church 
despotism; and the hail may denote invasions of allies to truth and freedom from 
outside of the beast empire. Though these revolutionists were neither the beast 
nor horns, yet they were their subjects and finished up their work, and the saints 
exult in the great event. The nations had been angry about the witnesses tor- 
menting them; God's wrath fell on the nations, and they were destroyed; the 
time of the dead and the judgment had come, and the time to reward the saints 
and martyrs. Judgments predicted by the Old Testament prophets were now 
fulfilled on the enemies of the Jews, and the promised glories to Jerusalem and 
Israel were beginning to appear. Heaven and earth were tilled with happiness 
and rejoicing, and new Jerusalem, refulgent with righteous saints, was prepared 
to descend with Christ to earth. To synchronize and arrange in consecutive 
order all these future events would be difficult, uncertain, and perhaps impossible. 
Time only can determine the correctness or incorrectness of our understanding 
of programmes not yet fulfilled, but we may form a satisfactory decision of our 
whereabouts in the development of tlie kingdom of God and of what is yet to 
come. 

Christianity is not a failure, and everything about the development of the 
kingdom of God is progressing according to the divine programmes. This inter- 
mediate age is drawing to an end, and some wonderful events and terrible 
catastrophes have to transpire yet before the consummated age begins and the 
peace and happiness of this world are secured. The Sons of Oil have not yet 



940 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

finished their witness-bearing. They yet pour the pure golden olive oil into the 
two lamps. 1 The olive tree is emblematically used to denote the genuine chil- 
dren of God. 2 In Zechariah we have two olive trees and but one lamp-bearer, 
or candlestick; but in Revelations we have two olive trees and two lamp-bearers. ^ 

In time of Zechariah, Israel alone was God's lamp of life and light to the 
nations ; but in the time of John, believers out of Jews and gentiles had become 
the light of the world and the salt of the earth.* The pious Jews had believed 
in Christ Jesus and been expelled from the synagogues, and while the Christian 
churches maintained the truth, purity, and symplicity of the Gospel, all truly 
pious Jews would unite with them, and formed but one light-bearer to the world. 
But, after professed Christianity became a wild beast and a debauched harlot, 
and persecuted genuine Christians and Jews, many pious Jews rejected the 
popular, tyrannical, and impure Christianity and did not know that there was a 
true Christian church in the wilderness. These pious Jews adhered to the law 
and the prophets, poured pure olive oil into the Israelitish lamp, and witnessed 
for the True God and His revealed truths and laws before a benighted world and 
a corrupted Christianity. These Sons of Oil would not let the lamp and Hope of 
Israel expire. 

The genuine servants of Jesus Christ, according to the best of their knowl- 
edge, kept stirring up and reforming wherever they were, whether in the church of 
the wilderness or in the hierarchy of the beast, and thus they kept the truth of 
God, the testimony of Jesus Christ, and the genuine Christian life before the 
world. They were the foundation and pillar of truth, the light of the world, 
and the salt of the earth. The Sons of Oil have kept both the Mosaic and 
Christian lamps of divine truth aflame through all revolutions and commotions 
of nations. But the resuscitated beast, when fully developed, will not suffer any- 
thing to live that will not belong to his state church under the supremacy of civil 
sovereignty. In two ways might these two witnesses finish their testimony 
— when all have received it, or when all have rejected. In this case it is rejected, 
and when urged on the dominant party the witnesses are put to death; and for a 
time the advocates of truth and freedom to serve God no more torment the wor- 
shipers of concentrated civil and ecclesiastical power. But revolutions, on the 
resurrection of the witnesses, and invasions from the east draw the armies of the 
beast and of the ten horns to Megiddon. Republicanism, with its good and bad 
elements, receives a commission from the angel at the altar ; every government 
is revolutionized ; civil and ecclesiastical despotism is swept away or burnt up ; 
the armies about Megiddon are annihilated by mutual slaughter, and the saints 
will take the government under the whole heavens, as Daniel predicted about 
twenty-five hundred years beforehand. ^ But, as we said before, many other 
predicted events will transpire under this sixth seal and bring in the triumphs of 
the kingdom of God. (See the Hope of Israel.^ Continued in Supplement, 
chap. 176.) 

9. The Sealed Ones. — I have found a satisfactory solution of these sealed 
ones in the conflict with the dragon, and also with the beast ;'^ but this scene is 
an interlude in the sixth seal and may properly belong to that exhibition, though 
verified in the other scenes. So in literal prophecies : what was predicted of one 
event and fulfilled in respect to it, is said to be verified in another. In the con- 
test with the dragon Christ had His one hundred and forty-four thousand avowed 
and faithful martyrs — at first filled up from the twelve tribes of Israel, and in 
contest with the beast made up without distinction of nationality. But, as this 
scene is an interlude in the sixth seal, it may belong primarily to it and verified 
in the history of the Jews at the close of their dispersion. 

The scenes in this seal coincide with what was promised to the Jews and 
predicted of them. All the sinners of my people shall be cut off; the remnant 



(1) Rev. 11:3-5. (2) Ps. 52:8. Jer. 11:16. Hos. 14:6. (3) Zech.4:l-14. Rev. 11:3-5. (4) Matt. 
5:13,14. (5) Dan. 7:13, 14, 27. (6) Chap. 70. 120. 114-19. (*) Chap. 131. 



CHAPTER CLXXIY. ! SECTION IX. 941 

will speak no guile nor do iniquity; nothing unclean shall be in Jerusalem. Thy 
people shall all be holy : no sickness, nor crying, nor death. The tares shall be 

fathered out of the wheat, throughout the whole world, and cast into the fire, 
'hen shall the righteous shine as the sun in the firmament. So, here are dreadful 
revolutions and catastrophes : the sealing, then the white-robed, palm-bearing 
multitude, then the seventh seal and silence. 

The Jews, at present, number about six million, and there are some sinners 
among them who may be cut off in the tremendous revolutions, while one 
hundred and forty-four thousand pious Jews— registered in the book — may escape 
and be in the innumerable company out of all nations. A disposition exhibits in 
some nations to cut off the Jews, and some sinners among the Jews are in no 
way careful in their dealings to not provoke hostility to their people. Undoubt- 
edly the unprecedented trouble will fall on the Jews as well as on the gentiles ; 
and while the tares are gathering out of the wheat among the gentiles — Mono- 
theists of the gentiles — the sinners may be cut off from the Jews. The Jews 
have the prerogative, and can not be superseded nor supplanted in the promised 
land, and in the final triumph of the kingdom can not be overlooked nor rejected. 

When the seventh trumpet sounds and the predicted mysteries of God are 
finished, the ark of the covenant will be found safe in the Temple in Heaven, 
and the covenant, too. 

The sixth seal exhibits, in scenic representations and symbols, the adversi- 
ties and catastrophes preceding and the consummation of the kingdom, predicted 
by the old prophets and promised to the Jews, and the gentile Christians become 
fellow-heirs and joint-partakers, through Jesus Christ, but can not supersede the 
Jew in the kingdom of God. 

Although this sealing may have been satisfactorily verified before, it may 
primarily designate the same in time of the sixth seal, and show that Israel had 
witnessed in all times, and would survive all calamities and resume their prero- 
gatives in the consummated age of the kingdom. They had one hundred and 
forty-four thousand in the first conflict, and in the last, while between the 
extremes, the nations furnished one hundred and forty-four thousand, and at last 
an innumerable multitude. 

Such at least are the facts and predictions in the case. While this mark 
subjected them to persecution from false Monotheists, it secured them favor and 
protection from men of natural common sense, common justice, and above 
superstition. Israel led the van and brought up the rear in the conflicts of the 
intermediate age of the kingdom of God. The four-winds, judgments of God, 
that destroyed the adversaries and hypocrits of the kingdom, did riot afflict them 
or exterminate them. After the scenes and symbols of the sixth seal were 
exhibited and the leaf turned over, the seventh seal disclosed another scene : 
and all was silence. Why ? We are not told. 

Silence is produced by sudden astonishment; something we hoped for but 
did not expect so soon; or, by something overtaking us we did not want, nor 
expect. While contemplating the glorious consummation of the kingdom and 
the universal and everlasting reign of the saints, what more astonishing than the 
devil with his army surrounding the camp of the saints ? What ! The evil days 
not ended yet ? What does this mean ? While mute with astonishment fire 
from God comes down and consumes them. Then the second resurrection takes 
place. What ! Just now ? And the judgment of the dead ? What next ? The 
new Heavens — atmosphere — and new earth. ''Tis finished. 

Were these the scenes pictured in the seventh seal? I don't know. But, 
following out the programmes of the seals, these are the scenes which followed 
the programmes of the sixth seal. The seals, trumpets, and vials present con- 
tinuous scenes of distinct consecutive events. The trumpets and vials terminate 
with the sixth seal, in the consummation of the kingdom of God. The seventh 
seal programmes to the end — when the Son will deliver up the kingdom to the 
Father. 



CHAPTER CLXXY. 



CALCULA.TION OF DATES. 

1. Two Thousaj^d Three Hundred Days. — The last successful pushing of 
the Persian empire was under Ochus, or Artaxerxes III., who conquered all the 
revolted provinces, A. M. 3653-3666;'^ but the power was not broken till A. M. 
3670, nor destroyed till A. M. 3673. Now, 3653 + 2300 = A. M. 5953, or A. D. 
1949; and A. M. 3673 + 2300 = A. M. 5973, or A. D. 1969. If we commence 
the vision^ anywhere between the first and last dates the cleansing of the sanc- 
tuary must commence or end on or between these dates. A. D. 1949 or 1969 
minus A. D. 1879, leaves 70 or 90 years till that desirable time. At that time 
the seven last plagues must be fulfilled, for none can enter to cleanse the sanc- 
tuary during their mission, on account of the smoke from the glory of the Lord 
and His power. If this cleansing is literal, then must the mosque of Omar be 
removed, and the Temple be rebuilt, finished, and cleansed some time about from 
A. D. 1919 to A. D. 1969, or A. M. 5953 or A. M. 5973— about 70 or 90 years 
hence. But if we take it figuratively, then the tares must be gathered out of the 
kingdom and burnt in the lake of fire, and the New Jerusalem be descended to 
earth about that time. This calculation was made A. D. 1879. 

2. The Abomination That Has Desolated. — The Abomination^ that has 
desolated Jerusalem of genuine Jews, or Christians, is the mosque of Omar, a 
temple of a false prophet that claims prerogative over all God's messengers and 
over the Messiah. For a short time during the crusades the pope, who claims 
and exercises the same prerogatives, but in another way, held that same mosque 
on Mount Zion; but genuine servants of God and of his Christ have not offered 
daily worship on the area of the Holy Temple since Caliph Omar took posses- 
sion and consecrated it for that mosque in A. D. 637, nor been treated as legiti- 
mate citizens in the Holy City. Now, from the time the daily was taken away 
to set up the abomination that maketh desolate, till the dispersion of the holy 
people be finished, there shall be 1260 years, and to the end of the wonders 
1290, and to the happy time 1335 years.2 ' Now, A. D. 637-hl260=A. D. 1897; 
and A. D. 637+1290 =A. D. 1927; and A. D. 637+1335 =A. D. 1972. Hence 
we have the time of these three important events, A. D. 1897, 1927 and 1972. 
This makes the blessed time just three years after the cleansing of the sanctuary, 
which was A. D. 1969, ^ latest date. Thus we have from present date, A. D. 
1879, till end of dispersion, 18 years yet; till end of the wonders, 48 years, and 
to the happy time, 93, just three years later than the cleansing of the sanctuary 
according the latest date. ^ (See Three Dates.) 

3. The Little Horn of Daniel. * — This horn made war with the saints and 
prevailed against them, and undertook to change times and seasons, and they 
should be given into his hands 1260 years. But who delivered them into his 
hands is not said. Whether Deity delivered them, as He delivered Israel into 
the hands of enemies, or whether the civil power did it, we are not told ; but at 



(7) Roll. Vol. IV., p. 251-7. (8) Dan. 8:3-14. (9) 8:8-14. 12:11-12. (1) Chap. 141, § 7. (2) 
Dan. 12:7, 11, 12. (3) Chap. 175, § 1. (4) Dan. 7:7, 8, 21. 



CHAPTER OLXXV. I SECTION IV. 943 

the present time they are not in the hands of the pope. The last nation of the 
papal empire to establish civil and religious freedom was Spain, A. D. 1869, and 
in A. D. 1870, Amadeo, when crowned king, gave his assent to this liberal con- 
stitution. ^ Now, if we date backwards A. D. 1870. — 1260=610, or 4 years 
after the grant of the supreme prerogative given to the patriarch of Rome by the 
Greek emperor, Phocas. But subjugation of the saints was effected by degrees, 
and so has been their deliverance since the peace of Westphalia, A. D. 1648. 
But we have decided the papal power existed with Gregory I., A. D. 590 to 604,^ 
and even before that, in A. D. 451 to 728."^ The power of excommunication 
deprived of both Heaven and earth ;8 but while the Unitarian Heruli and Ostro- 
goths ruled Italy, the curses denounced by popes could not be inflicted in the 
west ; but after the reconquest by the Catholic Greeks, A. D. 533 to 536, and 
the Franks, A. D. 496 to 526, ^ they could, excepting when the Lombards ruled 
Italy. Now, A. D. 533 to 604 + 1260= A. D. 1793 to 1864. During these 
extreme dates the saints have been persecuted by the pope in different places and 
at different times, and have been delivered out of his hand by civil powers or by 
an intervening Providence. But if this definite number is not used for an indef- 
inite period, we cannot fix upon the precise time to begin nor to end the date. 
But the time for the little horn to tyranize is past. But allowing 365^ days to 
the year, and beginning with Gregory I., A. D. 590 to 604 + 1278 = 1868 to 
1882, or from first year of Gregory I. to Spain's freedom just the time. 

4. The Beast Pkactices Twelve Hundred and Sixty Years. ^ — The beast 
is to do what? We are not told. The same expression is applied to Antiochus 
Epiphanes and to the Maccabees in Daniel;^ and there our translators have 
supplied the elipses b}^ the word exploits. The exploits of Antiochus were 
against Jehovah, and those of the Maccabees were for Him. Now, as this beast is 
antagonist to the kingdom of God his exploits are against the saints for twelve 
hundred and sixty years. But is this period to be dated from his first persecution, 
or from the time his death-wounded head was resuscitated, or from the time his 
image was made animated and controlled by the second beast, or false prophet? 
Passing over fines, imprisonments, confiscations, and banishments, the first 
bloody edict I find was from the Emperors Honorus and Theodosius II., A. D. 
413 : That the persons rebaptizing and the rebaptized should be punished with 
death. ^ Under the reign of the Yandals the Donatists enjoyed an obscure peace 
one hundred years, at the end of which we may again trace them by the light of 
the imperial persecutions.^ Now, A. D. 413, or one hundred years later, A. D. 
513+1260 = A. D. 1673-1773. The last atrocious act of notorious and exten- 
sive persecution was in Piedmont, A. D. 1655, 1686, 1696.^ Thus, the last, 
A. D. 1696, is twenty-three years after the time from the first date and seventy- 
seven years before the last. If we add eighteen for exact calculation to 1673+ 
18 = 1691, just five years too short. Taking the time the death-wound was 
healed, which was some time before Gregory II. threatened the Greek emperor, 
A. D. 727-8, and after Gregory the L, A. D. 604, ^ we have A. D. 604-728+ 
1260 = A. D. 1864 (or 1882 exact period) to 1988, which late date runs us sixteen 
years beyond the blessed time and nineteen years beyond the cleansing of the 
sanctuary. ^ 

If the head was restored before the first persecution of the Paulicians, A. D. 
680-700, ^ then we might regard this the beginning of exploits ; and it was the 
commencement of the bloody persecutions of a people who migrated over the 
west, and with the remnants, offsprings, or descendants of the Novatians and 
Donatists, and with reformers suffered the direst persecutions from the image of 

4. 143. (1) Rev. 
, and note * or E. 
176-7. Chap. 140, 




944 THE kingdom: of god developed. 

the beast aDimated by the popes. Then, A. D. 680-700+1260= A. D. 1940- 
1960, which may include the slaughter of the two witnesses ; but is 9 or 29 years 
before the cleansing of the sanctuary."^ Or, by 365 J days to the year add 18 
days, A. D. 1958-1978 makes 9-18 after. If we date from the making, ani- 
mating, and controlling of the image of the beast, which has done more mischief 
to the saints than ever was done by the genuine beast, we observe the image of 
civil sovereignty created by Mahomet dates A. D. 622-632, ^ and was instantly 
put into action ; and the image created by the pope dates A. D. 751-3, when the 
pope degraded Childeric to a monastery and crowned Pepen as the Lord's 
Anointed. 1 Now, A. D. 622-753+1260 = A. D. 1882-2013, which runs us 44 
years beyond the cleasing of the sanctuary and 41 beyond the happy time. 

The difficulty in fixing the dates in Revelations is owing to the fact that the 
events begin imperceptibly, advance gradualW, and decline in the same way; so 
it is hard to determine from what point the specified time begins and when it 
ends. We may divide the year into four seasons and fix definitely the time of 
each ; but the seasons pay no respect to these divisions, and it is hard to determine 
When they do in fact begin or end. In A. D. 1866 the headship of Austria was 
destroyed in Italy and Germany by Prussia ;2 in A. D. 1870 the Bonaparte head- 
ship surrendered to Prussia ;2 in A. D. 1871 Victor Emanuel, king of Italy, 
transferred the seat of the government of United Italy to the city of Rome, the 
pope being divested of his temporal sovereignty ^ ; and the pope no longer animates 
nor controls an image of civil sovereignty. iSTow, A. D. 1871 — 1260= 611, and 
if the doing of the beast is restricted to the image animated by the pope then the 
conferring of the title. Universal Bishop, by Phocas, A. D. 606, and the sur- 
render of the German headship from Catholic Austria to Protestant Prussia, 
A. D. 1866, makes the exact period of 1260 years. Such are the facts of history 
compared with the events and dates in the divine programme. The Mahometan 
image was made A. D. 622-32, and practices yet. 

In calculating these times, or periods, I have taken the year at 360 days and 
the month at 30 days, which is not philosophically correct, and I don't know that 
it is Scripturally so ; but taking the terms as definite for indefinite they enable 
us to approximate the times, and that is all I expect to accomplish. According 
to my view, the Monotheistic antagonism still exists and will continue till the 
judgment of the living begins, after the battle of Armageddon ; but its practicing 
or doing exploits against the saints may have given place to the three frog spirits 
striving to restore the power of their respective proo:enitors. Neither dragon, 
beast, nor false prophet can persecute to any great extent until some one of them 
subdues the other two. This is the conflict now progressing. But if we com- 
mence one year of Gregory I., A. D. 591, and add 1278, the exact number of days 
in three and a half years, the time the saints were under the papal horn, it comes 
exactly to A. D. 1869, the time the last papal power (Spain) granted civil and 
religious freedom. ^ Commencing the doing exploits of the beast with the date of 
the decree of Honorus inflicting death, A. D. 413, and adding 1278 years, which is 
the nearest number of days in three and a half years, it brings us down to A. D. 
1691, which is five years short of the last persecution in Piedmont. Gibbon 
makes the date of the decree A. D. 412, ^ which makes six years short of the last 
persecuting exploit of the beast. 

In Revelations'^ the woman is said to sojourn in the wilderness 1260 days, 
and again it is called three and an half times, or years, which appears to fix the 
prophetic year at 1260 days. If we take the years at 1278 days, and one day to 
denote one year, then in all my previous calculations we must add or substract, 
as the case may be, eighteen years for every 1260. That time and times denote 
one and two years is evident from Nebuchadnezzar's seven years of insanity. ^ 



(9) Gbn. 2:11; 207. (1) Gbn. 2:10; 179-80. Chap. 143, § 1. (2) Thai. pp. 425-6. (3) pp. 447-8. 
(4) Thai. p. 453. (5) Chap. 175, § 3. (6) Gbn. 1:33; 4-54. (7) Rev. 12:6, 14. 11:2, 3. (8) Dan. 
4:16, 23, 25, 32. (*) Chap. 175, § 1. 



CHAPTER CLXXV. : SECTIONS V.-VI. 945 

But I take all these periods of time as the definite for the indefinite. We have 
to depend on history for our facts and dates, as writers view the facts and fix 
the dates. 

5. The Conclijsion on Dates. — The two thousand three hundred years to 
the cleansing of the sanctuary will not end till A. D. 1949 or 1969. ^ From the 
casting down of the place of the sanctuary to set up the abomination that deso- 
lated to the end of the dispersion of the Jews, is yet to A. D. 1897 or 1915; to 
end of the wonders, A. D. 1927 or 1945; and to the happy time, A. D. 1972 or 
1990. ^ From the peace of Westphalia, A. D. 1648, till the revolution in Spain, 
A. D. 1869, the saints were delivered, at difierent times in different nations, out 
of the hands of the little horn. From these dates take 1,260 or 1,278 years, and 
we are carried back to A. D. 609 or 591, or to A. D. 388 or 370. ^ 

Constantine himself placed the churches, or saints, in the west under the 
patriarch of Rome, and as the civil power declined the power and influence of the 
patriarch increased. But not till the overthrow of the Unitarian Heruli and 
Goths could the Catholic patriarch of Rome obtain an absolute control. The 
exarchs of Ravenna, as deputy for the Greek emperor, professed to govern Italy; 
but by means of the clergy the patriarch's influence extended over the shattered 
western empire, and when the emperor and his exarchs were unable to relieve 
Rome, the people themselves, under Rope Benedict^ I., invoked St. Peter and 
repulsed the enemy, A. D. 578 to 582.^ The clergy and senate sent Gregory, 
then a deacon, to the Emperor Maurice, A. D. 582 to 602, for help, but were 
advised to bribe the Lombard chiefs or purchase the aid of the kings of France, 
A. D. 582 to 590, which was done and the Lombards defeated. Gregory I. 
became pope A. D. 590 to 604, and established the papal influence over the 
whole old Latin domains and created a civil power, animated by the pope, that at 
last controlled emperors. The pope was henceforth a power that chose or rejected, 
obeyed or commanded emperors, kings, and princes, as it saw proper. Not pro- 
fessing nor acknowledged as yet to be a civil sovereign, he did control and 
animate civil and military operations, and his government of the churches and 
saints was conceded by prelates and princes,^ though popes and sovereigns have 
always had many a rough and tumble. 

6. Dates in the Revelations.— The beast performed his last exploits in 
A. D. 1694, in Germany, *? and in Piedmont A. D. 1696. » From A. D. 1696 
take 1260 or 1278, and it brings us back to A. D. 436 or 418. Now, from the 
time of Constantine, A. D. 331, till the time of Theodosius the Great, A. D. 
383,"^ severe laws were enacted against heretics; but the Novatians and Donatists 
were reckoned orthodox schismatics, and though these suffered fines, confisca- 
tions and banishment, they were not specially doomed to death. ^ Importuned 
to enforce the laws against heritics, Honorius issued an edict condemning to 
death both the rebaptizer and the rebaptized. ^ This included the Novatians and 
Donatist, for they rebaptised all converts from the empire or state church. 
Albanus and other Novatians were punished with death, ^ and Donatists were 
martyred; 8 but whether any were put to death before A. D. 418, I have not 
been able to determine. 

The woman or true church could not be nourished out of the wilderness 
till A. D. 1626 in Holland, A. D. 1688-9 in England, and A. D. 1869 in Spain. 
Now, her three and one-half times is said to be 1260 days, and deducting 1260 
years from these dates, we are brought back to A. D. 609, 428-9, 366. The 
Catholics under Constantine, and the Arians under Constantius, persecuted the 
Novatians and Donatists and Aerians A. D. 331-352, which lacks fourteen years 
of the earliest date. Claudius Seyssel, a papal archbishop, traces the rise of the 
Waldensean heresy to a pastor named Leo, leaving Rome during the persecutions 



(9) Chap. 175, § 1. (1) § 2. (2) § 3. (3) Mosh. Chron. Cent. 6. (4) Gbn. 2, pp. 103-4. (6) 140, 
1, 2, and 175, § 3. (7) Jones, p. 194. (8) Orch., pp. 60, 93-4. 
-60 



946 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

of Constantine, A. D. 331-7, and retiring to the valleys. Yalens persecuted 
them A. D. 375 ; Theodosius, A. D. 383 ; Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, perse- 
cuted the Novatians A. D. 412 ; Innocent, bishop of Rome, did the same A. D. 
412-5 ; edict of Honorius, A. D. 413, included Novatians and Donatists ; Celes- 
tines, bishop of Rome, persecuted the Novatians A. D. 432 ; but they still 
existed A. D. 575, and how much longer I cannot tell, but this is the last men- 
tion of them in history under this name. Pope Gregory I. persecuted the; 
Donatists in Africa till they disappear, A. D. 591 to 604. ^ 

The British Christians experienced various changes of prosperity and adver- 
sity until about A. D. 600. - Gregory I. sent Austine with forty monks to con- 
vert the Saxons, A. D. 596 or 597. Austine became archbishop A. D. 597, and 
died A. D. 611, or some say 605. He is said to have brought the Saxons upon 
the ancient and native Christians of Wales, because they refused to yield their 
primative Christianity to his papal innovations, but the exact date of their slaugh- 
ter and dispersion I^can not obtain, but will date it A. D. 597 to 611, or 605. ^ 
Thus, the woman was seen flying into the wilderness from A. D. 331 or 337 till 
A. D. 604 or 611, and has been seen coming out of it since A. D. 1626 till A. D. 
1869 or 1870, when the king of Spain accepted the new constitution. But she is 
now out, and can be nourished in the presence of princes and prelates, and she 
fulfilled her time in the wilderness. 

The time for the witnesses to prophecy in sackcloth and ashes will be about 
the same time as the time for the beast to do exploits. And the time for leaving 
the outer court without measuring and the holy city to be trodden under foot is 
about the same, unless we take it literally, and then it will be the same as § 2 — 
A. D. 1897 or 1915. 

7. Present Condition. — The woman is certainly out of the wilderness. The 
witnesses no longer wear sackcloth, though they still torment the worshipers of 
the beast and of his image. The persecuting power of the dragon, beast, and 
false prophet is gone for the present, and the three frog spirits out of their 
mouths watch and neutralize each other's influence, so that the witnesses can not 
be slain till the spirit of the beast conquers his fellows and restores the beast 
himself out of the bottomless pit, or hopless prison. Jerusalem is not restored; 
the sanctuary is not yet cleansed; the Hope of Israel has not yet been reahzed, 
and terrible catastrophes are yet before us. The sixth seal is yet to open; the 
seventh trumpet is yet to blow, and the seventh vial is yet to be poured out. The 
non-state churches may be taken according to their professing, or actual member- 
ship, though they exhibit the various characters of the seven churches of Asia 
Minor and may meet the same doom threatened on them. Christ may acknowl- 
edge them and yet purify them by judgments, and those judgments are now 
appearing in the ecclesiastical and political horizon. 

8. Three Dates: 1260, 1200, 1335, or Next Eighty-Seven Years.— A 
glorious ambassador from Heaven undertook to show Daniel what would befall 
the children of his people in the latter days. If he was competent to teach, he 
can be understood and his teaching is reliable. When he drew his programme, 
one inquired what would be the end of these wonders? The answer was: In 
1260 years; and when the scattering of the power of the saints shall be accom- 
plished all these wonders shall be finished. And from the taking away of the 
daily to set up the abomination that makes desolate, 1290 years should transpire, 
and the person would be blessed who waited and came to the 1335 years. 

In A. D. 637 the false prophet, by his Unitarian horn, took possession of 
Jerusalem — the holy city of God — consecrated the area of the temple, the place 
of the sanctuary, to erect the mosque of Omar — the abomination that has made 
Jerusalem desolate of tlie saints from that time to this. The false prophet, by 



(9) Chap. 175, ^ 4. (1) Chap. 128, § 6. 161, § 3. (2) Ben., p. 343-6, and chap. 146, § 1. (3) 
Mosh. Chron. Cent. 7, Vol. II., p. 431. 



CHAPTER CLXXV. : SECTION VIII. 947 

bis Unitarian and Trinitarian horns, has sat on the Mount of God — on the area 
of the temple, the place of the sanctuary — which it has cast down from its high 
and holy position in the kingdom of God — the throne of God — and claims and 
exercises the prerogatives of God over his kingdom, and has expatriated the 
legitimate children of the kingdom, whether Jews or Christians. They are 
treated as foreigners or enemies, and fined, under the name of tribute, if they 
worship God at any sacred place in the holy city, and the pious Jews pay for 
privilege to weep beside the foundation of their holy temple. The Man of Sin 
has, literally and figuratively, sat on the throne of God and tyrannized over the 
temple, city, and kingdom of God for 1247 (1884) years. Then, 1290 years 
from A. D. 637 ends the wonders of Daniel's predictions, or those in that vision 
— the destruction of the wild beast and their little horns; but what will take place 
during the forty-five years following, we are not told. The king of the north — 
Turks — -is the last power to expatriate the Jews, and that it would expire in Jeru- 
salem in thirteen or thirty-one years is not improbable. Then will be an unpre- 
cedented time of trouble. What that trouble is, we are not told. Christ said 
the Gospel must be preached to all nations and then shall come the end of this 
age; and then will be distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and waves 
roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear and looking after those things coming 
upon the earth. But what will make this distress and perplexity, He did not say. 
That the Gospel will be preached to all nations, and even the Scriptures trans- 
lated into all languages, is very probable. These events may, or may not syn- 
chronize, and may transpire about the same time — within thirteen or thirty-one 
years. The woe accompanying the sixth trumpet has not expired yet ; the fifth 
vial is not exhausted yet, though the sixth vial has been poured out into the 
Euphrates and the Turkish power has been drying up for some time. When the 
sixth seal is opened the whole world will be revolutionized. 

When the sixth vial was poured out, John discovered three frog spirits per- 
ambulating the whole world and mustering all nations to the great battle of God 
Almighty. These spirits are at work now, and might bring on the battle in thir- 
teen or thirty-one years. The wild beast of the pit is out now, without a head; but 
the anarchists may compel the ten horns of the third beast to give him a head- 
ship — then he will slay the witnesses and destroy the harlot. The witnesses will 
arise, and the second woe expire ; but the third woe will soon follow. 

All these events combined may transpire about the time of the Jews' return, 
and make the trouble, distress, and perplexity. But what will transpire in the 
forty-five years following? Some isolated phophecies predict events that may 
transpire in that time. The Jews are to become powerful, valiant, wealthy, and 
irresistible con querers; will return and be prosperous; will fight at Jerusalem; 
will be invaded by Gog, who will be destroyed and the land cleansed. I can not 
find any other time or place for Gog and some other warlike events. When the 
blessed time comes swords will be turned into plowshares and spears into pruning- 
hooks, and war shall cease. The saints will take the government under the whole 
heavens, the world will be ruled in righteousness, and health and prosperity 
abound. The glorious promises to Israel will be realized. 

Miracles transpire suddenly, but predictions gradually; and the time to begin, 
and bring to notice, and to end and disappear, is more than the difference between 
360 and 365J days to the year; so it is but little difference which number we take 



CHAPTER CLXXYI. 



SUPPLEMENT.— PASSING EYENTS. A. M. 5883; or, A. D. 1879. 

(ContiDued from Chap. 174.) 

1. TuRKO-RussiAN War. ^ — The man on the white cloud has made an effort 
to thrust in his sharp sickle in behalf of the Greek church; but he has put it up 
again. The missionaries exclaimed against Russian intolerance, and declared 
Turkey willing to be converted and ready to receive the Gospel. Christian sov- 
ereignties interposed to save Turkey, lest Russia should become too powerful for 
other nations. Another war between Russia and Turkey has been ended. It 
originated in the rebellion of Christian provinces against the brutal and brutal- 
izing treatment of their oppressive and tribute-paid nominal masters."^ This war 
was characterized by deeds of desperation, valor, skill, and determination that 
show that the fall of Turkey must be accomplished with great slaughters. The 
victory was complete, and showed the competency of Russia to accomplish the 
work ; but the interposition of European powers shows that a harvest of carnage 
will be cut over a great portion of the earth, f England is resolved to protect 
Turkey till she can devour it herself; nations will take sides as their interests or 
jealousies dictate ; clericalism and communism are ready to strike as soon as 
crowned heads become involved in war. Russia gained posts and territory ; 
Turkish power was contracted ; England made acquisitions ; and advantages to 
Jews and Christians were secured. 

Bulgaria was divided into two provinces — one north of the Balkans and the 
other south. The southern province, or division, is secured in all the rights, civil 
and religious, which Russia demanded ; the northern division is made substan- 
tially independent, while Roumania, Servia, and Montenegro are made absolutely 
so. Russia gets back Bessarabia, in Europe, and in Asia retains Batoum, 
Ardahan, Kars, and adjacent territory. The government of the two provinces, 
Bosnia and Herzegovina, have been given over to the care of Austria. Thus, 
Turkish power in Europe, except over a little territory near Constantinople, has 
been, in effect, almost annihilated. England obtains the island of Cyprus, and 
the control of what remains of Asiatic Turkey. ^' Thus, the European congress 
at Berlin has fixed the destiny of Turkey and dried up its power. The Holy 
Land will be free to Jews and Christians. The religious character of this war 
was evident. At the commencement of hostilities, the Servian metropolitan and 
all the bishops — Greek church — went to the frontier to bless the troops. The flags 
were distributed to the Montenegrin troops after mass. The Turks were hanging 
teachers and professors everywhere. A priest was crucified near Philippopolis. ® 

2. "Woe Continued, and Savage Disposition of the Turk Displayed.'^ — 
Atrocities in Bulgaria: One ghastly heap of skeletons with clothing, * * ^ 
skulls of women and children picked and licked clean by dogs. " ^ ^^ On every 
side were skulls and skeletons charred among the ruins, or lying entire where 
they fell. -^ -^ * Skeletons of girls and women, with long brown hair hanging 



(4) Chap. 149, § 8. 166, i? 10. 174, §§ 2, 3. (5) U. P., July 18, 1878. (f) See § 17. (6) Chgo. 
Wkly. Trib., July 5, 1S76. (*) Chap. 174, § 6. (7) Continued from chap. 166, §§ 6-8. 



<3HAPTER CLXXVr. : SECTION III. 949 

to skulls, and putrifying bodies. * '^' '^' Between the church and school these 
were in heaps, and the stench was fearful.* The whole church yard, for three feet 
deep, was festering with dead bodies partly covered • * * ^ hands, legs, 
arras, and heads projected in ghastly confusion; ^ -^ -^ many little hands, 
heads, and feet of little children, and girls with heads covered with beautiful 
hair: and the church floor was covered with rotting bodies quite uncovered. 
There were three thousand bodies in the church yard; three hundred women and 
children burnt alive in the school building. All over the town were the same 
scenes ; and shallow buried bodies dug out by dogs. No crime invented by 
Turkish ferocity was left uncommitted. ^ ^- ^ Seven thousand bodies have 
been lying here since May 12th, rotting in the sun and preyed on by dogs: sixty 
villages were burnt north of the Balkans, and seventy south, with like outrages, 
and sixty thousand people were killed. 

Armed Turks continue to commit acts of violence every day. The Christian 
inhabitants are robbed if tliey go outside their villages • * ^- * women are 
assaulted and violated every day • * ^ ->«■ and the Turks drive away their 
cattle and sell them. August 10th, three thousand men, women, and children 
were murdered by the Turks at Otlukkni; the children were carried about on 
bayonets, and persons were burnt alive. At Bazardjik one thousand persons 
were murdered. * * -^^^ ^ bagful of human heads were emptied before the 
Italian consul at Jambuli and left to be eaten by dogs. In Bosnia three hundred 
Christians were tortured and then drowned at Per van and Timar. * * '^ At 
Pa vis twelve women were cut to pieces and thrown to dogs; * '^' ^ sixty chil- 
dren were stoned at Eatklovo ; ^ * * at Sakolovo one hundred and eighty 
girls, taken from the neighboring villages, were penned in a field, the prettiest 
being picked out for harems, the rest were violated by the soldiers, and then 
murdered. Three thousand persons were murdered at Maidan. Moslem Effendis 
led in various of these mobs.^ 

One-half of the horrors perpetrated in Bulgaria has yet to be told. The 
account from Batak is only too exact and explicit, -^^ ^ ^ described in terrible 
and simple terms, * '^ '^' the rest being too horrible to put in words. ^ . The 
Ottoman government is pouring into Syria a deluge of the savage Circassians, of 
whom thirty thousand or more are coming. Most of them are loaded down with 
Bulgarian plunder, and numerous Bulgarian girls; they sell on the streets gold 
and silver ornaments, stolen from Christian churches ; and they boast of their 
exploits of murder, outrage, and rapine. ^ 

3. Hostility to Russia. — Not only do the political sovereignties fear, 
watch, and oppose Russia, but the false prophet and the dragon spirits hate, 
dread, and oppose Russian power and influence. The Moslem spirit has shown 
hostility to the civil head of the Greek church. The shereef of Mecca sent a 
petition to the sheik of Islam demanding a declaration of war against Russia. ^ 
The leader of the pilgrims to the Mahometan shrines is instructed to proclaim in 
all the cities he passes through that the sultan has resolved to call the faithful to 
a holy war against infidel Russia.^ The extreme Mussulman party has asked 
the shereef of Mecca and the muftis of Tunis and Morocco whether Turkey 
should join England in the event of an Anglo-Russian war. The muftis replied 
in the affirmative, and the shereef promised to submit the question to the council, 
in the event of an outbreak of hostilities. ^ A dispatch from Syria says : The 
shereef of Mecca has issued an appeal to the faithful that the caliph was in dan- 
ger, and calling upon them to fly to the rescue. The appeal is made throughout 
Arabia and Asia Minor, but is not likely to have much efiect, as the Arabs are 
much dissatisfied. ^ 



(8) Chgo. Wkly. Ti-ib., Aug. 23, 1876. (9) Standard, Sep. 26, 1876. (1) U. P., April 25, 1878. 
(2) Chgo. Wkly Trib., March 7, 1877. (3) U. P., May 17, 1877. (4) Trib., May 1, 1878. (5) 
Trib., May 22, 1878. 



950 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

The Mahometans in India circulated the following appeal : Mahounds, rise 
like one man to give financial aid to Turkey. The head of our religion has been 
harassed by the infidel. Let a subscription be started, that our co religionists 
in Europe may be better able to cut down the heads of the unbelievers who have 
dared to raise their unhallowed hands on our lord, spiritual and temporal.^ 

The papal spirit has shown hostility to Russia and preference to Moslem- 
ism. The Papal Journal of Rome denounces the Russian-Greek church as more 
hurtful to Catholic civilization than Islamism, and urges the Catholic powers to 
back England against Russia. A strong feeling in the opposite direction is show- 
ing itself in England and America in connection with the movement for uniting 
the Oriental church with the Anglican church and its branches. '^ The Vatican is 
seriously bent upon decisive conduct against Russia, in order, if possible, to force 
her to make explicit declarations as to her religious policy in Poland; and it is 
reported that the pope has ordered prayers in the Roman Catholic churches in 
Bosnia for the success of the Turks. ^ The Vatican, apprehending the Russian 
preponderance in the east, is endeavoring to back the Armenian separatists to 
allegiance to Rome. ^ Thus, we see that Mahometanism and popery, which made, 
animated, and controlled the image of the beast, hate and dread Russia at the 
head of the Greek church, and Russia intends to maintain the prerogatives of the 
civil head of the Catholic churchf ; and Protestant state-church sovereignties are 
inclined the same way. 

• 

4. The False Pbophet Fkog Spirit Shown in Mahometanism."^ — During 
this Turko-Russian war the three frog spirits came to the surface and showed 
themselves; and while they unite against Christ and His truth, they are deter- 
mined on the subjugation of one another. We find in Turkey the ecclesiastical 
element claiming authority over the civil authority. The softas required the sul- 
tan to deposit $25,000,000 in the public treasury; to' reduce the civil list to 
$5,0C0,000; to establish a national council, and to appoint a European minister 
of finance; and to renounce the title of caliph, i The softas are those attached 
to the mosques in any way or capacity whatever : ^ the muftis and mollahs, or 
ministers in the mosques ; the dervishes, or itinerant monks ; the ullema, or law- 
yers of the Koran and civil laws; the muezzin, that calls to prayers; the scribe, 
who carries on the correspondence of the neighborhood ; the gate-keeper, and 
the fanatic, that watches the shoes of the faithful while at prayers. ^ These number 
in Constantinople about ten thousand, and their influence over the nominal rulers 
is supreme. They utter threats against the sultan and his ministers, and some- 
times against the Christians. They rule the populace, and the sultan yields to 
their clamors. ^ The softas have been dissatisfied with the government ever since 
some disposition has been shown to place all religious denominations on the 
policy of a fair equality. » The softas and Mussulmen roughs are buying revol- 
vers, daggers, and other weapons.^ A body of softas proceeded to the chamber 
of deputies. May 24, A. D. 1877, to demand the dismissal of the ministers. The 
debate became so strong that the president was obliged to suspend the sitting. 
Then the softas marched to the palace; a state of seige was proclaimed in Con- 
stantinople; five softas out of two thousand were admitted to the chamber, and 
accused Hessein Pasha, commander of Ardahan, of treason, and demanded his 
arraignment; the leaders of the softas were armed; the sultan fled to a fortress 
on the Asiatic side; the shereef of Mecca has placed the treasures of the holy 
shrine — gifts from the pilgrims-— at the sultan's disposal, amounting to two hun- 
dred million piastres. ^ 

Mahometanism has increased in India to a greater extent under English rule 
than when heathenism was the dominant political power. England's power has 



(6) Stand., Oct. 26, 1876. (7) U. P , Au?. 10, 1876. (8) Trib., May 30, 1877. (9) Nov. 20, 
1878. (t) See § 12. (*) Continued from chap. 172, § 5. (l)Trib., May 31, 1876. (2)Idm.,May 25. 
(3) Bloomington Pantagraph, May 26, 1876. (4) Trib., May 25, 1876. (5) U. P., June 8, 187^. 
(6) Trib., May 30, 1877. 



CHAPTER CLXXVI.: SECTION V. 951 

been ^Xelrcised about two hundred years ; the Christians number less than one 
million, but the Mahometans number fifty millions. This fact, with the per- 
sistent support of Turkey, with all its atrocities against the Christians, by 
England, does not speak well for English influence. Mahometanism is taking on 
a new life, and is again becoming aggressive. Its missionaries in Japan, Corea, 
and elsewhere, work with the zeal of the old Jesuits, and are gaining force and 
strength. The energies of the devotees of error and false religion have been 
awakened into new life. ^ 

Resolved to Conquer : When Europe will not look at us we shall lay aside 
all European customs lately adopted and shall enter on our old way. From the 
boy of thirteen to the old man of seventy we will be armed, and we will defend, 
by the aid of God and by the daring of the old day, the country we have held for 
five hundred years. We will blend all the different Moslem races into one. 
* * * The Moslems of India, of Central Asia, of the Caucasus, of Africa, 
and of Algeria, will come forward, and we will again take the measures which 
we adopted once for the conquest of Jerusalem. We will send proclamations 
everywhere, and declare a general war against the whole world. This is a very 
easy matter for his majesty, the sultan, to do; If the Moslems rise to defend their 
sacred religion, and if the treasures accumulated every year at Mecca are used 
for the protection of the Mahometan faith, then scenes of the ancient European 
wars, where the Moslems were both victorious and destructive, will be repeated, 
and will destroy the progress and civilization of an entire century. (Taken from 
the principal paper of Constantinople and leading organ of Turkish sentiment. ^) 
The emir of Bokhara, considering that Kussia, in attacking Turkey, threatens the 
whole Mahometan world, has placed his army on a war footing. ^ The Turkish 
barbarities know no bounds nor restraints in Romelia and Bulgaria — murdering, 
torturing, and outraging men, women, children, and infants.'^ When his end 
comes, Turkey will certainly go forth to destroy and make away many, and there 
^will be a time of trouble. 

5. The False Prophet Frog Spirit Shown in Popery. — The unclean spirit 
in popery still claims supremacy over civil sovereigns. In celebrating the 
liumiliation of Henry IV., January 25, 1877, the Jesuits gave emphasis to the 
doctrine of the Syllybus, that the pope claimed the right and has the will to 
depose every civil authority that will not submit to his will, and to release every 
papist from obedience to that government. ^ Never yield or give up the divine 
right which the head of the church has, by virtue of the keys, to the government 
of North America as well as every other country. (From the Catholic Mirror. 2) 

Bronson, under revision of Bishop and Clergy, defends the pope's right to 
absolve a nation from its allegiance to its sovereign. He tells us: This the popes 
never hesitated to do in the ages of the faith. Republics can tyrannize and 
oppress as well as monarchies. We admire our great and good father, Pius IX., 
still more for the free, bold, and commanding attitude he assumes before the lay 
lords of the earth, recalling the sainted Hildebrand, the heroic Third Alexander, 
and the Third Innocent, who made crowned heads feel and acknowledge that the 
Pomish church is paramount to the state, and that when he speaks kings as well 
as the meanest of their subjects must bare the head and listen. Thanks, devout 
thanks to Almighty God, who has sent us a successor of St. Peter who brings 
back the heroic ages, and let the faithful rally at his bidding. '^ '^ ^ Let them 
support him by their prayers, and, if need be, by their deeds, etc. Thus, the 
chains which bind the souls of the toiling millions will be broken, etc. ^ The 
archbishop in New York said in public : The Catholic church numbers now one- 
third of the American population. In A. D. 1800 she will have a majority and 
will keep it, and that will be the end of religious liberty in this country.* 



(7) Stand., Sept. 7, 1876. (8) U. P., Oct. 19, 1876. (9) Trib., Sept. 12, 1877. (1) U. P., Feb. 
8, 1877. (2) Stand., June 23, 1879. (3) U. P., Aug, 29, 1878. (4) Stand. Sup., Nov. 29, 1877. 



952 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEViELOPEDv 

With the beginning of the war in the east was begun a clerical campaign, 
with the object of restoring the temporal power of the pope. Cardinal Simeoni 
and his colleagQCS said : After catastrophes which will engulf more than one 
army and crown, the wail will resound through the world, ''Restore Kome to its 
lord; give it to the pope, because it belongs to God." Cardinal Simeoni, secre- 
tary to the pope, would make war upon Italy by exciting all the nations repre- 
sented by these pilgrims to enter it from the Alps and from the sea. ^ Ultra- 
montane regime in France is irreconciliable with European peace. ^ 

Regaining Power: Ritualists in England refuse to obey the courts, and are 
supported by the high-church party. The church union protests against the inter- 
ference of the government in things spiritual and refuses to recognize the sus- 
pension of clergymen by the courts, and it will support the clergy that resist the 
court. Papists have increased in England. '^ The high-church party in England 
are anxious to throw aside the power of parliament and substitute for it a grand 
clerical synod, under the presidency of a species of clerical pope;^ and three mil- 
lions of people are about to secede from the Church of England to the Roman 
Catholic church, including bishops, rectors, curates, and deacons. Authorized 
delegates are said to be in Rome negotiating the conditions upon which the seces- 
sion will take place. ^ 

Policy: The Vatican has settled upon a grand plan for a crusade, to be 
called the International Catholic League. * * -^ It has been santioned by the 
pope. -^ * ^ The center to be at Rome. * * * To have a general fund. 
* * * To be directed by a committee at headquarters, with complete admin- 
istration organization, and branches everywhere. ^ ^ ^ Declared objects: 
the defense of their rights and freedom, in view of the laws adopted against the 
church and the pope; the reestablishment of the temporal power of the pope and 
restoration of the rights of the holy see ; * * ^ a Catholic press in every 
centre, and a correspondent instructed from Rome; opposition presses to be prose- 
cuted for calumnies. The nobility and clergy are ordered by the pope to unite 
in battling for the freedom and the universal sway of the church. * * -^ The 
bishops are urged to agree — all for one, and one for all. All centers of home 
organizations to be in telegraphic communication direct with the Vatican. This 
new scheme causes extraordinary excitement on the continent. Friendship 
between Italy and Germany is increasing. London journals have no information 
on this topic, but still, the fact is supported by the best authority. ^ Pope Leo 
renders and confirms the protest of Pius IX. against the occupation of the civil 
principality of the church. We demand it because our duty and solemn oath 
exact it. * * * It involves the well-being and safety of the whole human 
family. ^ 

The pope wishes no concessions from the government of Italy — no union of 
any kind. The pope was to receive several deputations on the twentieth of 
October, A. D. 1877, to utter the usual invectives against the entrance of the 
Italian troops into Rome. During the coming winter all the cardinals must 
repair to Rome to deliberate upon the various dogmas of the church and upon its 
relation with the governments. The first question will be that relative to the 
controversies and treaties with Russia. ^ Popery fears and hates communism and 
socialism. Cardinal Nina, by order of the pope, has instructed the nuncios to 
urge upon the various governments the duty of repressing socialism and restoring 
the prerogatives of the church. ^ 

Policy of Popery: The Catholic Mirror contains an address to the members 
of the sect, thus : Let it be your first duty to extirpate heretics, but be cautious 
as to the manner of doing it. Do nothing without consulting the bishop of the 



(5) U. P., June 14, 1877. (6) U. P. June 21, 1877. (7) Feb. 8. (8) Stand., June 21, 1877. (9) 
Trib., April 24, 1878. (1) Trib., Aug. 8, 1877. (2) Idm., May 1, 1878. (3) U. P., Oct. 25, 1877. 
(4) Trib., Nov. 27, 1778. 



CHAPTER CLXXVI. I SECTION VI. 95S 

diocese in which you may be located, and if there he no bishop there, advise 
with the metropolitan bishop; he has the instruction from Kome, and under- 
stands the character of the people. Be sure not to permit the members of our 
holy church, who may be under your charge, to read the Bible — it is the source 
of all heresies. Let the land be purchased for the pope and his successors in 
office. Never yield or give up the divine right, which the head of the church 
has to the government of North America, as well as to every other country, by 
virtue of the keys. ^ 

Dr. Mgr. Capel says of England : We are winning over the governing men 
of the country — the men of thought and influence. However, we are not showing 
much progress among the middle classes; and yet, if Catholicism is to rest on a 
sure footing in this country, we must have a middle class. I do not see how we 
can get along without them. Where we are standing ourselves in this country, 
is in our educational appliances. Our schools for girls are by far the best in Eng- 
land. We by no means study the rich alone; we look after the poor more care- 
fully than you Protestants. I established, in connection with the school, a place 
where the girls might be trained as domestic servants, as housemaids ; some, to 
wait at table; and others, more intelligent, to go out as lady's maids. The truth 
is, we are living at a critical period. Two forces are now dividing England 
between them — Catholicism and infidelity, or free- thin king. * * ^ The 
intellectual men of the day are becoming free-thinkers or Roman Catholics — 
chiefly, I believe, free-thinkers. I foresee a great struggle in Europe, between 
these forces, that will involve vast consequences for empires as well as religions. 
In that contest I expect to see America play a great part. Whatever may be her 
disposition, she can not fail to exert a tremendous influence. I look with great 
interest on what we are doing in America. (Catholicism in England. From the 
New York World. 6) 

6. The Dragon Frog Spirit, Under the Names of Republicanism, Com- 
munism, Socialism, and Nihilists. — (Continued from chapter 172, §§ 1-3.) 
Socialism, or communism, is making rapid progress in Germany. In A. D. 1871 
the voters numbered 123,075, and in A. D. 1874 they numbered 351,272,'^ and 
in A. D. 1877 they polled 485,000; they are increasing at a remarkable rate, and 
include desperate characters. ^ The supplimentary elections in Germany are all 
over. The ultramontanes have gained six seats; the conservatives forty; the 
national liberals have lost twenty-nine ; the progressists thirteen ; social dem- 
ocrats four; other parties have not lost nor gained.^ Ingersoll says that his 
ideas (infidel) are generally received with favor through the country. Astonish- 
ingly so; and that there are ten times as many free-thinkers as there were ^ve 
years ago, and in five years more they will be in the majority. ^ 

Religious Character: The university of Japan, at Tokio, has eight hundred 
students and twenty-five foreign professors, the most of them unbelievers. In 
the library of thirty-five thousand volumes a copy of the Scriptures is not to be 
found, but Draper's Conflict between Science and Religion is a text-book — a book 
written in the interest of infidelity. ^ The first and chief object of socialists is a 
complete reorganization of society, difi^ering therein from the nihilists of eastern 
Europe, whose object is to destroy. The party is strongly represented in the 
German parliament and is widely scattered over the empire. When originally 
started, German socialism was in no way connected with atheism, but now it is 
essentially atheistic, and a capitalist is to them no more loathsome than a preacher 
or a parson.* The power of socialism would be largely diminished if the struggle 
between the church and state were brought to an end ; but the ultramontanes, 
or Roman Catholics, detest the empire as heartily as do the socialists, * * * 
and the semi-alliance with atheism is continued, involving an increase of Socialism. 

(5) Stand., Jan. 23, 1879. (6) Bloomingfton Pantagraph, Oct. 26, 1877. (7) U. P., Feb. 15, 1877. 
(8) 1dm., June 13, 1878. (9) Sept. 12. (1) Trib., Nov. 27, 1878. (2) Stand., Aug. 29, 1878. (*) 
Clericalism, §§ 8, 12. 



954 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED* 

To resibt this growio^- streugtli ot" atheism the Cliristian socialists spl'adg into 
existence.^ Last Sabbath, June 30, A. D. 1878, the socialists of Chicago, seven 
tlHiusaiid in number, marched in line w^ith music, flaunting the red flag. It is 
said thirty thousand people were in the grove listening to speeches in English 
and German, dancing, drinking beer, and serving Satan generally. The speakers 
denied the existence of God, and of Heaven and hell, and denounced the men 
of wealth and property. It is said that not a single Roman Catholic was found 
among the crowd ; and the socialists bitterly denounced that church.* 

The grand orient of France are about to issue a general invitation to the 
brethren of Great Britain and America, to participate in a secret meeting in Paris, 
to revise the recent decision of the Anglo-Saxon lodges which protested unani- 
mously against the non-recognition of the Deity by the French lodges. Those 
French Masons who recently renounced the Deity in all Masonic rites are much 
incensed by the action of the English and American Masons, in having refused 
all fellowship with the Masons of Paris, and propose to declare themselves inde- 
pendent of the Anglo-Saxon Masons persisting in that resolution, or who refuse 
to attend the proposed convent in Paris ; and the grand orient shall issue war- 
rants under their separate seal, constituing branch lodges in England, America, 
or any other country. ^ 

Tlie Nihilists of Russia are Communists:^ Three thousand students and 
workmen joined in a riot in Moscow, April 15, A. D. 1878;'^ and one hundred 
students suspected of nihilism have been arrested and expelled from the univer- 
sities of St. Petersburg and Kieff". ^ The attempted assassination of the king of 
Spain, and of the king of Italy, shows the communists to be widespread and 
daring. 

7. "Spirit of the First Beast Recovering Power. — The Italian government 
has closed the Episcopal seminary at Como for its refusal to admit a government 
inspector. This is said to be the most decisive step yet taken in the states dealing 
with the church. ^ The Roman minister of Victor Emmanuel contends that the 
state has a good deal to do with the holy see yet, before the doctrine of free 
church and free state become the fact. He says : The church, even according 
to the most rigid canonical forms, is neither the papacy, the Episcopacy, nor the 
clergy, but all of the faithful combined; and they all have rights to be respected, 
and he personally has the right and the duty to see them respected. He there- 
fore has laid before parliament a bill enabling Catholic laities and the lesser 
clergy to claim and legally enforce their rights against purpled prelates, scarlet 
cardinals, white and black popes ; and the bill encounters no opposition. 

Minghetti boldly maintains, now along with Prince Bismarck, that the church 
can claim no protection unless allowing the right of overhauling its aff'airs and 
appointments.! The civil government at Rome decided to punish any minister 
of religion who disturbs the peace by censuring the acts of government. The 
pope protests against the act. ^ The archbishop of Bogota preached a seditious 
sermon, which led to the adoption of a resolution by the house of representatives, 
pledging support to the chief magistrate in measures to crush the heads of the 
monastery and priestly oligarchy, which incites and sustains the war against 
national institutions. The chamber urges the executive power to expropriate the 
eff'ects of, and use the archepiscopal palace for offices, and banish seditious pre- 
lates. The conflict is assuming the character of a religious war. ^ 

President MacMahon instructed the minister of justice and public worship 
to express to the bishops of !Nevers his entire disapproval of the latter's letter, 
asking intervention for the pope, and to say that the president sees with pain the 
clergy meddling with internal and foreign politics.* The French government 

(3) Tnb., June 12, 1878. (4) U. P., July 4, 1878. (5) IJ. P., Oct. 24, 1878. (6) April 25. (7) 
Trib., April 24, 1878. (8) U. P., Oct. 10, 1878. (*) Cont. from chap. 172, § 4. (9) U. P., Jan. 27, 
1876. (1) S'^and., Feb. 17, 1876. (2) U. P., Feb. 8, 1877. (3) Trib., April 4, 1877. (4) U. P., April 
26, 1877. 



CHAPTER OLXXVI. : SECTION VII. 955 

had put a stop to petitions for the reestabhshment of the temporal power of the 
pope. The government would not tolerate any attack on Catholicism, which 
they sincerely respected, and which enjoyed unprecedented liberty. The gov- 
ernment would protect the clergy while they confined themselves to their spiritual 
duties, but would deal firmly with them if they encroached on the civil power. 
The clericalists sought to induce France to break with the Italian revolution. 
The statement that clericalism was an enemy was greeted with prolonged applause 
by the left. The chamber, by a vote of three hundred and sixty-one yeas to one 
hundred and twenty-one nays, declared the ultramontane manifestations consti- 
tuted a danger to the peace at home and abroad. The French and Austrian 
governments, to which the pope had more particularly turned for protection, 
have informed the Vatican that it is absolutely impossible for them to open 
negotiations in his favor based upon the question of temporal power. ^ A piece 
of tyrannical legislation proposed by Bismark * ^ * is probably aimed at 
both socialism and ultraraontanism, -^ ^ -5^ and is the most audacious yet 
attempted ; but its adoption by the German parliament is predicted. ^ 

Against the Pope. — Prince Napoleon, in his first speech, denounced the 
dangerous encroachments of the clergy, who had exercised a disastrous influence 
in recent French history, notably in A. D. 1870. He supported a proposal for 
the reduction of the estimates for public worship. The clerical deputies protested 
against the speech in violent terms.''' Gambetta opened upon the clerical 
tendencies of the French government. He pointed out the commanding influ- 
ence of the priests and bishops in the choice of government candidates, and dwelt 
upon the evils from a triumphant reaction guided by clerical hands. The 
inspired German and Italian papers declared that they were simply combining in 
view of the French elections to resist what might prove a clerical and, therefore, 
aggressive France. The clerical party is thus stigmatized a,s aggressive and 
peace-disturbing by the two European powers most interested. ^ 

Bismarck declines to modify the May laws, and demands that the Vatican 
shall appoint new bishops in place of those deprived of their sees for disobedi- 
ence; and as the new pope, Leo XIII., refused to do anything of the sort, the 
bitterness of the Catholics is increased; and the semi-alliance with atheism is 
continued, thus involving an increase of socialism. ^ A dispatch from Rome says: 
The negotiations between Germany and the Vatican have failed. Germany will 
concede nothing, and the Vatican can not yield all without alienating its most 
faithful partisans. ^ The North German Gazette, commenting on the ultramon- 
tane opposition to the socialist bill, declares that so long as the ultramontane 
party in the reichstag forms a centre around which all elements blindly hostile to 
the institutions of the empire and Prussia group themselves, every attempt to 
terminate the Kulturkampt by a peaceable understanding must remain fruitless, 
notwithstanding the best of intentions on the part of the Vatican. ^ 

Against SoGialism. — Emperor William of Germany summoned the ministers 
to his presence and expressed to them the anxiety he felt respecting the disinte- 
grating influences at work in church and society, and called on them to resolutely 
devote their energies to the tasks devolving on them from these causes. ^ The 
measures submitted by Prussia to the German federal council against the social- 
istic agitation authorizes the federal government to prohibit or suppress asso- 
ciations and prints intended to promote social democratic objects. It is expected 
that the German parliament will be dissolved if no agreement can be effected 
between the various branches of the legislature upon the anti-socialistic bill. 
People are prepared for the rejection of the bill, followed by dissolution.^ 
Emperor William said he trusted Germany's action against the criminal tendencies 
of the communistic element would be imitated by other states. The peril is 

(5) Trib., May 9, 1877. (6) U. P., Jan. 16, 1879. (7) Trib., Jan. 29, 1876. (8) Trib., Oct. 17, 
1877. (9) June 12, 1878. (1) Oct. 9. (2) Oct. 23, 1878. (3) U. P. June 28, 1877. (4) Trib., May 
22, 1878. 



956 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

common, and so ought to be the defense. ^ A dispatch from Berlin states that 
one hundred and two societies, twentj-six newspapers, and eighty-eight books 
have been prohibited since the promulgation of the anti-socialistic law. ® 

8. All in Conflict. — In Italy, General Oarette presented to Cardinal 
Simeoni the signatures of over thirty thousand volunteers prepared to shed their 
blood for the temporal power of the pope. "' The turn affairs are taking in France 
is calculated to inspire Germany and her close friend, Italy, with the most serious 
reflections. A victory of the ultramontanes in France, occuring simultaneously 
with an ultramontane victory in the Italian senate, is frought with gravest conse- 
quences. A victory of the Roman curia opens a prospect of a war of revenge; 
and it is only through an alliance with France that the curia can find a possibility 
of war with Germany and Italy. German papers almost unanimously consider 
Simon's overthrow an ultramontane victory. Simon was president of the council 
and minister of the interior. They think if Marshal McMahon complies with 
the pretensions of the clericals, the peace of Europe would be seriously threat- 
ened. "^ The Times' Berlin dispatch says: The Ministerial Post contends that the 
conspiracy which upset the French cabinet is principally directed against Ger- 
many. French armaments having been carried to the highest pitch, the mask is 
thrown aside, and an attempt made to profit by the latest European complication 
for gaining allies. The monarchal conspirators aim at the restitution of the 
papacy through the humiliation of Germany. ^ In consequence of McMahon' s 
recent actions in France, the republicans of Italy placarded the streets of Rome 
with notices of a great demonstration at the Apollo theatre on the 31st instant, 
to declare that Rome can never again become the Rome of the popes. ^ German 
ultramontane papers, in connection with the Vatican, have no hesitation in telling 
the Germans that the pope was the prime mover in the deposition of M. Simon, 
because in the chamber he denied that the pope was a prisoner in his palace; 
and he threatened McMahon to recall his nuncio if Simon remained in office. 
(Berlin correspondent to London Times.) 

We know, as Protestants, this change means the destruction of all our hopes 
for full religious toleration. Their organs already ask that all radical, or not 
ultramontane, presses be gagged. The proposed law, allowing religious meetings 
without previous authorization, will not be allowed. "^ '^ Public instruction 
for all classes will be put aside. (Christian Advocate.) 

An ultramontane regime in France is irreconcilable with European peace. 
(National Zeitung in London Times. ^) 

The clericals and Bonapartists are delighted with McMahon' s speech. ^ It 
appears, from a writer to the London religious press, that the present struggle in 
France is Catholicism and aristocracy against democracy and religious freedom. 
The Bonapartists, the legitimists, the Orleanists, and the clericals (or ultramon- 
tanes) are leagued against the republicans. ^ The pope has sent orders to the 
Catholic clergy in Germany to use every effort to prevent the spread of socialism.^ 

The first clause of the anti-socialist bill was defeated in parliament by a vote 
of two hundred and fifty-one to fifty-seven. The bill was withdrawn. (Berlin, 
May 29, 1878.8) 

Some time ago a meeting of republican senators, deputies, town counselors, 
journalists, and savants was held to organize a celebration of Yoltaire's centenary 
during the exhibition. '^' " They resolved to concentrate the essence of Vol- 
taire's philosophical, moral, and social ideas into a cheap volume of one thousand 
pages, to be spread broadcast throughout France, and public subscriptions to 
cover the expenses be opened by republican papers. Catholic dignitaries are 
attacking the proposed celebration violently. Cardinal Guibert, archbishop of 
Paris, has issued a pastoral denouncing it ; Bishop Dupanloup has published a 



(5) Trib., Nov. 20. (6) U. P., Nov. 23. 1878. (7) Trib., April 4, 1877. (8) Trib., May 23, 1877. 
(9) May 30, 1877. (1) U. P., June 21, 1877. (2) Trib., July 4, 1877. (3) U. P., July 26, 1877. (4) 
June 13. (5) Trib., May 29, 1878. 



CHAPTER CLXXVI. I SECTION IX. 957 

pamphlet against it, * ^' and in the senate, Dufoure, president of the council 
and minister of justice, was asked if the government would prevent the fete, and 
prosecute the publishers of the book containing irreligious selections from Yol- 
taire's works. Doufoure said the celebration was a private aifair; "^^ "^' the gov- 
ernment had no right to interfere; "^ "^ it might reprobate some passages, but 
could not prosecute writings published a million of times, and been many years 
in general circulation. ^ 

The conflict between the government and the socialists is going on in Ger- 
many, and portends important results. The attempt to assassinate the emperor, 
and efforts to suppress the socialists, may result in revolution in favor of repub- 
licanism. 

In Belgium, the recent general elections have given the liberals a majority 
of ten in the chamber of representatives, and three in the senate ; the ministers 
have already resigned, and the liberals are rejoicing — and the downfall of the 
present Catholic ministry is certain.''' The enclyclical letter of the pope, just 
published, inveighs the sects, socialism, communism, and nihilism, and asserts 
that these evils are the legitimate offspring of the Reformation. ^ 

In the German reichstag the liberals have one hundred and ten members ; 
the ultramontanes, ninety-six; the conservatives, ninety-four ; so Bismarck and 
his conservatives are compelled to make alliance somewhere. Recent negotia- 
tions were directed to conciliate the ultramontanes, and thus secure the support 
of the Catholics to the government.^ Negotiations between the pope's nuncio 
and Prince Bismarck have led to no result whatever. The ultramontanes will 
continue to oppose the government in the reichstag. ^ On the emperor's return, 
the authorities intend to declare Berlin in a state of siege, under the provisions 
of the socialist law. ^ 

In a speech at Des Moines, ex-President Grant said : Our next contest for 
national existence will be between patriotism and intelligence on one side and 
superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other. Leave the matter of religion 
to the family altar, the church and the private schools supported entirely by 
private contributions. Keep the church and the state forever separate. For this 
sentiment. Catholics in America say, he has received the favor of Gambetta, Bis- 
marck, Castelar, and other chief priests of irreligion and enemies of the Catholic 
church. 

It was reserved for the manly and truly Catholic corporation of Cork to 
administer a fitting rebuke to the brutal and bigoted soldier, who, in October, 
A. D. 1875, took advantage of his exalted position as president of the United States 
to revive the beastly cry of : No pope. "^ '^ He proclaimed war, as plainly as 
word could have put it, against the holy Catholic church in the United States. ^ 
And they threaten him with their opposition in politics. (Continued, § 12.) 

So stand the frog spirits in undermining hostility to one another this Sth day 
of March, A. D. 1879. 

9. The Jews* — The unpopular measure of giving civil and political equality 
to the Jews is being pressed upon Servia by England, France, and Italy, with a 
threat of not recognizing her independence till she complied.* The Jew was at 
Berlin, and the plenipotentiaries promised that his eastern brethren should be 
protected from future injury ; and they will be when they return to their own 
land. Already the Jewish Messenger suggests that the two hundred and fifty 
thousand Jews of Roumania repair to Palestine, as the first step in the solution 
of the eastern question. Morocco is persecuting its Jews so terribly that they 
must flee or be exterminated. Could they not flee to their own land, now that 
Providence has opened it to them?^ 



(6) Trib., May 29, 1878. (7) Trib., June 12, 1878. (8) U. P , Jan. 16, 1879. (9) Stand., Aug. 
29, 1878. (1) Trib., Aug. 28, 1878. (2) Nov. 27. (3) Bloomington Pantagraph, Jan. 17, 1879. 
(*) Continued from chaps. 173, 174, § 4. (4) U. P., Oct; 24, 1878. (5) U. P., Sept. 26, 1878. 



958 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 



The London Times says: That new blocks meet the eye everywhere about 
Jerusalem, along the Jaifaroad, and on both the north and west sides of the city, 
in course of erection, designed as houses for Jews of different nations, erected by 
societies, to be let or sold in tenements of two rooms each. The poor are to be 
provided with homes for a given time free of rent. ^ These statements show the 
way to be opening up for the return of the Jews. 

The third annual meeting of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations: 
The chief object is to unite in one grand organic union all the Hebrew residents 
of this country, and thus strengthen the house of Israel in America. Corres- 
pondence is desired with similar bodies in Paris, London, Yienna, Berlin, and 
elsewhere, in view to colonize in America those Jews who are persecuted or 
unprotected in person or property by the laws of other countries. They avowed 
their patriotism in the United States; eulogized Washington; repudiated the idea 
of the Jews' return to Palestine, and strike from their prayer books any line that 
reminds them of the temple and sacrifices. The deepest interest was manifested 
for the perpetuity of the Jewish faith, and progress in the arts and sciences was 
inculcated. (Compiled from the United Presbyterian. ^) 

Thus, they have said: "Our hope is perished, and we are cut off for our 
part" — and this Ezekiel foretold;^ but whether these will be considered as written 
in the Book, ^ I don't know. They may be so registered, and when the spirit of 
the Jehovah blows upon this Valley of Dry Bones, their hopes may revive, and 
they may become a great army. 

10. Over eight years have slipped away since closing my researches after 
facts elucidating and verifying the inspired records and predictions, and events 
are moving on in the same direction to inevitable revolution. The additional 
accounts show some Jews having given up the hope of their fathers and prefering 
to be regarded as a religious community, and not as a peculiar nation. Others 
have been converted into religious denominations, as has been the case in former 
ages. A movement in Bessarabia appears to be in the right direction, but may 
have to encounter the intolerance of the state church authority. 

The Jews, in some countries called Christian, have been plundered and 
murdered in most inhuman and outrageous manner, and their expatriation by 
Germany shows the time for their dispersion has not expired yet. Driving them 
to America may prove an act of preservation to them while Europe is undergoing 
desolating revolutions. Some accounts represent the Jews in Palestine as very 
prosperous, while others represent their condition as very unhappy. But all 
settlements in the promised land before the overthrow of Turkey must suffer 
calamities. Their safest retreat is in these United States. 

11. All accounts show Mahometanism to be unchanged in principle and 
practice. It has shown the same fanatic and murderous disposition in Egypt that 
it did in Bulgaria ; but the movements of a talse prophet in Soudan show that a 
schism might divide their power, or deprive the sultan of Turkey of the vener- 
ation paid to the caliph. One writer from Egypt reckons the propagation of 
Mahometanism is over, and it will disappear as it comes in contact with Europe 
and civilization. Others say it is taking new life, converting millions and whole 
tribes, and will soon rule Asia and Africa, and form an impenetrable barrier to 
missionary operations. Some accounts represent Turkey favorable to Christian 
missions and others represent it unfavorably. The true state of the case appears 
to be that Turkey is willing and desirous to have missionaries to make divisions 
in the Greek and Armenian churches ; but they must not convert Moslems. 

12. Although popery has become reformed and inteUigent where it has come 
in contact with Protestants, and will not believe it ever was the vile and polluted 

(6) U. P., May 17, 1877. (7) U. P., Aug. 10, 1876. (8) Ezek., 37:11. (9) Dan., 12:1 



CHAPTER OLXXYI,: SECTIONS XIII. -XV. 959 

thing designated in prophecy and described in liistory, yet it is the same intol- 
erant system it ever was. Where it is trying to regain power it extends benef- 
icence to heretics ; where it has power it treats them with indignities, hostilities, 
and oppressions, and claims the right to exterminate opposition by confiscation, 
torture, and death. But, papal and Protestant statesmen have concluded that 
persecution is dishonorable and unprofitable, and while honorable and intelligent 
statesmen are in power popery will be restrained. Popery, nevertheless, is 
gaining and regaining power. His missionaries to the heathen are gaining 
disciples by thousands and whole tribes, while conversions to Protestantism are 
few ; but many are becoming sceptics or infidels. 

The pope has regained power in Germany, England, Spain, Austria, Mexico, 
and in the United States. In Austria and Spain the Protestants suffer indignities, 
vexations, and hostilities of various kinds. It is hard to tell whether France is 
becoming more or less under papal influence. In the United States the period- 
icals under papal proprietors and control, tell us that when they get the power 
they will exterminate heretics, overthrow our school system, and put an end to 
religious liberty. Catholic ladies of Toledo, Cleveland, and Buffalo told Bishop 
Gilmore to mind his own business, and they conquered. Perhaps the good sense 
of Catholic citizens may rebel against their leaders : and some schisms have taken 
place in their ranks, doctors having been excommunicated unhurt. But the end 
is not yet. 

13. In reading our missionary success we might think Polytheism was about 
exhausted and the Bible was triumphant everywhere. But the main force of 
Polytheism has never been touched yet, and there are more pagans in the world 
now than when missions were commenced. The natural increase of the heathen 
more than makes up their loss to the missions, and the success of Christian mis- 
sions has stirred up the heathen to organized counteraction. The Polytheist 
kings of the east may send myriads of disciplined armies to the battle on Arma- 
geddon. 

Hostility to the Bible and its One Living and True God has shown itself in 
communism, socialism, and nihilism, but appears to have been put down for the 
present. However, it is a secret foe, and we can not tell when it may break forth 
again. Its teachings are openly propagated in our country, and sometimes 
reduced to practice. Politicians fear to offend it lest they lose their votes. The 
anarchist vote on one side, and the Catholic vote on the other, place politicians 
in a quandary. Religious despotism on one hand, and infidel anarchism on the 
other, are dangerous elements in republican governments. 

14. The power of the civil monarch has been tested, and has come out of the 
conflict with anarchy successfully. In Pussia, where the civil magistrate is the 
acknowledged head of church and state, despotism and rebellion had no third 
power to interpose, and the despot has put down rebellion by slaughter and ban- 
ishment. If nihilism is entirely slaughtered and banished, Russia is competent 
to head any movement of royalists against clericalism, communism, and socialism. 
Germany had to yield to clericalism before socialism could be subdued, and 
appears to back down to the pope and oppose the government of Italy. It is 
said England applied to the pope for ecclesiastical influence against Ireland. No 
one of these conflicting powers is able to subdue the other two. But, the end is 
not yet. 

15. The missionary work has become so extensive we can not begin to give 
even an outline of its operations and success. This Monotheistic Gospel is ever- 
lasting, and will be heard in surrounding nations while Christ's two witnesses are 
slaughtered in the empire of the wild beast. Its conversions to the acknowledge- 
ment of only One Living and True God are counted by thousands, though the 
main pillars of the dragon, beast, and false prophet have not been shaken yet. 
Yery few conversions have been made from the governing class of pagans, 
Mahometans, and perverted Christianity, and the case was the same in the days 



960 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 



of the apostles. (I. Cor. 1:26-28.) These firm establishments of the adversary 
must be overthrown bj revolutions, like earthquakes and judgments, like storms 
of fire and hail. The kingdoms of this world must become the kingdom of the 
Jehovah and His anointed. 

The periodicals of the difterent missionary societies will keep the people 
posted on this subject. The work of missions is the greatest enterprise of this 
time, and should be understood and supported by everyone. 

16. The three frog spirits have evidently come to the surface and showed 
themselves. They may often sink and rise again before the final conflict, but 
they will not be reconciled to each other, though combined against Christ and 
His authority. The Turkish power must be dried up, and the kings of the east 
must meet those of the west on the fields of Megiddon, in the great and decisive 
battle of Almighty God. China is a nation of millions of citizens and exhaust- 
less resources. She is cultivating every art ot war, getting all the machinery of 
war, and threatening to take a place among the foremost powers of the world. 
Other tribes and nations of the east may follow her example, or place themselves 
under her shadow and augment her strength. 

17. Christ's Two Witnesses, or Sons of Oil, Know Their Fate. — The 
wild beast that, with cooperation of the ten horns of the third wild beast slays 
the harlot, puts them to death in his empire and keeps their corpse in his royal 
city exposed to view in the most public place for a warning to others. They are 
now hated by all venerators of concentrated power, and must seal their testimony 
by their blood ; but they will soon arise again in the beast's empire and witness 
the annihilation of the power of the beast and false prophet. Outside the beast's 
empire they may, perhaps, wear write robes and unfading wreaths. 

The wild beasts have ruled the Monotheistic world from the Atlantic to the 
Ganges, and from the frozen north to the torrid south, and this is the field of 
prophetic vision; and Jerusalem is the center of interest and importance. Out- 
side this boundery Christ's witnesses may have peace and prosperity ; but, 
remember, like causes produce like efiects, and the same causes will produce the 
same effects, unless counteracted by other causes. If we hope to escape the effects 
we must remove the causes. 

18. The time for scattering the Jews has not yet expired. The mosque of 
Omer still desecrates the area of the temple of Jehovah. The legitimate citizen 
of Jerusalem can not enter his royal city without permission of the enemy, nor 
dwell in his patrimony without paying tribute to the usurper of his possessions. 

The missionary angel has not finished his work, and the Scriptures are not 
translated into all languages. Though popery has fallen, and its immoral and 
murderous history of the past has been exposed, its utter destruction — as a stone 
sunk to the bottom, or a city reduced to ashes — is not yet conspicuous and inevit- 
able; it is regaining power. 

The fourth wild beast has come out of the abyss, but is acting without a 
head ; and a confederation with the ten horns of the third wild beast has not yet 
appeared probable. His war with the two witnesses has not yet become con- 
spicuous, and the harlot is not yet threatened. 

The frog spirits are perambulating the whole world, but have not com- 
menced concentrating their forces into the field of Megiddon. 

The Turkish power is drying up. Tidings from the north has troubled it, 
but troubling tidings out of the east have not been heard. King Reaper has not 
yet cut his harvest field ; but in his last work two millions of people perished in 
three years. 

The time for the harvests has not appeared yet ; but the opening of the sixth 
seal, the pouring out of seventh vial, and the sounding of the seventh trumpet 
can not be far off. 



OHAPTEE CLXXVI. I SECTION XX. 961 

19. Fut on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against 
the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against 
principalities, against powers, against the world-rulers of darkness, against wicked 
spirits in heavenly places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, 
that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. 
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breast- 
plate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of 
peace ; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench 
all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the 
sword of the spirit, which is the word of God ; praying always with all prayer 
and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and 
supplication for all saints. (Ephesians, 6:11-18.) 

20. (Continued from chap. 30, § 7, p. 115.) Now, reader, I must bid you a 
farewell, and must leave the recording of transpiring events to others who take 
an interest in the advancement of the kingdom of God. The kingdom will be 
consummated at the appointed time; but I must experience death — lay in the 
dark, cold, and silent grave — and learn something about the disembodied state of 
existence before that happy time. I feel as if I am ready to enter the freshman 
class in the Mount Zion academy, to study the sciences of the kingdom of God. 
But too late! My youth and vigor are gone, and the infirmities of age are creep- 
ing upon me. What is not done right must remain wrong, and what is not 
perfected must remain imperfect. 1 begin to understand something about the 
great object of this life — the beginning of our existence — but too late to retrieve 
what is lost. 

I would like to begin my youth again and possess at the start all the 
knowledge and experience I have now obtained. If I have choice in my 
next state of existence, I will first learn the inherent laws of spirits and the 
positive laws given to them, and labor to obey them implicitly. I have found 
that all evils in this life originated in, and are perpetuated by, violating the 
inherent laws of nature and the positive laws of revelation; both are laws of 
God and must be obeyed, or misery and woe will follow. Having learned to 
understand the spirit life and communion with spirits, I hope to live in the body 
again, and to know and obey the inherent laws of creation and the positive laws 
of revelation. Having obtained reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ, I 
hope to be renewed perfectly into the image of God in holiness, knowledge, and 
righteousness, and to have a perfect immortal body. 

If spirits receive intelligence of transactions in this world and angels rejoice 
over repenting sinners, I hope to be interested in the onward movements of the 
kingdom of God, and at last participate in its consummation. But, O! shall I 
hear that those I loved while on earth have become rejectors of Christ and adver- 
saries to his kingdom ? The great cloud of witnesses saw this consummated age 
of the kingdom, in dim distance, and were animated by the prospect to do and 
suifer ; but now it is near, and but few care about it, though most desire to go to 
Heaven when they die. All systems of sin and falsehood must be thrown down 
and rooted up. 

Reader, if you are young you may participate in these revolutions and catas- 
trophies; but most likely I will depart before they are fully inaugurated. You 
will need strong faith in Christ, and a comprehensive knowledge ot His teachings 
and designs to enable you to persevere to the end and have light, while others 
grope in darkness and know not what is coming or what to do. Hitherto has the 
Lord helped me, without help or cooperation of men. I can sing with the sweet 
singer of Israel: 

My flesh and heart doth faint and fail, 

But God doth fail me never-. 
^>— 61 



962 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 



Oft have I asked direction of God and then decided on my own course ; 
afterward I regretted my choice, but could not alter my plan and so persevered, 
and all came out just right. Before undertaking, see that the thing is right and 
lawful; ask direction of God, and then decide on your choice without any 
improper motive ; persevere, and abide the consequence without murmuring. 
All things work together for good to those who love God. Man may devise his 
own way, but the Lord directs his steps. For a time a man may pursue his own 
plan; then he is defeated and forced to change his course; again disappointed, 
he again changes; again and again he experiences the same hopes and disappoint- 
ments, till he accomplishes a very different object from what he intended. But, 
having a consciousness that such was the will of God, he may be satisfied and 
happy. My disappointments and defeats in plans and calculations have secured 
to me more success and better results than the accomplishment of my chosen 
objects could have done. Again, my success in some things entailed upon me 
lasting evils. My whole life has been contrary to my designs, choice, efforts, 
and ardent wishes. A sparrow falls not to the ground without the will of your 
Heavenly Father. All things work together for good to those who love God. 

Remember this world is not yet reconciled to God; the time for the saints 
to govern the world has not yet come ; the tares are not yet gathered out of the 
wheat, nor the children of the Wicked One out of the kingdom of God. Truth 
has not yet triumphed over falsehood, and men do not regard evidence in contro- 
versy. Christ's witnesses are still hated, and will be slain. His disciples are 
not promised earthly treasures and promotions, but eternal life. Upon all those 
who know the Gospel and believe not in Jesus Christ, rests the wrath of God; 
and they shall not see eternal life. All professed Christians should remember : 
That even our God, as well as Israel's God, is a consuming fire, and the history 
of Christendom has shown it. The people called Christians have suffered as 
severe judgments as ever Israel did. Though the Man of Sin has long occupied 
the Temple of God, yet sin and falsehood shall not be fellowshiped in the throne 
of Christ after the tares are gathered out of the kingdom and cast into the fire. 

Your first step is to be reconciled to God, through Jesus Christ; then receive 
His teachings and obey His commands; then make the advancement of His king- 
dom the first object of your life, and when the Chief Shepherd appears you will 
receive a crown of glory that fades not away. Farewell. May we meet in the 
consummated age of the kingdom of God, 

November 6, A. D. 1887. 



RETROSPECT. 



A SPARSELY SKETCHED OUTLINE OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
THE KINGDOM OF GOD, AND OF ITS ANTAGONISMS. 

In contemplating the history of nature, everything appears created to perish. 
Bloom, mature, perish, germinate, grow, fall, and decay, is the universal rotation; 
and the history of persons, families, tribes, and nations furnishes no exceptions 
to this fated destiny. Families grow into nations, become empires, build cities, 
rear palaces, erect monuments of arts and sciences, and construct works of utility 
and grandeur which obviate evils, promote welfare, and cause all scenes to smile 
around. Again, discord and war, famine and pestilence, reduce all to wretched- 
ness, ruin, and desolation. A.11 regions of vast extent abound with silent monu- 
ments witnessing these mournful truths. The whole creation groans in anguish. 

Turning from these disheartening vicissitudes of nature, nations, and systems, 
we discover one institution holding on its way ever since sin and misery cursed 
this world, and advancing to consummation according to programmes given at 
different times, in different places, and through different persons. These pro- 
grammes give outlines of this institution, and of the most important events 
connected with its .development, before they transpire Sometimes these predic- 
tions are given immediately before they transpire, and sometimes they proceed 
centuries before their fulfillment. Thus, programmed beforehand, it goes along 
its predestined course unmoved, showing the guiding intelligence to be Almighty 
and All-wise. His counsel stands, and He does all His pleasure. As some 
majestic vessel, so deeply keeled and ballasted below the agitated surface of the 
ocean that the foaming billows may thunder against its sides and sweep its deck 
without racking its cabin ; so strongly timbered and compactly built, it splits the 
iloe of ice and drives the icebergs aside; and so invulnerable, it passes the straits 
unmoved while all the missiles of the enemy are avalanched against her bulwarks, 
so has this institution moved steadily forward through the deluge of the world, 
the convulsions of nature, and the rage of enemies. It has split solid empires, 
moved the mountains of Polytheism to the right and left, and capsized its deep- 
based organizations into oblivion; has passed the straits of Mahometanism and 
popery amidst the rage and fury of wild beasts, false prophets, and crowned 
heads, of men and devils, and is now advancing steadily to the last great conflict 
with the demon frog spirits, with the certainty of victory and assurance of final 
consummation. 

Some of the present day, as in every past age, have pronounced revealed 
religion a failure. But these persons are ignorant of the divine programmes. 
Christianity stands this day before the world and in the world just as these pro- 
grammes represented it would be at this present time; and while a commander 
carries out his programme, he must be acknowledged master of his position. The 
God of the Bible makes covenants, and keeps them ; threatens wrath, and inflicts 
it; gives promises, and performs them; foretells events, and brings them to pass. 

In the sacred writings of the New Covenant this in'stitution is called, ''The 
Kingdom of God;" and what I proprose to give now is a very sparsely sketched 
outline of the development of the kingdom of God and of its antagonists; and I 



964 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

shall endeavor to show the magnitude, majesty, and consecutive development of 
the same. For a fuller account the reader must read the Kingdom of God histor- 
ically and prophetically developed (see title), of which this is a retrospective view. 

The kingdom of God is that institution which God has ordained to reform 
this world, and to govern it after it is reformed. To it belong all the covenants, 
oaths, and promises made to any of the patriarchs — to Abraham, to David, to 
Jerusalem, the Jews, and the gentiles. Its historical developement may be 
divided into four ages — the incipient, the preparatory, the intermediate, and the 
consummated ages. The Prince of this kingdom is the Son of God, and also 
the Son of Man. 

The great adversary to this institution is called the Satan, and the Diabolos, 
and his hostility is developed in four antagonisms : the Satanic, the Polytheistic, 
the Monotheistic, and the Diabolian. In the Revelations to John, the Polythe- 
istic antagonism is very appositely represented by the Red Dragon, and the Mono- 
theistic antagonism by the wild beasts. 

The first age of the kingdom of God we have called the incipient — not 
because we know it to be such, but because we know so little about it — and it 
extends from Adam to Moses. The second, or preparatory age, extends from 
Abraham till some time after the Holy Spirit Pentecost. The third, or interme- 
diate age, extends from the beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist till the 
second advent of Jesus Christ. The fourth, or consummated, age extends from 
Christ's second advent till the end, when He will deliver up the kingdom to the 
Father, and the new Heaven and earth shall appear. 

The first antagonism developed was the Satanic — heaven-daring impiety and 
beastly impurity and violence — and extended to the deluge. The second, or 
Polytheistic, commenced some time after the flood and extended till the time of 
Constantine or Theodosius I., when it was cast down in the Roman empire and 
ceased to be the greatest and most conspicuous antagonist to the kingdom of God. 
This antagonist displayed seven crowned heads and ten horns against the kingdom. 
The third, or Monotheistic, antagonism commenced when Christianity ascended 
the throne of the Caesars, and continues till the battle of Armageddon. This 
antagonism develops itself in a wild beast with seven heads and ten crowned 
horns ; and another with two horns ; another, seven heads and ten horns ; and a 
renovated wild beast out of the bottomless pit, and three frog spirits. The 
fourth antagonism is the Diabolian, at the close of the millennium, or consum- 
mated age. 

IlSrCIPIENT AGE. A. M. 1-2513. B. C. 4004-1491. 

During the incipient age the kingdom of God appears to have been composed 
of independent patriarchates, without any distinction between the civil, social, and 
ecclesiastical relation. The patriarch was the king and the priest of the tribe or 
family. Before the flood we have ten patriarchs, besides Able, whom Cain mur- 
dered. Of these, seven were contemporary with Adam, six contemporary with 
Noah, and six contemporary with both Adam and Noah. Adam, Seth, and 
Enoch were the only ones that may not have conversed with Noah. Thus, 
knowledge obtained by revelation, experience, or communication could have been 
safely transmitted from the creation to Noah and his three sons; and all wicked- 
ness must have been the ofi*spring of impiety, and not of ignorance. From the 
flood till Jabob were twelve patriarchs, including Shem and Jacob. Seven of 
these were contemporary with Noah; ten with Shem, nine with Abraham, and 
five with Isaac. Thus, Methuselah and Lamech, contemporary with Adam, 
were also contemporary with Shem ; Shem was contemporary with all the patri- 
archs after the flood till Isaac was fifty years old. Thus, Adam, Methuselah, 
and Shem could have transmitted knowledge from the beginning till Isaae was 



JRETROSPECt : PEEPARATOKY AGEl. 96^ 

fifty years old ; aiid Isaac could have transmitted it to Jacob and his twelve sons. 
Jacob was contemporary with Isaac one hundred and twenty years, and with all 
his own grandchildren who went with him into Egypt. Among these was 
Kohath, the son of Levi, and grandfather of Moses. Levi lived one hundred 
and thirty-seven years ; Kohath, one hundred and thirty-three years ; Amram, 
one hundred and thirty-seven years; and Moses, one hundred and twenty years — 
and Moses has recorded all we know respecting the first, or incipient, age of the 
kingdom of God. 

These patriarchs recognized each other as servants of the Living and Most 
High God, possessor of Heaven and earth, and formed social relations, but had 
no concentration of power, common center of action, nor supreme priest or patri- 
arch. Their ideas of the Deity and of man and their mutual relations are the 
same as we find in the preparatory and intermediate ages, and their rites of 
worship and religion differ but little from those of the preparatory age. During 
this age, from the temptation to deluge, the antagonism was the Satanic devel- 
opment. This was first developed in Cain and his descendents, of whom six 
patriarchs are recorded ; but it was transfused into the whole human family by 
the pious marrying the impious daughters of the Cain apostacy. For some time 
after the flood Satan did not dare to tempt men to Heaven-daring impiety, while 
the marks of the flood, evidence of divine vengeance, were everywhere to be 
seen ; but he instituted an inferior order of gods for man's veneration and 
devotion, who were patrons of different times, places, virtues, and vices. Thus, 
men were deceived, lost sight of the True God, and practiced iniquity ; and thus 
the Polytheistic, or Red Dragon, antagonism was established, and every season, 
place, and thing had its own god, gods, or godesses. When Moses wrote man 
was worshiping everything he was created to govern, and woman, his equal com- 
panion and second self, he had degraded below the brute, while children, dearest 
objects of affection, were sacriflced to demons. To defeat this grand policy 
devised by Satan, God established the preparatory age of the kingdom of God. 



PREPAEATORY AGE. A. M. 2078-4033. B. C. 1926-A. D. 29. 

Period First, A. M. 2078-2513; B. G. 1926-1491=435 Years.— HhQ first 
period of this age was occupied in preparing witnesses for the True God, and in 
stationing witnesses to His manifestation of divinity and His personal transactions 
with men. Jehovah chose Abraham and the seed promised to him, and by 
special training prepared them to witness for Him before and among the nations. 
Abraham was a Syrian, from beyond the Euphrates, where his fathers served 
other gods ; and he became conspicuous in his sojournings out from Mesopotamia 
into Egypt, by his transactions with kings and chiefs of tribes. His victory over 
Chedalaomer and allies, after their conquest of Sodom and others, would cause 
him to be remembered by the Syrians on both sides of the Euphrates; his trans- 
actions with Pharaoh would make a memorial for him in Egypt ; and his power, 
influence, altars, and the cave of Machpelah would not suffer him to be forgotten 
in the intervening countries. 

The participation of Lot in the catastrophe of Sodom and vicinity, and the 
disreputable origin of the Moabites and Ammonites, placed two jealous and hostile 
witnesses on the east border of the land of Israel. The separation of Ishmael 
and the sons of Keturah from Isaac placed numerous witnesses in Arabia, whose 
origin was identified with the election, covenants, oaths, promises, and history 
of Abraham. The hostility of Esau to Jacob stationed a most bitter and malig- 
nant witness on the south border of Israel. The people of Rebekah, Leah, and 
Rachel witnessed between the land of Israel, and the Euphrates; and the malig- 
nant Amalekites, between Israel and Egypt, furnished evidence to the nations of 
the power, truth, and interposition of the God of Israel. The origin or history 



966 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED* 



of all these nations was identified with the origin and history of Israel; and they 
became unexceptionable witnesses to the existence, power, personal and special 
interposition, and fidelity of the God of Israel to covenants, oaths, and promises, 
and threatenings. 

God's covenants, oaths, and promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sepa- 
rated Israel from all the nations, and from all the kindred and other posterity of 
Abraham and Isaac; and this special election was attended at the first with 
bitterness, which was identified with the origin of the rejected tribes and could 
not be forgotten ; and when these covenants, oaths, and promises were realized, 
the divinity, and personal and direct communication of the God of Isarel could 
not be denied. 

Now, God promised a son to Abraham and fulfilled it in twenty-five years. 
He told Abraham that his covenanted seed should be stran^^ers four hundred 
years and be afiiicted, then the oppressing nation should sufier calamities, and 
then his seed should be delivered and take with them great wealth. This was a 
long time to wait, and it gave ample time to despair of the fulfillment, and an 
opportunity to deride the hope. He also promised to give Israel the land of 
Canaan after they came out of bondage ; and he promised Abraham all the land 
from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates. Israel knew this, and all the nations 
knew it, for Israel carried the seal of these grants in their flesh. Assyria on the 
northeast, and Egypt on the southwest, had established Polytheism as the 
national religion before the end of these four hundred years, and a famine com- 
pelled Israel to go into Egypt and sojourn there. The scene is prepared, the 
actors provided, the witnesses stationed, and drama opened. 

Period Second. A. M. 2513-2561; B. C. 1491-1443=48 y^ar6-. —The second 
period of this age is a period of miracles and legislation, and is introduced by the 
first battle with the Red Dragon antagonism, under its first, or Egyptian, head- 
ship. Israel, the witnesses for the True God, is reduced to bondage, and the 
destruction of all the male children decreed. Egypt has a powerful and well 
arranged Polytheistic priesthood united with the civil government, and Israel is 
under the patriarchs and in a state of degrading bondage. The God of Israel 
distinguishes Himself from all the gods of the nations by the name, "Jehovah," 
and under this name determined to make Himself known to all nations as the 
Only God of the universe. In this name He sends a message by Moses and 
Aaron to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, demanding the freedom and independence of 
His people, and in case of refusal, threatens judgments on Egypt and all her 
gods. The response of the Red Dragon by the mouth of Pharaoh is prompt and 
defiant. " Who is the Jehovah, that I should let Israel go from serving me ? I 
know not Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews ! neither will I let Israel go." By 
messages and miracles that none could mistake, both Israel and the Egyptians 
were taught to know who Jehovah, the God of Israel, was. The power of Egypt 
was destroyed; her gods were vanquished ; Israel was emancipated and enriched 
according to the promise over four hundred years old ; the nations heard of the 
power of Jehovah, and learned that the God of Abraham made promises, and 
kept them, too. 

But there are more promises to be fulfilled, and the nations must learn more 
about Jehovah ; so Israel must be kept forty years in the wilderness to call atten- 
tion, intensify suspense, aff'ord unbelief time to rally and dispute the fulfillment 
of any more promises. The tribes of Haggar and Keturah must see the legiti- 
mate heirs of Abraham wandering between the fulfillment of the promise of 
deliverance and the promise of possession. The children of Esau must see the 
value of the birthright and blessing. The children of Lot must be reminded of 
their own origin and the promises to Abraham. The kindred of Laban must 
witness these great events, and let Balaam, a known prophet of the God of their 
fathers, go and pronounce a blessing on the children of Rebekah, Leah, and 



RETROSPECT : PREPARATORY AGE. 967 

Rachel. Amalek must try his strength with the God of Israel, and the devoted 
tribes of Canaan must have time to invoke their gods and prepare for reversing 
the bequest of the God of Abraham, and prevent their own destruction. Thus 
Israel, guided by light in the night and a shadow by day, fed with bread from 
the sky and flesh from the winds, and quenching their thirst with waters from the 
granite rock, must excite the attention of surrounding tribes and nations for 
forty years. 

These forty years was a time for training and educating Israel. Subsidary 
to the covenants and promises with Abraham, the}^ must have covenants and 
promises for themselves. By the covenant of Abraham, Jehovah has pledged 
Himself to be their God, and they must be His people; but whether they shall 
enjoy prosperity or suffer adversity will depend on covenants with themselves. 
They must be Jehovah's people by virtue of covenant with Abraham ; but 
whether blessed or cursed will depend on themselves. Jehovah made a covenant 
with them at Sinai, in which He promised the greatest blessings that could be 
enjoyed on earth if they were obedient to Him; but if disobedient, He threat- 
ened the greatest curses that could be inflicted. They accepted this covenant as 
the pledge of the future destiny of their nation. God gave them laws and ordi- 
nances ; they made a tabernacle with its furniture, as God directed, and their 
worship and religion was regulated by Jehovah Himself. Jehovah made Himself 
known to them in the wilderness in a manner that convinced them of his exist- 
ence. His character, and personal government of them. After various trials and 
trainings, Israel passed the Jordan and took possession of the promised land. 
This whole period was a continued scene of indisputable and stupendous miracles 
which convinced all who witnessed them, and they were so well attested that the 
Philistines, three hundred years after, refer to them as indisputable evidence of 
the power of Jehovah ; and the inhabitants of Canaan fainted on account of them. 
But, if any refused the evidence of miracles, here were fulfilled promises, made 
to Abraham over four hundred years before. No other god made covenants 
with their people, gave promises to be fulfilled in the dim future, and kept those 
engagements till fulfilled. All the children of Abraham and Isaac had become 
powerful nations, permanently settled, while Israel was afliicted and in hopeless 
bondage, as foretold to Abraham ; but when the promised time arrives, Jehovah 
delivers, leads, and disciplines Israel, and puts them in possession of the promised 
land in a manner that showed his power and interposition. The kindred of 
Israel and the nations saw and acknowledged Jehovah, the God of Israel, to be 
a great and mighty God, and they feared Him, but did not consider Him to be 
the Supreme and Only God. They still worshiped their own gods, and consid- 
ered them able to give Jehovah a hard fight. 

Period Third. A. M. 2561-2978; B. C. 1443-1026=417 Years.— T^q 
third period was occupied in teaching Israel that Jehovah alone was their God 
and must be obeyed, and in showing the nations that He was superior to all their 
gods, and in proving to all that His counsel stood and He executed all His pur- 
poses. He will be Israel's God, and all the tribes, from Egypt to Assyria, shall 
know Him to be superior to all their gods. The covenants with Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob constituted all the children of Israel and their bond servants, the people 
of Jehovah, though the great mass of them hated His service and were contin- 
ually rebelling and acting unworthy of their high calling, and by their immoral 
character degrading His name and religion before the world. Hence, the law 
was added on account of these transgressors, and the covenant made at Sinai was 
made to circumscribe, prevent, punish, and purge out wickedness from the 
nation without violating the covenants made with Abraham. According to this 
covenant, Jehovah was pledged to bless them exceedingly if obedient, and to 
curse them exceedingly if disobedient. Satan, who by the serpent took advantage 
of the covenant with Adam, and established sin and misery in the world, knew 
how to take advantage of the Sinai covenant and recover and perpetuate the 



9(58 



THE KINGDOM OF GK)D DEVELOPED. 



influence of his Red Dragon development ; induce the unregenerated part of Israel 
to violate this covenant, then Jehovah was pledged to punish this violation and 
prevent Israel from abandoning Him. If He did not punish them, the nation 
would become Polytheists, or degrade Jehovah's name before the immoralities of 
the false gods. If He did punish Israel by conquest or oppression, the nations 
would attribute the defeat to the weakness of Jehovah and the superiority of their 
gods. This strategy of Satan was carried on by the second headship of the Red 
Dragon: the inter-Egyptico — Assyrian tribes. Six of these horns, powers, or 
tribes did subjugate Israel for a time, and all of them did combine, once or more, 
to exterminate Israel, that the name should no more be mentioned — or this was 
the one object pursued at different times. But Jehovah kept His covenant, pun- 
ished Israel, and taught Polytheists that the God of Israel was above all gods, 
kept His word, and accomplished all His purposes. 

Whenever any new generation of Israel doubted the history of their fathers 
and the interposition of Jehovah in their government, all they had to do was to 
violate their covenant with Him, and then see if He vindicated His authority and 
enforced the penalty. This they often did, and found a guardian to His cove- 
nants, who defended His cause for His own name's sake. The first horn, or 
power, of this Polytheistic head, was the Syrian, under a leader from Meso- 
potamia, the native land of Abraham, which sent a messenger in arms to examine 
the validity of Jehovah's covenants. This horn was broken by Othniel, son of 
Kenaz, the youngest of the Calib family. The second horn was Moab, of the 
family of Lot, with Ammon and Amalek for allies, and was broken by Ehud. 
The third horn was the Canaanites, on the north, and was broken by Deborah 
and Barak. The fourth was the Midianites, of the children of Abraham and 
Keturah, with the Ishmaelites and Amalekites for allies. These, too, must 
examine Israel's title to the promised land, and learn whether the God of their 
father, Abraham, remembered His covenants, oaths, and promises. This born 
was broken by Gideon. The fifth horn was the Ammonites, of the children of 
Lot, and was broken by Jeptha. The sixth horn was the Philistines. The con- 
test with this horn is more fully narrated, and the supremacy of the gods more 
specially contested and decisively settled. Samson, the ark, and Samuel, appear 
champions for the God of Israel. In all cases, the Lord delivered Israel into the 
hands of their enemies till they confessed their sin and acknowledged their 
dependence on Him, then He delivered them in such a way that nations could 
see the hand and power was of Jehovah, and not of Israel. 

The Philistines conquered Israel and captured the ark, but Samson himself 
vanquished the Philistines, and the ark conquered them and compelled them to 
acknowledge the supremacy of Jehovah in their own land. The gods were 
dependent on the nations. Israel and the nations learned that Jehovah was in 
no way dependent on Israel. At length, weary of servitude, Israel besought the 
Lord for deliverance, and Samuel told them that they must put away all their 
false gods and serve the Jehovah alone, and then He would deliver them. They 
obeyed, and congregated to confess their sins. The Philistines attacked. Samuel 
prayed. The Philistines were vanquised, and Samuel never witnessed the defeat 
of Israel during his life. Samuel was a traveling preacher and a circuit judge, 
and taught Israel to understand their relation to Jehovah. Israel and the sur- 
rounding nations learned that Jehovah was the Supreme God, from Egypt to 
Assyria, and must be obeyed. The defeats of Israel were not on account of 
weakness in Jehovah, but because He would vindicate His laws and keep His 
covenants. Israel was His people and must obey Him, and the nations must 
fear Him when they did not fear Israel. How many individuals in these sur- 
rounding nations adhered to the worship of the One Only Living and True God, 
we can not tell; but, whether few or many, their hope and confidence would be 
strengthened by his dealings with Israel, while the state religion of all these gov- 
ernments was confirmed Polytheism. 



RETROSPECT : PREPARATORY AGE. 969 

Period Fourth. A. M. 2978-3029; B. G. 1026-975=51 Years.~ll\\Q 
fourth period of this age was a time of success and unparalleled prosperity. The 
threatenings of the law had been faithfully inflicted according to covenant con- 
tract at Sinai, and the labors of Samuel, an acknowledged prophet of the Jehovah, 
had produced such reformation in Israel as entitled them to the rich blessings 
promised in that same covenant. During this period the whole land promised to 
Abraham, from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates, was in the possession of 
Israel. This promise was about eight hundred years old. Its fulfillment showed 
the God of Abraham to be alive yet, faithful to His promises, and able to per- 
form what He had engaged. The unbounded riches promised by Moses, upon 
condition of obedience, was verified. No enemy could stand before them, and 
from the time Samuel's prayer vanquished the Philistines till the division of 
Israel into kingdoms, they never lost a battle but the one in which Saul was slain 
— one hundred and twenty-two years of victories. Israel had become numerous 
as the sand of the sea, dwelt safely without fear, and enjoyed unbounded wealth, 
health, and prosperity. New promises, oaths, and covenants were made to Israel, 
to David, and to Jerusalem, for the faith and encouragement of the pious in the 
future. 

The victories of David, the traffic, wealth, and wisdom of Solomon had spread 
the knowledge of Jehovoh and His dealings with, Israel to an unknown extent. 
Tyre, the commercial mistress of the world, acknowledged the greatness of 
Jehovah. King Hiram was ever a lover of David, and he helped Solomon to 
build the house of the Jehovah God., Jerusalem became the Holy City, and the 
first temple for the worship of the True God was build ed. Polytheism had 
builded many temples for the worship of false gods, and in this period Israel 
builded a glorious palace to Jehovah, claimed exclusive divinity for Him, and 
denounced the gods of the nations as false deities. The songs of David and 
wisdom of Solomon placed the sole divinity of Jehovah in a conspicuous light 
before the nations. David burned all the gods he captured of the conquered 
nations. The light of Jehovah shone from Mount Zion. The nations beheld it, 
and its influence on individuals must have been great, though the princes and 
priests of the nations adhered to their national Polytheism. 

During this period the government of Israel was changed. The want of 
piety and love to God and man prevented that cooperation necessary to self-pro- 
tection, and when some tribe or tribes were invaded the others did not come to 
the rescue; and these different enslavements were enslavements of only some 
parts. Now, Samuel's influence was so great he could concentrate their power 
against any enemy; but he became old, and his sons lost that influence by unjust 
and oppressive doings. Israel desired a king that could watch over their interests 
and concentrate their forces. The Jehovah granted the request and let them try 
the experiment, but at the same time informed them that this expedient would 
not save them if disobedient, and proved it to them in the death of Saul, their 
first king. David did everything according to the commands of Jehovah, and 
consummated the power and possession of Israel and the triumph of the religion 
of Jehovah. But the prosperity and power secured by compliance with the Divine 
Will might be attributed to the concentration of power in the hands of a king, 
and Israel might claim credit for her own policy in government. 

Period Fifth. A. M. 3029-3115 ; B. C. 975-889 = 86 Zi^^^T'^.— During this 
period was shown* the impotency of kings to save Israel when disobedient to 
Jehovah and violating His laws, given under the covenant at Sinai. The nation 
of Israel was divided into two kingdoms, and the larger kingdom was given to 
the disobedient. This kingdom did not renounce Jehovah as the Living and 
True God, but substituted the calves of Egypt as symbols of His presence, 
instead of the ark and tabernacle furniture ; altered the priesthood, and instituted 
feasts similar to those appointed by Jehovah, but they did not force any indi- 
vidnal to abandon the worship of Jehovah. The smaller kingdom adhered to 



970 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the worship of Jehovah. This division was from God, and the kingdom of Israel 
was permitted to rebel, while the kingdom of Jiidah was humbled and prevented, 
and all the surrounding nations witnessed the experiment and result. At first 
Israel had an army double that of Judah, and five-sixths of the tribes. Prophets 
exhorted, warned, and predicted, and kept the law and covenant of Sinai before 
them, with the blessings and cursings. The larger decreased in power and terri- 
tory, and by migrations, civil wars, and invasions, adopted the worship of Baal, 
and slew the prophets who advocated the cause of Jehovah. The kingdom of 
Judah increased by immigration and divine blessing, obtained notable victories 
over superior forces, and barkened to the voice of the prophets. At the close of 
this period Jehoshaphat could muster over one million of an army, while Ahab 
could muster but seven thousand. 

During this period commenced the system of training individuals and small 
companies of the pious to witness, to maintain, and advance the cause of Jehovah 
against Polytheistic governments and priesthoods. Moses had threatened Israel 
with captivity upon persistence in rebellion; and now the prophets announced the 
captivity of rebellious Israel as a determined point, and that it should be to the 
far east. They also gave signs and predictions which were verified in a short 
time. Thus, the impious were rendered inexcusable, and the pious were confirmed 
in the faith of Jehovah. Almost everything now happening in Israel was pre- 
dicted and announced by the prophets ; and the nations were learning that 
Jehovah's favors or frowns were not restricted nor extended by national organi- 
zations; and they discerned a difi'erence between the government of Israel and 
the prophets of Jehovah. At the first of this period the kingdom of Judah 
was as impious as Israel, and suffered more ; but they reformed, and prospered 
to the end; and the nations brought gifts to Jehoshaphat because the cause of 
Jehovah flourished with him. Israel was destroyed by civil wars, while Judah 
was saved from overwhelming invasions by the known interposition of Jehovah. 
In this period the religion of Jehovah had reached its lowest pitch in the ten 
tribes, but His divinity was so effectually proven by Elijah that tke people con- 
fessed him to be the God, and slew the prophets of Baal. 

Period Sixth. A. M. 3115-3278; B. C. 889-726=163 Years.— ThQ min- 
istry of Elijah had produced such a reformation in Israel that the worship of 
Baal declined, and was finally extirpated with slaughter by Jehu ; but the calves 
of Jeroboam retained the national religion, or worship. The prophets stood 
forth boldly and gave the wicked kings defeats and deliverances by the word of 
Jehovah, so that the kings feared, honored, and consulted them. The nations 
also feared and honored these prophets ; Elisha was known and respected in 
Syria ; and Jonah caused Assyria to acknowledge Jehovah and entreat his mercy 
by tasting and prayers. The pious in Israel, being accustomed to maintain their 
religion under princes and priests rebelling against Jehovah, were prepared to 
maintain and propagate the true religion in the midst of the Polytheists in the 
coming captivity. Thus, while Israel as a nation ceased to be the people of 
Jehovah, witnesses were trained up among them to make a successful onset upon 
Polytheism in its confirmed dominions; and Jehovah began to plant colonies of 
missionaries in Assyria and among the Medes. 

Jehoshaphat acted very unwisely in forming an affinity with the house of 
Ahab, and the Jezebal infiuence spread into Judah and produced apostacy and 
murder. The kings became impious, abandoned the worship of the Jehovah, 
broke up the House of God, and provoked the covenanted wrath of the Lord. 
The prophets and some of the priests stood forth against them with success at 
some times, but at other times they were murdered. The mass of the people 
abandoned Jehovah when they could do so with impunity, but the pious learned 
to serve Him when shut out from the house of God, and to witness for Him 
against princes, priests, and people ; and thus the Jews were educated for mis- 
sionary work among the Polytheists. Judah began now to meet with revolts, 



RETROSPECT I PREPARATORY AGE. 971 

invasions, assassinations, and defeats, and the kings, instead of saving the people 
of Jehovah, broke His covenant, incurred His wrath, and brought His vengeance 
upon them. Then followed good kings, who restored the worship of Jehovah, 
destroyed idolatry, purged the country, and reformed the people. Great prophets 
arose, denouncing judgments on Judah, proclaiming captivity and return, and 
programming the history of the kingdom of God down till its consummation. 
These pious kings were followed by impious sons, who destroyed all their fathers' 
reformations, and made destructions, captivity, and desolations as certain as the 
Sinai covenant could make them. 

At the close of this period Ahaz came to the throne of David, and appears 
to have made it his study how to violate the law of Moses and see whether 
Jehovah did exist, or had anything to do with the government of Judah, and 
what His laws and covenants were worth. He regarded not the prophets, and 
refused signs and evidence when offered to him. True to His covenant, Jehovah 
brought Judah very low for their sins under Ahaz, and they were destroyed by 
the Edomites, Philistines, Israelites, and Syrians. But, instead of repenting, 
Ahaz served the gods of the Syrians who smote him, that they might help him 
as they did the Syrians ; and instead of returning to Jehovah, he hired the king 
of Assyria to invade Syria and Israel. Here commence the captivities. Tiglath- 
Pileser, king of Assyria, invaded Syria, took Damascus, the royal city, and 
carried the people captive to Kir ; he also took the northern cities of Israel, and 
caj*ried the inhabitants captive into Assyria. There the impious could serve other 
gods, and the pious could witness for Jehovah and spread the knowledge of Him. 

Period Seventh. A. M. 3278-3417; B. C. 726-587 = 139 Years.— Ixi the 
beginning of this period the remnant of the kingdom of Israel, reduced by civil 
wars and calamities, were carried away into captivity by the Assyrians, and were 
placed in the cities of the Medes; and a mixture of races and religions was 
planted in Samaria. But Jehovah vindicated His divinity, and compelled these 
Polytheists to acknowledge and fear Him in the land of Israel, while the pious 
captives carried the knowledge of Him and His religion away beyond Babylon. 
Thus, while Jehovah vindicates His covenant made at Sinai and punishes Israel, 
He extends the borders of His kingdom and establishes garrisons in the empire 
of Polytheism. 

All the land of Israel, except the country of the Jews, was captured by the 
Assyrians, and by the request of Ahaz, Judah was made tributory to them and 
under their protection. Hezekiah succeeded his father, Ahaz, and produced a 
great reformation in Judah, destroyed idolatry out of it, and reestablished the 
worship of Jehovah according to the law. He also sent a messenger and letter 
throughout the captured and subjugated land of the tribes of Israel, inviting them 
to return to the God of their fathers, and to come up to Jerusalem and keep the 
appointed feasts of Jehovah. Some derided the idea of restoring the worship 
of Jehovah, and ridiculed the messenger; but multitudes out of all the desolated 
tribes complied, and Jehovah healed their diseases and encouraged their hearts. 
They kept the feast with great joy, and destroyed the idols, altars, and groves 
out of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh; provision was made for the 
future support of the worship of Jehovah, and the pious were prepared to witness 
for the true religion in their own land or in captivity. 

The prophets posted the people in regard to future events. Captivity was 
sure, as denounced in the law of Moses. Repentance and restoration was certain, 
as promised in the same law. Also, the fate of the neighboring and surrounding 
nations and tribes was programmed, specially and circumstantially, so that the 
pious Jews could tell the Polytheists their own doom and future history. These 
nations were all well acquainted with the history of Israel and Judah, and had 
full evidence of the supreme divinity of Jehovah, and had feared and acknowl- 
edged Him but refused to abandon their false gods. Now, Jehovah was about to 



972 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

train them for rejecting the truth, and so told them beforehand by His prophets— 
not the small tribes only, but Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. Having thus fore- 
warned them, He sent His people, by captivities, to draw their attention, tell 
them their fate and destiny, and that Jehovah did the work and was the only God. 

Forewarned and prepared, Jehovah commissioned Assyria first, then Chaldea, 
and then the Persians, to break into pieces the nations and their gods. But, 
while Jehovah was vindicating His laws and covenants with Israel, and showing 
the importance and vanity of their gods, Satan took occasion to recover the influ- 
ence of his Red Dragon development. In the name of Jehovah, David had 
conquered the nations from Egypt to Assyria, and had burnt their gods; but 
now the Assyrians were conquering and transplanting the nations, including 
Egypt and Media, capturing and burning their gods, and yet worshiped the gods 
of Assyria — the third head of the Red Dragon. They had transplanted the ten 
tribes of Israel, and Judah has been placed under their protection by Ahaz. 

The policy of Assyria was to establish one vast consolidated empire by trans- 
planting the inhabitants and mixing them up in small colonies ; but Judah, having 
become tributary and under their protection, could not be dismembered and trans- 
planted without a pretext. That pretext was furnished by Hezekiah, who refused 
the subjugation his father, Ahaz, had implored. Sennacherib invaded Judah, 
took the fortified cities, and threatened Jerusalem; and though Hezekiah paid 
the tribute demanded, Sennacherib determined to capture Jerusalem and trans- 
plant the inhabitants. Hezekiah exhorted the people to trust in Jehovah and pot 
surrender the city, though Judah had not an army equal to the least division of 
the Assyrians. Sennacherib shows Judah's weakness, boasts of his own con- 
quests of gods and nations, insinuates Jehovah's inferiority to these vanquished 
gods, and impeaches Jehovah's ability to save Jerusalem. But, perhaps, remem- 
bering his throne and royal city had humbled themselves before Jehovah at the 
preaching of Jonah, and knowing the prophecies of the captivity of Jerusalem, 
he asserted a commission to destroy Jerusalem. Hezekiah presented the case, 
confessed the facts, implored deliverance and the vindication of the supreme 
divinity of Jehovah. All eyes were turned on the contest. The vanquished 
princes and priests of the nations were interested in the victory or overthrow of 
the Assyrians. The pious captive and. pious citizen were interested in the fate of 
Jerusalem. The angel of Jehovah went by night into the camp. The host of 
Sennacherib was slain on the spot, and himself was slain while worshiping his 
god. After conquering Egypt and the nations, the Assyrian empire was wasted 
by invasions of the Sythians and the revolt of Egypt, Babylonia, and the Medes. 
Thus, the third head of the dragon was broken. 

Hezekiah's distress was increased by sickness and threatened death, but the 
defeat of Sennacherib and the retrograde move of the sun attending his recovery 
brought visitors from Babylon and spread the knowledge and fame of Jehovah 
on every side; and before Jerusalem was destroyed, the God of Israel was known 
and feared by the nations afar ofi*; and the predictions of the prophets were 
known, and the cause of the captivity was understood by the intelligent in these 
nations. 

The good Hezekiah was succeeded by his most wicked son, Manasseh, who 
did worse than Ahaz. But captivity and afflictions brought him to his senses, 
and he reformed and undid his first wickedness. He was succeeded by his 
impious son, Amon, who was assassinated in two years. Josiah came to the 
throne in childhood, and became the best of kings and greatest of reformers. 
His reformation was most extensive, and he destroyed the gods, altars, and 
groves out of Judah, Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and unto Naphtali, and took 
away all the abominations out of all the countries that had pertained to the chil- 
dren of Israel. He defiled the altar of Jeroboam in Bethel, according to the 
prediction of the prophet against Jeroboam, which prediction was retained 
among the inhabitants ; and so was the sepulcher of the two prophets. But the 



RETROSPECT : PREPARATORY AGE. 973 

captivity was determined, and no reformation could prevent it; and the prophets 
were still preparing the pious for it during reformations and apostacies till the 
last captivity was completed. While Jeremiah prepared the pious in Jerusalem 
for captivity, Ezekiel was instructing those in captivity, and kept them posted in 
relation to the progress of the siege till it was completed. All the kings of Judah, 
after Josiah, were wicked and provoked their own destruction. Thus, captivity 
threatened by Moses was accomplished. Kings concentrated power, but, vio- 
lating the law, brought on the covenanted judgments. The Temple of Jehovah 
was plundered, broken down, and burnt, as was threatened to Solomon when 
dedicated. 

Period Eighth. A. M. 3416-3595; B. G. 588-409=179 Years.— T\ioxxg]i 
the faithful and instructed went into captivity fully convinced that their Jehovah 
was the Living and True God, and that He kept His covenants, fulfilled His 
promises, and executed His threatenings, and that He would restore their city 
and temple, and they could show this in every part of their history, yet they were 
grievously afflicted with the taunts, insults, reproaches, exultation, and abuse of 
the Polytheists. Still, they could tell their enemies, from the revelations of 
Jehovah, the destruction of the nations and their helpless gods, and point to 
them when fulfilled. They came in contact with every species of Polytheism, 
and could defy any people to show a god that made covenants and promises and 
fulfilled them throughout present and future generations. No communications, 
covenants, and laws like those of Israel. During the captivities of Israel and 
Judah all the nations that ever witnessed Jehovah's dealings with Israel were 
destroyed and their gods led into captivity, and none but the God of Israel could 
show their future destiny. All the nations must learn the future from the Jewish 
prophets. 

Satan undertook to establish the supremacy of the Red Dragon under his 
fourth headship, l^ebuchadnezzar had accomplished what Sennacherib did not, 
and destroyed the City and House of Jehovah, captured the Jews, and deposited 
the sacred furniture of the temple in the house of Baal. Nebuchadnezzar con- 
sidered himself entitled to confer universal and supreme divinity upon his own 
gods, but the pious Jews alone withstood the king ; all other gods and people 
cowered before this smasher-up of gods and nations. But Nebuchadnezzar had 
to acknowledge the supremacy in knowledge, power, and government of Jehovah, 
when Daniel told and interpreted his dream, and now he decrees vengeance upon 
any one daring to speak disrespectfully of the God of Shadrak, Mishac, and Abed- 
nego, and Jews were promoted to posts of highest honor and trust. Again, Bel- 
shazzer attempted to deride the divinity of Jehovah, and treated his princes, 
wives, and concubines with wine out of the sacred vessels of the temple. But he, 
too, and his guests, had to quail before a shadow, and a writing on the wall, and 
give honor to Daniel and his God. Belshazzer was slain. The fourth head of 
the dragon was broken, and the fifth ascends to command. 

The fifth head had two horns — the Medes and the Persians. Darius, the 
Mede, was induced to assume supreme and sole divinity to himself for thirty 
days. Daniel rejected his divinity and worshiped Jehovah alone. Daniel was 
cast into the lions' den. He came out unhurt, and Darius decreed supreme 
divinity to Jehovah and punishment to His blasphemers. Ahasuerus Artaxerxes, 
the Persian, delivered the people of Jehovah to utter destruction. Mordachai 
and Esther were raised up to withstand the adversary. The Jews triumphed. 
Many of the Polytheists became Jews. Ezra and Nehemiah received commis- 
sions, power, and means to restore the city and worship of Jehovah, who was 
acknowledged to be the God of Heaven. Thus, the Red Dragon was defeated 
under his fifth headship. The Sons of Oil kept the lamps of truth and holiness 
aglow in Chaldea and Persia. The supreme divinity of Jehovah and and the 
divine origin of the Jews' religion was acknowledged by the highest authorities 
of Polytheism. The Jews abandoned forever their proneness to Polytheism; 



974 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

and the fidelity of Jehovah to His covenant engagements, and power over Jews 
and gentiles, were again verified before all nations. The Jews returned. The 
vessels and furniture of the temple were restored ; the House of Jehovah was 
rebuilt; the Holy City rebuilt and completed ; kings and nobles sent their gifts 
and off'erings to Jerusalem and sought the blessing of Jehovah upon themselves 
and their children. 

Thus, the kingdom of God, during the captivity and return, had extended its 
borders and influences from Egypt and the Mediterranean sea to the Indus, and 
from the Caspian sea to the Persian ocean. Jerusalem was the center of power 
and influence, but her missionary colonies were stationed throughout the Persian 
empire. Her sacred writings were completed, and she was now prepared to dis- 
seminate the true knowledge of the True God and cast a reforming influence into 
religion, philosophy, and legislation. The supreme divinity and revealed religion 
of Jehovah was now established in colonies in Egypt and eastward to the Indus, 
and was about to turn and conquer in the west. The constitution, laws, and 
instructions were included in the Sacred Scriptures, and the Sons of Oil will keep 
the lamps of Jehovah always burning. Malachi closes the Divine Oracles, and 
enjoines obedience to the law of Moses till the Jehovah angel of the covenant 
would suddenly visit this second temple. 

During this period the Samaritans established the worship of Jehovah among 
their mixed races, and a priest of the house of Aaron, who refused to separate 
from his Samaritan wife, was the first priest. This had both a good and bad 
influence on the true religion. A permanent enmity was maintained between the 
two centers of worship ; but a temple was built to Jehovah on Mount Gerizim, 
and the Five Books of Moses were translated into their language. This was 
better than the worship established by Jeroboam or Ahab, and the vigilant rival- 
ship would detect any alteration of these writings. 

Period Ninth. A. M. 3595-3941; B. C. 409 A. D. 63=346 y^ar^.— Keve- 
elations now ceased, and no more prophets arose after Malachi. The people of 
Jehovah had now to be guided by what had been revealed. During this period, 
the Scriptures were collected, authenticated, and copies multiplied, and they were 
translated and explained in the different languages where the Jews sojourned. 
Two of the written translations have come down to our time — the Samaritan 
Pentateuch, and the Greek Septuagint. In most times and places the Jews had 
the privilege of living according to their own laws and customs. This made trans- 
lations and explanations of their Scriptures a necessity, and their synagogues a 
civil court as well as the house of worship. Jerusalem was their Holy City, to 
which they sent or brought their gifts and oflferings, and from which they 
received their writings and ins1?ructions. The high priest was the chief of the 
nation, and the senate, or sanhedrim, at Jerusalem, was their supreme court. 
The Son of God, or the Jehovah — Angel of the Covenant — was their king ; and 
though He had for a time placed His throne on Mount Zion and covenanted it to 
David forever, in whose seed He purposed to become incarnated, yet He removed 
it back into Heaven and governed His kingdom without a deputy on earth. !No 
man has seen God at any time; the Only Begotten Son revealed Him; and this 
Son of God was then prospectively the Son of Man and of the seed of David by 
His incarnation. His throne had been David's throne, and now David's throne 
is His throne forever. 

After the government of Nehemiah, Jerusalem was under the satraps of 
Syria, who were appointed by the kings of Persia. Under the Persian monarchy 
the Jews enjoyed high and conspicuous prominence among the nations, or prov- 
inces, and though they sometimes suflTered from petty ofiicers, and were some- 
times involved in the fate of reconquered rebel provinces, yet they were never 
persecuted for their religion by the Persian government. On the conquest of 



RETROSPECT I PREPARATORY AGE. 975 

Persia by the Greeks, the Jews came under Alexander, who granted them in 
Judah, Media, and Babylon the unmolested practice of their worship, and the 
privilege to be governed by their own laws. 

According to the divine programme given to Daniel, the gold head and the 
silver arms and breast of Nebuchadnezzar's image of empires have had their 
day, and now the belly and thighs of brass appear. The Babylonian monster 
with eagle wings, and the Persian bear are superseded by the variegated monster 
with his four (Athenian, Spartan, Theban, and Macedon) heads united in one 
body. The Persian ram has been killed by the Macedonian he goat. JSTotwith- 
standing the favors shown to the religion of Jehovah, no prince will hold per- 
manent cooperation with the glorious Ambassador from Heaven but Michael, the 
prince of the Jews. Yet the glorious Ambassador had stood and strengthened 
Darius, the Mede; and after him, three kings of Persia stood up for the kingdom 
of God, namely: Cyrus, Darius Hystaspis, and Ahasuerus Artaxerxes; and the 
fourth king of Persia known in the development of the kingdom of God, 
inheriting the spoils captured by Ochus, was richer than any of them, and used 
his wealth and power against the king of Grecia. But Alexander ruled with 
great dominition and did as he chose, and Persia was subdued. Alexander dies, 
and his vast empire is divided into four kingdoms; and afterward shall be eradi- 
cated and given to some others not of the Greek nationalities. Of these four 
divisions only two come in contact with the development of the kingdom of God 
— the north and the south; and viewed from this antagonistic standpoint, only 
these two horns are visible. This Greek power is the sixth head of the Poly- 
theistic antagonism, or Red Dragon in John's programme, and these north and 
south monarchies are the two horns, and complete the number ten on the 
Dragon's heads. The south monarchs are called Ptolemy s, and the north, 
Seleucid^. 

The first of the Ptolemys attacked Jerusalem on the Sabbath, when the 
Jews would not fight, and carried many thousands of them to Egypt ; but he 
promoted them to posts of honor and trust in the new city, Alexandria. Many 
more of them emigrated there on account of the privileges, and Alexandria 
became a second Jerusalem. All the Ptolemys, except Philopater, treated the 
Jews well, and granted them the right to exercise their own worship and to live 
according to their own laws. They sacrificed to Jehovah at Jerusalem, bestowed 
favors and gifts to the temple, had the law translated into the Greek language, 
and permitted the priest, Onies, to build a temple in Egypt to Jehovah. They 
were nursing fathers and nursing mothers to the Jews, though they were licen- 
tious Polytheists. 

The Seleucidse on the north were not behind the Ptolemys in confering 
favors on the Jews, except Epiphanes and those after him. They ruled from 
the Mediterranean to the Indus ; built new cities and placed Jews in them 
because they were good citizens and faithful to their oaths, and gave them many 
favors, and the right to exercise their own religion and be governed by their own 
laws. But, as Judah lay between the two monarchies, it often suffered from their 
wars. At first the Ptolemys were the strongest and held Judea, the Jews 
favoring them till Philopater persecuted to force them into Polytheism; 
then they threw their favor to the Seleucidse, and Antiochus the Great took 
Judea from the Ptolemys. Jerusalem suffered much from these wars ; but 
Antiochus repaid them by favors and grants to restore their losses and repair the 
damages. Selucus Philopater defrayed the expenses of the daily sacrifice; but 
Antiochus Epiphanes carried on a furious persecution to force the Jews to embrace 
the Greek Polytheism. 

Satan tried to merge the Jews into Polytheism by favors, kind treatment, 
and liberal views. The Polytheists worshiped Jehovah at Jerusalem, and why 
should not the Jews worship the gods of the nations? Failing in this project, 
the Red Dragon raised his Egyptian horn, and Ptolemy Philopater put forty or 



976 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 



sixty thousand Jews to death in Egypt ; branded some with the ivy leaf, the sign 
of his god, Bacus; forced some to apostatize, and shut up more in the hippo- 
drome to be trampled and killed by wild beasts. But the beasts turned upon 
their masters, and this, with other marks of the divine vengeance, terrified 
Philopater, so he revoked the decree, restored their privileges, and punished the 
apostates. The Jews in Egypt were reckoned at one million, and were no more 
persecuted under the Ptolemys. 

The most direct and furious attack of Polytheism upon the kingdom of God 
was made by the Syrian horn of the Greek head. About two hundred thousand 
Jews were slaughtered, murdered, and martyred by Antiochus Epiphanes. The 
streets in Jerusalem flowed with blood; the temple was plundered and polluted, 
and the worship of Jehovah abolished, and Jerusalem was partly destroyed. All 
nations and religions were required to adopt the Greek Polytheism or be exter- 
minated, and all cowered before the kins: except the Jews and the life-giving 
religion of Jehovah. Polytheism was defeated by the firm and patient endur- 
ance of the martyrs first, and then was vanquished by the wars and victories of 
the Maccabean leaders, which were equal to any achievements of the judges or 
kings of Israel. 

Under John Hyrcanus the Jews became an independent sovereignty, in 
alliance with the Romans, and enjoyed more privileges than under any former 
monarchs ; and the Sj^-ian empire was falling to pieces. The Romans never 
violated their treaties with the Jews; but civil war between the high priests for 
the office, and the one calling in the king of Arabia and the other the Romans, 
gave the Romans a pretext to reduce Judea to a Roman province. Thus, while 
the religion of Jehovah was victorious among the nations, the priests were dis- 
gracing it in Judea. 

Period Tenth. A. M. 3941-4033; B, C. 63-^. D. 27 = 92 Tears.— T\\^ 
kingdom of God comes now in collision with the seventh head of the Red 
Dragon ; and during this period the king of the iron scepter was born, and the 
war between Michael and the Red Dragon was waged in the conspicuous Heaven. 
When Judea was reduced into a Roman province, Hercanus II. was continued in 
the high-priesthood ; but the civil government was committed to Antipater, an 
Idumean by nation but a Jew by circumcision, and father of the Herod dynasty. 
Herod obtained the crown and kingdom from the Romans ; rebuilt the temple, 
and worshiped Jehovah ; built a circus and an amphitheater for Augustus, and 
celebrated games in honor of the Roman emperor. He was a cruel monster 
and a jealous tyrant, and the devil could not have found a more suitable agent 
to watch the throne of David and devour his Royal Son as soon as born. He had 
slaughtered the sanhedrim and exterminated the Asmonean high priests, because 
venerated by the Jews, and he feared their influence might deprive him of the 
throne. The Jews were now divided into religious sects. The Essenes were 
not of any note in the government; and the nation was managed by the Phar- 
isees, Sadducees, and Herodians. The Pharisees were zealous for the law and 
traditions, the Sadducees were deists, and the Herodians were attached to the 
dragon's tail, and, like Herod, were Monotheists or Polytheists, as occasion 
required. From the extermination of the Asmonean family by Herod to the 
destruction of Jerusalem, the Iiigh priests were appointed by the Herods or the 
proconsuls of Syria. Thus, both the civil and ecclesiastical government of the 
Jews were bestowed by the Polytheistic Romans ; and the Red Dragon, animated 
and controlled by Satan, had everything ready to devour the Royal Heir as soon 
as born. The predicted time was come, and the true church of Jehovah, or the 
holy seed, confiding in His covenants, oaths, and promises, was anxious and 
pained, and produced the child destined by the sure decree of God to rule all 
nations with an iron scepter. Herod most adroitly planned his destruction, and 



RETJROSPECT I INTERMEDIATE AG-E. 977 

murdered the babes of Bethlehem. But the young Prince had been snatched 
through the blue sky, or taken under the protection of the throne of God, and 
no one knew where to find Him. 

Although Judea had become a JRoman province, the privileges of the Jews 
were not disturbed throughout the Roman empire, nor among the eastern nations. 
They still exercised the worship of Jehovah in their synagogues and were 
governed by their own laws. Multitudes of Jews and proselytes from all nations 
went up yearly to Jerusalem, with gifts and ofi'erings, and worshiped the 
Jehovah of Hosts in His Holy Temple ; and many pious gentiles were among 
them. Here, although most wickedly imposed on and plundered by the ministers 
and rulers of the temple, they reanimated their hearts with the hope of Israel, 
and refreshed their minds with the instruction of God's House, and returned with 
whatever tidings they had to carry home. The birth and death of the babe of 
Bethlehem once filled them with consternation, and produced much discussion 
from the Indus to the Atlantic. At another of these feasts these pilgrims 
found Jerusalem all excitement over the voice in the wilderness of Judea, 
announcing the kingdom of God at hand. The Messiah had been baptized in 
the Jordan and acknowledged from Heaven. But where was He? None could 
tell. A meek and humble man comes to the Temple, enters the court of the 
gentiles, casts out the extortioners, removes the market, restores this court to 
the pious gentiles and unpurified Jews, and vindicates the honor, holiness, and 
beneficence of Jehovah and His worship. Ah ! The Jehovah whom they sought 
had come suddenly to His Temple. But He was like a refiner's fire, and like 
fuller's soap ; and the ministers and rulers of the Temple could not endure His 
visits. But the pilgrims from far and near hung around Him for instruction and 
healing. 

During three years these scenes were repeated ; and four Passovers and 
intervening feasts sent the glad tidings and thrilling news throughout all the 
known nations ; arid Jews, proselytes, and pious gentiles from all nations came 
up at the last Passover to sojourn at Jerusalem. Although His enemies had 
determined to kill Him, he rides triumphantly into Jerusalem, enters the Temple, 
and reigns in the House of God and over the Holy City ; dispenses His favors to 
the wretched, and instruction to inquirers, and overawes His foes. Having 
prepared messengers to carry the glad tidings to all nations. He delivered Him- 
self into the hands of His enemies in the absence of His friends, satisfies the 
last demands of justice, and brings in everlasting salvation. As the report of 
His murder spread through the city, crowds visited the scene, gazed on their 
crucified King, smote their breasts, and returned. Hope expires, and consterna- 
tion seizes the congregated millions. The first day of the week dawns, and with 
it comes the incredible news — the Lord is risen. 



THE mTERMEDIATE AGE. A. M. 4033 TO, PERHAPS, A. M. 6000; OR, 

A. D. 29 TO A. D. 1996. 

The intermediate age of the kingdom of God commenced with the ministry 
of John the Baptist, and Christ Himself finished up the preparatory age ; and, 
having all things ready for the kingdom to go forth with power. He ascended to 
Heaven and sat down on His throne, having all power and authority given to 
Him by the Father. The day of Pentecost arrives. Pious Jews and proselytes 
out of all nations were present. The gifts of the Holy Spirit were profusely 
bestowed upon the disciples. All Jews and proselytes present at the feast wit- 
nessed the event, and three thousand were added to the sect of the Nazarenes. 
Miraculous displays of divine power and energy continue. The number increase 
daily, and the pilgrims, returning home, carried the glad tidings to the distant 
— 62 



978 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

nations. Sojourners remained in Jeriisalena, having all things in common, till 
fully instructed in things pertaining to the kingdom; then, persecution by Saul 
dispersed them to their distant homes or into other nations. 

The Gospel had taken root in the synagogues of Damascus and other places, 
and Saul undertook to follow it with persecution, but was himself converted into 
a most devout disciple and active apostle. The privilege of adoption being now 
restricted to those born of God, inipious Jews were rejected and pious gentiles 
took their place in the kingdom of God. The lirst of these uncircumcised heirs 
was a Roman centurion. His piety was conspicuous to all; but it required a 
messenger from Heaven, a vision to Peter, a direct order to act without doubting, 
and the bestowment of the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit to induce the 
apostles to admit an uncircumcised child of God into His kingdom, and the par- 
ticipation of the blessings of Abraham and hope of Israel. The door — of faith 
in Jesus Christ — was now open to both Jews and gentiles ; and churches sprung 
up in all lands and nations; the apostles followed, and by imposition of their 
hands the Holy Spirit bestowed His supernatural endowments ; the nations 
witnessed the miracles and reformations, and multitudes entered the kingdom of 
God. These churches were the light of the world and the salt of the earth, and 
the foundation and pillar of truth ; and others, seeing the good fruits of the 
Gospel, glorified God and turned unto Christ. 

The First, or White Horse, Period. A. M. 4033-4329; A. D. 29-325.— 
When the first assemblies developed their true character and the happy fruits of 
their faith and practice, they were glorified by all spectators. The power of the 
Gospel, in transforming the worst of characters into holy and happy saints, was 
acknowledged by heathen writers and the boast of Christian apologists ; and its 
victories left the heathen gods in solitude, their shrines and votive ofi'erings 
without purchasers, and their temples were desolated. This first period of the 
intermediate age is most appositly represented in the first seal by the white horse 
and diademed rider with his bow, conquering wherever he went. The terms of 
citizenship, the pure teachings of Christ and the apostles, the wholesome disci- 
pline, the mutual love and confidence, and the free bestowments of the Holy 
Spirit, were adapted to produce this happy result. 

But the Red Dragon could not see his votaries deserting his temples, altars, 
and sacrifices without causing his wrath to be felt. Michael is a representative 
character, who attacked the dragon immediately after the young iron sceptered 
Prince was taken under the protection of the throne of God. I^ow, Polytheism 
is the worship of demons; at that age demons possessed and tormented people. 
Beelzebub, or Satan, was j^rince of the demons ; to cast out demons was to cast 
out Satan, and to cast down Polytheism, or demon worship, was to cast down 
Satan. The disciples exclaimed: " Even the demons are subject to us through 
Thy name." Christ replied: "I saw Saten fall like lightning from Heaven; and 
I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." Christ cast out demons, and 
by His name the disciples cast them out. After Christ's crucifixion, the war 
against demons and demon worship was carried on by His disciples and faithful 
witnesses till Polytheism, or demon worship, was cast out of the ecclesiastical, 
the popular, the conspicuous, and the political heaven in the great Roman 
empire, and believers out of all nations, as well as the Jews, had been drawn to 
the Lord Jesus Christ. Michael assailed the Red Dragon when Christ cast out 
demons, and now the churches shout and sing the triumphant song. 

And while Satan was the animating soul of Polytheism he had also wicked 
spirits occupying prominent positions in the heavenlies among the Jews, who did 
his bidding. These persecuted the pious who believed in Jesus, rejected and 
crucified Christ, and chose Caesar the highest priest of Polytheism, and thus 
brought themselves under the covenanted wrath of Jehovah. Having now full 
control of the Jewish nation, Satan irritated the Red Dragon to slaughter about 



RETROSPECT I INTERMEDIATE AGE. 979 

one-third of them, destroy Jerusalem and the temple in it, the temple on Mount 
Gerizim, and the one in Egypt; and the Herodians, the third ruling sect of the 
Jews, was lost in the Roman empire — the dragon's tail cast them into obscurity 
in the earth. Once more the world was without a temple dedicated to Jehovah; 
not an altar smokes with incense to Him, and not a sacrifice propitiates His favor; 
while hundreds of temples echo with praise to the Red Dragon, thousands of 
altars smoke with incense to him, and myriads bleed for his favor. The dragon 
might have boasted an ultimate triumph had not the demons been cast out of 
those possessed, and their worship fallen into contempt. But he stirs up princi- 
palities and powers ; he moves the mighty powers of Rome, Persia, and Sythia, 
with all their subordinate principalities ; he excites the kosmechrats of darkness, 
or Polytheistic priesthoods and philosophers; he exasperates the wicked spirits 
in the heavenlies, though in a state of dispersion, and waged most terrible perse- 
cution against the witnesses of Christ, or desperate • war against Michael and his 
host. But the martyrs were faithful ; the Red Dragon was cast out of the 
Roman empire, and his priests and subordinates were cast out with him. He 
knew his time was short with other empires. From the time Polytheism expired 
under tlie edicts of Theodosius till the Saracens began its exterpation, was about 
two hundred years. The devil was full of wrath against the recognized citizens, 
and tried to destroy the Roman empire by internal dissentions, and the dragon 
persecuted the Christians in Britain, among the Goths, the Persians, and others, 
and when and where Polytheists had the power. 

During this period changes began to be made in the government and teach- 
ings of the kingdom of God, which in time changed the whole appearance and 
character of it on the page of history. The fact and character of these changes 
were unknown and unsuspected till the Lamb of God opened the sealed book 
and showed the pictures. Christ foretold that Satan would sow tares in the king- 
dom of God, and that offenses would come. Paul told of a usurper sitting in 
the Temple of God; but, judging from his description, I would have supposed he 
had taken possession by force, as Antiochus Epiphanes. That he should have 
claimed a hereditary right and legitimate heirship to the throne, and imposed his 
claim upon the world so successfully, were sealed mysteries. During this period 
the fallen star, Amonius Saccas, opened the bottomless pit of heathen philosophy, 
which afterwards filled the whole ecclesiastical atmosphere with a smoke that 
darkened every source of divine light. Also, during this period began the sepa- 
ration of the true churches of Christ from the apostatizing and contaminated; and 
characteristics of the next period appear in this one. Opening a picture may 
give a sudden and entire presentation at once, and turning the leaf may close it 
as suddenly, and the leaves may separate them entirely; but the transpiring 
events commence imperceptibly, mature gradually, diminish and blend with 
what supersedes in the same manner. Hence, the exact division line can not be 
determined in relation to any foreshadowed events. 

^ Second, or Red Horse, Period. A. M. 4334-4634:; A. D. 330-630.— The 
spirit of contention and leadership began to develop itself in the preceding 
period ; but in this one it entirely superceded the pure, peaceable, and individ- 
ually-exerting spirit of the Gospel. The Arian, Nestorian, Monophysite, and 
other religious controversies, and striving for preeminent offices in the churches, 
took peace from the earth, or Roman empire. Churches were scenes of slaughter ; 
and wells in the yards overflowed with Christian blood, shed in mutual combat 
for doctrines and for favorite prelates. The civil government gave badges of 
leadership and swords for slaughter to prelates, who used them against one 
another with effect. 

During this period the Monotheistic antagonism to the kingdom of God 
fully developed itself. After the great Roman empire had been agitated like the 
stormy sea, the first Monotheistic empire on record emerged from the shattered 



980 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

ruins of Polytheism, occupied the throne of the Caesars, exercised the same 
authority over the persons and consciences of citizens and sojourners, and forced 
submission to decrees of synods and edicts of magistrates. This was Monothe- 
ism, acknowledging the Divine Scriptures and institutions, seated on the conspic- 
uous throne of the seventh head of Polytheism, and exercising all of its power 
and authority. Constantine persevered nearly forty years in the practice of 
Polytheism ; and the title, the ensigns, the prerogatives of sovereign pontiff, 
instituted by Numa and assumed by Augustus, were accepted without hesitation 
by seven Christian emperors, who were invested with a more absolute authority 
over the religion they had deserted than over that which they professed. Gratian 
was the first emperor who refused the pontifical robe. Theodosius extinguished 
Polytheism in the Roman empire A. D. 390-402. So rapid and yet so gentle 
was the fall of Polytheism that in twenty-eight years after the death of this 
emperor the faint and minute vestiges of it were no longer visible to the eye of 
the legislator, but pagan statesmen and officers in the army supported this Mono- 
theistic empire in the west till the Latin head expired ; multitudes, professing 
this empire, or state, Christianity, were pagans still, and many of the rites and 
ceremonies of this state church were received from Polytheism. Thus, Polythe- 
ism gave its throne, power, and authority to this Monotheistic empire. The 
titles worn upon all these imperial heads were impious or blasphemous, viewed 
from the Bible standpoint, and in their edicts and in the decrees of councils they 
blasphemed God and His true churches and His faithful witnesses who dwelt 
in these churches. 

When the Polytheistic Red Dragon delegated his prerogatives to the Mono- 
theistic wild beast it was understood that the beast would finish up the work of 
the dragon. When the dragon had wasted his last energies and devices against 
the woman herself, then the beast would wage war against that portion o*f her 
seed that kept the commandments of God and had the witness-bearing of Jesus 
Christ. During this period the true churches of Christ were driven into 
obscurity as heretics and schismatics, and in the wilderness alone could they be 
nourished. The faithful seed of the woman who kept the commandments of 
God and retained the witnessing for Jesus Christ were distinguished from the 
unfaithful, and a perpetual warfare was made upon them. The two, or prom- 
inent, witnesses of Christ began to constantly wear sackcloth in mourning for 
their murdered brethren ; but when these witnesses considered reformation 
hopeless, a^nd prayed God to spare the barren fig tree no longer, then destruction 
overtook their persecutors. With the double purpose of destroying the Mono- 
theistic empire and sweeping all Christian churches into destruction, the invisible 
Diaboles fomented discord and contention, and civil and religious wars in it; 
and the visible dragon sent a deluge of Polytheistic barbarians to destroy indis- 
criminately, and especially to sweep the churches into oblivion. Put the divisions 
in the Roman empire, or chasms in the Monotheistic world, swallowed up these 
barbarians, converting them into Monotheists; and before these fragments 
became consolidated under headships the true churches had been nourished in 
obscure places by dukes, barons, knights, and nobles, because they were good 
subjects and made their masters rich. 

Constantine subjugated all the churches to four patriarchs — that of Rome, 
Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria. The patriarch of Jerusalem was added 
after his day. These were the recognized heads of the Catholic, or state-churches. 
He also created the second head of this great Monotheistic empire, and called it 
New Rome. This was Constantinople, or city of Constantine, and became the 
head of the Greek, Eastern, or Byzantine, empire after the permanent division. 
This empire became united for the last time under Theodosius the Great ; after 
him its division, under its Latin and Greek heads, became permanent. This 
division was foreshadowed in the prophecies of Daniel, and the divisions come 
to different ends. The great king, or eastern empire, will be pushed by a 



RETR0S1*ECT t INl'ERMEDrATE AGE. 98 1 

soutliern and destroyed by a northern power. The beast with the ten and the 
little horns will remain till the judgment, and his body be given to the Hames. 
This especially designates the western, or Latin, empire. This Monotheistic empire 
decreed death to the true churches that refused to recognize the decrees, ordi- 
nances, and institutions of the empire or state church. Reformation was hopeless; 
Christ's witnesses sent up their prayers; the angel offered these prayers of the 
saints with incense upon the golden altar ; then filled the censer with fire and 
cast it into the empire, or earth ; discord, threatening aspects, and civil wars 
followed.. And the Monothestic world, or empire, was revolutionized by suc^ 
•cessive shocks, announced by seven trumpets and seven thunders. 

The first trumpet sounds, and the European third part of this Monotheistic 
empire is revolutionized by northern barbarians. The second trumpet sounds, 
and the African sea-coast and island third part is revolutionized by the Yandals* 
These barbarians adopted the Unitarian faith, and their civil policy and hostility 
to the empire Trinitarians induced them to protect the true churches persecuted 
by the state church empire. The western empire was subverted, the Latin head- 
ship was wounded to death, and the Roman senate transferred the imperial 
prerogatives to the Greek head. The arms of Justinian reconquered Africa and 
Italy to the Trinitarian faith and the Greek empire, received the allegiance of 
Spain, and acknowledged the Franks a legitimate part of the Roman empire and 
their king as a Roman consul. And thus, the Franks became the third head of 
the Monotheistic world, empire, or wild beast. 

The third trumpet sounded, and Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, who 
was of a bitter and persecuting spirit, undertook to eradicate heresy, and thus 
poisoned the fountains and streams of civil and ecclesiastical prosperity. Perse- 
cution alienated citizens from the church and empire ; they became dead to the 
interests of both, and exhausted the interests of both. 

The fourth trumpet sounded. The Avars and Persians environed Constan- 
tinople and threatened the annihilation of the Greek-Roman empire. The sun of 
empireship, eclipsed one-third by the risen Franks, sunk in the west without 
reflecting one ray of hope from that quarter. The ecclesiastical moon hung in 
the east, eclipsed one-third by the banished Nestorians and alienated Mono* 
physites, who aided the Persians. The sea coast towns and the islands — stars of 
the waters — still in the power of the empire, were also darkened one-third by 
religious and civil animosities. But, the treasures of the church and sword of 
Heraclius rolled off the darkness. The Avars and Persians were vanquished. 
The sun of empire arose once more upon the city of Constantine, and the state 
church reflected its light over Persia, Syria, Egypt, Eastern Europe, and Asia 
Minor. 

During this period we find one favorable consequence of having the seal of 
the Living God on the forehead, or in possessing and exhibiting conspicuously 
the true Christian principles and practices. Not united to the state church, but 
persecuted by it, the true Christians were tolerated, and even protected, by the 
enemies of the empire, while the Catholics and venerators of the state church 
were persecuted. This advantage appeared first in Persia, and afterward in 
Africa, under the Yandals. The motto of the true churches was : What has the 
emperor to do with the church ? What has the church to do with kings ? and, 
What have bishops to do at court ? 

The Third, or Black Horse, Period. A. M. 4634-5054 ; A. D, 630-1050=- 
420 Years. — The changes, disputes, and contentions of the preceding period 
deepened the aspect of the kingdom of God into black despondency, gloomy 
foreboding, and inevitable bondage under leaders armed with the sword. The 
weaker leaders became vassals to stronger ones, till at last nothing is seen in the 
hands of the guiding intelligence but the Mahometan or papal yoke imposing 
itself on all who acknowledge the One Only Living and True God and Jesus 
Christ to have been sent by Him, and the Sacred Scriptures to be a revelation 



982 THE KINGDOM OF GOB DETELOl»ED. 

from Him. The moving force and energy is inexorable despotism and blackness 
of character. The bold witnesses of Christ, who stood up against this immoral 
character and advancing despotism, are slaughtered without mercy; perpetual 
war is waged against the seed of the woman that keep the commandments of God 
and have the witness-bearing of Jesus Christ. All are reduced to tribute, slavery, 
or death, and in the wilderness alone can the true churches of Christ be nour- 
ished. Mahometanism ojffers the Koran, tribute, slavery, or death. Popery 
offers the papal yoke, or confiscation and death. None can have the rights and 
protection of citizens to buy and sell but those accepting this yoke. 

Still, the indefatigable missionaries furnish the bread of life in some way 
or other, and the shining graces and the reviving joys of the Spirit none can 
prevent or impair. Under the Greek head the seed of the woman, under the 
name of Paulicians, suffered cruel persecutions. As the Paulicians stand on the 
page of history they were reformers, who increased very rapidly and to a great 
extent. But, more plausibly, the reformation commenced by Constans having 
called public attention, many of the apostolic churches driven into obsurity were 
discovered or became bold, and were confounded and persecuted with them and 
under their name ; and thus, the woman became confounded with her seed. The 
woman represents the true apostolic churches driven into obscurity; but believers, 
begotten by the Word and Spirit of God, are her legitimate seed, though they may 
not have discovered every truth nor observed every institution of the kingdom. 
They reform according to the light they obtain. The Novatians and Donatists 
were apostolic churches by descent and schism, but the Paulicians were reformers. 
An apostolic church may have altered or lost the primitive faith and practice, 
and reformers may not have restored all of them ; therefore, both must be meas- 
ured by the Scriptures. 

During this period the ecclesiastical influence in this Monotheistic empire 
became a wild beast fully developed, having two horns fully grown, though 
apparently not very dangerous. But, as this second beast animates an image of 
the first beast and exercises all his authority, those lamb-like horns may be most 
destructive. He displays two modest powers, but uses the mouth, muscles, and 
horns of his image of the first beast. This ecclesiastical influence was manifested 
in the east by the power the patriarchs exercised over the Greek emperors and 
the part they took in the government. In the west, the Franks were indebted to 
the clergy for their rise to empire over other barbarians. Its power was divided 
into two horns — the Unitarian and Trinitarian, called at first Arian and Catholic. 
The Trinitarians defeated the Unitarians in the empire, but the Unitarians held 
the mastery for awhile by the barbarians. Being expelled from both the east and 
west empires, it became triumphant under the name of Mahometanism, while the 
Trinitarian born came to maturity in the pope. 

The Latin head was wounded to death by the barbarians and its prerogatives 
were conferred on the Greek head. The Greek became so enfeebled it could give 
no succor to the churches and provinces in the west, so the clergy obtained an 
influence among the barbarians, positions in their governments, and the patriarch 
of Rome acquired the headship of the clergy. Thrown upon his own resources, 
the pope consecrated his wealth and influence to restore in himself the Latin 
headship. Gregory I. was a great statesman and rebelled against the exarch of 
E-avenna, who was deputy to the Greek emperor. He supplied the wants of the 
citizens out of his own ample treasures, and taught his people to defend them- 
selves. Thus, Pome was raised from its degradation to the rank of a self-gov- 
erned city. The power of the popes increased, and after the loss of her legions 
and provinces, the genius and fortunes of the popes again restored the supremacy 
of Rome. In the time of Gregory II. the Greek emperor found the Latin head 
was recovered in the person of the pope. Gregory declares the pope to be the 
bond of union between the east and the west, and able to concentrate the western 
tribes against the emperor, whom he threatens imperiously. This was not idle 



R15TR0SPECT : INTERMEDIATE AGfi. 98^ 

boasting, for, concentrating forces, the pope defeated the emperor's army. Again, 
Leo ly., failing to obtain help from tlie Franks against the Saracens, concentrated 
forces and defeated the invaders. 

Thus, we see the Latin headship was recovered to Rome some time between 
Gregory L, A. D. 604, and Gregory II., A. D. 728. The fragments of the 
western empire concentrated into ten powers — the Franks, Alemani, Amoricans, 
Biirgundians, Yis-Goths, Yandals, Ostrogoths, Heruli, Lombards, and the Saxons. 
These were afterwards subverted or absorbed by the popedom, Franks, Saracens, 
and Saxons in England. 

Mahometan ism was the little horn of Daniel's prophecy which grew out of 
the Egyptian horn of the Macedonian empire. Ptolemy Urgetes conquered the 
western coast of Arabia, where Islamism arose, and added it to his dominions. 
Mahomet might be called a Unitarian Christian. He acknowledged Jehovah to 
be the only Living and True God ; the patriarchs and prophets to be His mes- 
sengers, and their writings to be His word, or a revelation from Him; acknowl- 
edged Jesus Christ to be the greatest of them all; but denied His divinity: and 
Islamism was made up from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, legends, and 
philosophy. He maintained that a later apostle of God could alter or abrogate 
the laws and institutions of all before Him, and hence Christ had the right to 
alter or abrogate the laws and institutions of Moses; and as Mahomet came after 
Christ he had the right to alter or abrogate the Christian laws and institutions. 
He said Christ would condemn the Jews for not acknowledging him to be an 
apostle of God, and he would condemn the Christians for worshiping Him as the 
Son of God. He exalted himself above all the patriarchs and prophets and all 
the stars in the kingdom of God ; and he exalted himself above Christ, the Prince 
of all these heavenly hosts, when he professed to have received superior honors 
in Heaven, and when he altered and abrogated His laws and institutions on earth. 
He took away the true daily worship, or rendered it impossible and unlawful in 
the Temple, when the Calif Omar consecrated the site of the Temple on Mount 
Zion for the mosque of Omar, and he subjected all true worshipers of God to 
tribute and to pay for access to the sacred places in Jerusalem; and he waxed 
great to the south seas and Egypt, and east to the Ganges, and west to the 
Adriatic, over the land of desire, as it is represented in history. 

Mahomet preached his Unitarian religion for a time without success ; so he 
concluded he must have a perfect image of civil government, animated and con- 
trolled by himself, or the calif, who was the spiritual head of Mahometanism — 
or the Unitarian horn of Monotheistic revealed religion. Having established a 
civil government and consecrated military lieutenants of the faithful, he con- 
quered all around him, and spread the Unitarian religion in all directions by the 
sword of the Saracens. Everything was favorable for success ; empires had 
become distracted and weak, and the smoke out of the bottomless pit of heathen 
philosophy, mixed with Scripture truths, and with Jewish Christian and heathen 
legends, had filled the whole religious atmosphere and obscured every source of 
divine light. 

At last the fifth trumpet sounded, and through this smoke issued swarms of 
Saracens with their religion out of the bottomless pit. Mahomet, the messenger 
of the abyss of philosophy, revelation, and fiction, was their king, and his caliphs 
blessed and gave them their commission; and he has proved himself to be the 
destroyer. These Arabian locusts destroyed with lion teeth, bearing lofty and 
defiant heads and invulnerable breasts, and exhibited an attribute of women. 
They were notorious polygamists, and propagated it wherever they conquered 
Christians or pagans; and whole regiments of women fought in battle and some- 
times secured the victory. They exterminated Polytheism from the Atlantic to 
the Indus, and their successors broke its power to the Ganges. Their after policy 
was painful and degrading; however, those whose genuine Christian character was 
conspicuous, and paid tribute, escaped their first ravages, but may have suffered 



984 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the pernicious effects of their policy. The Saracens became the fourth head of 
the great Monothestic antagonism to the kingdom of God. The patriarchs of 
Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria — the Nestorians and Monophisites — pur- 
chased their offices, privileges, and prerogatives from them, and depended on 
the Saracens to enforce their authority. The lieutenant of the caliph was the Caesar 
of the east and of Africa. The woes accompanying this trumpet were savage 
invasions, civil wars in Europe, and the rise and conquests of the Turks in Asia. 

Popery was the little horn of Daniel that arose out of the ten fragments of 
what was the Roman power before it began to conquer and tramp down the 
Greek, or Macedonian, empire. Of these ten fragments, three were subverted 
and eradicated to make room for the papal power. The Heruli terminated the 
Latin headship and pretended to govern Rome and Italy in the name of the Greek 
emperor. Being intractable, this horn, or power, was conquered by the Ostro- 
goths in the name of the Greek head. Being unmanageable, this Gothic horn 
was vanquished by the armies of Justinian ; and Rome and Italy were governed 
by the exarchs of Ravenna. These exarchs were not a power, but only deputies 
of the Greek emperors. Rome was now but a third-rate city, full of wretchedness 
and woe. Pope Gregory I., by favor with the emperor and resistance to the 
exarchs, obtained the independence of Rome, relieved its miseries, and raised it 
to a first-class city. But the Lombards encroached, conquered the exarchs of 
Ravenna, oppressed Italy, and threatened Rome. The Greek emperor could 
give no relief, but advised the pope to obtain help from the Franks. 

After the pope repulsed the forces of the emperor himself in the war about 
images, he, by his ecclesiastical influence and forged letters from St. Peter, 
brought the Franks to his deliverance. The Lombards were vanquished, and 
Pepin and Charles the Great gave the possessions wrested from the exarchs by 
the Lombards, and great treasures, to the pope. Thus, three of the horns, or 
powers, out of the fragments of the old Roman power — the Heruli, Ostrogoths, 
and the Lombards — were uprooted to establish the papal power ; and the pope, 
now the resuscitated Latin head, conferred the title, Patrician and Consul, upon 
his deliverers. Thus, the pope, with all his ghostly power, influence, and eccles- 
iastical authority, found his need of a civil government; but a government 
superior to himself or his ecclesiastical councils, such as Constantine established 
in Rome, and still continued in Constantinople, did not suit his Latin headship. 
With the full understanding of the prerogatives and possessions of the pope, 
Charlemagne was crowned by the pope as Charles Augustus, crowned of God 
emperor of all the Romans, successor of Constantine, of Csesar Octavianus — and 
was acknowledged by all enemies to the Greek church and empire as the western 
emperor and the official head of Christendom. Thus, the Frank, or third head 
of the great Monotheistic wild beast, was converted into an image of civil sover- 
eignty, animated by the pope. 

This Frank empire was originated by the ecclesiastical power and influence, 
when the titles. Eldest Son of the Church, Anointed of the Lord, King by the Grace 
of God, was conferred on Clovis ; it was nourished by the Trinitarian clergy and 
strengthened against the Unitarian fragments of the Roman power, and was 
acknowledged by Justinian, the Greek emperor. The Merovingian dynasty of 
monarchs were deposed, by the pope and the Carlovingian dynasty crowned 
emperors of Rome, and the first head of the third wild beast, or holy Roman 
empire. All Christians were commanded to worship or venerate it, or be excom- 
municated and handed over to it to be put to death. In the days of Charlemagne 
it showed signs of a genuine civil sovereignty; but in the days of his sons, and 
afterward, the pope was manifestly the uniting, animating, and controlling spirit, 
while it was only an image of the Constantine civil sovereignty. The second, or 
religious, wild beast now rules most of the Monotheistic world through an image 
oi Monotheistic civil sovereignty ; its Unitarian horn animates and controls the 



RETROSPECT : INTERMEDIATE AGE. 985 

Saracen head, and its Trinitarian horn animates and controls the Frank head; 
and the Greek head of the Monotheistic civil sovereignty is wedged in between 
these two image headships in the north side of the Monotheistic world. 

The Frank empire became dismembered, and the pope and clergy became 
the surest protectors of person and property. The pope, the renovated Latin 
head, invited Otho, of Saxony, king of Germany, to become emperor of Rome, 
and crowned him at Rome, A. 1). 962. Bj contract between Otho and the pope 
the German emperors were constituted kings of Italy and emperors of Rome, 
but must be crowned at Milan, by the archbishop, with the iron crown of Italy, 
and at Rome by the pope, with the gold crown of the Roman empire. Britain, 
France, and Spain never belonged to the German empire, its empireship 
over the holy Roman empire was only an image of supreme sovereignty, and the 
pope was the real Latin head. The German empire was the Hfth head of the 
great Monotheistic wild beast. 

The Fourth, or Pale Horse, Period. A. M. 5054-5652; A. D. 1050-1648 
=^598 Years. — Although the sword of Monotheism in the hands of Unitarians 
and Trinitarians had exterminated Polytheism in Western Asia, Northern Africa, 
and in most of Europe, yet the name of the Living and True God, the Holy 
Spirit, and of Jesus Christ, were disgraced with the most gangrene corruptions in 
morals, the most fiendish cruelties and wholesale slaughters under which the 
world groaned. The Unitarian Turks, in the name of the One Only Living and 
True God, were turning whole countries into desolated ruins, and brutalizing the 
Christians in Asia, Eastern Europe, and J^orth Africa. The papal Trinitarians, 
sunk into the lowest debaucheries and debasing licentiousness, were destroying in 
the name of the Holy Trinity both heretics and true Christians by wrecks and 
tortures, by tire and sword, and depopulating whole districts, cities, and villages. 
And both were destroying one another in crusades, invasions, and repulsions, 
with a barbarity unsurpassed by any pagan nations. Everything holy was pol- 
luted with crime and dyed with blood. 

During this period the woe attending the fifth trumpet prepared the way for 
the sounding of the sixth. The Saracen empire had become divided, and 
Mahomet was represented by three caliphs, or vicars, of which the Abbassadees 
were the most powerful, and, of course, the most orthodox. Their lieutenants 
had become enfeebled by luxury; insurrection and rebellion had destroyed the 
authority of the caliphs, and the Greek emperors had reconquered Asia Minor, 
Armenia, Antioch, and islands. The Turkish soldiers had usurped the authority 
of the Saracen rulers, but maintained the Mahometan religion. These were 
joined by immigrations of wild tribes of Turks, or Tartars, who embraced the 
same religion and extended it to the Ganges in India. The sultan, Togrul Bq^, 
vanquished the Bowedies of Persia, and obtained from the caliph of Bagdad the 
title, Temporal Lieutenant of the Yicar of the Prophet, and the Turkish empire 
became the sixth head of the Monotheistic antagonism to the kingdom of God. 

Myriads of Turkish horsemen spread over a frontier of six hundred miles, 
and one hundred and thirty thousand Christians of the Greek empire were 
slaughtered. These conquests were rolled back by the Greek emperor, but 
were repeated by Alp-Arsland. Armenia and Georgia were subjugated; Islam- 
ism, death, indignity, and slavery were imposed on the survivors ; the Asiatic 
provinces of Rome were irretrievably lost from the Bosphorus and Hellespont to 
the Euphrates. When Malek Shah became sultan, and the sacred title. Com- 
mander of the Faithful, was conferred on him by the caliph, his preeminence was 
disputed by another branch of the house of Seljuk. The two armies, ready for 
action, awaited the signal, when the caliph interposed his mediation, and said: 
"Instead of shedding the blood of your brethren in descent and faith, unite 
your forces in a holy war against the Greeks, the enemies to God and His 
apostle." They listened to his voice; the sultan embraced his rebellious 



986 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

• 

kinsmen; the eldest of them, tlie valiant Solyman, accepted the royal standard, 
which gave him the free conquest and hereditary command of the provinces of 
the Koman empire from Arzerom to Constantinople, and the unknown regions 
of the west. Thus, we find the last third of the Koman empire is devoted to 
destruction by the Turkish empire of Malek Shah, which extended from China 
to the neighborhood of Constantinople, and from the Georgian mountains to the 
Arabia Felix, the sixth head of the Monotheistic wild beast. 

The prophecies of Daniel make but a little book ; and at this time it was 
open to the instructed servants of Christ. In these they could read the rise and 
position of the present powers, and form a certain conclusion about their future; 
and the passing events, like a messenger with a voice of many waters, called the 
attention of all who regard Christ as having all control of land and sea. But 
when about to read the past and learn the future in the little book, eleven thun- 
ders announced some events about to transpire which were not particularized in 
any Old Testament programme. Seven crusades burst upon the Monotheistic 
world like tliunder, spread destruction in their course, and rolled away without 
altering or affecting the programmes given in the little book. 

The greatness and union of the Turkish empire expired in the person of 
Malek Shah. His vacant throne was disputed by his brother and four sons, and 
the result was a confirmed and lasting separation of his empire into four divisions: 
Kerman, Persia, Syria (including Aleppo and Damascus), and Roum (including 
Asia Minor and what was designed to be conquered farther west). While these 
divisions and wars were transpiring, the first thunder shook the whole west, and 
myriads of papal Trinitarians were avalanched upon the Mahometan Unitarians. 
The fiood rolled around Constantinople and rushed upon Asia Minor. The undis- 
ciplined rabble fell an easy prey to the sword of the valiant Solyman, and the 
piles of their bones showed their fate to their followers. But disciplined war- 
riors under able commanders followed, defeated Solyman, and overflowed his 
dominions. Solyman fled to his kindred on the Euphrates ; but here the veterans 
of Malek Shah had wasted themselves in the civil wars of his sons. His undis- 
ciplined recruits were defeated ; Syria was conquered, and Jerusalem captured. 
Those provinces of Asia Minor captured from Solyman were restored to the 
Greeks, the islands and seacoasts were recovered by them, and the kingdoms of 
Armenia and Jerusalem, formed and governed by the Latins, bound to the 
four divisions of the Turkish empire which had decreed the extirpation of the 
last third of the Roman empire. After the loss of Jerusalem, Bagdad mourned 
in the dust: the cadhi of Damascus tore his beard in the caliph's presence, and 
the whole divan shed tears at his melancholy tale. But the caliphs could only 
weep ; the Seljukian sultans, through discord, degeneracy, and decay, were 
unequal to the defense of their religion, and their appointment by the caliph to 
destroy the Greek empire appeared to be in vain. 

Just now the sixth trumpet sounds; the attention of Christ's servants is called 
to the Euphrates ; they hear the command to loose the four messengers bound 
on the Euphrates, who had been prepared to extirpate the last third of the 
Roman empire. The time in which this was to have been accomplished was 
three hundred and ninety-six years. Now, the subjugation of Armenia and 
Georgia by Alph-Arsland, and the degrading enslavement of the Christians, is 
placed by Gibbon in A. D. 1065-1068, and the capitulation of Trebizond, the 
last remnant of the Greek-Roman empire, in A. D. 1461. 

While sultans were sunk in the luxuries of the harem, their slaves and sub- 
alterns, called atabeks, undertook the unbinding of the Turkish powers, now 
divided into four divisions. Zenghi proved his first arms against the Franks in 
the defeat of Antioch. Thirty campaigns in the service of the caliph and sultan 
established his military fame, and he was invested with the command of Mosul, 
as the only champion that could avenge the cause of the prophet. He stormed 
the city of Edessa, and recovered from the Franks their conquests beyond the 



RETEOSPEOT I INTERMEDIATE AGE. 987 

Euphrates. His son, Noureddin, gradually united the Mahometan powers, added 
the kingdom of Damascus to that of Aleppo, waged long and successful war against 
the Christians of Syria, and spread his ample domain from the Tigris to the Nile. 
The caliphs rewarded him with the titles and prerogatives of royalty, and he 
brought Egypt from under the Fatimite caliphs to the Abbassidees. Saladin, the 
Curd, became grand vizier, then had conferred on him by the caliph every title 
that could sanctify his usurpation in the eyes of the people. He despoiled the 
Christians of Jerusalem, and the Atabeksof Damascus, Aleppo, and Diarbekir; 
extended his empire from African Tripoli to the Tigris, and from the Indian 
ocean to the mountains of Armenia. Thus, the Turkish power was restored by 
usurpers of power consecrated by the caliph, or vicar of Mahomet, and the cords 
that bound it in the Euphrates were dissolved; Mahometanism became great, not 
by its own power or influence, but by the power of Saracens, Turks, Courds, 
and Moguls. 

A second and third peal of thunder brought the Latin Trinitarians upon the 
Unitarian Turks and produced destruction and carnage, which showed they did 
not belong to the King of Peace. Richard of England and Saladin made a treaty, 
but both the pope and the caliph, the animating spirits of the image heads of the 
wild beast, disapproved of the agreements. The fourth thunder called Christ's 
servants to behold the Latin Christians turn their crusade from the Turks to 
invade the Greek Christians, capture and despoil the city of Constantine, abuse 
and murder the unresisting and inofi*ensive citizens, establish a Latin kingdom, 
and necessitate the Greeks to establish their seat of government at IS ice, which 
bad been Solyman's capitol. Although the Latin kingdom declined and the 
Greeks recovered Constantinople, yet the city of Constantine never recovered its 
strength, riches, and glory. Such were some of the acts of the holy Roman 
empire which were animated by the pope. Seven crusades spent their force, 
spread death and destruction from Rome to Jerusalem, and left things without 
change, and the Turks went on with their design and destroyed the Greek empire 
within the appointed time. 

The thunders having expired, we can now hear the angel speak and read his 
little books. He assures Christ's servants that the time for the wicked to reign 
and devastate the earth shall not be extended beyond the sounding of the seventh 
trumpet, and when it begins to sound the mysteries of God foretold by the 
prophets shall be fulfilled. The little book shows Mahometanism and popery 
fully developed, the Turks approaching to destroy the great King, and everything 
transpiring and drawing to a close according to the divine programme. Parts 
of the woe accompanying the sixth trumpet have transpired. The savage 
hordes of Carizmians rolled headlong on Syria, and Franks, Turks, and Saracens 
were cut to pieces or dragged into captivity. The Moguls, like one devastating 
flood, swept over China, Carizme, Transoxiana, Persia, Aleppo, Damascus, 
Anatolia, Kipzak, Russia, Poland, and Hungary. Blood and carnage, ruin and 
desolation marked their invasions. But the Mamalukes turned the Moguls from 
Egypt. Their vast empire divided, became Mahometans, and declined ; and the 
Turks resumed the headship of Mahometanism under the Ottoman dynasty. The 
caliph of Bagdad was murdered by the Moguls, and, after a time, the Ottoman 
sultan united in himself the sultan and the caliph — vicar of the prophet and lieu- 
tenant of the faithful. Though he never united the Mahometan world in one 
empire, he was acknowledged the head of their religion, and so continues to this 
day. Under Tamerlane another devastating flood swept over Persia, Turkistan, 
Kipzak, Russia, Hindoostan, Syria, Anatolia, and defeated the Turkish sultan, 
Bajazet. Timour and orientals styled the Ottoman sultan the "Csesar of Roum," 
or Rome, and the Ottoman empire, the "frontier and bulwark of the Moslem 
world." Timour, or Tamerlane, was accustomed to require seventy thousand 
human heads, which he builded into columns and pyramids. The woe attending 
this trumpet would not end here, but, after the fall of Constantinople, afllicted 



988 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

Europe in wars with the Turks, and will not end till after the resurrection of the 
two witnesses slaughtered bj the wild beast out of the bottomless pit. Timour 
was a zealous Moslem, but slaughtered Mahometans and Christians. His vast 
empire evaporated at his death. The Ottoman empire recovered from his blow, 
and became the terror of the west. 

The movements of the Turks against the Greek empire were like whirlwinds. 
At the last three hundred ships were employed, and fire, smoke, and brimstone, 
or ignited gun powder, completed the destruction. Syria and Egypt were con- 
quered from the Mamalukes, and the Ottoman empire was mapped out, as Daniel 
foretold. The Greek empire being subverted, the Turkish and German heads of 
the image of civil sovereignty, animated by Mahometanism and popery, ruled 
from the Atlantic to the Ganges, and genuine Monotheistic civil sovereignty, 
ruling church and state, is hidden in the inaccessible north. The patriarchs of 
Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem were governed by the 
authority of the Ottoman sultan, and the Nestorians and other Christians by the 
Mahometan rulers over them. 

Turning to the west, we find the pope has become stronger than any of the 
divisions of the Latin empire. The Mahometans bounded him on the south and 
east. Russia, on the north, rejects his authority, but he plays the despot for a 
time with emperors, kings, and dukes. Never did the caliphs exercise more 
authority over the Mahometan lieutenants, or sultans, than the popes exercised 
over the papal rulers of the holy Roman empire, and he showed himself to be 
the uniting, animating, and controlling power in this image of civil sovereignty. 
Having now all the divisions of the old Latin empire united into one, he was 
prepared to persecute the woman nourished in the wilderness, and to make war 
with her seed who kept the commandments of God and had the witness-bearing 
of Jesus Christ, and to slay the witnesses wherever found. The pope now con- 
trolled about one-fourth of the Monotheistic world, and filled it with crimes and 
cruelties. The Paulicians slaughtered, persecuted, and expatriated by the Greek 
empire, dispersed themselves through the west; but they found this papal horn of 
the second wild beast had the voice of the dragon and exercised all the power of 
the first beast. They might as well, or better, have staid under the Unitarian 
horn. But, all daring to witness against popery or Mahometanism found torture 
and slaughter awaited them in all parts of the Monotheistic world, and they were 
alwaj^s clothed in sackcloth. The seed of the woman, whether those venturing 
out of the obscurities of the wilderness, or those begotten by the word and Spirit 
of God, were overtaken by war in every country. Arnoldists, Petrobrusians, 
Henricians, Hussites, and others, were slaughtered or dispersed. The woman her- 
self was discovered in some of her lurking-places in the wilderness, and the Wal- 
denses and Albigenses were exterminated or dispersed. 

These dreadful persecutions discovered to the servants of Christ that the 
Lamb was standing on Mount Zion with His one hundred and forty-four thousand 
avowed and faithful soldiers. Understanding the times and situation, these could 
sing the new song of new victories in the flames of persecution, but none others 
could sing or even learn it in times so corrupt and cruel. But these, the choice 
fruits of Christianity, had always followed the Lamb and were versed in the 
promises and prophecies, and being always acceptable to God, they had peace in 
Christ and boldness in the raging conflict. They had overcome the Red Dragon 
by confiding in the blood of Christ and by the word of God, which they used 
freely, and by the witnessing for Jesus; and then they sung of victory. Now 
they were about to vanquish the wild beast by the same means and generate a 
great reformation, and now they sing a new song in the prospect of a new victory. 

When the martyrs stood firm in the pagan persecutions their brethren 
rejoiced and triumphed ; but, if they renounced Christ, the Christians were 
dejected. The witnesses having stood firm and achieved, in suff'ering and disper- 
sion, the victory over the beast and his image, and the number of his name, 



RETROSPECT I INTERMEDIATE AGE. 989 

stood on a glassy pa\^ement, having harps of God, and sung their new songs that 
none others could either sing, learn, nor understand. It was the song of Moses, 
who taught the existence of only One Living and True God, and the song of the 
Lamb, who taught and effected the way of reconciliation with Him; and it gave 
exclusive wsrship to Him, the only Holy One; boasted the subjection of all 
nations to Him, and announced His judgments to be in sight, or then manifested. 
The martyrs triumph by suffering, and then the judgments of God on their per- 
secutors will give them the triumph. Now appear the angels to inflict the seven 
last plagues, which will finish God's wrath on the dragon, beast, and false prophet. 

The first plague inflicted on those who worshiped the beast or his image, 
was schism. Mutual jealousies of the nations prevented cooperation in defense 
and aggression, and a firm and independent difference in the principles and prac- 
tices of religion alienated, divided, and destroyed all unity among both Mahom- 
etan and papal Monotheists. The second vial turned the papal sea into blood by 
civil and religious wars, and wars with the Turks, and every vital element and 
energy of the papal empire finaly perished. The messengers proclaiming the 
fear and worship of God alone, and not the fear and worship of the beast or his 
image, came out of their secret places and took stations as conspicuous as mid- 
heaven, and spoke so loud that princes and prelates could not help but hear them. 
This great, extensive, and successful reformation was a result of the firm stand 
taken by the Lamb's one hundred and forty-four thousand bold confessors when 
the beast's power was unlimited. 

During this period the richly attired woman, drunken with the blood of the 
saints, and her scarlet wild beast covered with blasphemous titles, were fully and 
clearly identified. The woman is the papal church ; her beast is the holy Roman 
empire; the heads of this empire are dynasties — the Carlovingian, first; Saxon, 
second; Franconian, third; Swabian, fourth; Luxembourg, fifth; Austrian, 
sixth ; Bonaparte, seventh. Five had fallen. The Austrian was the head when 
seen by John — the time of the Reformation. The Bonaparte destroyed the German 
empire and forced itself into the headship, but continued a very short time. 
Nothing now remains of this beast but ten independent sovereignties — England, 
France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Denmark, and 
Sweden. Holland and Belgium are dependent and may be absorbed. But, this 
beast must have an eighth head, which will be the beast that once existed, and at 
this time did not exist. It cometh out of the bottomless pit, and goeth into per- 
dition after the battle in Megiddon. The holy Roman empire, like the Mahom- 
etan, was only an image of the first development of the Monotheistic empire. 
The Greek head had guided the genuine Monotheistic civil sovereignty for one 
thousand years ; but, being destroyed by the Turks in A. D, 1461, Monotheistic 
civil sovereignty did not exist unless in a bottomless pit or hopeless prison, 
guarded by Mahometanism and popery. 

When Constantinople was in extreme danger, the emperor, who was the 
head of church and state, in hope of aid from the west, delegated his headship 
to the pope and became a penitent son of the papal church. Thus, the civil 
headship expired, leaving the crown in the hands of the second, or ecclesiastical, 
beast. This was the act of the emperor and leading clergy of Constantinople, 
and was condemned by a secluded monk, and was rejected by the patriarchs 
under Turkish government. But Russia maintained the Greek church, rejected 
the Latin, and spurned subjugation to pope or caliph. On the fall of Constanti- 
nople, the original Greek church might be said to have been transplanted to 
Russia. After some time the bishop of Rostow was created a patriarch, by the 
four patriarchs under the Turks, in the room of the patriarch of Rome who had 
apostatized by becoming pope. The Greek church never usurped control over 
civil sovereignty, but acknowledged the civil sovereign to be the head of the 
church as Constantino had established it at the first. The Russian monarch was 



990 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED 

the acknowledged legitimate head of the whole Greek church and its five patri- 
archs. Thus, away up in the impenetrable north, which fancy had peopled with 
monsters or clouded with eternal darkness, the genuine first beast found a place 
to recruit under his seventh, or Russian, head. This retreat was not regarded by 
the image heads with any apprehension for the future. It might be considered 
as a sure prison, a bottomless pit, and was guarded on the south by victorious 
Turks and valorous German heads ; and to this day both have combined to keep 
Russia in the north as a wild beast in a deep pit. 

The great Monotheistic wild beast is now, A. D. 1640, fully developed, and 
the crowns are evidently on the horns; and now is the time to count them. In 
the Mahometan empire are five independent powers: the Mogul (Afgan, or 
Indian empire), the Persian, the Ottoman, Arabia, and North Africa; the king- 
dom of Cordova, in Spain, has ceased to be a power. Of these, the Ottoman 
sultan and empire are reckoned the head of the Moslem faith. In the papal, or 
holy Roman empire, the civil sovereignty began to show something more than 
an image, and the Emperor Sigismond convened a council at Constans to reform 
the clergy and limit the power of the popes. Though Pope Eugene . sent the 
whole council to the devil, it showed the bones and muscles and head of the 
image had been transforming into a genuine civil sovereignty; and in con- 
demning Huss and Jerome to the flames it showed its identity in body with the 
first wild beast. In this council — the best images of the first beast in the west we 
have met — we find but five horns recognized as having right to representation. 
At first, France, Spain, Italy, and Germany claimed the sole right to represen- 
tation ; but England alleged that Constantine, the founder of the empire, was a 
Britton, and by facts and fiction made good her claim. Of these, the German 
emperor and empire were the nominal head of the holy Roman empire; but these 
five horns had the power and wore the crowns. These ten horns may be the 
toes of JS^ebuchadnezzar's image of nationalities. From this time the civil powers 
began to act independently and gained the power. 

At the Reformation the Protestants adopted state-churches ; the Lutherans, 
like the Greek church, acknowledged the civil sovereign to be the head of the 
church; Calvin, more like popery, claimed the independence of the church, but 
the obligation of the magistrate to enforce its decisions. But all the European 
states, papal and Protestant, are now exercising a civil authority over the churches, 
and are thus becoming reformed into the genuine first beast. Now, considering 
the relation of Russia to the Greek church under the Turks, and the tendency of 
the European horns of the holy Roman empire to the Constantine model, the 
ten horns of the third beast might give their power to Russia for a short time to 
destroy Turkey and popery, and thus restore the Constantine wild beast out of 
his hopeless prison; then it might slay the two witnesses and go into perdition. 
This would be the eighth head of the holy Roman empire, and all the world 
would wonder after it: The Restored Constantine Empire! 

The Fifth, or Free and White-Robed Period. A. M. 5652-6000 ; A. D. 
1648-1996 = 348 Years., Perhaps Sooner. — The result of the black and pale 
horse periods are now manifested and recorded on the page of history ; the saints 
have been wasted by terrible slaughters. But the power of the Man of Sin is evi- 
dently broken now; the saints dare now call for vengeance, and have good reason 
to expect it, too. The peace of Westphalia secured independence of thought 
and speech to the Protestants, but the same privileges were not accorded to all 
witnesses for all truths till some time after, and was obtained by degrees in dif- 
ferent countries at different times. However, they discover evidence that more 
of them must witness into death before that day of promised vengeance. This 
future slaughter of them may be the slaughter of the two witnesses by the beast 
out of the bottomless pit, when he becomes the eighth head of the holy Roman 
empire. But, for the present, their condition is comfortable. They rest from 



RETROSPECT : INTERMEDIATE AGE. 991 

persecution, wear white robes with safety, speak openly, and with the principles 
of truth and freedom torment the worshipers of the beast and his image, or the 
recognized citizens of his empire. Now, the missionary angel will fly in mid- 
Heaven, and with a loud voice preach the fear and worship of Jehovah alone to 
every nation and tribe on the earth. The worship of false gods and of the beast 
and his image, condemned privately by the witnesses, shall be openly con- 
demned in every language under the heavens, as the angel announced ; but the 
whole truth of the kingdom may not be preached by every missionary. The 
investigating and observing angels also fly as conspicuously, and proclaim as 
loudly, the fall of popery and Mahometanism, and expose their great abomina- 
tions and wickedness. 

During this period the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth vials of God's wrath are 
poured out. The third turns all the tributaries of the holy Roman empire into 
blood, by the wars of successions and the French revolution; so the sea can not be 
healed, and its restoration is- rendered impossible. The fourth scorched the 
princes, nobles, and clergy, with that imperial power they so much desired and 
venerated. The emperor of Russia, the emperor of France, and the government 
of England played the tyrant, and the men of church and state were scorched by 
it. The fifth filled the political and ecclesiastical thrones of the third beast with 
darkness, and princes and parliaments had to make concessions to the people. 
The king of France, the pope, and the emperor of Austria fled from their 
thrones ; and no doubt they bit their lips and tongues in anguish, swore some 
hard oaths, and uttered some impious expressions, for many of them were persons 
of such characters. Whether Yienna, or Paris, was the political throne of the 
beast at that time, might be disputed, but both were deserted. This vial may not 
be exhausted yet; communism, socialism, and nihilism may make princes, nobles, 
and clergy gnaw their tongues and blaspheme worse than ever. The term, throne, 
in the singular may denote the thrones of the beast, which are yet in darkness 
and uncertainty. The sixth dries up the Turkish power, and prepares the way 
for the kings of the east to meet those of the west on fields of Megiddon in the 
great battle of God Almighty. 

At this time was discovered three unclean, or unlawful, frog spirits peram- 
bulating the whole world, and instigating all nations to the great battle of God 
Almighty. These spirits came out of the teachings of the dragon, beast, and 
false prophet. The spirit of Polytheism denies the Jehovah God, rejects His 
religion and revelation, and embraces every system of hostility to virtue and true 
religion. It can adapt itself to any kind of government — but prefers monarchy. 
The beast and false prophet, controlling all monarchies west of China and north 
of African Polytheism, necessitated it to identify itself with republicanism in 
France, and perhaps throughout Europe. The pope and caliph are still the 
points of the two horns of the false prophet ; and the spirit out of his mouth 
demands that all governments should be under his control, maintain his authority, 
and do his bidding, while he exercises an independent and sovereign control 
over all religions, and no reformations of either. The spirit out of the mouth of 
the beast claims an absolute sovereignty over church and state, in the hands of 
a civil monarch who forces his edicts with the sword and demands reason and 
conscience to yield obedience or sufler confiscation, punishment and death. The 
center and hope of this spirit is in Russia, and all the Greek churches, JSTestori- 
ans and Monophysites, have recognized this right in the civil sovereign ; and 
the state churches of Europe will receive it. They now acknowledge the civil sov- 
ereign to be the head of the church. These spirits have had many wars for the 
supremacy, and will have more; but they will all unite against Christ in the 
battle of Armageddon. Russia now occupies the attitude of the man on the white 
cloud watching his harvest field, and statesmen, pope, and caliph see him and 
expect an onset; and every time he sends his sickle some reaping is done ; and 



992 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

the Euphrates recedes from the north and west shores, and now Egypt is in the 
hands of England. The spirit out of the mouth of the false prophet will be sub- 
dued by the beast and the ten horns. The dragon spirit will bring on the last 
and greatest battle. The Lamb will vanquish all of them. 

The Sixth Period^ or Wrath of Alviighty God Period. — This will be a 
period of revolutions, invasions, subversions, uprootings, annihilations, radical 
and permanent changes, terminating in the perpetual power and happiness of the 
next, or consummated, age. The witnesses arise, great revolutions follow, and 
the second woe expires. The great city called Sodom, and Egypt, becomes 
divided; the tenth part, perhaps the Ottoman empire, falls with great slaugh- 
ter; the rest of, perhaps, the Monotheistic world, become frightened and 
give glory to God. The sixth seal becomes historically verified, and compre- 
hends the last trumpet and last vial of wrath. 

The seventh trumpet sounds. God's wrath destroys those antagonisms 
that destroyed the earth — or Monotheistic world-— in hostilities to His kingdom; 
the mysteries of God, as foretold by all the prophets, is finished ; the kingdoms 
of this world become the kingdom of the Living God and of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. The seventh vial is poured out — and the work is finished. Michael 
stands up for the children of Israel, and a time of the greatest trouble trans- 
pires. The grape harvest is gathered, and the grapes trodden in the wine press 
of the wrath of God. The great battle of God Almighty is fought in Megiddon ; 
the beast and false prophet are judged and cast into the final perdition, and the 
Red Dragon is bound and cast into the bottomless pit. The divine programmes 
being verified in regard to everything, atheism. Pantheism, Polytheism, deism, 
and infidelity in every form, will be utterly confounded, and never more open 
their mouths or show their heads. We may form opinions about these events, 
but history has not yet developed their consecutive order nor dimensions and 
degrees. The sixth seal, seventh trumpet, and seventh vial belong to the same 
period — they synchronize. 



THE FOURTH, OR CONSUMMATED, AGE. 

The consummated age begins with the second advent of Christ Jesus. 
Then is the first resurrection, or the resurrection to life; then the judgment of 
the living begins, or of those living in the Monotheistic world. All tares shall 
be rooted out of the kingdom of God; and then will the righteous shine as the 
sun in the kingdom of their Father. Jerusalem will be regenerated, and the 
throne of the kingdom will descend from Heaven and be located in the earth 
upon Mount Zion. The hope of Israel will be fully realized, and the glorious 
predictions of the old prophets will be fulfilled. 

This age continues to the end, when the Son will deliver up the kingdom to the 
Father. After one thousand or more years of the consummated age have passed, 
the Diabolus himself will come out of the bottomless pit and lead up the fourth 
and last antagonism, which will be strictly satanic. But his hosts will be 
destroyed by fire from Heaven, and himself shall be cast into the lake of fire and 
brimstone. How long this antagonism will last we are not told. Then will take 
place the resurrection unto judgment, and the final destiny of those judged. 
Then will the Heaven, or atmosphere and earth, be regenerated, and inhabited 
by the righteous alone, and never be polluted with crime or cruelty. (See, in the 
main work, essays on The Kingdom, Second Advent, Spiritual Body, First Res- 
urrection, Hope of Israel, and chapters 94, §§22-30; 175, § 7.) 



SOME GREAT TRUTHS. 



Having seen a sparsely sketched online of the development of the kingdom 
of God, let us now take a comprehensive view of some of the great truths 
received and practiced by the genuine citizens, who will obtain the first resurrection, 
tion and reign with Christ one thousand years on this earth in the consummated 
age of the kingdom, and at last inherit the new, or renovated, earth and Heaven, 
or renovated earth and atmiosphere. Let me especially address my friends who 
are not in Christ, but are not enemies to Him. What to us will be the consum- 
mation of the kingdom if we have no right to citizenship in it, nor participation 
in the triumphs of the Gospel ? Let me now come quietly to you alone and talk 
confidentially on this subject. Tou do not profess to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, 
but there is no other name given among men whereby we can be saved (Acts 
4:11-12); and how can we escape if we neglect so great salvation? (Heb. 2:3.) 
We need not spurn nor persecute it ; just neglect it, and all is lost. 

The first great truth is this : God exists, and He is a Rewarder of those who 
earnestly seek Him. (Heb. 11:6.) His existence may, and has been, proved by 
reasoning on His works of nature. His existence and communications with men 
have been proved by miracles to those witnessing these wonders. But the pro- 
gressive development of His kingdom according to the programmes given years, 
centuries, and ages before the events transpired, proves the existence of an invis- 
ible, intelligent Being, who makes covenants and keeps them, gives promises 
and fulfills them, threatens wrath and inflicts it, foretells events and brings them 
to pass. This is the first great truth in religion. 

The second great truth is this: Man is the subject of divine laws, by nature, 
or creation, and by positive arrangement. By nature, or creation, man is subject 
to physical, mental, and moral laws ; and his rewards or penalties for obeying or 
disobeying are the consequences growing out of the actions. Every individual 
having intelligence is under these inherent laws, by nature, without any reve- 
lation or legislation from Heaven. The rewards for obeying them are the happy 
consequences, and the penalty for disobedience is the evil consequences ; and the 
extent of these good or evil consequences is beyond conception — they come in 
the order of cause and effect. The science of these physical laws is called physi- 
ology ; of the mental laws, mental philosophy or psychology ; and of morals, 
moral philosophy, or ethics. It requires much knowledge and discretion and 
self-government to regulate our lives by these inherent laws. The sacred books 
including obedience to these laws are Proverbs and Ecclesiastics ; some portions 
of other books do the same. The intelligence, judgments, and reason necessary 
to determine our duty by these inherent laws are possessed by few, if any, and 
fewer improve by them. 

Positive laws originate with the lawgiver, and the obligation to obey them 
originates in his will. He commands, and will enforce obedience by arbitrary 
rewards and penalties, which may not be in any way the natural consequences of 
the action. Disobedience is insult and disrespect to the lawgiver. Positive laws 
are adapted to all persons, whether intelligent or ignorant. They obey because it 
is commanded, and not because they see the utility. Now, Jehovah is all-wise 
—63 



994 THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED. 

and benevolent, and His laws are for the best, whether man may so see it or not. 
His commands may be physical, mental, or moral, but they are obligatory because 
He has so commanded. But, He may give commands for the simple purpose of 
teaching man his subjection to positive laws. No other reason can be given, and 
no other object can be obtained. God commanded it. Why will not something 
else do'^ Because that is not what God commanded. Now, God commanded 
man not to eat the fruit of a certain tree, upon the penalty of death. Man did 
eat, and the penalty has been inflicted. Death was not an effect of eating the 
fruit, but a penalty affixed, and God will not remove the penalty unless the 
dignity of that positive law be sustained. A natural effect of disobedience was a 
guilty conscience. A natural effect of a guilty conscience was fear and au effort 
to hide from God, and to roll the blame on others. So, degeneracy increased in 
the order of cause and effect. Cain killed his brother; the earth became filled 
with violence and crime, and the fl.ood was sent to drown the earth. The flood 
was not the effect of crime, but was a penalty sent by command of the Sover- 
eign. Death has passed upon all men down to the present time, and has been 
aggravated by additional crimes committed against positive laws of revelation 
and inherent laws of nature. 

The third great truth is : Man is under condemnation for many violations of 
revealed positive commands, as well as violations of his inherent laws of creation. 
By transgression of one man, or Adam, many were made sinners, and have 
made themselves guilty of many sins. Now, all men are, and have been, under 
condemnation by revealed positive laws, recorded in the Scriptures and handed 
down by tradition, and by the laws of nature ; man must remain under this con- 
demnation, or the laws must be abrogated, or their dignity must be sustained. 
To abrogate the laws would be to reflect defect in them, and reproach and blame 
on the lawgiver, which is impossible ; the laws are good and the lawgiver is per- 
fect. So man must remain under condemnation forever, or the laws must be 
magnifled and made honorable ; their dignity ujust be sustained, and man must 
learn to respect and obey laws. This derangement commenced by violating 
positive laws ; and if recovered, the dignity of positive laws must be sustained 
first, -and then obedience to the inherent laws of nature must follow in the order 
of cause and effect. 

The fourth great truth is: The dignity of God's positive laws must be sus- 
tained by obedience to the precepts and suffering the penalties when they are 
violated. God is just and will govern His creatures by the constitutions and 
laws He has given them, and will not abrogate any law. 

The fifth great truth is: Man must obey the positive laws of God, whether 
he sees the reason or not. God commands, and man must obey without any 
altercation. Now, how can the dignity of the law be sustained ? How can it be 
magnified and be made honorable? By inflicting the penealty. And as man has 
been guilty of many violations of many positive laws, or commands, given to 
patriarchs and handed down by tradition, and to Moses and to the prophets and 
recorded in the Scriptures, many penalties must be inflicted. This would destroy 
man forever. Can the dignity of the law be sustained by the obedience and 
suffering of a substitute ? That depends upon the will of the lawgiver, and what 
object is to be effected by it. It has been asked : How can the death of one man 
save the life of another ? The death of the murderer will not restore the life of 
the murdered ; but it may sustain the dignity of the law and deter others from 
breaking it. If a man sees a friend suffer for him, the penalty of his crime to 
sustain the dignity of the law, and knows that friend will not do so for him again, 
he knows the law must be sustained and he can not escape the punishment again; 
and he has now the fear of the law and the gratitude and love to his friend to 
prompt him to reformation. But will the law accept the substitution of a friend — 
a father, mother, brother, or a sister — for the pardon and reformation of an 
offender? That will depend upon the will of the lawgiver. Now, God's laws, 



SOME GREAT TRUTHS. 995 

or commands, must be obeyed. If law is not respected anarchy will destroy 
society and individuals. If God accepts a substitute, and man refuses to accept 
the pardon secured, and refuses to confess his crime and reform, he is doubly 
damned; and the wrath of God abides upon him. 

The sixth great truth is : God Himself has provided a substitute. Wherefore 
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed 
upon all men, for all have sinned. Therefore, as by the offense of one, judgment 
came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, the 
free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's diso- 
bedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be 
made righteous. The judgment was by one man to condemnation ; but the free 
gift is of many offenses unto justification. (Rom., 5:12, 18, 19, 16.) All we, like 
sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the 
Jehovah has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. (Isa., 53:6.) The Jehovah 
is well pleased for His righteousness sake; He will magnify the law and make it 
honorable. (Isa., 42:21.) Whom God has set forth, a propitiation through 
faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are 
past, through the forebearance of God. To declare at this time His righteousness 
that He might be just, and the justifyer of him who believes in Jesus. (Rom., 
3:25, 26.) This righteousness, or justification, was witnessed by the law and the 
prophets. This substitution of an innocent one for the guilty was witnessed, from 
Adam till the sacrifice of Christ, by the death of innocent animals; and without 
the shedding of blood there was no remission of sins; but the transgressor must 
suffer the penalty of the violated law. God would not pardon a sin till it was 
confessed and the substitution accepted by the transgressor, and thus the dignity 
of the law was sustained. 

The seventh great truth is : This substitute was the Only Begotten and Well- 
Beloved Son of God. Here we see the dignity God has placed upon His positive 
laws. He will not pardon any transgression without satisfaction to the laws, no 
matter how much he may compassionate the sinner. He will give the dearest 
and most beloved object of His heart to suffer for the sinner, but will not suffer 
His law to be dishonored. And when this beloved object undertook the satis- 
faction of justice. He did not mitigate the punishment the least. This object of 
His love is presented to us in the strongest light possible for man to contemplate 
— The Only Begotten and Well-Beloved Son. The sinner must see and 
confess his sin to deserve the punishment which the Son endured; acknowledge 
the law as holy, just, and good, and his obligation and effort to obey its precepts 
or all divine commands. 

The eighth great truth is : The sinner must now become a disciple of God in 
holiness, knowledge, and righteousness; his innate dispositions must become 
pure, or in their right place at the right time ; his intellectual powers must be 
cultivated and improved, so as to know and understand the truth on all subjects; 
and his volitions must be always in accordance with the will of God. His efforts 
will be very imperfect, but being baptized into the remission of sins upon repent- 
ance, his sin is forgiven (I. John, 2:1-2,) without offering a sacrifice, and he must 
confess his sin (I. John, 1:9,) and try it again, again, and again, till he becomes 
prepared for the society of the holy on earth or in Heaven. He must crucify 
the flesh with the lusts and grow in the fruits of the spirit (Gal., 5:19-25). 

In this work of reformation we need a mediator, for the Deity is an incom- 
prehensible being. The heathen had their different grades of gods and demi- 
gods, who they contemplated and worshipped. Moses, and after him the high 
priests and prophets, acted as mediators between God and Israel, but were not 
objects of worship. Corrupted Christianity has employed saints and clergy for 
mediators between Christ and themselves. But true Christianity authorizes no 
mediators between God and His disciples, and no other mediator between God 
and man, to intercede for man, or for man to contemplate, than Jesus Christ 



996 ' THE KINGDOM OF GOD DEVELOPED 

(I. Tim., 2:6); and in Christ's name we must approach the Deity and His service, 
and for Jesus' sake, merits and intercessioo, crave a favor. No priest, nor 
prophet, nor saint, must stand between Christ and His disciples; they must go 
with their case directly to Christ, or to God, through Christ Jesus. 

The ninth great truth is : The Christian must instruct others, and cast an 
influence into society. Ye are the light of the world, and the salt of the earth. 
He must do this in an individual capacity and as a member of society. One man 
may have a good influence in society, but a whole society, or church, or com- 
munity, acting out all the principles of Christianity, individually and socially, 
shows the way to happiness and the adaptation of the kingdom of God to reform 
and govern the world. Where we have no positive commands or law, the Chris- 
tian must be prompted to act out of love to God and man and all creatures. 
Every church should be a mutual aid society, to enable every member to carry 
out every Christian law and principle in life, as an individual or member of 
society. 

The tenth great truth is : The Christian must make the kingdom of God the 
first object of importance in his life. Seek first the kingdom of God and His 
righteousness. The justification of the kingdom of God is by implicit faith in 
Christ as a Savior, a Teacher, and a Sovereign ; and the righteousness of citizens 
must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. It must be a 
genuine reformation. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord ; except a man 
be born from above he can not see the kingdom of God. The church, or kingdom, 
is the foundation and pillar of truth; and its citizens must seek the truth, and 
witness for it before the world ; must give instructions at home and send it 
abroad, and exhibit the true Christian character and happy fruits of religion. 

The eleventh great truth is: Those who believe in Christ have eternal life; 
shall not come into judgment, but have passed out of death into life ; they shall 
never die and go to sheol, or hades, but shall depart and be with Christ ; they 
shall obtain the first resurrection and reign with Christ one thousand years on the 
earth, and they shall inherit the new, or renovated, earth and atmosphere. All 
who reject Christ are already under condemnation, and shall not see life; but the 
wrath of God abides on them, because they have not believed in the Only Begotten 
Son of God. All not in Christ must remain in sheol, or hades, and in their 
graves, till the resurrection unto judgment, and then be judged and rewarded 
according to their works. The wicked shall be cast into the burning lake. (Kev. 
20:5, 13, 14, 15.) 

Kow, my friends, you are journeying on to this final destiny. Will you become 
true disciples of Jesus Christ — receiving instruction, reproof, and admonition, 
confessing, repenting, and making renewed eflbrt to become intelligent, holy, 
and righteous, and having part in the first resurrection, reign one thousand 
years in the consummated age, in the kingdom of God, and at last inherit the 
new earth and atmosphere with the righteous ? Or, will you reject Christ and be 
lost? Or, will you risk the judgment according to every one's works, and remain 
one thousand years in sheol, in doubt as to your final destiny, while those in 
Christ are reigning with Him on earth and rejoicing in the triumphs of the 
Gospel ? Now is the seed time, and what you sow you shall reap. The harvest 
will come at last. I will not quarrel with you, or condemn you ; but I warn you 
to fiee from the coming wrath and obtain eternal life. Do not infer from my 
silence that I think you safe ; but I feel that I can not save you. Truth is hated, 
even by some professing to love God, and I can not get them to look at evidence. 
You know the way of life; enter and walk in it. I am sorry for you, but can do 
no more. Be wise in time — before you become hardened through the deceit- 
fulness of sin. 



CONTENTS 



CONTENTS. 



mTRODUCTION. 

1. The Sources of Ancient History. 2. Character of the Age of Moses. 
3. Extent of Polytheism. 4. Condition and Character of Israel. 5. Task of 
Moses. 6. Competency of Moses to write Past Events. 7. Moses not a His- 
torian. 8. Scriptures do not Teach the Sciences. 

CHAPTEE I. 

The Creation. — 1. Universe Created. 2. Standpoint of Yiew. 3. Condi- 
tion of the Earth. 4. Day and Night Produced. 5. Length of Days. 6. The 
Firmament. 7. Trees and Land. 8. Vegetation. 9. Luminaries. 10. Mosaic 
Standpoint of Observation. 11. Water Animals. 12. Land Animals. 13. Rain. 
14. Man's Origin and Eank in Creation. 15. Authenticity of Moses. 

CHAPTER 11. 

Man in His Primitive State. — 1. Formation of Man. 2. Condition of Man. 

3. Woman and Marriage. 4. Innocence and Purity. 5. Man's Government 
and Dignity. 6. Sabbath. 7. Garden of Eden. 

CHAPTER III. 

The Fall and Expulsion. — 1. Positive Institutions. 2 Positive and l^fatural 
Laws. 3. Tree of Life. 4. Evil, and the Evil One. 5. Man's Responsibility 
for the Evil. 6. Serpent and Satan. 7. Penalty and Consequences. 8. The 
Woman's Relative Position and Curse. 9. Man's Curse. 10. All Parties Pun- 
ished. 11. The Only Hope and Help. 12. Origin of Sacrifice. 13. How 
Seduced. 14. Consequences of Eating the Fruit. 15. Necessity of Positive 
Laws. 16. Disquisition on the Fall. 17. Continuation of Disquisition. 18. 
Disquisition on the Fall, concluded. 19. How Long Adam Stood. 20. Fallen 
Condition. 21. The Real Seducer. 22. Object of the Narrative. 

INCIPIENT ^(y^.— Chapters IV.-XXII. 

CHAPTER lY. 

Adarri's Posterity Down to Noah; A. M. 1-1656. — 1. Persons Deified. 2. 
Cain and Abel not Gods. 3. The Subjects of Condemnation and Justification. 

4. Guilty Conscience. 5. Cain's Posterity not Gods. 6. Lamach. 7. Seth 
Becomes Patriarch. 8. Distinction between Sethites and Cainites. 9. Chro- 
nology and Genealogy Reckoned in Seth's Line. 10. Contemporary Patriarchs. 
11. Opposition to Corruption. 12. Satanic Impiety. 



1000 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER Y. 

The Deluge; A. M. 1656; B. C. 2348.— 1. The Wickedness of Men. 2. 
Mother's Influence. 3. Giants. 4. Abhorred of God. 5. Long-Suffering of 
God. 6. Character of Noah. 7. Ground of Acceptance with God. 8. Ark, 
and Distinction Between Clean and Unclean. 9. First Installment of Adam's 
Disobedience. 10. Probation Ended. 11. Tradition of the Deluge. 12. Posi- 
tive Interposition. 13. Satanic Antagonism to the Kingdom of God. 

CHAPTER YI. 

Transactions with Noah. — 1. Man Continued in His Sovereignty. 2. 
Parents Respected, but Not Deified. 3. Primitive Religion. 4. The Rainbow a 
Token. 5. Man the Most Sacred of Animals. 6. The True Primitive Religion. 
7. Communication from Adam to Moses. 



CHAPTER YII. 

Dispersion of Manhind. — 1. Earth Districted Into Nationalities. 2. Dis- 
tricts. 3. Central Government Attempted. 4. Central Government Attempted, 
concluded. 5. Red Dragon Policy Originated. 6. Confusion of Speech. 7. 
Dispersion. 8. Its Relation to the Kingdom of God. 9. Contemporaries with 
Abraham and to Moses. 

CHAPTER YIII. 

Incipient Age Considered. — 1. Transition from the Nations to Abraham. 
2. Patriarchism. 3. Patriarchal Government Subverted. 4. The Way of 
Acceptance with 'God Always the Same. 5. System of Grace and Laws of 
Nature. 6. Election of Abraham. 7. The Nations' Knowledge of God. 8. 
Our Ignorance of History. 9. A Plausible Yiew. 

TRE INCIPIENT AND PREPARATORY AGES SPLICE. 

From Abraham to Moses. A. M. 2075-2433. B. C. 1929-157L 
The Red Dragonism of Satan Established. 
Period First. — Placing of I:he Witnesses. — Chaps. 9-16. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Abraham^ s Gall and Covenants. — 1. Abraham and Babel. 2. How Far 
Infected with Polytheism. 3. Cause of Polytheism. 4. Abraham Not Super- 
excellent by Nature. 5. A Subject of Grace and Positive Laws. 6. Contrary 
Traits of Character. 7. Acquaintance with Jehovah. 8. Interview with Mel- 
chisedec. 9. Was a Prophet of Jehovah. 10. First Covenant. 11. Second 
Covenant. 12. Third Covenant. 13. Name Changed. 14. Antagonism to 
Polytheism. 15. Nature Subjected to Positive Arrangement. 16. Freedom of 
Other Patriarchs to be Good. 17. Delay Cultivates Faith. 18. And Makes the 
Events More Conspicuous. 



CHAPTER X. 

Training of Abraham. — 1. Abraham's Knowledge of the Divinity. 2. His 
First Lesson. 3. A Personal Interview. 4. The Wickedness of Sodom. 
Destruction Inflicted. 6. Sovereignty of Jehovah Shown. 



5. 



CONTENTS. 1001 

CHAPTER XI. , 

One Promise Idealized and Faith Matured. — 1. Isaac Born and Ishmael 
Cast Out. 2. Abraham's Faith Tried. 3. The Cave of Machpelah. 4. Isola- 
tion of Isaac. 5. Our Participation in the Blessing of Abraham. 6^ A Trophy 
of Grace and Proof of Positive Sovereignty. 7. Piety of Eleazer. 

CHAPTER XIL 

History of Isaac. — 1. A Yiew of Isaac. 2. Covenants Reaffirmed to Him. 
3. Was Imperfect. 4. Rebekah. 5. Actions and Consequences. 6. Providen- 
tial Government. 7. The Younger Chosen. 8. Birthright Bought. 9. Means 
and Ends. 10. Blessing Obtained. 11. Evils Entailed. 12. Witnesses. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

History ofJaooh in Exile. — 1. Leaves Home. 2. Lesson Taught at Bethel. 
3. His Yow. 4. Protected in Syria. 5. Situation and Escape. 6. Polytheism 
of Laban. 7. Consequences of Sin. 8. Reconciliation of Jacob and Esau. 9. 
Jacob Wrestles vrith an Angel. 10. Obtains a Blessing and a New ISTame. 11. 
Taught in the School of Experience. 

CHAPTER XIY. 

JaooVs Family. — 1. False Gods Among Them. 2. Jacob at Bethel and 
Return to Isaac. 3. Esau Removes and Becomes a Nation. 4. Immorality of 
Jacob's Family. 5. A Natural Cause. 6. Benjamin and Joseph Exceptions. 

CHAPTER XY. 

Training of Joseph. — 1. Joseph's Piety and Destiny. 2. Providential Gov- 
ernment Noticed. 3. Joseph in the Pit. 4. He Knows and Fears the God of 
Abraham. 5. Unnatural Conduct of His Brethren. 6. Jacob's Sorrows. 

CHAPTER XYL 

Joseph in Egypt. — 1. Promotion. 2. Brethren's First Yisit. 3. Divine 
Purpose Stands. 4. Second Yisit. 5. Jacob's Surprise. 6. Dangers in Egypt. 
7. Jacob Encouraged. 8. Patriarchs Not Deities. 9. Jacob's Faith and Predic- 
tions. 10. Jacob's Language. 11. Jacob's Funeral. 12. Knowledge of God 
in Egypt. 13. Demonstration Against the Red Dragon. 14. Religion of the 
Nations. 15. Joseph's Faith and Death. 16. State of the Promises. 

Period Second. A. M. 2430-2513. B. C. 1574-1491. 

The Red Dragon, in His First Head, or Egyptian Headship, Assails the Kingdom of God and 
is Defeated. 

CHAPTER XYIL 

e 

The Enslavement of Israel. — 1. Change in the Throne of Egypt. 2. Subju- 
gation of Israel. 3. The Bone, Muscle, and Nerve of the Dragon. 

CHAPTER XYIII. 

Birth and Mission of Moses. — 1. Moses Born. 2. Zeal for His Brethren. 
3. Called of God. 4. Returns to Egypt. 5. Evidence to Him. 6. The Name 
of Israel's God. 7. Was It His First Name. 8. Moses Meets Aaron. 



100^ 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEK XIX. 

Present Worth of Jacobs Blessing. — 1. Estimated by Esau, 
by Ishmael. 3. Yiew of the Pious. 



2. Estimated 



CHAPTER XX. 

First Messages to Israel and Pharaoh. — 1. Messages to Israel. 2. To 
Pharaoh. 3. The Disappointment. 4. Difficulty to Convince Either Israel or 
Pharaoh. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

The Contest. — 1. First Miracle. 2. Why Not Confounded at First. 3. 
Second Miracle and First Plague. 4. Third Miracle. 5. Fourth Miracle. 6. 
Third Plague Given Without Warning. 7. Fifth Miracle and Fourth Plague. 
8. Sixth Miracle. 9. Seventh Miracle. 10. Eighth Miracle. 11. Ninth Mir- 
acle and Eighth Plague. 12. Isis and Serapis Defeated. 13. Tenth Miracle 
and Ninth Plague. 14. Supreme Deities Confounded. 15. Consent to Gro. 
16. Guilt and Covetousness Prevent Belief. 17. Israel Convinced. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

The Victory^ Me7norial^ and Deliverance. — 1, Eleventh Miracle and Tenth 
Plague. 2. The Time Comes. 3. First Born Slain. 4. Ordered to Depart. 
5. JDelivered at the Time Promised. 6. Passover Memorial. 7. Appointed at 
the Time. 8. The Rout. 9. Cloudy Pillar. 10. Twelfth Miracle and Eleventh 
Plague. 11. The Pursuit. 12. Destroyed. 13. Traditions. 14. Song. 15. 
Greatness of Jehovah. 16. Destruction Necessary to Reformation. 17. Bones 
of Joseph. 18. Influence on the Nations. 19. Second and Third Policies of 
Satan. 

PREPARATORY AGE ESTABLISHED.— k. M. 2313-4033. 
Period Third. — Levitical Institutions Established and the Promised Land Possessed. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

From the Red Sea to Sinai. — 1. Training of Israel. 2. First Lesson. 3. 
Second Lesson. 4. Manna. 5. Water from the Rock. 6. Battle with Amalek. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Giving of the Covenant and Law at Sinai. — 1. Covenant of Adoption. 2. 
Evidence of the Divine Communication. 3. The People Witness for Them- 
selves. 4. Angel of the Covenant. 5. Polytheism Prohibited. 6. Covenant 
Ratified. 7. Divine Presence Witnessed. 8. What Moses Received in the 
Mount. 9. Character of the Laws. 10. Character of Polytheism. 11. Laws 
Based on Divine Authority. 12. Unity and Division of Israel. 13. Did these 
Laws Exist Before Moses. 14. Israel's High Calling. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

The Golden Calf. — 1. Israel Infected with Egyptian Polytheism. 2. 
Reclaimed. 3. Moses Intercedes for Israel. 4. People Made Sensible of Their 
Sin. 5. The Law Added to the Covenants of Abraham. 



dojsTTEM'r^. 1003 

CHAPTEE XXYL 

Lmos^ Rites^ and Institutions j and Obligation to Obey^ Observe^ and Keep 
Them. — 1. Tablets of the Commandments Renewed. 2. Object Of. 3. Moral 
Laws Not Originated by Moses. 4. The Ten Commandments. 5. Positive 
Laws. 6. Excellence of the Laws of Moses. 7. Dignity of Law Sustained. 8. 
Atonement. 9. Importance of Atonement. 10. The Supreme Law Dignified 
by Christ. 11. Redemption. 12. Redemption by Christ. 13. For Some Sins 
no Atonement by the Law. 14. Atonements by the Law. 15. The Most Holy. 
16. The Holy Place. 17. Reconciliation Without the Law. 18. Sanctification. 
19. Design of Rites and Institutions. 20. As Shadows, Were They Understood? 
21. Antagonistic to Polytheism. 22. For Association of Ideas. 23. To Arouse 
Emotions, Desires, and Affections. 24, To Separate Israel and Sustain a Min- 
istry. 25. Tabernacle and Furniture. 26. Instruction. 27. Jubilee. 28. Great 
Jubilee. 29. Provision for the Pious of Other Nations. 30. Figures for Pious 
Instruction. 

CHAPTER XXYIL 

Mosaic^ or Patriarchal^ Theology. — 1. Not Taught in a System. 2. Book 
of Job. 3. Character and Condition of Job. 4. A Mysterious Case. 5. Divine 
Sovereignty. 6. True Cause. 7. Divine Existence Universally Believed. 8. Can 
not be Represented by Images. 9. His Attributes only can be Conceived in 
the Human Mind. 10. Revealed by the Son of God. 11. Jehovah Sole Author 
and Governor of the Universe. 12. Angels. 13. A Future State. 14. Pri- 
mary Object in Moses and Job. 15. Patriarchs Believed in Future State. 16. 
Sheol. 17. Different Conditions in Sheol. 18. Righteous and Wicked in Dif- 
ferent Places and Conditions. 19. The Grave Contemplated. 20. Moses Cor- 
roborated by the Patriarchs. 

CHAPTER XXYIII. 

In the Wilderness After Receiving the Law. — 1. Prophetic Threatenings 
and Curses. 2. Sanhedrim. 3. Camp Organized. 4. Character of the People. 
5. Rebellions and Punishments. 6. Aaron and Miriam Oppose Moses. 7. 
Refuse to Possess the Land. 8. Impeach Jehovah's Veracity. 9. Moses Pleads 
for Them. 10. Petition Answered. 11. Doomed to Perish in the Wilderness. 
12. Rebel and Are Defeated. 13. Their Doom and Hostility. 14. Usurpation 
of the Priesthood. 15. Usurpers Engulfed. 16. Rebellion Against Moses. 17. 
Office of the Priesthood Settled. 18. God Must be Obeyed. 19. Moses and 
Aaron Prohibited the Promised Land. 20. Violations of the Law and Conse- 
quences. 21. Aarons Death. 22. A Song. 23. Fiery Serpents. 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

From Aaron's Death to Balaam's. — 1. Come Out of the Wilderness. 2. 
Midianites had Known Jehovah. 3. Jehovah Known in Syria. 4. Balaam and 
the Messengers of Balak. 5. Balaam's Standing as a Prophet. 6. Training for 
the Occasion. 7. He Seeks a Curse on Isarel. 8. Ftrst Attempt. 9. Second 
Attempt. 10. Third Trial. 11. Prediction of Balaam. 12. Knowledge of the 
True God. 13. Israel Ensnared and Punished. 14. Israel a New Nation. 15. 
Midianites Destroyed. 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Moses' Last Work. — 1. Repetition of Past History and Exhortation. 2. 
Their Position and Interest. 3. Character of Their Religion. 4. Outline of the 
Future. 5. Covenant at Horeb. 6. Last Days of Moses. 7. His Death. 8. 
The Contrast. 9. Deuteronomy Chronologically Arranged. 10. Retrospect. 



1004 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Land Possessed Under Joshua. — 1. Joshua in Command. 2. Devoted 
Tribes Fear. 3. Crossing the Jordan. 4. Object of the Miracle. 5. Manna 
Ceased. 6. Jericho Captured. 7. Its Rebuilder Cursed. 8. Acan's Trespass. 
9. Israel Defeated. 10. Ai Captured. 11. The Greatest Gods of the Nations 
Obey Joshua. 12. Combined Kings Destroyed. 13. Law Written on an Altar; 
and Altar at Jordan. 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

Israel in Possession of the Land. — 1. Caleb and Joshua. 2. The Taber- 
nacle and Worship. 3. Tardy in Conquering the Country. 4. Cities of Refuge. 
5. Joseph's Bones. 6. Chose Jehovah for the God of the Nation. 7. Happy 
Time. 8. A Promise to Abraham Realized. 9. Witnesses for Jehovah. 

Period Fourth. — Second Head and Six Horns of the Red Dragon Developed and Broken. Israel 
Under Judges. 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

The Apostasy, — 1. Disobedience Denounced. 2. Third Policy of Satan 
Detected. 3. Idolatry Introduced. 4. Views of the Pious and of the Impious. 
5. The Impious Make the Trouble. 6. False Gods of Israel. 

CHAPTER XXXIY. 

Five Horns Developed and Broken. — 1. The First Horn. 2. Second En- 
slavement. 3. Repentance and Deliverance. 4. Third Horn Developed. 5. 
Jehovah Defends His Cause. 6. Extent of Subjugation. 7. The Third Horn 
Broken, and Song of Triumph. 8. Pious and Impious. 9. Scepticism and 
Licentiousness. 10. Fourth Horn Subjugates Israel. 11. Enemies Described. 
12. Prophet Sent. 13. Gideon Commissioned. 14. Baal's Altar Cast Down. 

15. Gideon Encouraged. 16. Army Reduced. 17. Fourth Horn Broken. 18. 
Neighbors Taught. 19. Memorial of the Victory. 20. Peaceful Enjoyment. 
21. Elimelic and Family. 22. Israelites' Yiew of Polytheism. 23. Piety of 
Ruth and Boaz. 24. Relation Between Male and Female. 25. Mob-rule. 
26. Contemporary Judges. 27. General Apostacy. 28. Witnesses For the 
Truth. 29. Ruling Part Corrupt. 30. The Fifth Horn Oppresses. 31. Left 
to Act as They Chose. 32. Rely on Promises in the Sinai Covenant. 33. Jep- 
tha Chosen. 34. The Fifth Horn Broken. 35. Jeptha'sYow. 36. Civil War. 

37. Eli Begins to Judge. 

CHAPTER XXXY. 

Sixth Horn Developed and Defeated. — 1. A Time of Prosperity. 2. How 
Yiewed by the Pious and the Impious. 3. Jehovah Faithful to His Covenants. 
4. The Sixth Horn. 5. Angel Yisits Manoah. 6. Private Life and Devotion. 
7. Hannah and Samuel. 8. Hannah's Song. 9. Wicked Priests. 10. Samuel's 
First Revelation. 11. Samuel Recognized as a Prophet. 12. Samson Begins to 
Judge. 13. Kills One Thousand Philistines. 14. Acts at Gaza. 15. Captured. 

16. Lesson Taught. 17. Dagon Praised. 18. Polytheism Triumphant. 19. 
Samson's Death. 20. Polytheism Defeated. 21. Israel's Stratagem. 22. The 
Ark in the Battle. 23. Ark Captured. 24. The Report. 25. Monotheism 
Despondent. 26. Dagon Falls Before the Ark. 27. Philistines Vanquished by 
the Ark. 28. Polytheists Acknowledge Their Defeat. 29. The Test. 30. 
Nations Taught. 31. Ark Returned. 32. Reverence for Divine Things. 33. 
Israel Must Serve Jehovah. 34. Samuel Judges Israel. 35. The Sixth Horn 
Broken. 36. Reformation by Samuel. 37. Supremacy of Jehovah Shown. 

38. Review of the Judges. 



CONTENTS. 1005 

Pekiod Fifth.— Israel Under Kings. 

CHAPTEK XXXYI. 

First King of Israel and First Victories. — 1. Israel Desires a King. 2. 
Tabernacle Never Molested. 3. Israel Demands a King. 4. The Lord Permits 
the Eequest. 5. Saul Anointed and Israel Admonished. 6. Saul's Qualitica- 
tions for a King. 7. His Defects. 8. Eejected, and David Chosen. 9. Be- 
comes Desperate. 10. Israel's Experience. 11. Saul's Yictories. 12. Jona- 
than's Faith and Victory. 13. Victory Attributed to Jonathan. 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

David During SauVs Reign. — 1. Philistine Giants. 2. Goliath Champion 
of the Gods. 3. Killed by David. 4. David's Faith and Intelligence. 5. Jon- 
athan's Attachment to Him. 6. Persecuted by Saul. 7. David's Poetry and 
Piety. 8. His Defects and Virtues. 9. Can not be Justified in Some Things. 
10. The Leader of a Band. 11. Pursued by Saul. 12. David's Desperadoes. 
13. Samuel's Death. 14. Saul in Distress. 15. Deceived by a Witch. 16, 
Falls in Battle. 17. Philistines Victorious. 18. Triumph of Polytheism. 19. 
Sinai Covenant Verified. 20. Death of Jonathan. 21. David's Lamentation. 
22. Psalms Composed by David Under Saul's Reign. . 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

David Enthroned and Conquers. — 1. Made King. 2. Moral Character of 
Israel. 3. Philistines Defeated. 4. Their Defeat Repeated. 5. The Six 
Horns. 6. The Second Head of the Dragon Broken. 7. Destruction of the 
Wicked Necessary. 8. Promise of Inheritance Fulfilled. 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

David'' s Zeal for the Worship of Jehovah. — 1. Proposition to Remove the 
Ark. 2. Error Punished. 3. Error Corrected and Ark Removed. 4. Taber- 
nacle in Gibeon. 5. Tabernacle and Ark Separated. 6. Divine Worship at 
Both. 7. The Psalms. 8. David Wished to Build the Temple. 9. Covenant 
With David. 

CHAPTER XL. 

David'' s Scandal and Restoration.— \. The Scandal. 2. Disgrace to His 
Religion. 3. Sinned Against God. 4. Glided Into Sin. 5. Jehovah Vindicates 
the Honor of His Religion. 6. Pardon and Punishment. 7. Restoration of 
Favor. 8. His Successor. 

CHAPTER XLI. 

Internal View of Israel. — 1. Character of Israel. 2. Visited With Pesti- 
lence. 3. Mount Zion Supersedes Shiloh. 4. Prophets. 5. God Manifested 
by the Son. 6. The Jehovah Spirit. 7. David's Writings. 

CHAPTER XLIL 

David'' s Last Moments and Future State. — 1. Last Moments. 2. Never 
Sung of Heaven. 3. Expected to Go to Sheol. 4. Ancients' Idea of Sheol, 
Continued from Chap. XXVII. 5. Sheol, or Hades. 6. A Dreary Place. 7. 
David's Idea of Happiness. 8. Different Locations and Conditions There. 9. 
When Did They Expect to Leave Sheol? 10. Not Described Nor Directly 
Revealed. 



1006 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

Solomon's Good Reign. — 1. David's Throne Established. 2. Condition of 
the Kingdom. 3. Promises to Moses Realized. 4. Solomon's Wisdom. 5. 
Solomon's Piety. 6. Influence on the Nations. 7. Temple Built. 8. A 
Triumph Over Polytheism. 9. Supersedes the Tabernacle. 10. Ark and Tab- 
ernacle Furniture Moved Into It. 11. Dedication. 12. Solomon's Speech and 
Prayer. 

CHAPTER XLIY. 

Solomon'' s Apostasy. — 1. Apostasy. 2. How Viewed. 3. Satan's Fourth 
Policy. 4. Defection in Israel. 5. Prosperity Corrupts IN^ations. 6. Light 
from Israel to the Nations. 7. Solomon not Bigoted. 8. Provision Against 
Apostasy. 9. Predictions. 10. Solomon's Experience. 

Period Sixth. — Israel Divided, and the Divinity and Sovereignty of Jehovah and His Fidelity to 
Engagements Proved by the Prosperity of Judah and Adversity of Israel. 

CHAPTER XLY. 

The Division^ and Idolatry Established in Israel. — 1. Jehovah takes the 
Small Part, Stripped of Wealth. 2. The Calves of Egypt. 3. The Controversy 
Opened. 4. The Prophets Speak and Act in the Name of Jehovah. 5. A Sign, 
a Prediction, and a Memorial Given. 6. Relation to the Messiah. 

CHAPTER XLYI. 

Judah'' s S'n, Afflictioii^ Reformation., and I'rosperity. — 1. The Kingdom 
of God Corrupted and Contracted. 2. Rohoboam and His Subjects. 3. Plun- 
dered by Shishak. 4. Reformed and Prospered. 6. Reformation and Victory. 
7. The Prophet Calls Attention to Facts. 8. Emigration from Israel to Judah. 
9. Distrust and Policy. 10. Asa Reproved. 11. Asa Not Perfect. 



CHAPTER XL VII. 

Great Contest in Israel About the Divinity. — 1. Jeroboam's Destruction 
Foretold. 2. Captivity Determined. 3. Assassinations in Israel. 4. Worship 
of Baal Established in Israel. 5. Elijah Witnesseth for Jehovah. 6. Elijah 
Retires while Israel Suffers. 7. Israel Brought to Their Senses by Famine. 8. 
Elijah Notifies the King. 9. True Cause of the Trouble. 10. Contest Witnessed 
by the People. 11. The Victory Confessed. 12. Convinced, but not Reformed. 
13. Elijah in the Wilderness. 14. Elijah in Horeb. 15. An Interview. 16. 
Reduced and Depressed Condition of Israel. 17. Promises Verified. 18. Ahab 
Fears Jehovah. 19. Fate of Jezebel Foretold. 20. False Prophets. 21. Elijah 
Defeats Ahaziah. 22. Evidence Given to Jehoram. 23. Elijah Translated. 24. 
Elisha Takes His Place. 25. Naaman, the Syrian. 26. Nations Learning to 
Fear Jehovah. 27. The Syrians Captured by Elisha. 28. Elisha Shows Hazael 
His Future Barbarity to Israel. 29. Jehoram Hardened in Apostacy. 30. 
Restored Not the Worship of Jehovah. 31. Three Destroyers on the Stage. 
32. Jehu's Impiety. 33. Severe Judgments. 

CHAPTER XLVIIL 

Reign of Jehoshaphat in Judah. — 1. Judah Very Prosperous. 2. Govern- 
ment and Religion Right. 3. They Trust in Jehovah. 4. Gained a Victory. 
5. The Slaughter. 6. Jehoshaphat' s Error. 7. Reproved, but Persisting. 8, 
Judah and Israel Contrasted. 



CONTENTS. 1007 

Period Seventh. — Partial Apostacies and Reformations and Corresponding Adversities and 
Prosperities. 

CHAPTER XLIX. 

Apostasy and Reformation in Judah. — 1. Jehoram of Judah. 2. Jehoabaz, 
or Ahaziah. 3. Athalia Usurps the Throne. 4. The Jezebel Influences. 5. 
Impiety, and not Ignorance. 6. Reign of Jehoiada, the Priest. 7. Joash After 
Jahoiada's Death. 8. Defeated and Destroyed. 9. Amaziah at First Good. 
10. Adopted the Gods of Seir. 11. Temple Robbed by Israel. 

CHAPTER L. 

Israel Under the Jehu Dynasty. — 1. The Jehu Religion. 2. Jehoash. 3. 
Jeroboam II. 4. End of the Jehu Dynasty. 5. The Missionaries Prepared. 
6. Some Pious in Israel Yet. 7. Knowledge of Jehovah Amcmg the Nations. 
8. Jonah Infected with the Notion of Local Deities. 9. Particular Nations. 10. 
Prophets to Teach Israel and the Nations. 11. Joel and Hosea Prophesy. 12. 
Amos Prophesies. 13. End of the Kingdom of Israel. 

CHAPTER LI. 

Reign of Uzziah. — 1. Uzziah Obedient and Prosperous. 2. Joel Prophe- 
sies. 3. Uzziah's Impiety. 4. Isaiah Ordained and an Outline Given. 5. 
Predictions. 6. Jotham's Reign. 

Period Eighth. — Impious Rebellions and Great Reformations. 
Third Head of the Dragon Developed and Broken, 

CHAPTER LII. 

Reign of Ahaz and Contemporary Events. — 1. Rebellion of Ahaz, and 
Impiety of Syria and Israel. 2. Isaiah Shows the Interposition of Jehovah. 3. 
Foretells Near and Future Events. 4. Invasion by Syria and Israel. 5. Ahaz 
Defeated, but Still Impious. 6. Obed's Predictions. 7. Third Head of the Red 
Dragon Interferes. 8. Ahaz More Impious. 9. Hosea and Isaiah Prophesy. 

CHAPTER LIII. 

Reformation Under Hezehiah. — 1. Israel Removed by the Third Head of 
the Red Dragon. 2. Review of the Antagonists. 3. Attitude of Egypt and 
Assyria. 4. Assyrian Empire. 5. Deplorable Condition of Judah. 6. The 
Reformation. 7. Success. 8. Invitation and Reply. 9. A Taunting Answer. 
10. State of Facts. 11. Jehovah's Witnesses Few and Unobserved. 12. Events 
According to Programme. 13. Many Scattered Witnesses. 14. Rejoicings. 15. 
Idolatry Abolished. 16. Reformation Supported by the Prophets. 17. Isaiah 
and Nahum Prophesy. 18. Samaritans Taught to Fear Jehovah. 19. Truth 
Carried by Captives. 20. Israel a Warning to Judah. 21. Synagogues. 

CHAPTER LIY. 

Third Head of Dragon Broken. — 1. Prosperity and Error. 2. Confiding 
in Egypt a Folly. 3. Hezekiah's Sickness. 4. The Pious Must Trust in Jehovah 
Alone. 5. Impious Speech. 6. Hezekiah Applies to Isaiah. 7. State of the 
Controversy. 8. Assyrians Retire from Jerusalem. 9. Sennacherib's Letter. 
10. The Letter Presented to the Lord, and Answered. 11. The Third Head of 
Polytheism Broken. 12. Jehovah Vanquishes. 13. The Nations Taught. 14. 
What Israel Would Have Gained by Obedience. 15-17. Last Prophecies of 
Isaiah. 



1008 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER LY. 

Reign of Manasseh. — 1. Hereditary Prerogatives Become Corrupt. 2. 
Manasseh's Youth. 3. Manasseh's Impiety Permitted. 4. He Was Defiant. 
5. Was Reformed in Prison. 6. Amon's Reign. 

CHAPTER LYI. 

Last Be formation; Reign of Josiah. — 1. Josiali's Youth. 2. Polluted the 
Altar of Jeroboam. 3. Purged All the Land of Israel. 4. Jeremiah Called to 
Witness for Jehovah. 5. Wrath on Judah by the Law. 6. They Covenant to 
Obey the Law. Y. Zepheniah Prophesies. S. Passover Kept and Prophets 
Prophesy. 9. Captivity and Restoration Determined. 10. Josiah' s Death. 



Period Ninth. 



-Rebellions, Warnings, Predictions, Captivity, 

CHAPTER LYIL 



Reigns of Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin. — 1. Jehoiakim Made King by Pharaoh. 
2. Jeremiah Keeps the Government of Jehovah Before Them. 3. Assyrians 
Superseded by the Chaldeans. 4. More of the Divine Programme. 5. Recha- 
bites Preserved. 6. Guilt of the Adjacent Nations. 7. Jeremiah's Roll. 8. 
The King and the Roll. 9. Pious and Impious Must be Taught. 10. Supersti- 
tion Guarded Against. 11. The Fourth Head of the Red Dragon. 12. The 
Captivity Begins. 13. Triumph of Polytheism. 14. Daniel and Companions. 
15. Jehoiachin Made King. 16. The Second Captivity. 

CHAPTER LYIII. 

The Reign of Zedekiah. — 1. Zedekiah King, False Prophets, and Jeremiah. 
2. Ezekiel Instructs the Captives. 3. Jeremiah Still Instructs at Jerusalem. 4. 
Jeremiah Uses Symbols to Draw Attention. 5. Other Nations. 6. Reforma- 
tion and Relapse. 7. Feared, but Did Not Reform. 8. Impiety of Priests and 
People; City Destroyed. 9. Cause and Consequences. 

CHAPTER LIX. 

Tke Land Forsaken of all Rulers and Government. — 1. Remnant Left. 2. 
The People Apply to Jeremiah for Advice. 3. They Rebel and Go Into Egypt. 
4. Shown the Cause of their Ruin, but Refuse to Return. 



Period Tenth. — Seventy Years' Captivity. 

CHAPTER LX. 

Feelings of the Plous^ Their Witness- Bearing^ and the Fate of the Nations. 
— 1. Polytheism Triumphant. 2. Taunts and Retorts. 3. Faith Confirmed while 
Grief is Felt. 4. Enemies Made to Fear for Themselves. 5. Account of Tyrus. 
6. Jerusalem's Reproach and Restoration. 7. Missionary Position. 8. All 
Nations Interested in the Captivity. 9. Influence. 10. Nations Knew the Con- 
troversy. 11. The Nations Experienced the Predictions on Themselves. 12. 
The Peculiarity and Supremacy of Jehovah. 13. Psalms Composed During the 
Captivity. 

CHAPTER LXI. 

Contest with the Fourth Head of the Dragon. — 1. The Superiority of 
Jehovah Acknowledged. 2. Nebuchadnezzar's Image. 3. His Sentiments. 4. 
His Defeat. 5. His Decree. 6. Triumph for the Witnesses. 7. Another 
Decree. 8. Full Conviction. 9. Influence of these Events. 10. Reign of Evil 
Merodach. 11. Belshazzer's Insult to Jehovah. 12. Reproved and Destroyed. 



CONTENTS. 1009 

CHAPTEE LXII. 

Additional Programmes of the Future Development of the Kingdom, of 
God, — 1. Nebuchadnezzar's Dream. 2. Daniel's First Vision of Beasts. 3. 
Third Empire. 4. Fourth Empire. 5. Covenants, Oaths, and Promises Sure, 
but the Time Long. 6. Daniel's Second Vision of Ram and Goat. 7. Mace- 
donian Empire. 8. Duration of the Vision. 9. Territory of the Little florn. 
10. Contemporary Little Horns. 11. Character of East Little Horn. 12. In 
the Distant Future. 

CHAPTER LXIII. 

Darius the Mede Reigns. — 1. Daniel's Seventy Weeks. 2. Messiah's 
First Advent. 3. Duration of the First Restoration. 4. Divided Into Times 
and Events. 5. Result. 6. Duration of these Desolations. 7. Darius Deified. 
8. Kingdom of Cod in Contact with Fifth Head of the Dragon. 9. Daniel's 
Fidelity. 10. Daniel in the Den of Lions. 11. Decree of Darius. 12. Victory 
Over Gods and Kings. 13. Religion of Medes and Persians. 14. In the Time 
of Cyrus. 

Period Eleventh. — Captivity Returned, Temple and City Restored. 

CHAPTER LXIV. 

First Return; Rebuilding Commenoed. — 1. The Seventy Years Expire. 
2. Prediction Concerning Cyrus. 3. His Knowledge of Jehovah. 4. Decree of 
Cyrus. 5. Response to the Decree. 6. Number Returned. 7. Daily Worship 
Restored. 8. Foundation. 9. The Supremacy of Jehovah. 10. The Fifth 
Policy of Satan Inaugurated. 11. Building of the Temple Stopped. 

CHAPTER LXV. 

DanieVs Last. Vision; The Kiiigs. — 1. Self- Affliction and Heavenly Vis- 
itor. 2. Subject : Future History of Israel. 3. Persia and Greece. 4. North 
and South Powers. 5. PersecutJion by the North Power. 6. A West Power. 
7. A South Power. 8. A North Power. 9. Michael Delivers Israel. 10. 
Daniel's Death. 

CHAPTER LXVI. 

Temple Rebuilt and Dedicated. — 1. Importance of the Temple. 2. Encour- 
agements and Predictions. 3. Prosperity of Jerusalem. 5. The Sons of Oil 
Keep the Lamps Aglow. 5. Decree of Darius Hystaspis. 6. Obtained by 
Zerubbabel. 7. Piety Enjoined and Blessings Promised. 8. Temple Dedicated. 

CHAPTER LXVII. 

Building of the City. — 1. Rebuilding Stopped. 2. Policy of Satan to Oblit- 
erate the Knowledge of Jehovah. 3. Mordecai and Esther Appear. 4. The 
Plot. 5. Mordecai in Sackcloth. 6. Esther and the Jews Fasting. 7. Scale 
Turned. 8. Jews Triumphant. 9. Commission of Ezra. 10. Second Return 
of Captives. 11. Mixed Marriages. 12. Zecheriah's Last Prophecies. 13. 
Nehemiah's First Commission. 14. Nehemiah in the Ruins. 15. Opposition of 
the Enemy. 16. City Rebuilt. 17. The Reformation. 

CHAPTER LXVIII. 

NehemiaKs Second Commission. — 1. The Nation's Knowledge of Jehovah. 
2. The Jews Convinced by the Law. 3. Jerusalem Re-peopled. 4. Abuses Cor- 
rected. 5. Reformation Completed. 6. Malachi Expostulates. 7. Pious Meet- 
ings. 8. The First Advent of the Messiah and Consequences, 9, The Farewell, 
—64 



1010 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER LXI^. 

Position of the Kingdom of God. — 1. The Knowledge of the True God. 
2. Israel Taught by Experience. 3. Periods Reviewed. 1. Center and Boundary 
of the Kingdom of God. 5. The Scriptures. 6. The Throne of David. 7. 
High-Priests Under Foreign Rulers. 8. Our Guide. 

CHAPTER LXX. 

The Hope of Israel. — 1. Promises to Abraham. 2. Circumcision. 3. 
Promises Sure. 4. Promises to Moses. 5. Happy Condition When Obedient. 

6. Privileges of Sojourners. 7. Promises Were National. 8. The Future Pros- 
pect. 9. The Promise to David. 10. These Promises are Sure. 11. Psalm 
89. 12. Psalms 72 and 132. 13. Psalm 2. 14. Psalm 110. 15. Promises 
Summed Up. 16. Not Fulfilled in Solomon. 17. What the Prophets Say. 18. 
Outline by Isaiah. 19. Special Promises. 20. Glorious Prospect. 21. Deso- 
lation of the Nation. 22. Preservation and Return. 23. Reformation and 
Blessing. 24. Prosperity as Promised by Moses. 25. Supreme Over the Na- 
tions. 26. Jews First Regathered. 27. Jerusalem Destroyed. 28. Jerusalem 
Restored. 29. Throne of David. 30. Disappeared and Restored. 31. Char- 
acter of the King. 32. His Humility and Submission to the Law. 33. His 
Victory and Triumph. 34. Temple Destroyed and Restored. 35. The New 
Covenant. 36. Character of Citizens. 37. The Same. 38. Intelligence of 
Citizens. 39. Condition. 40. Pleasant and Prosperous. 41. Neighboring Na- 
tions. 42. Blessings Extended. 43. Gentiles Blessed and Cursed as Israel 
Was. 44. New Creation and New Jerusalem. 45. The Hope Summed Up. 
46. The Summary. 

Period Twelfth. — Enlargement of the Kingdom of God. 

CHAPTER LXXI. 

Position of the Kingdom in the Persian Empire. — 1. Position. 2. Samar- 
itans. 3. Their Temple. 4. Palestine Under Satraps of Persia. 5. Involved 
in the Revolution of Syria. 9. Persian Empire Ended. 

CHAPTER LXXII. 

Macedonian Empire^ or Sixth Head of the Red Dragon. — 1. Privileges 
Granted the Jews by Alexander. 2. Greek Polytheism and Philosophy. 3. 
Their Gods and Future State. 4. Their Toleration. 5 and 6. Prophetic Pro- 
gramme of Greek Power. 7. Historical Yiew. 8. Under the Egyptian Horn. 

9. Under the Syrian Horn. 

CHAPTER LXXIII. 

Jerusalem Under the Ptolemys. — 1. Simon the Just, and the Scriptures. 
2. Ptolemy Philadelphus. 3. Scriptures Translated into Greek. 4. Epistle of 
Demitrius. 5. Speech of Aristeus. 6. Polytheist's Yiew of Jehovah. 7. The 
Ten Tribes. 8. Ptolemy Eurgetes. 9. Ptolemy Philopater Persecutes the Jews. 

10. Ptolemies Favored the Jews. 11. Temple to Jehovah in Egypt. 

CHAPTER LXXIY. 

Jerusalem Under the Syrians. — 1. Jerusalem Comes Under the Seleucidae. 
2. Jews Compensated for Losses. 3. First Decree of Antiochus. 4. Decree 
Second. 5. Decree Third. 6. Antiochus the Great Defeated by the Romans. 

7. Happy Condition of Jerusalem. 8. Selucus Philopater Assassinated and the 
Scene Changed. 



CON'i^ENTS. loll 

t*ERiOD Thirteenth. — Adversities and Conflicts. 

CHAPTEK LXXY. 

Persecutions and Martyrdoms. — 1. Impious High-Priests. 2. Temple Plun- 
dered and Polluted. 3. Second Massacre ; Oitj Sacked, and Parts Burned. 4. 
Decree of Uniformity. 5. Image of Jupator in the Temple, and Apostates. 6. 
Trial of Faith. 7. Sons of Oil Witness and Suffer. 8. Eleazer a Martyr. 9. A 
Mother and Seven Sons. 10. The Third Said. 11. The Mother Spoke. 12. 
The King Enraged. 13. Samaritans Apostatized. 14. Wickedness a Eeason 
for this Persecution. 15. Dangerous Friendship Destroyed. 16. Jehovah will 
not Compromise. 17. A Desperate Effort. 18. A New Life Given to Keligion. 
19. All False Religions Yielded to the Decree. 

CHAPTER LXXYI. 

Fidelity^ Valor, and Victory. — 1. The Asmoneans Come to Yiew. 2. 
Polytheism Repulsed. 3. Judas Prosecutes the Work. 4. Yictory. 5. Deter- 
mination to Exterminate the Jews. 6. Syrians Defeated. 7. Complete Yicljory. 
8. Judas Takes Spoils and Gives Glory to God. 9. Equips His Army and 
Relieves the Needy. 10. Defeats Lysias. 11. Worship Restored in the Temple. 
12. Death of Antiochus. 13. Judas Defeats the Allies. 14. Jews in Tob Mur- 
dered. 15. Lysias Defeated Again and Decree of Uniformity Revoked. 

CHAPTER LXXYII. 

Apostate Jews Cause the Faithful to Fall. — 1. Peace Broken by Polytheists 
and are Conquered. 2. Judas Invades and Besieges. 3. Lysias Invades and 
Besieges. 4. Civil War Recalls Lysias to Antioch. 5. Apostates Continue the 
Troubles. 6. Demitrius Takes the Throne of Syria. 7. Alcimus and Bachides 
Oppose Judas. 8. Alcimus and Nicamor Defeated. 9. Judas Makes a League 
with the Romans. 10. Judas Surprised and Slain. 11. Character of Judas. 
12. Apostates Regain the Power. 13. Apostates Defeated. 14. Jonathan 
Becomes High-Priest and Restores the Pure Worship. 15. Simon Becomes 
High-Priest and Governor. 16. John Hyrcanus Shook off the Syrian Yoke. 

CHAPTER LXXYIII. 

Review of DanieVs Predictions. — 1. Alexander Supersedes the Medes and 
Persians. 2. The Ptolemys and Seleucidae. 3. Eurgetes and Callinicus. 4. 
Ceraunus, Antiochus, and Ptolemy Philopater. 5. Antiochus the Great and 
Ptolemy Epiphanes. 6. Romans Impose Tribute on Antiochus the Great. 7. 
Selucus Philopater, Heliodoris, and Antiochus Epiphanes. 8. Antiochus Epiph- 
anes Becomes Great. 9. Overruns Egypt and Judea. 10. Persecutes the Jews. 
11. Pious Jews do Exploits. 12. Persecutions not Ended. 

CHAPTER LXXIX. 

Jerusalem and Her Missionary Outposts. — 1. The Jews Force Their Religion 
on Other Nations. 2. The Asmonean Princes. 3. Missionary Position of Jeru- 
salem. 4. Want of Historical Information. 5. Internal Yiew. 6. Rights and 
Privileges of the Jews. 7. Trials and Difficulties. 8. Sects Arise. 

CHAPTER LXXX. 

Palestine Passing Into the Roman Empire. — 1. Civil War Subjects them 
to the Romans. 2. Precarious Government. 3. Herod Becomes King and 
Exterminates the Asmonean Dynasty. 4. Great Calamities. 5. Roman Policy. 
6. Sixth Policy Failed. 



1012 CONTENTS. 

Period Fourteenth — Prpparation for the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. 

CHAPTER LXXXI. 

(Continued from chapter LXXVIH.) 

Programme of the Roman Empire ; The Seventh Head of the Dragon. — 

1. Satan Determined to Fight it Out. 2. Self-Willed Power. 3. Will Change 
His Religion, be Pushed, and be Destroyed. 4. Fourth Empire Divided and 
Destroyed. 5. Terrible and Destroying. 6. Supports a Persecuting Power, 
and Continues till the Judgment. 7. Must be Divided in Two Parts. 

CHAPTER LXXXIL 

JRed Dragon Watching the Throne of David. — 1. Promise of a Son to Rule 
the Nations. 2. The Saints Animated by the Promises. 3. Herod Qualified to 
Watch the Throne of David. 4. The Enrollment. 5. Herod tSeeks the Favor 
of Both Jews and Romans. 6. Birth of John the Baptist. 7. The Birth of Christ 
Announced. 8. Perilous Situation of Mary. 9. Birth of John. 10. Birth of 
Christ. 11. Announcement to the Shepherds. 32. The Shepherds- Yisit. 13. 
Presented in the Temple. 14. The Magi Inquire. 15. Trouble in Jerusalem. 
16. Herod's Yigilance. 17. The Child Snatched from Destruction. 18. Babes 
of Bethlehem Murdered. 19. Roman Emperors Seek the Seed of David. 

CHAPTER LXXXIII. 

Condition of the Jews When Christ Entered on His Ministry. — 1. A Boy 
in the Temple. 2. Fidelity and Condition of the Jews. 3. Their Synagogues. 
4. Their Privileges. 5. Decrees Concerning the Jews. 6. Yisits to the Temple. 

7. Impious Jews in Jerusalem. 8. Some Truly Pious. 9. Pious Gentiles. 10. 
Temple Worship. 11. Inquiries and Answers. 

PREPARATORY AGE MERGING INTO THE INTERMEDIATE. 
Period Fifteenth — Mission of Jesus Christ on Earth. 

CHAPTER LXXXIY. 

John Baptist'^ s Missionary Labors. — 1. John Baptist's Introduction. 2. The 
Prophecy Yerified. 3. Plain Talk. 4. His Success. 5. Superiority of Christ's 
Mission. 6. Baptism Among the Jews. 7. Actions in Purification of Persons. 

8. Words Used and Rabbinical Testimony. 9. Proselyte Baptism. 10. Rob- 
inson and Clark. 11. Christ Baptized. 12. Christ's Sonship Acknowledged. 
13. Jesus Always Presents New Evidence. 

CHAPTER LXXXY. 

Introduction to Chrisfs Ministry. — 1. His Royal Prerogatives Established. 

2. His Divine [Nature and Superior Excellency Established. 3. His Incarnation, 
Claim, and Kingdom. 4. His Headship of the Human Family. 5. The Tempta- 
tion. 6. Three Temptations Recorded. 7. Message of the Sanhedrim, and 
Further Testimony of John Baptist. 8. Christ the Lamb of God. 9. First 
Followers. 10. Returns to Galilee. 11. Attends a Wedding. 

CHAPTER LXXXYL 

Eirst Missionary Tour to Jerusalem and Back. — 1. Sudden Appearance in 
the Temple. 2. Reception. 3. Reception Into the Kingdom of God. 4. Must 
be Born of God. 5. Nicodemus Ought to Have Known This. 6. God Loves 
the World as Well as Israel. 7. Justification and Condemnation. 8. Complete 



Reconciliation Made. - 9. John Baptist Rejoices in Clirist's Superiority and 
Success. 10. John Asserts Christ's Competence to Testify to Divine Truths. 
11. Imprisonment and Death of John Baptist. 12. The Woman of Samaria. 

13. People Were Waiting for the Advent of the Messiah. 14. Acknowledged 
by the Samaritans. 15. What Christ Preached. 16. Reception in Nazareth. 

CHAPTER LXXXYII. 

Second Tour^ Including Jerusalem. — 1. Christ's Power over Fishes, Demons, 
and Fevers. 2. Journeyings, Preaching, and Healing. 3. High-Priest Judges of 
Christ's Miracle. 4. Christ's Power to Forgive Sins. 5. Christ's Divinity. 6. 
Unity of Father and Son. 7. Christ as Judge Must be Honored and will Save. 8. 
Will Raise and Judge the Dead. 9. Evidence of His Messiahship. 10. Divine 
Testimony to His Mission. 11. Cause of their Unbelief. 12. Christ Superior 
to the Law. 13. Hostility to Christ. 14. Missionary Labor. 15. Who Are 
Blessed. 16. Will be Persecuted, but Blessed. 17. Position in the World. 
18. Licentiousness not Tolerated. 19. Excellencies of Moses' Laws. 20. Text 
of the Sermon on the Mount. 21. Must Obey Civil Law and Excel in Moral 
Character. 22. Various Cases Specified. 23. Same, continued. 24-25. The 
Lord's Prayer. 26. Singleness of Purpose. 27. Supreme and Subordinate 
Objects. 28. Prudence in Judging. 29. Respect for Holy Things. 30. Guard 
Against Popular Measures. 31. Must Receive and Practice the Truth. 

CHAPTER LXXX7III. 

Missionary Circuits in Galilee j Capernaum the Center. — 1. Centurion at 
Capernaum. 2. John's Message and Christ's Reply and Discourse. 3. Rejecters 
of John Reject Christ. 4. Happiness in Christ Alone. 5. The Weeping Woman. 
6. A General Tour. 7. Charge Made and Repelled. 8. No Neutral Ground. 
9. Their Real Character. 10. Danger of Partial Reformation. 

CHAPTER LXXXIX. 

Circuits in Galilee^ Continued. — 1. Parable of the Sower. 2. Imperceptible 
Growth of the Kingdom; and Tares in It. 3. Kingdom Small at First, but Self- 
Supporting. 4. Christ Sleeps in the Storm. 5. Gadarene Demoniac. 6. Christ. 
Receives Sinners. 7. The Touch of His Garments Heals. 8. The Daughter 
and Others Healed. 9. The Demons. 10. Salvation from the Demons. 11. 
Rejected at Nazareth. 12. The Harvest Large. 13. The Twelve Commissioned. 

14. Their Treatment. 15. They Must Not Fear Men. 16. Be Ready to Give 
Up All for Christ. 17. Work for Christ Shall be Rewarded. 18. The Twelve 
Missionate. 

CHAPTER XC. 

Missionating Still in Galilee. — 1. Five Thousand Fed. 2. Disciples Alone 
in a Storm. 3. Jesus Walks on the Sea. 4. Refuses to be Made King. 5. 
They were Not Proper Subjects for Christ. 6. The Proper Subjects will Never 
be Lost. 7. Christ an Absolute, Independent, and Self-Sufficient King. 8. 
Disciples Offended and Abandon Him. 9. Delegates from Jerusalem Oppose 
Him. 10. Four Thousand Fed. 11. Opinions About Christ. 12. Foretells His 
Death and the Proximity of His Kingdom. 13. Transfiguration. 14. Disciples 
can not Understand Christ's Death and Resurrection. 15. Disciples' Want of 
Faith Prevents Casting Out a Demon. 16. Greatest in the Kingdom of God. 
17. Those Causing Offenses. 18. All Must Reform from Sin. 19. Christ's Laws 
Adapted to Secure Peace. 20. The Seventy Sent Out. 



10l4 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XCI. 

Third Tour^ Including Jerusalem. — 1. Travels East of Jordan and Enters 
the Temple. 2. In Midst of Enemies and Dangers. 3. Enemies Confounded 
and Dispersed. 4. He Talks to His Enemies. 5. Solemn Warning. 6. True 
Freedom. 7. Children of Abraham and of the Devil. 8. They Still Resist the 
Truth. 9. The Seventy Return and the Success of the Gospel. 10. How to 
Inherit Eternal Life. 11. Part Most Pleasing to Christ. 12. Hypocrisy of the 
Pharisees. 13. Exhorts to True Piety. 14. Watchfulness and Endurance. 15. 
Doom of the Impenitent Jews. 

CHAPTER XCII. . 

Fourth Tour^ Including Jerusalem. — 1. Preaching on the Way to Jerusalem. 
2. The Man's Faith and Jews' Obstinacy. 3. Jesus Proved to be the Messiah. 
4. The Door and Shepherd. 5. Thieves and Robbers. 6. Christ's Care of the 
Sheep; the People's Decision. T. Pharisees Pretend to Want Evidence. 8. 
Attempt to Kill Him. 9. Narrow and Broad Ways. 10. Lamentation Over 
Jerusalem ; Censures Pharisees and Lawyers. 11. Calculate the Cost Before 
Beginning. 12. Angels Interested in Sinners. 13. Advice and Warning. 14. 
Rich Man and Beggar. 15. Conversion Necessary to Citizenship. 

CHAPTER XCIII. 

Last Tour to Jerusalem. — 1. Work in Galilee Done. 2. Enemies Made to be 
Witnesses. 3. Second Advent. 4. Patience and Perseverance. 5. Rich Men 
Enter with Difficulty. 6. Terms of Citizenship the Same to All. 7. Traveling 
and Preaching with Depressed Spirits. 8. Rank and Authority in the Kingdom 
of God. 9. Rich Men Can Enter the Kingdom. 10. Talents Must be Improved. 
11. Lazarus Dead. 12. Interviews and Opinions. 13. Lazarus Raised. 14. 
Consultation Against Christ. 15. Decision. 16 Christ's Precaution and His. 
Enemies' Yigilance. 

CHAPTER XCIY. 

Chrisfs Last Passover. — 1. Mary Anoints Christ. 2. The Crowd Meets 
Christ at Bethany. 3. Resurrection of Lazarus Increases the Crowd. 4. Christ 
Weeps Over Jerusalem. 5. Jesus Enters the City and Temple. 6. Greeks 
Seek to See J^sus. 7. Jesus Troubled in Mind. 8. Danger of Abusing Divine 
Teaching and Warning. 9. Necessity of Receiving Christ. 10. Christ Can 
Curse as Well as Bless. 11. The People Hang on Him for Instruction. 12. 
Powers Given to the Apostles. 13. Source of Christ's Authority. 14. Who 
Obeys ? 15. Why the Jews were Rejected. 16. The Wedding Garment. 17. 
Pay Tribute to Civil Rulers. 18. Spirits, Future State, and Resurrection. 19. 
Love, the Foundation of Moral Laws. 20. Love is a Law of Creation. 21. Vari- 
ous Topics. 22. Three Questions Proposed. 23. The End of the Age. 24. 
Destruction of Temple and City. 25. Calamities and False Christs. 26. Signs 
Preceding Second Advent. 27. The Second Advent. 28. Necessity of Watching 
for Christ's Coming. 29. Ten Virgins. 30. Grand Division of Those not 
Christ's Brethren. 

CHAPTER XCV. 

Last Meeting of the Apostles. — 1. Judas Bargains to Betray Jesus. 2. Time 
and Place of the Last Passover. 3. Passover Supper Commenced. 4. Conten- 
tion about Superiority Rebuked. 5. The Lesson Taught. 6. Treachery of Judas. 
7. Christ Glorified and the Father Glorified in Him. 8. Sympathy for His Dis- 
ciples. 9. Peter's Denial Foretold. 10. Lord's Supper Instituted. 11. Disap- 
pointment. 12. Christ the Way, Truth, and Light, and One with the Father. 



CONTENTS. 1015 

13. The Comforter Promised. 14. Competency of this Comforter. 15. Christ 
Visible to Disciples and not to the World. 16. Why Christ Foretold these 
Things. 17. Supper Closed. 18. The Yine and Branches. 19. Persecution 
will Come; Only Safety in Faithfulness. 20. Necessity of Christ Departing and 
the Comforter Coming. 21. Warnings, Exhortations, and Consolations. 22. 
Christ's Intercession for their Safe Keeping. 23. Christ Argues their Case. 24. 
Intercession not Restricted to the First Disciples. 25. Prays for their Perfection 
and Glory. 26. Christ still Foretells the Approaching Events. 27. Agonizing 
in the Garden. 28. Disciples Sleep with Sorrow; Christ's Compassion. 

CHAPTER XCYI. 

Crucifixion and Death. — 1. Apprehension. 2. Those in the Palace. 3. 
Mock Trial. 4. Ruffianism in the High-Priest's Palace. 5. Peter Denies his 
Teacher. 6. Jesus Before the Sanhedrim; Judas Confesses. 7. First Charges 
not Sustained. 8. Pilot Finds no Fault; Sends Him to Herod. 9. Pilot Pro- 
poses to Release Jesus. 10. Rejected by the Chief Priests. 11. Christ Mocked 
by Soldiers; Pilot in Trouble. 12. Pilot's Last Effort to Deliver Jesus. 13. 
Christ Bearing His Cross. 14. The Crime for which Crucified. 15. Crucified 
and Guarded. 16. On the Cross Derided. 17. Christ Himself on the Cross. 
18. 'Tis Finished. 19. Attending Circumstances. 

CHAPTER XCYII. 

Resurrection and Ascension. — -1. Not a Bone Broken. 2. Buried and Rests. 
3. Exultation and Dejection Among the Jews. 4. Sepulchre Guarded. 5. The 
Resurrection. 6. Three Women, Peter, and John visit the Sepulchre. 7. 
Appears to the Women. 8. Story of the Guard. 9. Second Party of Women. 
10. Two Disciples Going to Emmaus. 11. Why not Recognized. 12. Appears 
in their Midst. 13. Convinces Thomas; Meet in Galilee. 14. At the Sea of 
Galilee. 35. Destiny of Peter and John. 16. Yisits During Forty Days. 17. 
Commission and Promises. 18. Ascension. 19. Position of Foes and Friends; 
Conclusion. 

CHAPTER XCYIII. 

Some of Ohrisfs Teachings. — 1. What He did not Command. 2. Uses of 
Baptidzo in the Scriptures. 3. Concurrent Testimony of Lexicons. 4. Uses in 
the Language. 5, Faith that Saves. 6. What is Faith in Christ. 7. What is 
the Salvation. 8. External Life not Temporal Life. 9. Opposed to Shoel, or 
Hades. 10. Josephus. 11. Correspondence with Scripture. 12. Yiewed 
According to Our Ideas of the Universe. 13. The Christian's Hope in Death. 

14. Salvation from Wrath in this Life. 15. Salvation from Eternal Wrath. 16. 
These Evils are in the Future. 17. Obedience Indispensable. 

CHAPTER XCIX. 

' Collateral History of the Jews and Roman Rulers.— 1. Tiberias, Herods, 
and Pilate. 2. Caius Cahgula. 3. Claims Divine Honors. 4. Attempts to 
Place his Statue in the Temple. 5. Noble Conduct of Petronius. 6. The Deliv- 
erance. 7. Claudius, Agrippa, and Roman Governors. 

Period Sixteenth. — Apostolic Mission. 

CHAPTER C. 

The Kigdom of God Come in Power to the Jews. — 1. People Congregated 
for the Pentecost. 2. State of the Public Mind. 3. First Congregation of Dis- 
ciples. 4. Descent of the Holy Spirit. 5. Witnesses to the Fact. 6. A Time 
of Wonders. 7. Prophecy Yerified.^ 8. Christ Preached. 9. Exhortation to 
Reformation. 10. Number and Character of Disciples. 11. Peace and Favor. 
12. Jerusalem Suitable for the Occasion, 



1016 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER CI. 

Persecution hy the Rulers of the Jews. — 1. Success Excites Opposition. 2. 
The Apostles Show Facts. 3. Cite Prophecies and Show the Position of the 
Jews. 4, Apostles Apprehended. 5. Apostles' Defense. 6. Peace and Pros- 
perity. 7. First Hypocrites Punished. 8. Success and Persecution. 9. Apos- 
tles Before the Council Again. 10. Number and Character 'of the Disciples. 
11. Sanhedrim Yanquished. 12. Gospel Triumphant in Jerusalem. 13. The 
Seven Appointed. 14. Priests Obedient to the Faith. 

PREPARATORY AGE CLOSED — INTERMEDIATE AGE, BEGUN WITH THE 
PREACHING OF JOHN THE BAPTIST, SET UP. 

CHAPTER CII. 

Persecution hy Jewish Poman Citizens. — 1. False Charges Against Stephen. 
2. Stephen's Discourse. 3. The First Martyr. 4. Persecution Disperses the 
Church at Jerusalem. 5. Disciples Prepared for Missionary Work. 6. Samar- 
itans Receive the Gospel. 7. The Ethiopean Eunuch. 8. Saul Commissioned 
to Damascus. 9. Converted on the Road. 10. Baptized at Damascus. 11. 
Hope of the Sanhedrim Blasted. 12. Saul Preaches and is Persecuted. 13. 
Peter Missionating. 14. The Gospel again Triumphant at Jersualem. 

CHAPTER cm. 

Gentiles Becotne Fellow-Heirs with Jews. — 1. Gentiles Turn to Jehovah. 

2. The Angel's Part. 3. Part for Cornehus. 4. Peter's Vision. 5. The Spirit 
Speaks. 6. Peter Goes with Them. 7. The Holy Spirit Given to the Gentiles. 
8. Peter Convinced, and Opens to the Gentiles. 9. Claudius and Agrippa Sov- 
ereigns. 10. Gospel at Antioch. 11. Believers called Christians. 12. Source 
of Instruction and State of the Jews. 13. Agrippa's Persecution. 14. Agrippa 
Defeated, but not Converted. 15. Antioch a Missionary Center. 16. Mission 
to the Gentiles. 17. Disposition to Hear, and Hostility. 18. Natural Influence 
of Miracles. 19. Dispute About Circumcision. 20. Council at Jerusalem. 21. 
The Decision. 22. Paul and Barnabas Continue at Antioch. 

CHAPTER CIY. 

Mission of Paul and Silas. — 1. Barnabas and Paul Separate. 2. Paul in 
Philippi. 3. In Thessalonica. 4. Paul in Athens. 5. Paul at Corinth. 6. 
Nero, Felix, and Agrippa, Rulers. 7. Paul Commences His Third Missionary 
Tour. 8. Paul in Asia. 9. Paul at Troas. 10. Paul's Charge to the Elders 
of the Church at Ephesus. 11. Paul Returned to Jerusalem. 

CHAPTER CY. 

Paul a Prisoner. — 1. Paul and James at Jerusalem. 2. Paul Apprehended. 

3. Paul's Speech. 4. Paul Sent to the Governor. 5. Discourse to Felix. 6. 
Paul Appeals to Csesar. 7. Yoyage to Rome. 8. Conference with the Jews 
at Rome. 9. Two Years at Rome. 

CHAPTER CVI. 

The Manner and Means of Propagating and Preserving the Gospel. — 1. 
Account of the Apostles and Evangelists. 2. Gospel Propagated at the First. 
3. Persecution Sent Teachers. 4. The Gospel Often Preceded the Apostles. 5. 
Importance of the Jews and their Institutions. 6. Countries Where Christian 
Churches were Organized. 7. Districts Occupied by Different Apostles. 8. 
Traditionary Communications. 9. Apostles and Apostolic Men. 10. Apostolic 



CONTENTS. 1017 

Centers and Success. 11. The Scriptures the Supreme Authority. 12. Officers 
in Churches. 13. ^N^ames, or Titles. 14. Duty of Overseers. 15. Character in 
Ruling. 16. Power in the Churches Themselves. lY. Authority Imposed on 
Officers and then Assumed by Them. 18. Angel, or Messenger. 19. Different 
Gifts to Different Persons. 20. The Kingdom of God Come with Power Upon 
the Nations. 21. First Battle Between Michael and the Dragon. 



CHAPTER CYII. 

Jewish Power Broken and Roman Resisted. — 1. Transition from the Law 
to the Gospel. 2. The Most Offensive Point in the Gospel. 3. Jews' Advantage 
to V^ex the Gentiles. 4. Destruction of Jerusalem Necessary. 5. Sin of the 
Rulers Returned upon their own Heads. 6. Desperate Characters and Conditions. 
7. Driven to Madness. 8. The Result. 9. Predictions Verified. 10. Triumph 
of Polytheism. 11. Second Battle Between Michael and the Red Dragon. 



The Revelations to John. A. M. 4099. A. D. 95. 
Divine Programmes. 

CHAPTER CYIIl. 

SCENE FIRST. 

Characters^ Threatening s^ Exhortations^ Commendations., and Rewards. — 
1. Programme Given. 2. Position in the Programmes of Daniel. 3. Condition 
and Desire of Christ's Disciples. 4. Revelation Given to John. 5. Designed 
to be Understood. 6. Christ Competent to Conquer and Govern. 7. Keeps a 
Supervision of His Churches while Extending His Kingdom. 8. Christ's Pre- 
rogatives. 9. Character of Churches. 10. Threatenings. 11. Commendations. 
12, Exhortations. 13. Rewards. 14. Design of these Letters. 



CHAPTER CIX. 

SCENE SECOND — PROGRAMME FIRST. 

The Outward Progressive Character and Condition of the Kingdom of 
God. — 1. The Present Royal City and Throne is in Heaven. 2. Triumph Over 
Polytheism Recognized and Represented. 3. Condition and Desire of Christ's 
Disciples. 4. Christ Obtains Authority to Instruct His Servants in Sealed 
Knowledge. 5. The Extent and Glory of God and of Jesus Christ 6. Angels 
Around the Throne. 7. A Picture. 8. Explanation. 9. Picture Second. 10. 
Picture Third. 11. The Sons of Oil will Live. 12. Picture Fourth. 13. Picture 
Fifth. 14. The Man of Sin Developed. 15. His Evident Condition and Destiny. 
16. Picture Sixth. 17. Connection and Explanation of the Picture. 18. Plain 
History. 19. A Throng Gathered Around the Throne. 20. The Consummation 
of the Kingdom. 21. Picture Seventh. 22. An Interlude. 23, The Number 
and Object. 24. Why are they Israelites. 



CHAPTER ex. 

SCENE THIRD — PROGRAMME SECOND. 

Judgments Sent on the Earthy or Empire. — 1. Antichristian State and 
Impending Judgments. 2. A New Scene. 3. What was Sent on the Earth. 
4. The First Trumpet. 5. The Second Trumpet. 6. The Third Trumpet. 7. 
The Fourth Trumpet. 8. The Fifth Trumpet, 9. The Consequences. 10. Tlie 
Sixth Trumpet. 
--65 



1018 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEE CXI. 

SCENE FOURTH. 

An Interlude I Events Synchronizing with Some of the Trumpets and Con- 
nected with Them. — 1. Angel, Book, and Thunders. 2. When these Mysteries 
End. 3. Measuring Necessary. 4. The Sons of Oil Prophecy. 5. Death and 
Resurrection of Witnesses. 6. The Seventh Trumpet. 7. Temple Opened. 

CHAPTER CXII. 

SCENE FIFTH — PROGRAMME THIRD. 

Polytheistic Antagonism to the Kingdom of God. — 1. How to be Under- 
stood. 2. The Woman. 3. The Red Dragon. 4. Theater of Action. 5. Herod 
Watching. 6. Son Born, Protected, and Woman Hid. 7. Third of the Stars. 

8. Hurled Into Obscurity. 9. Michael Attacks the Dragon. 10. No Compro- 
mise with Polytheism. 11. Polytheism Cast down. 12. The Victory. 13. The 
Flood. 14. The Woman in the Wilderness. 15. What the Woman Represents. 

CHAPTER CXIII. 

SCENE SIXTH — PROGRAMME THIRD. 

Monotheistic Antagonism to the Kingdom of God. — 1. Successor to the 
Dragon. 2. Wounded Head and Yeneration. 3. Blasphemous Titles and 
Speeches. 4. Two Horned Wild Beast. 5. Relation and Duration. 

CHAPTER CXIY. 

SCENE SEVENTH — PROGRAMME FOURTH. 

Christ Recovering His Holy Mountain by the Martyrs^ Gospel., and Har- 
vests. — 1. The Lamb on Mount Zion. 2. The Song in Heaven that None but 
the Martyrs could Sing on Earth. 3. The Missionary Angel. 4. The Investi- 
gating Angel. 5. Wrath Denounced on Worshipers of the Beast and Image. 6. 
Patience of the Saints. 7. Grain Harvest. 8. Grape Harvest. 

CHAPTER CXY. 

SCENE EIGHTH — PROGRAMME FIFTH. 

Judgments on the Worshipers of the Beast and His Image. — 1. A Song of 
Yictory. 2. The Seven Angels. 3. The First Yial. ' 4. The Second Yial. 5. 
The Third Yial. 6. The Fourth Yial. 7. The Fifth Yial. 8. The Sixth Yial. 

9. Three Frog Spirits. 10. Christ's Warning. 11. Seventh Yial. 

CHAPTER CXYI. 

SCENE NINTH— PROGRAMME SIXTH. 

An Apostate Church and Empire and Their Destruction. — 1. The Harlot. 
2. Her Empire. 3. Seven Heads. 4. Ten Horns. 5. Character of the Harlot. 
6. Resuscitated Beast, or Empire. 7. Warning to the Pious. 8. The Saints Re- 
joice over her Destruction. 9. The True Church Appears. 10. John's Gratitude. 

CHAPTER CXYII. 

SCENE TENTH. 

Battle Got Up hy the Frog Spirits. — 1. The Frog Armies. 2. The White 
Horse Armies. 3. Great Carnage Evident. 4. Battle and Yictory. 5. The 
Beast and False Prophet in Perdition. 6. Dragon Imprisoned. 



CONTENTS. 1019 

CHAPTEE CXYIII. 

SCENE ELEVENTH. 

Resurreotion TJnto Life and Judgment of the Living. — 1. The Time Fore- 
told. 2. Honor and Piety. 3. White Horse Army. 4. An Actual Resurrection. 
5. When Israel i^ Restored. 6. When the Seventh Trumpet Sounds. 7. When 
this Age is Consummated. 8. Two Resurrections. 9. Paul's Order of the Res- 
urrection. 10. Conclusion. 11. Objections Answered. 12. Scott's Objections. 

CHAPTER CXIX. 

SCENE TWELFTH. 

The Consummated Age of the Kingdom of God. — 1. Order of the ISTarrative. 
2. The Lamb's Wife. 3. JS'ew Jerusalem Descends. 4. Her Excellencies. 5. 
Light. 6. Resurrectionized Bodies Luminous. 7. Diabolian Antagonism. 8. 
The Second Resurrection and Judgment. 9. The Book of Life. 10. Hearers 
of the Gospel Judged Now. 11. New Heaven and New Earth. 12. Design of 
these Revelations. 13. Conclusion. 14. The Conclusion Announced from the 
Throne. 

CHAPTER CXX. 

(Concluded from chapter LXX.) 

The Hope of Israel. — 1. Christ on the Throne of David. 2. Promises Ver- 
ified in Christ. 3. Teachings of Zacheriah and Paul. 4. Character of Citizens. 
5. Jerusalem Restored. 6. Descends. 7. Description of. 8. Holiness and 
Happiness. 9. The Resurrection. 10. Gentiles Inherit the Hope. 

CHAPTER CXXI. 

The Second Advent. — 1. First Advent. 2. The Second a Settled Fact. 3. 
Mistake of the Jews. 4. Will be in the Clouds. 5. Coming in His Kingdom 
not the Same. 6. Will be Conspicuous. 7. The Time of Restoration of all 
Things. 8. Different Exhibitions of Events in Consecutive Order. 9. World in 
Hostility to Christ then. 10. What Resurrection Takes Place Before the Millin- 
nium. 11. Length of the Day of Judgment. 12. Separation Necessary. 

CHAPTER CXXII. 

The Spiritual Body. — 1. Terms Defined. 2. Paul's Use of the Term. 3. 
What is a Spiritual Body. 4. Will the Changes in the Resurrectionized Body 
Destroy its Substance or Organization. 5. A Change of Terms. 6. Flesh and 
Blood can not Inherit the Kingdom of God. 7. Same as Christ's Body. 8. 
What is a Human Body. 9. Spiritual Body Essential in the Consummated Age. 

CHAPTER CXXIII. 

The Kingdom of God. — 1. Grammatico Historical Meaning of Terms and 
Phrases. 2. Not Defined. 3. Special Meanings. 4. Grammatico Historical 
Meaning Determined. 5. Jews' Opinion of the Kingdom. 6. Two Ages. 7. 
Jewish Use of Ages. 8. Incidentally Shown. 9. The Subject of Predictions. 
10. The Universal and Everlasting Kingdom of Daniel. 11. Jews' Mistake. 12. 
Correct Yiews of the Jews. 13. Definition. 14. Character of Citizens. 15. 
Parables, Descriptive of. 16. Jews in the Consummated Age. 17. The Reform- 
ing Power of. 18. Importance of the Subject. 



1020 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER CXXIY. 

Laws and Object of the Kingdom. — 1. Design of the Kingdom. 2. Laws 
of the Kingdom. 3. Love to God. 4. Attributes of God. 5. Kevealed and 
Philosophical Religions. 6. Regeneration Indispensable to Citizenship. 7. Re- 
lations and Obligations. 8. Object of Churches. 9. Relation to Institutions of 
the World. 10. Relation to Civil Government. 

Period Seventeenth.— A. M. 4030-4330. A. D. 26-326. 

The Pure, or First Seal, Period in the Intermediate Age of the Kingdom of God. 

CHAPTER CXXV. 

Position in the Divine Programme.^ and Character of the Kingdom. — 1. No 
Central City, or Authority. 2. The Standard Authority. 3. Difficulty in 
Obtaining Adequate Historical Knowledge. 4. Position of the Kingdom in the 
Divine Programme. 5. Power Among the Nations. 6. Apostles, and Apostolic 
Men. 7. Heretics. 8. Three Antagonistic Forces. 9. The Character of the 
Kingdom During this First Seal Period. 10. Testimony of Friends and Foes. 
11. Regard to Inspired Authority. 12. Things Not Enjoined. 13. Individual 
Labor, and not Leadership. 14. Jews and Heretics. 15. The Michael Army 
and First Seal Characteristics. 

CHAPTER CXXVI. 

Michael and Red Dragon War. — 1. Polytheism a Slanderer, or Diabolos. 
2. Body and Heads of the Dragon. 3. Third Battle. 4. Apologies. 5. The 
Fourth Battle. 6. Fifth Battle. 7. The Kingdom Advances. 8. Sixth Battle. 
9. Kingdom Advances. 10. Seventh Battle. 11. Division and Civil War Defeat 
the Dragon. 12. Michael Army Triumphant. 13. Song of Victory. 

CHAPTER CXXVII. 

Character Changes from First Seal to Second Seal. — 1. The Woman, or 
True Churches. 2. The White Horse Conspicuous. 3. Changes in Govern- 
ment. 4. Changes in Ordinances and Yiews of Membership. 5. Schism. 6. 
Yiew of Church Membership. 

Period Eighteenth.— A. M. 4330-4600. A. D. 326-596. 
The Second Seal, or Red Horse, Period. 

CHAPTER CXXYIII. 

Fall.^ Wrath, Persecution, Flood, and War. — 1. Polytheism Cast Out. 2. 
The Last Struggle. 3. The Character of the Citizens of Empire and Church. 
4. Wrath Shown Against Christians. 5. Dragon Persecutes the Woman. 6. 
Facilities for Fleeing Into the Wilderness. 7. Floods of Polytheists. 

CHAPTER CXXIX. 

A. M. 4330-5465. A. D. 326-1461. 

The J^irst Wild Beast; Monotheistic Antagonism. — 1. Compromise with the 
Dragon. 2. Characteristics of the Beast. 3. Civil and Ecclesiastical Charac- 
teristics. 4. Blasphemous Titles. 

CHAPTER CXXX. 

The Second Seal Characteristics. — 1. Red Horse Conspicuous. 2. White 
Horse Still Yisible. 



OONTENtg. 1021 

CHAPTER CXXXI. 

Necessity for Measuring and Sealing. — 1. Necessity for Measuring. 2. 
Necessity of Sealing. 3. How Statesmen and Heroes Regard Genuine Piety. 

CHAPTER CXXXII. 

A. M. 4200-4400. A. D. 196-396. 
Fallen Star^ Abyss^ and Smoke.— \. Heathen Philosophy. 2. The Fallen 
Star. 3. The Abyss. 4. Gnostics. 5. Eclectic Platonics. 6. Origin Advances 
It. 7. Its Rise and Influence in Second Century. 8. Progress in the Third 
Century. 9. In Fourth Century. 10. It Dispelled the Hope of Israel. 

CHAPTER CXXXIII. 

A Review of the Progress., Position.^ and Condition of Christianity at the 
End of the Fourth Century. — 1. Progress and Perversion of Christianity. 2. 
Relation of the Empire, Church, and Heretics, and their Condition. 

CHAPTER CXXXIY. 

A. M. 4400-4736. A. D. 396-732. 

Censer Cast Upon the Earth; First and Second Trumpets. — 1. Alaric and 
the Goths. 2. The First Trumpet Has Sounded. 3. Radagaisus, Vandals, 
Suevi, and Bergundians. 4. Discords, and Alaric' s Second Invasion. 5. The 
European Division of Empire Destroyed. 6. Attila and the Huns in Europe. 
7. Second Trumpet Sounded ; Genseric and the Vandals in Africa. 8. Rome 
Sacked. 9. Soldiers of the Empire were Formerly Polytheists. 10. The First, 
or Latin, Head of the Monotheistic Wild Beast Expires. 11. Fragments Begin 
to Consolidate. 12. Facilities for the True Churches to Shelter, and the Situation 
of all in the West. 

CHAPTER CXXXV. 

A. M. 4364. A. D. 360. 

The Third Trumpet Sounding. — 1. Sources and Streams of Renovation. 2. 
Apollinarius. 3. Nestorius. 4. Nestorians Increase. 5. The Monophysite 
Influence. 6. Characteristics of Second Seal Conspicuous. 

CHAPTER CXXXVI. 

A.M. 4399-4531. A. D. 395-527. 

Partial Restoration of the Roman Empire. — 1. A View of the Government 
of the Second, or Greek, Head. 2. Justinian and the Clergy. 3. Africa Recon- 
quered by the Greek Head. 4. Italy Reconquered to the Empire. 5. Catholics 
Aid the Greeks. 6. Patriarch of Rome and the Catholics of the West Taken 
Under the Protection of the Greek Emperor. 7. Revolutions and Invasions Sub- 
dued. 8. Empire Church under Justinian. 9. Triumph of Monotheism over 
Polytheism. 

CHAPTER CXXXVII. 

A. M. 4565-4628. A. D. 561-624. 
The Fourth Trumpet Sounding. — 1. Decline from Justinian to Heraclius. 
2. Persians and Avars Threaten the Empire, but are Defeated. 3. Phocus 
Brings Calamities on the Empire. 4. Frank Monarchy Acknowledged by the 
Greek Head. 5. Nestorians, Driven by Persecution, Migrate Into Persia. 6. 
The Darkest Time. 7. The Situation Desperate. 8. Polytheism Vanquished. 
9. Contention Continued. 



102^ CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER CXXXYIII. 

A. M. 4404. A. D. 400. 

The Second^ or Religious^ Monotheistio Wild Beast Arises. — 1. The Bar- 
barians Become Catholic Christians. 2. Influence of the Clergy in the Civil 
Government. 3. The Catholic Church Under Five Patriarchs. 4. The Power 
and Influence of Clergy and Monks in the Empire. 5. Concentrates Into a 
Unitarian Caliph and Trinitarian Pope. 

CHAPTER CXXXIX. 

Mahometanism and the Oaliphs. — 1. The Origin of Mahometanism. 2. 
Locality and Extent. 3. Exalts Itself. 4. Doctrine. 5. Character of. 

CHAPTER CXL. 

A. M. 4455-4732. A. D. 451-728. 

Papal Morn. — 1. Patriarchs Contend for Supremacy. 2. The Papal Horn 
Consummated. 

Period Nineteenth.— A. M. 4600-5056. A D. 596-1052. 
Third Seal, or Black Horse, Period. 

CHAPTER CXLI. 

A. M. 4632. A. D. 628. 
The Fifth Trumpet. (Continued from chap. 132.) — 1. Heathen Philosophy. 

2. Increase of Monks. 3. Darkness. 4. Smoke and Distraction. 5. Con- 
quests. 6. Battles. 7. Conquests. 8. Asia Minor and Constantinople. 9. 
Five Months. 10. Torments. 11. A Characteristic of Women. 12. Commis- 
sion Limited. 13. The Men Seek Death. 14. Their Mission. 15. The Fourth 
Headship of the Monotheistic Antagonism to the Kingdom of God. 

CHAPTER CXLII. 

Defunct Latin^ or Firsts Head of the Monotheistic Wild Beast Renovated 
in and hy the Papal Horn of the Second Beast. — 1. Power of the Ecclesiastical 
Beast Seen in the Contest About Image Worship. 2. Popes' Power. 3. Latin 
Head Restored. 4. Little Horn of Daniel. 

CHAPTER CXLIIL 

A. M. 4485-4800. A. D. 481-796. 

Franh^ or Thirds Head of the Monotheistic Wild Beast Fstabllshed. — 1. 
Frank Monarchy Arises with Clovis. 2. Frank Empire Perfected by the Pope. 

3. Power and Conquests. 4. Carlovingian Dynasty. 5. Papal Wild Beast. 7. 
The Horns. 

CHAPTER CXLIY. 

A. M. 4940-5100. A. D. 936-1096. 
The First Woe. — 1. Position in A. D. 800. 2. Decline of the Saracens. 
3. Greek Empire Reconquers. 4. Rise of the Turks. 5. Invade the Greek 
Empire. 6. Woes in the Papal Dominions. 7. Woe of the Popes. 8. German 
Head. 9. Internal Woes. 

CHAPTER CXLY. 

A. M. 4400-5000. A. D. 396-996. 
Characteristics of the Second and Third Seals. — 1. Blending of the Char- 
" acteristics. 2. Black Horse. 3. The Yoke. 4. Inexorable Despotism, Black- 
ness of Character and Intelligence. 5. Yoice from the Aggressive Force of the 
Kingdom of God. 



CONTENTS. 1023 

CHAPTER CXLVI. 

The Woman in the Wilderness^ Her Seed^ and the Two Martyrs. — 1. The 
Woman in the Wilderness. 2. The Seed of the Woman. 3. Spread and Ex- 
tent. 4. Persecution and Defense. 

CHAPTEK CXLYII. 

A. M. 4964-5254. A. D. 960-1250. 
The Little Horn Becomes Stouter than his Fellows^ or the Popes and Sov- 
ereigns Contend for Superiority . — 1. Contest with Princes. 2. With the Henrys. 
3. With the Fredericks. 4. Power Obtained. 

Period Twentieth.— A. M. 5056-5652. A. D. 1052-1648. 
Fourth Seal, or Pale Horse, Period. 

CHAPTER CXLYIII. 

A. M. 5100-5295. A. D. 1096-1291. 
Crusades and Sounding of the Sixth Trumpet. — 1. The position of Con- 
tending Parties. 2. Import of the Figure. 3. Prospective Yiew. 4. The First 
Crusade Gotten Up. 5. First Division. 6. Second Division. T. Turks Driven 
to the Euphrates and Bound There. 8. The Consummation. 9. Greek Empire 
and Christian Yiew. 10. Condition of the Turks. 11. Angels. Unbound. 12. 
Second Crusade. 13. Turkish Power Recovered. 14. Third Thunder. 15. 
Fourth Crusade. 16. Latin Kingdom Erected and Subverted. IT. Fifth Cru- 
sade. 18. Discord Between Emperor and Pope. 19. Sixth Crusade. 20. 
Seventh Crusade. 21. The Result. 

CHAPTER CXLIX. 

A. M. 5278-5465. A. D 1274-1461. 
Greek- Roman Empire., or Second Head, of the First Beast., Destroyed. — 

1. Power of Second Beast in the Greek Empire. 2. Last Resources of the Greek 
Empire. 3. Mogul Woe. 4. Ottoman Empire. 5. Tamerlane Woe. 6. Con- 
stantinople. 7. Under Unitarian Rule. 8. Characteristics of the Turks. 

CHAPTER CL. 

The Little Booh. — 1. Contents. 2. Division and Disposition of the Roman 
Empire. 3. The Little Horn out of the Macedonian Empire. 4. The Turks. 5. 
Boundarj^ and Destiny. 6. Russian and State Church. 7. The Western Empire. 

CHAPTER CLI. 
A. M. 5400-5600. A. D, 1396-1596. 

The Pope^ Fmperor, and State System. — 1. Image of Imperial Authority. 

2. The Pope Made the Image. 3. Obliged to Worship the Image. 4. Change. 
5. Rise of the State System. 6. The First Wild Beast Perfected. 7. Blas- 
phemous Titles. 8. Blasphemes with the Mouth. 9. This Empire not the 
Kingdom of God. 

CHAPTER CLIL 

A. M. 5050-5500. A. D. 1046-1496. 

The True Church and Her Helpers. — 1. Paulicians in the West. 2. Diffi- 
culty in Distinguishing Between the Woman and Her Seed. 3. Individual 
Witnesses or Reformers. 4. Seed of the Woman, or Reformed Churches. 5. 
The Woman Herself. 6. Persecution of the Woman and Her Seed. 



1024 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER CLIII. 

A. M. 5056-5652. A. D. 1054-1648. 

Fourth Seal Characteristic. — 1. Moving Force and Energy Corrupt. 2. 
Corruption Among the Clergy. 3, Doctrines Corrupt. 4. Kites and Cere- 
monies. 5. The Guiding Intelligence was Death and Hades. 6. Persecution 
in the West. 7. The Inquisition. 

CHAPTER CLIY. 

The Man of Sin. — 1. Lawless One Identified. 2. Jewish Effort to Estab- 
lish this Wicked One. 3. Transferred to the Christians. 4. The Character and 
Condition of the Deceived. 

CHAPTER CLY. 

A. M. 5300-5652. A. D. 1296-1648. 

Anti- Christian Power Broken. — 1. Christ Appearing with One Hundred 
and Forty-four Thousand Martyrs. 2. Offensive Measures Adopted. 3. Yiew of 
the Image of the Beast. 4. Schism between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Leaders. 
5. Schism in the Papal Headship. 6. Among the Monks. 7. Between Monks 
and Universities. 8. Among the Philosophers. 9. About Councils and Popes. 

CHAPTER CLYL 

Protestant Schism Effected. — 1. Schism Established in Germany. 2. Spread 
of the Schism. 3. Efforts to Heal the Sore. 

CHAPTER CLYIL 

A. M. 5500-5652. A. D. 1496-1648. 

The Second Bowl^ or Vial., and the Bloody Sea. — 1. Import of the Scene 

and Symbol. 2. Contest Between Pope and Emperor. 3. Religious Wars in 

England. 4. Italy Drowned in Blood. 5. Spain Exhausted. 6. France Dyed 

in Blood. 7. Germany Immersed in Blood and Wretchedness. 8. The Result. 

CHAPTER CLYIII. 
A. M. 5652-5665. A. D. 1648-1661. 

The Subject of Wrath Designated ; the Harlot and Her Beast. — 1. The 
Harlot. 2. The third Wild Beast. 3. Ten Horns. 4. Blasphemous Titles. 
5. The Eighth Head. 

Period Twenty-first.— A. M. 5652-5928. A. D. 1648-1924. 

The Safety and Prosperity of the Witnesses, and the Power of the Kingdom of God Exercised 
on its Adversaries. 

CHAPTER CLIX. 

The Fifth Seal Historically Opened. — 1. The Seal. 2. Waldenses. 3. 
Bohemian Brethren. 4. Anabaptists. 5. Character of Anabaptists. 6. Peas- 
ants War. 7. Persecution of Anabaptists. 8. Mennonites. 9. The True Char- 
acter of. 10. How Become Stigmatized. 11. Their Destiny. 

CHAPTER CLX. 

A. M. 5500-5686. A. D. 1496-1682. 

Progress of Schis'in^ and the Blood of Saints Shed. — 1. Holland. 2. Switz- 
erland. 3. France. 4. Germany. 5. England. 6. Schism and Blood among 
Protestants in England. 7. Presbyterians and Independents. 8. Paj)al States. 



CONTENTS. 1025 

CHAPTER OLXI. 

Woman out of the Wilderness. — 1, Why Exterminated or Merged into Re- 
formed Churches. 2. Influence of Religious Revolutions in Great Britain. 3. 
Dates of Sojourning in the Wilderness. 

CHAPTER CLXIL 

A. M. 5663-5797. A. D. 1659-1793. 

Third Bowl^ or Yial. — 1. Position According to Divine Programme. 2. 
Wars of Louis XIY. of France. 3. England, Holland, and Others. 4 Spanish 
Succession. 5. Bloody Streams in North Europe. 6. Austrian Succession. 7. 
France, England, and the Colonies. 8. Rise of the United States. 9. Streams 
of Blood in France. 

CHAPTER CLXIII. 

A. M. 5799-5819. A. D. 1795-1815. 

The Fourth Vial^ or Bov)l^ or Soorohing Tyranny. — 1. General Yiew Ac- 
cording to Divine Programme. 2. French Despotism. 3. Tyrants Combine to 
Resist Tyranny. 4. Despots Unite to Tyranize. 5. Despots Scorch one An- 
other. 6. The Sun Scorches as it Declines. 

CHAPTER CLXIV. 

A. M. 5820-5850. A. D. 1816-1846. 

Repyhlwanis'm Makes Prinoes^ Nobles^ and Clergy to Bite Their Tongues 
and Blaspheme. — 1. Republicanism and Religious Toleration Developing Itself. 
2. In England the Men are in Darkness and Gnaw their Tongues. 3. The Same 
in France. 4. In Other Nations. 5. In Vienna as well as Paris. 6. Rome. 7. 
Despotism Restored. 

CHAPTER CLXY. 

A. M. 5856-5870. A. D. 1854-1866. 

Darkness and Anguish Continued^ and the Headship of the Pope., Em- 
perors of Austria and France^ Superseded. — 1. Austrian Rule in Italy Over- 
turned. 2. Prussian Ascendency. 3. Fall of Wild Beast's Throne in France. 
4. Rome and the Pope. 5. Conclusion. 

CHAPTER CLXYI. 

A. M. 5520-5742. A. D. 1516-1738. 

The Sixth Vial; Turkish Empire Drying Up. — 1. Position and Programme. 
2. The Woe Inflicted on the Western Empire. 3. Decline of the Turkish Power. 
4. Russia's First Conquest of Turkish Territory. 5. Reconquest of Turkey. 6. 
Greek Revolution. 7. Christian Despots Encourage the Woe. 8. Woe|Con- 
tinued by Help from Egypt. 9. Christian Despots Find they^have a Sympathy 
for Humanity and Fellow-Christians. 10. The Crimean War. 

CHAPTER CLXVII. 

A. M. 5791-5892. A. D. 1787-1888. 

English Power and Influence in the World. — 1. Position in Relation to 
Turkey and Russia. 2. England Gets Control of the Mogul Empire. 3. China 
Opened to Foreign Nations. 4. The Sikhs and Kingdom of Oude. 5. The 
Sepoy Rebellion. 6. Australia and Other Places, 
-66 



1026 CONTENTS. 

CHAFTEK CLXYIII. 

A. M. 4866-5860. A. D. 862-1856. 

Russia as Head of the Wild Beast of the Abyss. — 1. Origin of Russia. 
2. Efforts to Get Out of the Pit. 

CHAPTER CLXIX. 

A. M. 5882. A. D. 1878. 

United States of North America. 

CHAPTER CLXX. 
A. M. 5185-5883. A. D, 1181-1879. 
Conquests of the Kingdom of God. — 1. Suffering before Conquest. 2. 
Missions. 3. Papal Missions. 4. Protestant Missions. 5. A New Impetus to 
Missions. 6. Missions of the New World. 



CHAPTER CLXXI. 

Babylon Fallen., Openly Declared. — 1. First Announcement. 2. Second 
Proclamation of Her Fall, and of Her Abominations. 3. The Destroyer and 
Destructions. 

CHAPTER CLXXIL 

Three Spirits Like Frogs. — 1. Character of. 2. Spirit of the Dragon. 3. 
History of. 4. Of the Beast. 5. Of the False Prophet. 

CHAPTER CLXXin. 

The Jews, 

CHAPTER CLXXIY. 

Mystery of the Harlot and Her Wild Beast, — 1. The Eighth Head of the 
Third Wild Beast. 2. The Fourth Wild Beast Under Russian Headship. 3. 
The Harvests. 4. Prospect of the Jews. 5. The Harlot Destroyed. 6. The 
Witnesses Slain by the Fourth Beast. 7. Battle of Armageddon. 8. A Short 
Yiew of the Sixth Seal and of the Present Time. 9. Sealing. 

CHAPTER CLXXY. 

Calculation of Dates. — 1. The Two Thousand Three Hundred Days. 2. 
The Abomination that has Desolated. 3. The Little Horn of Daniel. 4. The 
Beast Practices Twelve Hundred and Sixty Days. 5. Conclusion on Dates. 
6. Dates in the Revelations. 

CHAPTER CLXXVI. 

Supplement — Passing Fvents. — 1. Turko-Russian War. 2. The Woe Con- 
tinued. 3. Hostility to Russia. 4. The False Prophet Frog Spirit Shown in 
Mahometanism. 5. Shown in Popery. 6. Dragon Frog Spirit. T. Spirit of the 
First Beast. 8. All in Conflict. 9. The Jews. 

CHAPTER CLXXYII. 
Retrospective Yiew^ or a Sparsely Sketched Outline, 



TOPICAL IKDEX. 



TOPICAL IKDEX. 



Aaron, 18:8; 24:14; 25:1; 28:6, 14- 
16, 19, 21; 30:8. 

Abimelech, 10:2; 12:1. 

Abiram, 28:14, 15. 

Abomination of Desolation, 175:2; 
65:4. 

Abraham, 7:1; 9-11. (See Contents.) 

Abyss, 132:1-3. 

Acan, 31:8-10. 

Acesius, 128:5. 

Adam, 2-4. (See Contents.) 

Adolphus. 134. 

Advents, ^63:2; 68:8; 86:13; 93:3; 
94:26-29; 97:18; 115:10; 121. 

Adultris, 91:3. 

Aerius, 128:5. 

Aetius, 134:5, 6. 

Africa, 134:7; 136:3. 

Agrippa, 99:7; 103:13, 14. 

Ahab and Ahaziah, 47:4-21. 

Ahaz, 52:1, 5, 8. 

Ahashuerus, 67. 

Ahijah, 30:5. 

Alaric, 134:1, 2, 4. 

Albigenses, 152:2, 4. 

Alcimus, 77:7, 8. 

Alexander, 72:1; 78:1. 

Altar, 31:13; 56:2. 

Altercation, Pharisees, 88:7-10. 

Amaziah, 49:9, 11. 

Ambassador, 65:1. 

Ambrose, 130:1. 

America, 109; 161:2; 162:8; 164:1. 

Ammonias Saccas, 132:1, 2, 5, 8, 9. 

Amon, 55:6. 

Amos, 44:8, 9; 50:12; 52:1. 

Anabaptists, 59, 4-11. 

Angels, 10:3; 13:2; 24:4; 27:11, 12 
35:5; 92:12; 100; 105:2; 106:5, 18 
109:6, 22; 111:1; 114:3-5; 115:2 
121:1-6; 148:4, 7, 11; 150; 170. 



Antagonisms: Polytheist, 7:5; 9:1, 3; 
112. Monotheist, 113; 129. Sa- 
tanic, 4:6; 5:4. Diabolian, 119:7. 
Frog, 125:8. 

Antioch, 72:9; 103:15. 

Antiochus the Great, 64:2; 678:5, 6. 
Epiphanes, 75; 76; 78:7-11. Se- 
dates, 77:16. 

Antichrist: State, 110:1. Broken, 155. 
Apostates, 75:14; 76:15; 77. 
Apostasies, 33; 34:27-29; 44; 45:1, 2; 
46:1; 49:1, 2; 116; 153; 156; 158. 

Apostles and Evangelists, 87:14; 39: 
13-17; 100-106 (see the Contents); 
106:10, 47; 125:6. 

Apostolic Men, 106:9, 17; 125:6. 
Apologies, 126:4. 
Apollinarious, 135:2. 
Arians, 138:5. 
Aristeus, 73:5, 6. 

Ark, 5:8; 26:25; 32:2; 35:21-32; 39: 
1-6; 43:9, 10; 105:8. 

Armada, 157:5. 

Armageddon, 118. 

Armoricans, 43:7. 

Arnoldists, 152:2, 4. 

Asa, 46:6-11. 

Ascension, 97:16-18. 

Asia Minor, 141:8. 

Asmoneans, 76:1-15; 77; 79:3; 80:3. 

Assyria. 53:2-4; 54:5, 9, 11; 57:3. 

Atabeks, 148:11. 

AthaHah, 49:3, 4. 

Atonement, 26:6, 8, 9, 13-16. 

Attila, 134:6. 

Aurelius Antonius, 126:5. 

Augustine, 130:1. 

Austin, 146:1. 

Austrian Succession, 162:6. 

Avars, 137:1-8. 



1030 



TOPICAL linDEX. 



B 



Baal, 34:14; 47:4-12, 29, 31. 

Babel, 7:9; 9:1; 57:13. 

Babylon, 50:9; 57:10; 165; 171. 

Balaam, 29:3-5. 

Belisarius, 136. 

Baptists, 160:5, 6. 

Baptist, John, 82:6, 9; 84; 85:7; 86: 
9-11; 88:2. 

Baptism, 84:6-11; 98:1-4; 94:13. 

Baptism Changed, 127:4. 

Barak and Debora, 34:7-8. 

Barnabas, 103:10,11,15; 104:1. 

Bartholomew Massacre, 157:6. 

Barbarians, turn Monotheists, 138. 

Battles: Amalick, 23:6. Michael and 
the Dragon, 82; 106:21; 107; 126; 
128; 136:9; 137:8. Of God Al- 
mighty, 117:1-6; 174:1-7. 

Beast: Daniel's, 62:2-5. First, 62:2. 
Second, 62:2; 63-71:4-6. Third, 
62:3; 72-77; 72:5-7. Fourth, 62:4; 
80; 81. 

Horns of the Fourth, 134:10, 11; 
143:6, 7. Little Horn of, 140; 142: 
4; 147; 153:6. 

Beast: John's, First, 113:1-3; 114: 
5-9; 115; 129; 133:1; 136; 149:2, 
6,7; 151:6; 155:3; 172:3; 174:2, 

3, 5; 175:4. 5; 176:7. 

Heads oi: First Head, 129:2; 
134:10; 142. Second Head, 129:2; 
136:2-6; 137:4; 143. Third Head, 
137:4; 138:2; 143:4-6. Fourth 
Head, 141:15; 144:4. Fifth Head, 
143:4 ; 144:7, 8. Sixth Head, 144: 

4, 5; 149:4, 7, 8. Seventh Head, 
150:6; 168. 



Beast, John's, First, continued — 

Horns of, 151:6; 152:4. 

Blasphemous Titles of, 129:4 ; 
144:1; 151:7, 8; 153:6; 158:4. 

Speeches of, 129:4; 151:8; 153:6. 

Image of, 139:5; 143:1, 2; 151: 
1-3, 6; 153:5; 155:3, 5. 

Beast: John's, Second, 138; 142:1-3; 
149:1, 2, 6; 172:5. 
Horns of, 139; 140. 
Wrath on, 114:5; 115; 158. 

Beast: John's, Third, 116:2-4; 137: 
4; 138-2; 143:1, 2; 158:2-5; 165; 
174:1, 2. 

Heads of, 158:2; 168; 174. 

Horns of, 158:3; 144:9. 

Beast: John's, Fourth, 116:6; 117:1- 
6; 150:6; 158:5; 168; 174. 

Beelzebub and Demons, 88:7, 8. 

Bethesda, 87:5-11. 

Bethlehem Babes, 82:18, 19. 

Berengarians, 152:4. 

Black Horse, 109:3; 145:1-4. 

Blessing of Jacob, 12:10; 19. 

Bloody Seas, 157. Streams, 162. 

Boaz, 34:23, 25. 

Bohemians, 144:6; 159:3. 

Bonaparte, 113:6; 158:2. 

Book of Life, 119:9. 

Book, Little, 111:1, 2; 148:1; 150. 

Boy in Temple, 83:1. 

Bread of Life, 90:5-8. 

Brenard, 152:3, 5. 

Bruys, Peter De, 152:3. 

Bulgarians and Others, 144:6. 

Burgundians, 134:3. 



Caiphas, 93:15. 
Calvin, 157:1. 
Calib and Joshua, 32:1. 
Caliph, 138:5; 139; 144:2; 148:13. 
Calculation of Dates, 63:4, 6; 69:4,8; 
142:3, 4. 

Camp Organized, 28:3. 

Captivity, 45:5; 47:2; 50:13, 1; 52:7; 

53:18; 56:9; 57-59; 60:8, 9. Ke- 

turned, 64; 67; 79:7. 
Carlovingian, 143:1, 2, 5; 151:2. 
Carraathians, 144:2. 
Carizmians, 148:19; 149:4. 
Cathari, 152:2, 4. 
Catholic, 138:5. 



Censer Cast on Earth, 134. 

Central Government, 7:3, 4; 8:1, 2. 

Character and Age of Moses, Intro. 2. 
Of Noah, Intro. 5:6. Of Israel, 
Intro. 4; 28:4; 30:8; 38:2. 

Chaldeans, Intro. 3; 57:3, 11; 9:1. 
Worship, 1:9. 

Changes, 133:1; 127:3, 4. 

Charles L, 143:1-4; 145:5. 

Charles Y., 151:5; 156; 157:7. 

Christ, 82-97. (See Contents.) Sub- 
jects of, 90:4-8; 93:2; 98; 100:8; 
109:4-6; 114:1, 2; 155:1, 2; 174:7. 
(See Parables and Miracles.) 



TOPICAL INDEX. 



1031 



Christianity, at end of Fourth Century, 
133. Not a Failure, 174:8. 

Chrysostom, 145. 

Churches Dispersed, 102:4; 106:16; 
108:7-14; 116:9; 119, 2, 6; 124:8- 
10; 127:1-7; 128:3, 5; 133:2; 155. 

Circumcision and Law, 103:19-21. 

Cities of Refuge, 32:4. 

Claudius, 103:9. 

Clement, Alex., 132:7; 138:2. 

Clerical Influence, 138:2, 3. 

Clovis, 143:1. 

Collateral History, 80, 83, 90. 

Commandments, Ten, 26:4. 

Comforter, 95:13-15, 20; 97:16; 100: 
4, 5. 

Competency of Moses, Intro. 6. 

Communication from Adam, 6:7. 

Contemporary Patriarchs, 4:10; 7:9, to 
Moses. 

Confusion of Speech, 7:6. 

Congregationalists, 160:5. 

Constantius Clorus, 126:10, 11., 

Constantine, 126:11, 12; 128:1. 

Constantinople, 148:15-17, 21; 149:6, 
7. (See Trumpet 4th, 5th, 6th.) 



Controversy Opened, 45:3-5; 46:1; 

47:1, 5-12; 53:20. 
Conversion Necessary, 92:15. 
Converted by Force, 153:1. 
Corruption in Churches, 153:2. 
Cornelius, 103:1-8. 
Council of Constance, 151:4, 6, 8; 

159:9. 

Count the Cost, 92:2. 

Creation, Theories of, 1:1. 

Corazin and Bethsaida, 88:3. 

Crimean War, 166:10. 

Crucifixion, 96. 

Crusades, 148. 

Council at Jerusalem, 103:19-21. 

Against Christ, 93:14. 
Covenants: With Abraham, 9:10-12. 

Isaac, 12:2. Jacob, 13; 214:2. 

Sinai, 39:9; 58; 69:2; 70:1, 3, 4, 9- 

15; 24. David, 39:9; 70:9-16. 

New, 70:35. 

Cyprian, 125:10; 127:4, 6. 
Cyril, 135:3; 143; 145:1. 
Cyrus, 64:2-4. 
Capuchins, 170:3; 160:8. 



D 



Daniel, 57:14; 62; 63; 65; 78; 150:7. 

Danes, 144:6. 

Darius, 63:7-14; 66:5; 71:6. 

Darkness and Anguish, 164:2-5. 

Dates, 62:4, 6; 63:4-6; 142:3, 4; 175. 

Dathan, 28:14, 15. 

David, 36:8; 37; 40; 41:1; 42:1-7; 

69:6; 70:9-15, 29; 125:1. 
David's Seed Persecuted, 82:19. 
Death, 4; 7; 18. Of Christ Foretold, 

90:14. 
Deborah, 36:6. 
Decius, 26:8. 
Decline of the Saracens, 114:2. Of 

Turks, 166. 
Dedication, 92:7. 

Defection, 44:4, 5. (See Apostates.) 
Deluge, 5. 
Demetrius, 77:6. 
Demons, 26:26; 27:12; 37:14,15; 87: 

1; 88:7; 89:5, 9, 10; 90:15; 91:9. 

Dispossessed Demon Returned, 

88:10. 
Denmark, Protestant Religion, 166:1. 
Design of Rites, 26:19-24, 30, 



Despots Scorch, 163:3-6. 

Despots Restored, 164:7. 

Deuteronomy Chronically Arranged, 
30:9. 

Devoted Tribes, 31:2. 

Diabolian Antagonism, 119:7. 

Diet of Frankfort, 151:6; 158:2. 

Disciples, 85:9; 87:14; 102:5. 

Disciples Consoled, 95:5-26; 97:16,17. 

Dionysius, 132:10. 

Divinity, 10:1; 21:2, 7; 35:32; 85:2; 
87:5-10. 

Divine Sovereignty, 27:5. 

Donatists, 127:5; 128:5, 13; 130:1; 
133:3; 145:1. 

Dragon, 112; 7:5; 9:2, 3. Bone and 
Muscle of, 117:3. Heads: First, 
17-22. Second, 34; 35. Third, 54. 
Fourth, 61. Fifth, 63:3-13. Sixth, 
72. Seventh, 81. Successor of, 
113:1. Horns of: First Five, 
34. Sixth, 35. Seventh, 68:8-12. 
Eighth, 67:2-9. Ninth and Tenth, 
72:6, 9. 73:9; 75; 76. Watches 
the Throne of David, 82:1-5, 10, 



1032 



TOPICAL INDEX. 



Dragon, continued — 

15-19. Battles with Michael, 106: 
T; 121. Dethroned, 126:3, 12, 13. 
Persecutes the Woman, 128:5, 7. 
Compromises with the Beast, 129. 



D 



Dragon, continued — 

Spirit of, 115:9. Imprisoned, 117:6. 

Dominicans, 170:3; 156:1; 153:6, 7; 
155:6; 160:8. 



E 



Earth Districted, 7:1. 

Eclectic Philosophy, 132:5-10. 

Eden, Garden, 2:7. 

Edicts, 151:8; 153:6. 

Egypt: God Known There, 8:10; 10:2. 

Polytheist, Intro. 3; 16:6, 12, 14. 

First Head of Dragon, 21; 45:2. 

Superseded by Assyria, 53:3; 54:2; 

56:10; 59; 60:26. Modern, 135. 

Traditions, 3:21. 

Eleazer, 11:7; 30:5, 7; 73:1, 3; 75:8. 
Eli, Judge, 34; 37; 35:9, 24. 
Elijah, 47:5, 8, 10, 13, 16-19, 21, 23. 
Elimalic Family, 34:21-24. 
Elisha, 47:21, 24-29, 31; 50:1, 2, 7. 
Emigration from Israel to Judah, 30: 
5, 7; 46:8. 



Enemies Made to Fear, 61:4. 
Enlargement of Kingdom, Period 12. 
England, 157:3: 160:5; 161:2; 162: 

3-7; 163:6; 164:1, 2; 167. 
Episcopalians, 160:6, 7. 
Esau, 12:5-12; 13:8; 14:3. 
Ethiopian Eunuch, 102:7. 
Esther, 67:3-7. 
Euchites, 152:2. 
Eusebius, 126:13. 
Eutyches, 135:6. 
Eternal Life, 98:5, 6. 
Evervinus, 153:5. 
Evil and Evil One, 3:4. 
Evil Merodach, 61:10. 
Excommunication, 152:5. 
Ezra, 67:9, 10. 
Ezekiel, 57:16; 58:2; 60:4-6. 



Facilities to Fly, 128:6; 134:12. 
Faith, 5:7; 8:4; 11:2; 15:11; 16:9; 

98:5, 6. 
False Prophets, 47:20; 56:4; 57:15; 

58:1; 75:19; 117. 
Fall and Expulsion, 3; 128:1, 2; 132:2. 
Fasting, 89:6. 

Favoring Christ Kewarded, 89:17. 
Fallen Star, 131. 
Ferdinand, 157:7. 
First Message to Moses, 20. 



First King and Victory, 36. 
Fidehty, 35:3. Period Sixth, 76; 

83:9. 
First in Kingdom, 98:8. 
Fiery Serpents, 28:23. 
France, 157:6; 160:3; 132:2-9; 164:3; 

165:3. 
Franciscans, 155:6; 160:8; 170:3. 
Flood, 5; 112:13; 128:7. 
Frederick 11. , 153:5. 
Future State, 27:13 (see Sheol). 



G 



Gaderene Demoniac, 89:5. 

Galerius, 126:10. 

Garabaldi, 165:1. 

Gavazi, 171:2. 

Gaznevide, 144:4. 

Geneology: Of Seth, 4:9. Of Shem, 

6:7. Of Abraham, Intro.; 7; 7:9. 
Gedeliah, 59. 
Genceric, 134:7-9. 
Gentiles in Abraham, 11:5; 35:37; 

83:9; 103:16. 



German Head, 143:6; 144:6-8; 156:1; 

157:7; 160:4; 163:5. 
Gibeonites, 31:11. 
Gideon, 34:13-19. 
Giving Covenants and Law, 24. 
Giants, 5:3. 
Gnostics, 32:4. 
God: Existence Believed, 10:3; 21:4- 

8; 27:7,11; 28:18; 29:12; 50:7; 

51:4; 86:6; 89:5; 121:34. Son of, 

41:5; 84:12; 87:6. Spirit of, 41:6; 



TOPICAL INDEX. 



1033 



G 



God: Existence Believed, continued — 
103:7; 104:4. Source of Gods, 1:1, 
2; 4:1, 5; 6:3. 

Goats: Daniel's, 138:5; 139. 

Golden Calf, 25. 

Goliath, 37:2. 

Gospel: Success, 91:9; 102:14; 106. 

Goths, 134:1, 2, 4, 12; 1::8:4. Tra- 
ditions, 3:21. 

Grace, 8:4, 5. 

Greek Power and Keligion, 72. Church 



Greek Power and Religion, contin'd — 

142:1. Heads, 135;1; 136:1, 2; 

137:4; 149:72. Revolution, 166:6. 

Bible, 73:1-9. 
Greatest in the Kingdom, 90:16. 
Gregory Nazeanzen, 130. First, 137:1; 

140: i. Second, 140:2. 
Guilt of Nations, 57:6. 
Guilty Conscience, 4:4, 5, 9; 3:14. 
Guiscard, Robert, 144:9. 
Gustavus, 157:7. 



H 



Habakkuk, 56:8. 

Hades, 98:9-13 (see Sheol). 

Haman, 67:4-8. 

Hannah's Song, 35:7, 8. 

Harlot, 116:1, 2, 5, 8; 153; 156; 158:1; 

165; 171; 174:5. 
Harvests, 114:7, 8; 174:3, 6; 176:1, 17. 
Happy Time, 32:7. 
Henrishians, 152:3, 4. 
Heraclius, 137:2-9, 
Hereditary Religion, 55:1. 
Heretics, 125:7, 8, 14; 133:2. 
Herod: First, 80:3; 82:3-5, 

Second, 86:11; 96:8; 89:18. 



14 



16. 
Third 

102:9; 



and Fourth, 99:2, 6, 7 

103:14. 
Hezechiah, 53; 54. 
Hindoo Tradition, Intro.; 3; 3:21; 

16:14. 



History: Source Ancient, Intro.; 1; 

Holland, 160:1; 162:3. 

Holy Alliance, 166:6. 

Holy Spirit, 41:6; 48:4. Sin Against, 
88:8; 91:13. 

Holy Roman Empire, 143:7; 158:3; 
171:3; 174. 

Hope: Of Israel, 70; 120. Of San- 
hedrim, 102:17. Of Gentiles, 70:42; 
120:10. 

Horeb, 30:5; 47:14. 

Hosea, 50:11, 12; 52:9. 

Humilitv and Prudence, 92:9-12. 

Huns, 134:6; 144:6. 

Huniades, John, 165:1. 

Hulda, 56:6. 

Hussites, 152:3, 4. 

Huguenots, 157:5, 6. 

Hyrcanus, 76:16; 80:1-3. 



Idolatry, 33:3; 34:22; 45. 

Ignatius, 125:10; 126:3. 

Image: Nebuchadnezzar's, 61; 62:1. 

Worship, 140:2; 142:1, 2. Of 

Beast, 151:1; i53:5; 155:3. 
Impious in Jerusalem, 83:7. 
Incipiant Age, 4 ; 5; 8-22. 
Independents, 160:6, 7. 
Innocence and Purity, 2:4. 
Innovations, 125:12. 
Institutes, Positive, 3:1. Levitical, 

Period Third. 
Inquisition, 153:7. 
Isaiah, Prophecies, 51:4; 52; 53:17; 

54:6. 



Isaac, 12. 

Ishamel, 11:21. 

Israel in Egypt, Intro. 4; 17; 20:1, 
3, 4; 25. ' In Wilderness, 28. Un- 
der Judges, Period Fourth. Under 
Kings, JPeriod Fifth. Divided, 45. 
Great Contest in, 47. Warning to 
Judah, 53:2. Hope of, 70; 120. 
Sealed, 109:22, 24. Views of, 28; 
29:14; 30:8; 32; 41; 44:4, 5; 45:1, 
6; 47:4, 16; 48:8; 50:6; 56:9; 79:5. 
Internal Views of, 33:11; 41; 50: 
5-7; 58:8; 79. 

Italian Unity, 165:1. 



-67 



1034 



TOPIOAL INDEX. 



Jacob and Esau, 12:6-12; 13:7-11, 

14, 15. 
Jehovah, 18:6; 35:3. Son of, 41:5. 

Spirit of, 60:12; 61:1; 64:9. 
Jesus (see Christ). 
Jehoiada, 49:6. 
Jehoshaphat. 48. 
Jehoram, 47:22, 25-31; 19:1. 
Jehoahaz, 19:2, 3. 7, 8. 
Jehoiekira, 57:1, 13. 
Jehoiakin, 47:15. 
Jehue, 47:31, 32. 
Janizaries, 149:4. 

Jeramiah, 56:4; 57:2; 58:3, 4; 59:2. 
Jeroboam, 45:4, 5; 50:3. 
Jerome, 1; 13L Of Prague, 152:3. 
Jerusalem, 41:3; 60:6; 141:7. New, 

69:6. Destruction of, 94:22-25. 

(see Zion). 
Jesuits, 100:3; 160:8. 
Jethro, 28:2; 29:2. 
Jews: Collateral History of, 72:8, 9 

73:9, 10; 74:1-5, 7; '80; 83:2-11 

99; 88:1. Kejected, 94:15, 16 



Jews, Collateral History, contidued — 

103:9; 107:6-9; 125:14; 130:2; 173; 

174:4; 176. 
Joel, 51:2. 

Job, Intro. 1; 16:14; 27:2-7. 
Jonathan, 36:12, 13: 37:5, 20, 21. 
Jonah, 27:17; 50:8. 
Joseph, 15; 16. 
Joshua, 30:5. 
Josiah, 56. 
Jovinian, 128:5. 
Jubilee, 26; 27; 28. 
Judah and Jews, 46; 69:7, 8; 71:1, 

4, 5; 72:1-8; 73:9, 10; 79:8. 
Judas Macabees, 76; 77. 
Judges, 33-35 ; 38. Contemporary, 

34:36, 37. 
Judgment Day, 121:11. 
Julian, 128:4. 
Jupiter, 72:2; 75:5. 
Justinian, 135; 136:2. 
Justin, Mart., 125:10, 11; 126:5. 
Jezebal, 47. 



K 



Kings 



Kings: Daniel's, 65; 66:5, 6; 71:6; 
72:5,6; 78; 81; 82:2; 144:4,5, 7; 
149:4-8; 150; 166:1-10; 176:1, 2; 
18. Of Israel, Saul, 36; 37:14-16. 
David, 37-42. Solomon, 43; 44. 
Kingdom Divided, 45. 

Kings of Ten Tribes : Jeroboam, 45. 
Ahab (fears Elijah and hates Micli- 
aial), 47:3-20. Ahaziah and Jeho- 
ram, 47:21-30. Jehue Djnasty, 
47:31-33; 50:1-4. Usurpers, 50: 
4-13. 

of Judah: Rehoboam, Abijah, 
Assa, 45 ; 46. Jehoshaphat, 48. 
Jehoram, Amaziah, and Joash, 49. 
Uziah and Jotham, 51. Ahaz, 52. 
Hezechiah, 53; 54. Manassa and 
Amon, 55. Josiah, 56. Jehoiakim 
and Jehoiakin, 57. Zedechia, 58. 

Kingdom of Israel Ruled by Gover- 
nors: Giedaliah, 59. Sheshbazzar, 
or Zerubbable, 61:5-11 ; 66. Nehe- 
miah, 67:13-17; 68:1-5. 

Governed by High-Priests, 69:7. 
Jehoiada, 49:6. Joshua, 64:8. Jo- 
hanan, 71:4. Jaddua, 72:1. Manas- 
sas, Onias II., and Simeon the 



Kingdom of Israel, continued — 
Just, 72:10. Eleazer, 73:1. Onias 
III., 75:1. Menelaus, 77:1, 2, 6; 
76:15; 77:4. Alcimus, 77:6-8, 12. 
Of the Asmoneans, Judas, 76; 77. 
Jonathan and Simeon, 77:12-15. 
John Hyrcanus, 77:16; 79; 180:3- 
20. Aristobulus and Alexander, 
79:1. Hyrcanus 11. , 79:2; 80:1. 
(See chap. 69, § 9.) Herod, (see 
Herods). 

Kingdom of God: Essay on, 123. 
Laws of, ] 24. Preached by, 84 ; 
86:15. Come with Power, ' 106:2. 
Consummated, 109:20. Present 
Royal City, 109:1-6. Outward Pro- 
gressive Character and Condition, 
(see Seal First). Position and Char- 
acter, 125. Conquests, 170. Not 
the True, 151:9. 

Knights, 148:14. 

Knowledge of God, 8:1; 16:12; 29:3, 
12; 68:1; 691; 73:6. In Scripture 
Obtained, 27:20; 69:5; 73:1-5. 

Koran, 13; 139. 

Kora, Dathan, 28:14-16. 



TOPICAL INDEX. 



1035 



L 



Laban, 13:4-7. 

Lamb, 85:8; 114:1; 119; 155:1-3. 

Last Plague (see Yials). 

Last Visit Temple, 94:5. 

Latin Empire, 142:3, 4; 134:10; 148: 

16. Church, 142:1. 
Lazarus, 93:7, 11-16. 
Leo, 135:5. 
Lepers, 87:3; 93:2. 
Lessons, 23:2-6. 
Laws: Positive, 3:2; 8:5; 9:5; 15; 

6:5. Natural, 3:2; 8:5; 94:19, 20. 

Of Sinai, 24:8, 10, 11, 13; 25:4, 5. 

Not Abrogated, 26:1, 14-17; 28:20; 

31:13; 107:1. Christ Superior to, 

87:12. Honored by, 94:7. Of King- 



Laws, continued — 

dom, 94:19, 20; 124. XL Peter, 1:5-8. 

Licinius, 126:11. 

Light of Nations, 44:6. 

Little: Book, 111:1, 2; 148:1; 150. 
Little Horns, 62:4-6, 9, 11; 139; 
140; 142:4; 150; 175:3. Little Chil- 
dren, 92:15; 94:5; 90:16. 

Locusts, 141:5-15. 

Lombards. 

Lord's Prayer, 87:24. Supper, 95:10. 

Loss, all for Christ, 90:12. 

Luther, 156. 

Macabeans, 76: 77; 79; 80. 

Macpelah, 11:3, 6. 

Macedonian Empire, 72. 



M 



Magi, 1:4; 53:1; 63:13; 82:14; 141:4. 

Malachi, 68:6-9. 

Mammaluks, 166:5. 

Man: Primitive, 2; 3:9. Degreda- 

tion of, Intro. 2; 6:5; 35:5. Of 

Sin, 109:14,15; 139:5; 152:7; 153:7; 

154; 175:7. 
Manassah, 55. 
Manalians, 152:2. 
Manna, 35:5. 
Manoah, 35:5. 

Marriage, 2:3. Mixed, 5:2; 67:11. 
Martha and Mary, 91:11; 93:12; 94. 
Mary, 82:7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19; 

83:1, 8. 
Martyrs, 75:7-12; 155:1. 
Maurice, 137:1, 2. 
Maxantius, 126:11. 
Maximian, 126:11. 
Mede's Keligion, 63:13; 64:3. 
Melchizedec, 9:8. 
Melek Shah, 144:5. 
Memorials, 34:19. 
Menonites, 159:8. 
Merovingians, 137:4; 143:1, 5. 
Merzea, 144:7. 
Methodists, 119:6. 



Mica, 33:3. 

Michael, 65:9; 112:2-9; 125:15; 126. 

Michaiah, 47:20. 

Milenium, 132:10; (see Consummated 
Age). 

Missions, 47:33; 50:5, 19; 53:1, 19, 20; 
57:9, 11-13; 60:1-4, 7-13; 79:3; 84: 
1-5. Of Christ, 86-93. Of Apostles, 
100-106. Angel, 114:3, 4; 170. Of 
Twelve, 89: 12, 13-18. Of Seventy, 
90:20; 91:9. 

Monophysites, 135:5; 137:5, 9, 16; 
145:1. 

Monotheism: Primitive, 8:9. Em- 
pire, 133; 134:5, 9; 136:9. Antag- 
onism, 113; 139. 

Monks, 141:2; 145:1; 170:3. 

Moguls, 149:3, 5; 167:2. 

Mohammedanism, 139. 

Mordecha, 67:3. 

Moses, Intro. 1-7; 1:10; 18; 27; 30. 

Mystic Mythology, Ancient, Intro. 3. 

Miracles of Christ, 85:11; 86:15; 87: 
1-5, 13; 88:1, 2, 6, 7, 8; 90:1-11, 
15; 91:15; 92:1, 10; 93:2, 9-11, 16: 
94:10, 12; 96:1; 97:14. 



Naaman, 47:25. 
Nahum, 53:17. 

Nations, 8:1, 6-9; 16:14; 35:30; 43:6; 
44:6; 47:25-28; 48:8; 50:3, 7-9; 51: 



N 



Nations, continued — 

3; 52:1; 54:13, 14; 57:6; 58:4, 5; 59: 
1; 60:4, 5, 8-12; 68:1; 69:1; 83:9. 

Nation, Roman, Monarchs of: Pompey, 



1036 



TOPICAL INDEX. 



N 



Nation, Roman, continued — 

80:1, 2. Julius C^sar, 80:2. Au- 
gustus, 82:5, 6; 99:1. Tiberius, 99 
1, 2. Caius, 99:2-6. Claudius, 99 
7; 103:9. Nero, 99:7; 104:6; 106 
21. Yespasian, 99; 107:8; 82:19. 
Domitian, 107: 11. Power of. With- 
stood bj, 107. Converted, 128; 
129. Divided, 129:2. Destroyed, 
134. Restored, 136; 140:2. 

Nazareth, 86:12-14; 89, 11, 12. 

Nebuchadnezzar, 61; 62:1. 

Nehemiah, 67:13; 68. 



Nestorians, 114:1; 130:1; 131:3; 135: 
3-8; 137:5; 145:1; 149:8. 

New Heaven and Earth, 119:13. 

New Covenant, 70:35. 

New Wine, 89:6. 

Nicodemus, 86:3-8; 91:3. 

Noah, 6. 

Nob, 36:9. 

Non-Conformists, 160:5. 

Normans, 144:6, 9. 

North Power, 65:4, 5, 8. 

North America, 169 

Novations, 127:5; 128:5; 130:1; 133; 
2; 152:4. 



o 



Obediah Prophesies, 52:6. 

Obedience, 3:16. 

Ocran, 149:4. 

Odeacer, 134:11. 

Offenses, 90:17-20. 

Officers in Churches, 106:12-19. 

Officers in Governments, 124:10. 



Og, 29:1. 

Onias, 75:1; 72:10. Temple of, in 

Egypt, 73:11; 107:9; 114:1, 5. 
Origen, 125:10; 132:1, 6, 9, 10; 136:7. 
Orange, Prince of, 157:5; 160:1. 
Otho, 144:6. 
Ottomans, 1:49:4, 6. 



Palestine, 11:5; 71:1; 73; 74-77; 80; 

152:4. 
Papal States, 160:8. 
Parablesof Christ, 88:5; 89:1-13; 90: 

19; 91:10, 13-15; 92:12-14; 93:4, 

6, 10; 94:14-16, 29, 30. 
Passover, 21:17; 22:1, 3, 4, 7; 56:8; 

84-95. 
Paterines, 152:2, 4. 
Patriarchs, 4:7-11; 9:16; 27. Theology 

of, 27. Not Abrogated, but Super- 

seded. 
Paul, 102:4, 8, 9-20; 103:10; 104; 105; 
PauUcians, 146:2-4; 152:1. 
Peripetetics, 141:1. 
Pentecost, 100. 
Penalties, 3:18; 6:5, 6. 
Periods Reviewed, 69:3. 
Persecution, 75; 100; 101:4, 5; 102: 

1-4, «, 9-11; 103:13, 14; 128:5; 

146:4; 152:6; 153:6. 
Petolemies, 72:8; 73-78. 
Petronius, 99:5. 

Peter: Not a Rock, 90:11. The Her- 
mit, 143:3. 
Philosophy, 24:9: 125:8; 132:4-10; 

141:6. 



Phinehas, 29:13. 

Pious: Views of, 33:4, 5; 35:2. Gen- 
tiles, 83:6, 8, 9. 

Pictures, 3:21. 

Pit, Bottomless, 132:1-3. 

Placing Witnesses, Period First. 

Plagues of Egypt, 21; 22. Last (see 
Yials). 

Platonic Philosophy, 132:9; 141:2. 

Pliny, 125:15; 126:3. 

Policiesof Satan, 5:13; 7:5; 17:2; 22: 
19; 32:8, 9; 33:1, 2; 44:3; 65:23; 
80:6; 82:2. 

Polytheism, Intro. 3; 9:3, 14; 13:6; 
20-22; 24:10; 34:22; 35:28; 37; 38: 
3, 4; 43:8; 45:4; 54:12; 57:13; 60: 
1-12; 61:1-12; 107:10, 11; 109:2; 
112; 128:1,2; 136:6,9; 137:8; 140. 

Positive Sovereignty, 11:6. Laws, 5: 
12; 9:5, 15; 26:5, 10; 3:14, 15. 

Position of Kingdom, 69; 71; 79; 
125:4. 

Power: In Churches, 142:2,3; 143:2. 
Of Pope, 142:2, 3; 143:2. 

Predictions: Daniel's, 62. Verified, 
44:9; 107:9. 

Presbyterians, 160:7, 8. 



TOPICAL INDEX. 



1037 



Primitive Reliction, 6:3,6; 8:9; 29:12. 

Priesthood, 28:M; 49:6; 69:9; 71:4; 
72:10; 73:1; 77:14; 92:5. 

Programmes, 62; 72:5, 6. In Reve- 
lations, 109; 110; 112; 113; 114; 
115; 116. 

Promises Verified, 11:31; 32:8; 38:8; 
43:3; 47:17. 

Progress of Christianity, 133. 



Prophets, 34:12; 44:9; 45:4, 5. 
Prosperity not Promised Christians 

this Age, 93:5. 
Protestant Schism, 156; 160:6. 
Protest Countries, 160:1. 
Prussia, 165:2, 3. 
Puritans, 160:5. 
Purifying for Passover, 93:16. 
Purity, 90:9-12. 



Quakers, 160:5. 



Q 



R 



Rabshacheh, 54:5, 8. 

Radagasus, 128:4. 

Rahab, 31:2. 

Ram and Goat, 62:6. 

Rank in Kingdom, 90:16; 93:8; 94:21. 

Rechabites, 57:5. 

Redemption, 26:12, 14. 

Reformation, 35; 34-36; 46:4,6; 53:6- 
15; 56; 68:1-6. 

Regeneration Necessary, 124:6. 

Rehoboam, 46. 

Relations and Obligations, 124:7. 

Religion: Primitive, 6:3, 6; 8:9. Of 
Nations, 16:14; 27; 29:12; 63:13, 
14; 72:2-4; 73:6. Wanj of, 157:3- 
8; 161:2. Toleration, 164.' Of 
States, 151; 160. 

Refuge Cities, 32:4. 

Remission, 92:13; 100:9; 123:15. 

Republicanism, 164:1. 



Resurrection, 9:5. First, 118; 119:6; 

120:9; 121:10. Of Christ, 97. 
Resusitated Beast, 116:6. 
Retrospect, 177. 
Returned Captivity, 64:6-9; 6:710, 11; 

68:4, 5. 
Review: Of Periods, 69:3, 5. Of 

Fourth Century, 133. 
Reward: Those Favoring Christ, 89: 

17. In this Age, 120:10. 
Richelieu, 157:9. 
Ricimer, 134:9. 
Rinarius Saco, 152:5. 
Rise of United States, 162:8; 169. 
Romans, 82; 149:1, 2. 
Russia: Church of, 150:6. State of, 

144:6; 166:10; 168; 174:1,2, 5-7; 

176:1, 3. - 
Ruth, 34:22. 



Sabbath, 2:6; 3:15. Breaking of, 
87:5, 12, 13; 91:1; 92; 42:2, 4. 

Sacrifice, Origin of, 3:12. 

Saints, Prayers of, 110:2, 3; 116:8; 
164:6. 

Saladen, 148:13. 

Salvation, 98:7-16. 

Samaritans, 53:18; 71:2,3; 86:14; 
102:6; 144:6. Reject Christ, 93:1. 

Samson, 35:5, 12-20. 

Samuel, 35:7-12, 33-37. 

Sanctification, 26:18. 

Sanctuary Rights, 26:14-18, 19-30. 

Saracens, 141:5* 

—68 



Satan Falls as Lightning, 91:9. 

Saul, 36:6-11; 37:14-17, 21. 

Saxons, 143:5, 6, 7. 

Seleucid^, 74; 75; 78; 72:9. 

Scanderbeg, 165:1. 

Scandinavians, 144:9. 

Scenes: First, 108. Second, 109. Third 

110. Fourth, 111. Fifth, 112. 

Sixth, 113. Seventh, 114. Eighth, 

115. Ninth, 116. Tenth, 117. 
Schisms, 7:1; 127:5; 128:5, 1 3, 14; 

155:4-9; 156; 160:5, 6. 
Scholastics, 141:1, 6. 
Scotland, 160:5. 



1038 



TOPICAL INDEX. 



Scribes Defeated, 94:21. 

Sealed Ones, 109:22-24; 131:2, 3; 

155:1; 147:9. 
Seals: First, 109:7-2:2; 127:2, 3; 1302. 

Second, 127:3; 128:4; 140; 135:6. 

Blend, 145:1. Third, 141; 145:2-4. 

Yoice, 5. Fourth, 148; 153. Fifth, 

159. Sixth, 174:8. Seventh, 109:7. 
Seed of the Woman, 146:2; 152:2, 4; 

82:1, 2. 
Scriptures, Intro. 8; 69:5; 73:1-7 

106:11; 125:2, 11; 132:7. 
SelemL, 149:8. 11. , 150:5. 
Seljukes, 14:4; 148:9, 10; 149:3. 
Selucidse. 72:9; 74; 75. 
Senacherib, 54:1, 5, 9. 
Sepoys, 167:5. 
Septiiagent, 73:1-6. 
Serpent and Satan, 3:6, 21; 5:13; 7:5, 

7, 8; 27:2; 28; 23. 
Sermon on Mount, 87:15-31. 
Sects: Jews, 79; 83:7; 84:3. Seth. 

4:7, 8. Seventy Weeks, 63:1-3. 

Missionaries, 90^:20; 91:9. 
Severus, 126:6. 
Sheol, 27:13-19; 42:3-10; 94:18; 98, 

9-13. 
Sheep Fold, 92:1-8. 
Shepherds, 82:12. 
Shilo, 32:2; 34:37; 35:9, 11, 21, 22, 

32; 41:3. 
Shishak, 46:3. 
Sihon, 29:1. 



Simeon, 82:13; 83:8. 

Sinai, 24; 25. 

Slavonians, 144:6. 

Sodom, 10:4-6. 

Sojourners (or. (nitside ineiubers), 26: 

29. 
Solomon, 43; 44. 
Soljman, 150:4, 5; 166:1-3. 
SonofG'.d, 10:3; 24:7; 27:10; 41:5; 

82:1; 84:12; 87:5-11. 
Sons of God, 4:8, 9. 
Sons of Oil, 66:4; 75:7-12; 18; 109; 

111:1; 126:3; 145:5. 
Source of Instruction, 103:12. 
South Power, 65:4, 7. 
Sovereio;nt3^, Positive, 11:6. 
Spiritual Body, 122. 
Spain, 157:5^' 164:4; 165:4. 
Sower, 99:1, 2, 3. 
State System, 151:4, 5; 157:8. 
State Eeligion, 160. 
Subjugations of Israel, 17:2; 30; 34:2. 

4, 7, 10; 35:4, 12-35; 38:5, 6. 
Suffering Foretold, 93:7. 
Sweden, 174:8. 
Switzerland, 157:6; 160:2. 
Synagogue, or Convocation, Num. 

23:3; 53:21; 69:4, 5; 79; 83:2, 3. 

Importance, of, 106:5. 
Syria, 52:1; 74; 76:6; 77:16. 
Syrophenician Woman, 90:9. 
Sysse], Claude, 152:5. 
System of Grace, 8:5. 



Tabernacle, 26:25; 32:2; 36:2; 39:4-6; 
43:9-11. At Feast of, 90:20. 

Tamerlane, 149:5. 

Tanquilinus, 152:3. 

Tares, 89:2. 

Taunts and Ketort, 60:2. 

Temple, 43:7-12; 45; 149:11; 57:16; 
58:8; 64:8-11; 66:1-8; 74:2; 82:5; 
83:10; 86:12; 91:1-8; 94:22-25; 
107; 111:3, 7; 131:1. Cleansed, 
86:2. In Egypt, 73:11; 83:8; 107: 
9. In Samaria, 71:3; 83:8. 

Thunders, 111:1; 148. 

Throne of David, 62:6. 

Tiberinus, 126:3. 

Tilgath Pileser, 52:7. 

Titles Condemned, 94:21. 



Tradition of Flood, 22:13. Of Seed 
and Serpent, 3:21; 8:7; 22:13. 

Trajan, 126:3, 4. 

Transfiguration, 90:13-19. 

Transmission of Knowledge, 6:7; 106: 
6; 75. 

Transition from Law to Gospel, 107: 
1-3. 

Trees in Garden, 3:1, 3, 20. 

Trials and Difficulties, 60; 79:7; 80:4. 

Trinitarians, 130:1. 

Tribute Pay, 94:17. 

Tertulian, 125:10, 11, 15; 126:6. 

Theodosius I., 128:2; 132:9. 

Theodora and Meroza, 142:1; 144:7. 

Togral, 144:4. 

Tower of Silome, 91:15. 



TOPICAL INDEX. 



1039 



Trumpets, llO ; 111:6. First and 
Second, 134. Third, 135. Fourth, 
137. Fifth, 141. Sixth, 148:10. 
Ill; 149:8; 173:11; 174:7. 



T 



Turks, 139:5; 144:2, 4, 5; 148:10; 

149:4-8; 166; 167:1. 
Tyrus and others, 60:5. 



Ulphilus, 131:3. 

United States, 161:2; 162:8; 164:1; 

169. 
Unitarian, 130:1; 132:9. 



u 



Unity and Division of Israel, 23:12. 
Usurpation of Priesthood, 28:14, 15. 
Uziah, 51. 



V 



Valerian, 126:8. 

Yandals, 133:2: 134:3, 7. 

Yialsof Wrath, 115:1-11. First, 155: 

2-9; 156; 160. Second, 157; 160. 

Third, 162. Fourth, 163. Fifth, 

164; 165. Sixth, 166; 176:1, 2. 

Seventh, 174:7. 



Victory Over, 63:12; 126:13. Mem- 
orials of, 22. 

Victor Emanuel, 165:13. 

View of Image Beast, 155:3. 

View of Pious and Impious, 33:4, 5; 
34:8, 22; 35:2; 41:1; 73:6. 

Voice in Seal Fourth, 145:5. 

Violation of Covenant and Law, 28:20. 



w 



Waldus, Peter, 152:3, 4; 159:2. 

Warning of Advent, 115:10; 116:7. 

Welsii, 146:1; 152:5; 165:5. 

White Horse Army, 117:2; 118:3; 
174:7. 

Wicklif, 152:3, 4. 

Wicked, destruction of Necessary, 
^38:7. 

W^itness for Christ and Truth, 8:3 
32:9; 34:28; 53:13; 60:1-4; 61:6 
66:4; 75:6-19; 76:1, 2; 79:5, 7 
109:11,13; 110:2,3; 111:4,5; 114 
1, 2; 115:1; 116:10; 145:5; 152:3 
155:1-3; 161; 170; 174:6. 

Wilderness, 128:6; 159:2; 164; 170. 



Woes: First, 141:4; 144. Second, 
149:3, 5; 166:2, 6-8. 

Woman, 2:3; 3:8; 5:1-3. Weeping, 
88:5. Support Christ, 88:6. And 
Marriage, 3:8; 68:2,4. Promises 
to, 3:8, 21; 8:7. In Wilderness, 
82:1-18; 112:5, 6, 13-15; 125:10, 15; 
127:2, 6; 128:5, 6; 134:12, 12; 144: 
6; 145:7; 146:2-4; 152:5; 159:1-2; 
164; 170. 

Worship of Jehovah in Israel, 76:1. 
Of Calves, 45:2. Of Baal, 47:4, 
31, 32; 49:3-8; 50:1; 58:4; 60:11; 
109:10; 145:2, 3. 



Y 

Yokes: Christ's, 88:4. Of Tyrant, | 145:3. 



Zacharias, 82:6, 9; 83:8; 120:3. 
Zacheus, 93:9. 
Zengis, 157:6. 
Zecheria, 66:3-5. 
Zedechia, 58:1, 6, 9. 
Zephaniah, 56:7. 



Zingis-Kan, 149:3. 

Zerubbable, 66:1, 2, 6. 

Zion: Supersedes Shilo, 41:3. Or 

Jerusalem, 58:8: 66:3; 67:1,13-19; 

68:3; 69:4; 71:1, 7; 75:2, 3 ; 79 ; 

107; 119:3; 125:1; 141:7. 



SCRIPTURAL INDEX. 



Index showing where, in the Development, the chapters of Scripture are 
located. The verses of Scripture are distributed into the sections of the Develop- 
ment, and will be found in the section of the chapter of the Development referred 
to, but are not given in this index. 

The Scripture chapters are denoted by numeral letters ; the chapters in the 
Development are designated by the figures of arithmetic. Thus, Genesis iv; 4. 
vi, vii; 5; is. Genesis 4, found in Development 4; and Genesis 6, 7; in Develop- 
ment 5. Turn to the chapter in the Development and the verses of the Scripture 
will be found accompanying the sections of the chapter of the Development. 

Genesis. — i, ii; 1,2. iii; 3. iv; 4. v; 5. viii, ix ; 5. x, xi ; 7. xii; 
9, 10. xii-xvii; 9, 10. xviii-xx ; 10. xxi ; 9, 10, 11. xxii; 11, 12. xxiii, 
xxiv; 11. xxv; 11, 12. xxvi, xxvii; 12. xxviii-xxxiii ; 13. xxxiv-xxxvi; 14. 
xxxvii; 15. xxxviii; 14. xxxix; 15, 16. xl-1; 16. 

Exodus. — i; 17. ii, iii; 18. iv; 18,20. v, vi; 20. vii-x; 21. x-xv; 22. 
xv-xvii; 23. xviii; 28, 29. xix-xxxi; 24. xxxii, xxxiii; 25 xxxiv-xl; 26. 

Leviticus.— i-x; 26. xi ; 32. xii-xv ; 26. xvi ; 26,27. xvii ; 26, 28. 
xviii; 24. xix-xxv; 26. xxvi, xxvii; 28. 

Numbers. — i-iv; 28. v; 26. vi-ix; 28. x; 29. xi-xviii; 28. xix; 26. 
xx; 27, 28. xxi; 28, 29. xxii-xxvi; 28. xxvii-xxx; 30. xxxi; 26, 29. xxxii; 
29. xxxiii; 22, 23, 29. xxxiv; 24, 26, 30. xxxv, xxxvi; 26. 

Duteronomy. — i-xxxiv; 30. 

Joshua. — i-xiii; 31. xiv, xv; 32. xvi, xvii; xviii-xxi; 32. xxii-xxiv; 31. 

Judges. — i; 32. ii; 32, 33, 35. iii-xii; 34. xiii-xvi; 35. 

I. Samuel. — i-vii; 35. viii-xvi ; 36. xvi-xviii ; 37. xix; 36, 37. xx, 
xxi; 37. xxii; 36, 37. xxiii-xxvii; 37. xxviii; 36, 37. xxix, xxx; 37. xxxi; 36. 

II. Samuel. — i; 36, 37. ii-v; 38. vi, vii; 39. viii-x; 38. ix, x; xi-xx; 
40. xxi; 38. xxii; xxiii; 37, 38, 42. xxiv, xxv. 

I. Chronicles. — i-ix; x; 36, 37. xi; 38. xii; 37, 38. xiii; 38,39. xiv; 
38. xv-xvii; 39. xviii-xix; 38. xx; 38, 40. xxi; 39. xxii; xxiii-xxviii; 41. 
xxix; 42. 

I. Kings.— i; 40. ii; 42, 43. iii-viii; 43. ix; 43, 53. x; 43. xi; 38, 43, 
44. xii; 44, 45. xiii, xiv; 45. xv; 46. xvi-xxiv; 47. 

II. Kings. — i-viii; 47. viii, ix; 49. x; 47,50. xi, xii; 49. xiii, xiv; 47, 
50. xv; 50. xvi; 52. xvii, xviii; 53. xix, xx; 54. xxi; 55. xxii; 56. 

II. Chronicles. — i; 39. ii-vii; 43. viii, ix; x^xii; 45. xiii; 46, 47. xiv; 
46. xv; 48. xvi; 46. xvii, xviii; 47, 48. xix, xx ; 48. xxi; 49. xxii; 40. 
xxiii-xxv; 59. xxvi, xxvii; 51. xxviii; 40, 50, 52. xxix; 42, 53. xxx; 53. 
xxxii; 54. xxxiii; 55. xxxiv, xxxv; 56. xxxvi; 57, 64. 

Ezra.— i-iii; 64. iv; 53, 64. v; 64, QQ, vi; 66. vii, viii; 67. 

Nehemiah. — i-vi; 67. vii-xii; 68. xii; 67* 

Esther. — i-x; 67. 

Job.— 27. 

Ecclrsiastes and Proverbs. — -44. 



SCRI1»T0RAL INDEX. 1041 

Psalms. — i; 6T. ii, xvi, xxxviii, xlv, Ixviii, Ixx, xc. cvi, cv, ex, cxviii, cxxxix; 
iii, iv, V, vii, xxxii, xxxiii, xliii, li, Iv, Ixii, Ixxi, Ixxxvi, xci, ciii, cxliii, cxlv; 40. 
vi, viii, xii, xix, xxiii, xxiv, xxviii, xxix, xxxix-xli, Ixi, Ixv, Ixix, Ixxviii, Ixxxvi, 
xcv, ci, ciii, civ, cxx, cxxi, cxxii, cxxiv, cxxxi, cxxxiii; 41. ix, xi, xvii, xxxi, xxxiv, 
XXXV, xlii, Iii, liv, Ivi-lix, Ixiii; Ixiv, cix, cxl-cxlii; 37. x, xiii-xv, xxvi, xxvii, 
xxxvi, xxxvii, xlix, 1, liii, Ixvii, Ixxiv, Ixxvii, Ixxix, Ixxx, Ixxxix, xcii-xciv, cxxiii, 
cxxx, cxxxvii; 60. xviii, xx, xxi, Ix, Ixxxiii, cviii, cxxxix; 38. xxv; 62. xlvi, 
Ixxxii, cxv; 48. xliv, Ixxiii, Ixxv, Ixxvi; 54. xlvii, xcvii-ci, cxxxv, cxxxvi; 43. 
xlviii, Ixxxi, cxxxviii, cxlvi-cxlviii; 66. Ixvi, Ixxxiv, Ixxxv, Ixxxvii, cvii, cxi-cxiv, 
cxvi, cxvii, cxxv-cxxix, cxxx, iv; 66. Ixxii; 42. Ixxxviii, 18. xc; 28. cii; 63. 
cxix; 68. 

Isaiah. — i; 51, 52. ii-vi; 51. vii-ix; 52. x-xiii; 53. xiv; 52, 53. xv, 
xvi; 53. xvii; 52. xviii, xix; 53. xx, xxi; 53, 54. xxii; 53, 54. xxviii; 52. 
xxix-lxvi; 54. xliv, xlv; 63. 

Jeremiah. — i-xii; 56. xiii-xx; 57. xxi; 58. xxii, xxiii; 57. xxiv ; 58. xxv, 
xxvi; 57. xxvii, xxviii; 57, 58. xxix-xxxiv; 58. xxxv, xxxvi; 57. xxxvii-xxxix; 
58. xli-xliv; 59. xlv; 57. xlvi; 57, 59. xlvii; 58. xlviii, xlix; 57. 1-lii; 58. 

Lamentations. — i-v; 60. 

EzEKiEL. — i-xxiv; 57. xxv, xlviii; 60. 

Rosea. — i-iv; 50. v, vi; 52. 

Daniel. — i; 57. ii-v; 61, 62. vi; 63. vii, viii; 62. ix; 63. x-xii; 65. 

Amos. — i-ix; 50. 

Nahum.— i-iii; 53. 

Zepheniah. — i-iii; 56. 

Habakuk. — 56. 

Obediah. — 52. 

Hagai. — 66. 

Jonah. — 50. 

MicAH. — i, ii; 51. iii-vii; 53. 

Joel. — i-iii; 50, 51. 

Matthew.— i, ii; 82. iii; 84. iv; 85-87. v-vii; 87. viii; 87-89. ix; 
87,89. x; 89. xi; 88. xii; 87,88. xiii; 89. xiv; 86,90. xv-xviii ; 90. 
xix; 90, 93. xx; 93. xxi-xxv; 94. xxvi; 94-96. xxxvii; 96, 97. xxviii; 97. 

Mark.— i; 84, 85, 87. ii; 87, 89. iii; 87, 88. iv, v; 89. vi; 86, 89 90. 
vii-ix; 90. x; 90, 93. xi-xiii; 94. xiv; 94-96. xv; 96, 97. xvi; 97. 

Luke.— i; 82. ii ; 82, P3. iii; 84, 86. iv; 85-87. v; 87, 89. vi ; 87. 
vii; 88. viii; 89, 88. ix; 85, 89, 90, 83. x; 90, 91. xi ; 88, 91. xii; 91. 
xiii; 91, 92. xiv-xvi; 92. xvii; 92, 93. xviii; 93. xix; 93, 94. xx, xxi; 94. 
xxii, 95, 96. xxiii; 95, 97. xxiv; 97. 

John.— i; 84,85. ii; 85, 86. iii; 86. iv; 86. v; 87. vi; 90. vii; 90, 
91. viii; 91. ix, x; 92. xi; 93; xii; 94. xiii-xvii; 95. xviii; 95, 96. xix; 
96, 97. XX, xxi; 97. 

Acts.— i; 97, 100. ii; 100. iii-v; 101. vi; 101, 102. vii-ix; 102. x-xiv; 
103. xv-xx; 104. xxi; 105. xxii; 302, 105. xxiii-xxv; 105. xxvi; 102, 105 
xxvii-xxviii; 105. 

EOMANS, I. AND II. CoRINTHIANS, GaLATIANS, I. AND II. ThESSALONIANS, I. 

Timothy, Titus. — 104. 

Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, II. Timothy, Philemon. — 105. 

Hebrews, James, I. and II. Peter; L, II., and III. John, Judge. — 106. 

Revelations. — i-iii; 108. iv-vii ; 109. viii; 110. ix, x ; 111. xi-xiv; 
114. XV, xvi; 115. xvii; 116. xviii, xix; 117. xx; 118. xxi, xxii; 119. 



ERRATA. 



Errata, in 


which the most important errors are corrected. Lines are 


num 


ered from top 


• of the page. 








Page. 


Line. 












10 


15 For: 


and we know 


Read: 


we know. 




11 
14 

22 
29 


31 

12 

2 

45 




country 
policy 
Broserpine 
exultation 




commentary, 
polity. 
Proserpine, 
exaltation. 




34 


15 




Horns 




Horus. 




39 


41 




constructed 




constituted. 




43 


27 




High, and . 




High, " and. 




44 


20 




Babel. If 




Babel, if. 




44 


20 




Peleg, and 




Peleg. And. 




72 


9 




deserve 




do serve. 




75 


29 




Arab-swarms 




Erob — swarms. 




76 
77 
81 


26 
33 
29 




Helispoles 
inseparable 
near, Moses 




Heliopolis. 
insuperable, 
near. Moses. 




83 


22 




2313-4033 




2513-4033. 




122 


46 




prove 




favor. 




129 


8 




Jerubad 




Jerubaal. 




135 


4 




defects 




defeats. 




138 


13 




Israel 




Israel's. 




140 


23 




robbed of 




robbed the. 




146 


42 




a sacrifice 




offered a sacrifice. 




152 


33 




they 




there. 




153 


21 




20:21 




20.21. 




169 


22 




send 




rend. 




180 


35 




4108-3120 




3108-3120. 




192 


47 




Tizeath 




Tiglath. 




221 


12 




divided 




derided. 




255 


20 




unconditional 




conditional. 




267, 


268, and 


more 


(, Petolemais 




Petolemies or Petolemys. 




271 


1 




Seducedea 




Selucedea. 




288 


2 




and Azotus 




at Azotus. 




291 

298 


47 

25 




pu si 1 amity 
A. D. 63 




pusillanimity. 
35. 




300 


32 




the remust 




there must. 




323 


25 




the Rabbi 




and the Rabbi. 




324 


31 




world that 




world to. 




324 


42 




life, to 




life, and. 




327 


1 




Jerusalen Circuit ir 


) 


Jerusalem Circuit in 




332 


46 




Hans 




Huns. 





Page 


Line 


xuxvrvjo^ J. jEi.. 


xvxc 


334 


4 For 


: implicate Read : 


imprecate. 


334 


18 


9 


1. 


335 


5 


His * ^ ^ is 


is -^ * ^ His. 


342 


18 


those who 


those under the death sentence 
who. 


396 


42 


Eloi! Eoi 


Eli ! Eli. 


365 


16 


loves his 


losses his. 


384 


25 


His life 


His sufferings, and the shed blood 
His life. 


406 


10 


bantidzo 


rantidzo. 


407 


1 


many places 


every case. 


408 


25 


large 


long. 


418 


3 


works 


words. 


431 


1 


life gift 


like gift. 


452 


30 


apostles 


apostle. 


460 


19 


eyes of 


ages of. 


469 


34 


133 


132. 


472 


42 


provinces 


princes. 


478 


23 


then 


them. 


481 


22 


not learn 


learn. 


491 


17 


crime 


wine. 


491 


29 


two 


ten. 


494 


Chap. 


116 


117. 


496 


19 


one hundred 


one thousand. 


502 


18 


fifteen 


fifteen hundred. 


513 


18 


David 


Daniel. 


515 


31 


glorious arrived 


glorious age arrived. 


522 


32 


word 


world. 


524 


15 


two kingdoms 


two ages. 


540 


39 


adopted 


adapted. 


544 


24 


confessed 


confused. 


569 


51 


to death 


at death. 


569 


52 


at heaven 


to heaven. 


575 


36 


Abassines 


Abysinians. 


578 


35 


marched out 


marked out. 


579 


21 


Leyssel 


Seyssel. 


580 


4 


Kippo 


Hippo. 


580 


13 


Ales 


Aries. 


587 


41 • 


Novatians 


Nestorians. 


591 


41 


Iherian 


Iberian. 


591 


24 


Ahdas 


Abdas. 


599 


36 


Amminian 


Ammonian. 


599 


41 


Spirit, meaning 


Spirit — meaning of. 


600 


28 


and Domitian Trinitarians 


, and Trinitarians. 


601 


38, 47 


Aerians 


Arians. 


602 


•5 


Aerianism 


Arianism. 


611 


. 14 


facetious 


factious. 


612 


12 


supervisors 


survivors. 


627 


8 


off 


of. 


627 


17 


faithful 


fruitful. 


629 


34 


confirmed 


conferred. 


630 


16 


prosecution 


persecution. 


632 


17 


adjured 


abjured. 


635 


foot line 


Continued 


Chap. 142 §1. 140, §2. 149, §12, 


643 


8 


king of Heaven 


keys of Heaven. 






lOM 



AREATA. 



Page. 


Link 


659 


7 


674: 


45 


674 


52 


677 


7 


679 


45 



For: Bey Kead: 

America 

Bacotia 

Palistine 

bowides 

680, 693,. and other places the same as above. 
693 44 princes or the love 



705 
718 
722 
722 
742 
743 
755 
769 

799 
825 
840 
865 
868 
891 
904 



931 

940 
946 
951 

96« 
972 
980 
993 
995 
995 



2 
15 
12 
39 
15 
17 

4 
20 

35 

15 

3 

27 
30 
31 

27 



906 foot line 

907 21 



15 
49 
41 

52 
4 
8 

52 

35 
2 

55 



in novations 
arts 

material 
widows 
successfully 
Moawizah 
have been 
or of 

reformers 

184 

Quingle 

Russia 

council of Constance 

defeat 

doctrine 

Bavaria 

excessive 

Mastry of 

martys — 

1200 

1800 

before 

importance 

the head 

including 

accepts 

God 



Beg. 

Armorica. 

Boetia. 

Palatine. 

Bowides. 

princes or the fear of punishment, 
rather than from the force of 
argument or love. 

inovations. 

arms. 

martial. 

women. / 

successively. 

Moawiyah. 

have not been. 

or of their looking upon true gen- 
uine piety as the essence. 

reforms. 

174. 

Zuingle. 

Prussia. 

diet of Frankfort. 

retreat. 

decline. 

Burma. 

successive. 

Mistry of. 

martyrs, . 

1290'. 

1900. 

below. 

impotance. 

the ^cond head. 

inculcating. 

provides. 

Christ. 



REFERENCES CORRECTED. 



Page, 


Rep. 


For. 


Read. 


Page. 


Ref 


For. Read, 


15 


7 


, 23 


:2,3 


91 


6 


Acts 21 :2I-25 


16 


1 


:5-10 


8-10 


96. § 20 


7 


Heb. 10:1. Mark 9:10 John 20:9 


21 


5 


§3 


§1 


96 


8 


Col. * 


24 . 


1 


, 12, 14, 15 


, 12, 13, 14 


100 


1 


, 34:31. 32 . 34:31, 32 


29 


6 


Acts 


28:3 


105 


5 


:14. 24 :14, 24 


29 


6 


2; 11 


2:14 


105 


6 


1:14 .2:14 


30 


4 


. 11-17 


:16, 17 


142 


3 


,21:1-6 .16:14 


43 


* 


Deut. 


32:7,8 


145 


8 


,9:29 .9:2 


47 


6 


:9, 13; 


9-13 


158 


1 


, 14. 20 . 14-20 


49, §6 


U P. 


Supplement, 


Dec. 8. 1881 


162 


6 


, 129: . 139: 


53 


7 


Josh. 


Jonah 


192. §11 


5 


Hosea 1-2 


56 


7 


,11:13 


4:11, 13 


195 


6 


,17:28 .17.28 


69 


1 


Ex. 9:8 


Ex. 1:8 


252 


6 


,1:19 .1:49 


75 


9 


Ex. 8:20 


Ex. 8:2 


• 255 


8 


, 13:12 132:12 


76 


2 


8:30 


8:20 


256,^14 




Adone; Matt. 22:41, 46 


86 


2 


, 21, 23 


. 21-23. 


259, § 29 


8 


Jer. 23:4-25 









ERRATA. 






Page. 


Rep. For. 


Read, 


Page. 


Ref. For. 


259 


8 the 8 should be 9, and 9, 1 


451 


6 




263 


1 


Lamar 


Samaritans 


464 


5 


.2:6 


276 


8 


:54 


:5, 4 


465 


* 


; 21:3, 4 


277 


6 


, 12:8 


. 42:8 


478 


* 


; 139, § 9 


283 


5 


320 


;324 


481 


4 


The numbers 


295 


9 


Jos. Ant. 18:9. (1) Ezra 8:22, 31. 






4, are the n 








Nehe. 2:7,9. 


571 


3 


1,§12 


296 


2 


Idm. 


Jos. Ant. 13:11 


571 


6 


;9:^0 


297 


3 


. 6:1-4 


. 15:6; 1-4 


580 


* 


Gbn„ Vol 1 


297 


4 


. 2:4-7 


. 15:2; 4-7 








297 


5 


. 3;l-3 


. 15:3; 1-3 


586 


4 


:2, § 16 


297 


9 


and 13 


and 13:9: 2 


591 


6 


;237 


299. § 2 


7 


(place in line 1) Gbn. 1:31; 427 


675 


9 


* ;403 


307 


7 


Rom 


Rev. 


678 


* 


;265 


310 


3 


,9-9 


.9-11 


681 


7 


; 264, note B. 


314 


4 




and Lev. 9:9 14:6, 9 


691 


2 


, note P 


339 


1 


.9-23 


.9-33 


735 


1 


; 226-7 ,. 


350 


* 


.8:9-14 


. 8:9. 14 


796 


5 


, 5, 7, 10 


388 


9 


.4:26 


.4:24 


S62 


4 


433-4 


414 


7 


18:8, 11 


. 8:8, 11 


921 


1 


Specialities 


415 


1 


6:9,3,2:14 


. 6:9, 3. 2:14 


921 


2 


Annl 



1045 



Read, 
and Luke 21 :20, 21 
.1:1 
; 21 :2-4 
. 136, § 9 
1-7, under reference 
lumber of the heads. 
:1;1, §12 
;309 
Chap. 134, § 12. 

Development 

:2; 3, § 16 

; 231 

; 403-7 

Gbn. 265 

; 314, note B 

, note H 

: 426-7 

, 5-7, 10 

433-444 

Societies 

Annual 



The Sabbath and the Lord's Day. 



Mai), as we Hud him now, is a twofold being, and of a threefold develop- 
ment. He has a m^^terial body and an immaterial spirit, so mutually combined 
that all thoughts and actions are modified by both; and he develops the physical, 
mental, and moral man. Now, most of our time is occupied for and about our 
bodies. We have schools for the education of the mind, but we must have time 
to cultivate the moral character. Six days of the week are occupied in physical 
and mental exercise ; but without a Sabbath, or rest, we would have no time to 
reflect upon our relations, learn the best laws to regulate them, and cultivate the 
best dispositions to enjoy happiness from them. What man needed before the 
fall, we need not stop to determine now; but his Creator instituted a Sabbath — 
rest — for him, for some purpose. Man sustains a relation to his God, to himself, 
to all intelligent beings, and to the brute creatures put under his government, 
and the laws regulating these relations we call moral laws ; and the happiness of 
man and all his subjects depends upon the regulations of these relations. 

Now, man must have time to understand these relations, and the right laws, 
dispositions, and regulations tor these relations. Whether Adam needed a time 
for this or not, we do. Time was divided into peviods of seven days, and the 
seventh day was constituted the Sabbath. When men began to worship creatures 
instead of the Creator, this seventh day was a standing witness against him, and 
showed, in the story of creation, that man was superior in rank to all his false 
gods, and woman, alone, was his equal companion and second self. When God 
saw proper to let the human family run into Polytheism, He reserved one nation 
to witness for His sole divinity, and gave to Israel this Sabbath Day for a peculiar 
sign to them of their adoption, and a constant reminder that all these false gods 
were only creatures, inferior to man, and constituted his property and servants. 
This reminder recurred every seventh day. In six days Jehovah created the 
heavens and the earth, and all things in them, and rested on the seventh day, 
and consecrated it to moral and religious culture. The observation of this day 
was enjoined in the Fourth Commandment, written on a stone tablet, and enforced 
by death. Every person could keep, or break, the Fourth Commandment, if he 
knew it ; and disobedience was rebellion and insult to the Lawgiver, and was pun- 
ished with death. But, the high moral culture of the soul was recommended, 
with gracious promises annexed, to those improving the time; but no penalty 
was affixed. None but regenerated persons could so improve it, and all others 
would have incurred the penalty, if any had been affixed. The good or evil 
follc)wing in the order of cause and effect, belongs not to positive law as reward 
or penalty. This conspicuous witness in the kingdom of God, continued with 
Israel while all other nations became immersed into Polvtheism. When the 
kingdom of God went forth with power among the nations, and Polytheism 
became overthrown in the great Roman empire and Monotheism had taken its 
place, the story of creation gave place to the story of redemption. The resurrec- 
tion of the Lord from death and the grave eclipsed his rest from creation; and 
the first day of the week superseded the seventh in the kingdom of God. Still, 
the Christian Jews continued to observe the Lord's Day, and also the Sabbath, 



THE SABBATH AND THE LORD'S DAY. 1047 

till Monotheism became a wild beast and undertook to force, by persecution, the 
Jewish Christians to abandon all Jewish rites. The Jews still observe the Sab- 
bath, and profess to keep the law; and no divine authority has dissolved the 
covenant of Sinai, or abrogated the law to Moses in Israel, and when returned 
and converted, they will probably do as the Christian Jews did in the apostolic 
days. Paul had done nothing against the people or customs of their fathers. 
(Acts 28:17.) The Jew must be kept distinct from the nations. God is not done 
with the Jews. They have a work to do yet. When the promised Messiah came 
He magnified the law and made it honorable by obedience and suffering, and 
by one sacrifice for sin. He perfected forever those who are sanctified, and no 
more sacrifice for sin is needed. He came, not to destroy the law and the 
prophets, but to fulfill them and perfect them, and what is not fulfilled remains 
to the Jews as their covenant and law. When the Gospel brought in the gentiles 
to be fellow-heirs and joint partakers with the Jews in their covenanted blessings, 
the Jews wished to bring them under the law and the sanhedrim; and thus aug- 
menting their power, the Jews could soon conquer the nations and rule over 
them, as the pope and caliph have done since. But, as citizenship among the 
Jews was not restricted to the pious, their government often fell into the hands of 
the impious, who often persecuted the pious. This augmented power might 
become a curse to the kingdom of God and to the world, as the pope and caliph 
have since. Some of the Christian Jews fell in with the idea, and wished the 
gentile Christians to be circumcised and brought under the law as one body, ruled 
by the high priest and sanhedrim. Paul opposed this dangerous concentration 
of religious power, and taught the Christians freedom from the law. This dispute 
caused a council to be called at Jerusalem, composed of apostles, brethren, elders, 
and the Holy Spirit in them. This council decided that the gentile believers 
were not under the law of Moses, but decided nothing about the relation of 
believing Jews to the law. This decision did not end the controversy, but we 
find Paul opposing and denouncing the subjugation of gentile believers to the 
law and thus forming a consolidated religious power under the Jewish high priest 
and the unregenerated sanhedrim. He declares all circumcised persons obligated 
to do the whole law, and those going from the Gospel to the law for salvation had 
fallen from grace. So far as salvation is the object, neither circumcision nor uncir- 
cumcision is of any account; but, the new creature of Christ, born of God, bcrn 
of the Spirit, born from above. Such, and such only, are Christ's, and heirs of 
His kingdom. 

While the Jew retains circumcision and his title to his patrimony in the 
promised land, he must respect the Sinai covenant and obey so much of the law 
as has not expired by fulfillment, for they have never been abolished by the Law- 
giver. When the sinners are all cut off from the Jewish nation, and the remnant 
have come into the New Covenant, the law added to the covenants with Abraham 
on account of transgressors will not be needed. But, gentile believers have no 
patrimony in the promised land, only as sojourners. They may have permanent 
homes in cities, but not in lands. They are in Abraham through Christ, and 
heirs according to that promise : In thee, etc. In thy seed shall all families of 
the earth be blessed; but they can not supersede the circumcised seed in the 
promised land. Now the gentile Christian is in the kingdom of God, and is freed 
from the law of Moses by the council at Jerusalem ; but this does not free him 
from the inherent laws of his creation — physical, mental, and moral. 

Theologians have divided the law of Moses into ceremonial, judicial, and 
moral laws, but no such division is recognized in Scripture ; and when we expound 
Scripture, or any other work or document, we must take terms, phrases, and sub- 
jects as they are used in it. The law of Moses is a positive law, and the obliga- 
tion to obey is, "God said so." The precepts maybe moral, mental, or physical, 
but they must be obeyed because God said so — God so commanded. But, free- 
dom from this positive law does not free from moral, mental, or physical laws. 



1048 THE SABBATH AND THE LORD's DAT. 

and if we violate these inherent laws of our creation, we must abide the perni- 
cious consequences ; and if we obey them, we will enjoy the happy consequences. 
Now, the unbeliever comes into the New Covenant, which promises to write the 
law of God upon his heart, instead of on stone, and to put it within him, instead 
of the ark ; and a complete pardon is given, and his sins and iniquities are 
remembered no more. This is not done literally, but, as all the law and the 
prophets hang on supreme love to God and love to all His creatures, when this 
love is regenerated in him it will prompt the believer in Christ Jesus to do what 
is pleasing to God and to promote the good of all His creatures. 

Moral law did not originate with Moses, but emanates from love and centers 
in it. Hence, if supreme love to God and love to ourselves and others dictates 
to keep a sabbath, sacred to religious and moral culture, it is a moral duty, 
whether Moses commanded it or not. And if this love dictates one day of the 
week in preference to another, we are morally bound to keep that day, whether 
the law of Moses commanded it or not. The subdivision of days into sevens 
reminds us of creation work; and the first, or Lord's Day, reminds us of redemp- 
tion from sin and misery and restoration to Divine favor, love, and happiness. 
The seventh day reminds us of God as Creator of all things, and of our origin 
and rank in creation. The first day, of our condemnation, degradation and woe, 
and of justification, reformation, and happiness. What would existence be without 
redemption ? What to us would be Monotheism or Polytheism if we were con- 
demned to perdition and woe ? The first day has come down to us as the Lord's 
Day, with hallowed associations and sacred reverence. Does love to God and 
man dictate to dissipate that reverence and these associations by trying to invali- 
date its claims and substituting the seventh-day Sabbath ? The law of Moses 
superseded the laws of the patriarchs in the kingdom of God, and the council at 
Jerusalem absolved gentile believers from the law of Moses. To keep up the 
perfect freedom of the Gospel in distinction from the bondage of the law, Paul 
dissuades gentile believers from the observance of all Jewish rites and days, and 
the observance of the Sabbath in particular — the new moons and the Sabbaths. 
It is said, the Sabbaths here mentioned do not refer to the seventh-day Sabbath, 
but to other seasons. But, the primary use of the term Sabbath is to designate 
the seventh-day Sabbath, which was one of the greatest peculiarities of the Jewish 
institutions, and for which they professed the greatest zeal. The apostle's subject 
and object require us to so understand it, and there is nothing in the context that 
intimates he used the term in any other sense than in its primary use. If Paul 
did not intend the seventh day, he is guilty of the most culpable carelessness in 
the use of language, for this is its almost universal use ; and he has not given the 
least intimation in the context that he uses it in any other sense, while his sub- 
ject and object require the primary use. But did Paul allow the disciples to have 
no day of rest — day devoted to religious exercise and moral culture ? 

In the Pevelations to John we find a new term. The Lord's Day ; I was in 
the spirit on the Lord's Day. He gives no explanation of the term, but uses it 
as if well known in the churches and in common use. It has been said that the 
Sabbath, or seventh, day was the Lord's. All days are the Lord's; but why 
should this new term be applied to designate a day, always designated by the 
term Sabbath, the Sabbath of the Jehovah thy God 'i John wrote his account of 
the introduction of the Gospel, after he wrote the Revelations. In it he desig- 
nates the seventh day by the term Sabbath, eleven times at least; but never calls 
it the Lord's Day. It was the Sabbath Day when Jesus made the clay; why did 
He not say the Lord's Day, if known by that name among the disciples, or if a 
peculiarity of John's? You might as well tell us that the Lord's supper was the 
passover supper. The term Lord," after His resurrection, mostly and properly 
designates Jesus Christ as already manifested in the flesh; and the Lord's Day 
must refer to Him, thus manifested — the day of His resurrection ; the day He 
was accustomed to visit His disciples; or a day devoted to His ser\ace, eor in 



THE SABBATH AND THE LORD's DAT. 1049 

commemoration of Him. On the Sabbath the first disciples met with their 
Jewish brethren in the Temple, or in a synagogue ; Christ did not meet with 
them there. On the first day of the week they were met together, and Jesus met 
with them, according to His promise. Where two or three are met together in 
My name there am I in the midst of them. (Matt. 18:20.) Before His cruci- 
fixion Christ met with His disciples in the synagogue and in the Temple on the 
seventh day, which was always called the Sabbath ; but after His resurrection 
He met with them no more on that day, but always on the first day of the week, 
when by themselves. (John 20:19, 26.) The phrase, "After eight days"— is 
"On the eight day," according to the Scripture mode of reckoning, as the phrase 
"After three days" (Mark 8:31. Matt. 27:63) is "on the third day," as shown. 
(Matt. 16:21; lt:23; 20:19. Mark 9:31; 10:34. Luke 9:23; 18:33; 24:6, 7.) 

Christ rested in the tomb on the seventh day, but arose to His work of con- 
quest and the advancement of the kingdom of God on the first day of the week 
(Sabbaton: Sabbatou). The first day is not a day of rest, but of active work in the 
kingdom of God. There is a rest — Sabbath keeping — for the disciples of Christ; 
but it is in the future. (Heb. 4:9.) Now they have no city, no rest; but they 
have a day devoted to their growth in grace and the knowledge of the holy, and to 
advance the kingdom of God. (Heb. 13:14. II. Peter 3:18. Matt. 6:33.) Not 
only did Christ meet with His disciples on the first day, but also the Holy Spirit 
was given on the first day, (Act. 2:1; compare Lev. 23:15,) the morrow after 
the Sabbath. Now, if Christ and the Holy Spirit came into their assemblies on 
the first and not on the seventh day, how could they do otherwise than meet on 
the first to receive them ? They might meet with the Jews on the Sabbath ; but 
as Christ and the spirit did not meet with them or visit them on that day, they 
must meet again on the first to receive those visits and transact their own busi- 
ness. So we find the disciples met on the first day to break bread, and Paul 
preached to them. (Act. 20:7.) On that day collections were made, (I. Cor. 
16:1, 2,) so it is the Lord's Day, (Rev. 1:10,) and by this name it was called in 
the first ages of the Gospel. (Eusebius, pp. 162, 207, 209.) An effort has been 
made to make the resurrection of Christ on the first day doubtful ; that it was on 
the seventh ; and the sacred writers are made to contradict one another to 
accomplish this object. Matthew says: — revised version — Now late on the Sab- 
bath, as it drew to the first of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other 
Mary to see the Sepulchre. (Matt. 28:1.) 

If they did make a Sabbath day's journey to see it, it must have been before 
the guard was stationed, for the only difficulty anticipated by them was the 
removing the stone. (Mark 16:3.) Had they known the stone was sealed and a 
watch stationed, the difficulty would have been: Will the guard break the seal or 
let us near ? When the Sabbath was passed — the sun being set — they went and 
bought spices to anoint the corpse. (Mark 16:1.) While making their purchase, 
the guard was stationed and stone sealed. The guard was stationed on the morrow 
after the preparation: epaurinion ; the next daylight. (See uses of the term, 
Act. 23:32, and other texts.) The next day was the Sabbath, and begun at the 
setting of the sun of the preparation ; but the morrow began at the dawn of the 
Sabbath morning and ended with the evening of the first day, leaving from sun 
down to dark to transact business; and during this short period the women bought 
spices and the guard was set. The night furnished the guard an opportunity to 
sleep, if they dared, which they professed they did. Toward morning the angel 
descended, rolled back the stone and sat upon it. The guard were panicked, and 
then revived and fled before any company of women came. Mark says very 
early in the morning, the first day of the week, at sun-rising. (Mark 16:2.) 
John says, the first of the week, early when yet dark. (John 20:1.) Luke's 
company came very early in the morning of the first. (Luke 24:1.) According 
to Mark, the sun was just beginning to rise. All agree He met with the disciples 
on the first day of the week. All evidence in the Scriptures shows the first day 



1050 THE- SABBATH AND THE LORD's DAY. 

of the week to be the Lord's Day; so do the writings of the early Christians. 
Eusebius, the oldest ecclesiastical historian, says of the Ebionites: They also 
observe the Sabbath, and other rites of the Jews just like them ; but on the 
other hand, thev celebrated the Lord's Day very much likens in commemoration 
of His resurrection, (p. 113.) He says, also: The Christians did not observe 
the Sabbath, (p. 26.) Eusebius ought to know what was the practice of the 
churches in the third century, for he lived in it — A. D. 270-340. Certainly he 
knew what day was known in the churches as the Lord's Day, and what the 
Sabbath, for he had read writers before his day and his contemporaries, and had 
given accounts of their writings and teachings; and some of them had written on 
the Lord's Day and on the Sabbath. He certainly knew who observed the Sab- 
bath and who observed the Lord's Day. And he says expressly: We do not 
keep the Sabbath, (p. 26,) and the Ebionites, they observe the Sabbath and they 
celebrate the Lord's Day very much like us. (p. 113.) He says: Melito, A. D. 
166, wrote on the Lord's Day, (p. 162); a council, A. D. 161-191, decided that 
the mystery of the Lord's resurrection should be celebrated on no other day than 
the Lord's Day. (p. 207.) Ireneus, A. D. 205, wrote maintaining the duty of 
celebrating the mystery of the resurrection of the Lord only on the Lord's Day. 
(p. 209.) Dionysius, A. D. 251, says: To-day we have passed the Lord's Holy 
Day in which we have read your epistle, (Soter's, of Rome, A. D. 156,) in reading 
which we shall always have our minds stored with admonitions, as we shall also 
from that written to us before by Clement, A. D. 96. (p. 160.) Such is the 
testimony of Eusebius, as I find it in a translation before me. The Ebionites 
kept the Sabbath, and observed the Lord's Day ; Eusebius and his gentile 
brethren did not keep the Sabbath ; the resurrection of the Lord was celebrated 
by them on the Lord's Day, A. D. 270-310. 

Testimony of the Ancients^ as Given hy Moderns: — Allusion is also made 
to the festival of Sunday as a symbol of new life, consecrated to the Lord in 
opposition to the old Sabbath, in the epistle of Ignatius, A. D. 110, to the Mag- 
nesians: ''If those brought up under the Old Testament have attained to a new 
hope and no longer keep Sabbath holy, but have consecrated their life to the day 
of the Lord, on which our life rose up in Him, how shall we be able to live 
without Him? (Neander, p. 136, Rose translation.) When the daily assemblies 
could no longer take place, the -supper of the Lord became an essential part of 
the Sunday worship, as appears from Justine Martyr, A. D. 83-131. (Neander, 
p. 212.) Perhaps, at the end of the second century men appear to have con- 
sidered laboring on Sunday a sin.' (ISTeander, p. 186.) Justine Martyr (A. D. 
89-134) observes that on the Lord's Day all Christians in the city and country 
meet together, because that is the day the Lord arose. And then we read the 
writings of the apostles and prophets. This being done, the president makes an 
oration to the assembly, to exhort them to imitate and to practice the things they 
have heard. Then we join in prayer; and after that, we celebrate the sacrament. 
Then they who are able and willing give what they think proper, and what is 
collected is laid up in the hands of the president, who distributes it to orphans, 
widows, and other necessitous persons, as their wants require. (Encps. Rel. 
KnowL, p. 1040.) 

Ignatius, a disciple of the Apostle John and pastor of the church at Antioch, 
A. D. 70, says : Let everyone who loves Christ keep holy the Lord's Day — the 
queen of days; the Resurrection day; the day of all days. Clement, of Alex- 
andria, A.. D. 192, says : A Christian, according to the command of the Gospel, 
observes the Lord's Day, thereby glorifying the resurrection of the Lord. 
(National Lessons, p. 186.) Ignatius says: If, then, they have indeed cast oiF 
their old principles and are come to a new hope in Christ, let them no longer 
observe the Jewish Sabbath, but live according to the resurrection of the Lord. 
(Milner, p. 93, Vol. I.) The Syric version, made about the end of the first cen- 
tury or beginning of the second, translates first day of the week (I. Cor. 13:2) 



THE SABBATH AND THE LORD's DAT. 1051 

on every Lord's Day — 11:20 : You do not, then, eat the Lord's body, as becomes 
the Lord's Day. (Outlook, May, 1863.) Barnabas, chap. 15, says: For which 
cause we observe the eighth day with gladness, on which, also, Jesus arose from 
the dead. Pliny says : They met on a certain stated day before it was light. 
Justine Martyr says (I. Apol., chap. 47): Sunday is the day we a)l hold our 
common assemblj^ because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a 
change in the darkness and matter, made the world ; and Jesus Christ, our 
Savior, on the same day arose from the dead. ^' ^ '^ Him who arose from 
the dead on the first day after the Sabbath, our Lord Jesus Christ For the first 
day after the Sabbath remains the first of all the days; is called the eighth day 
according to the number of all the days of the cycle, and remains the first. (Jus- 
tine against Trypho, p. 140, chap. 43.) Ignatius and Justine Martyr both argue 
against keeping the Jewish Sabbath. (See Outlook, April, 1883.) TurtuUian 
says: In the same way, if we devote Sunday to rejoicing from a far difterent 
reason than sun-worship, we have some resemblance to those who devote the day 
of Saturn to ease and luxury. Others suppose the sun is the God of the Chris- 
tians because it is a well known fact that we pray towards the east, or because we 
make Sunday a day of festivity. '^' '^ ^ You who reproach us with the sun 
and Sunday should consider your proximity to us. (Outlook, May, 1883.) Tur- 
tuUian says to his own people : Oh, better fidelity of the nations to their own 
sect, which claims no solemnity of the Christians for itself. Not the Lord's Day, 
not Pentecost even, if they had known them, would they have shared with, for 
fear lest they should seem to be Christians. To the heathen, each festive day 
occurs but once a year; you have a festive day every sixth day. (Outlook, May, 
1 883 ) These quotations, however quoted and translated, show the Lord's Day was 
the first day of the week, and not the Sabbath — seventh day; that it was observed 
as part of the Christian religion, and the Jewish Sabbath — seventh day — was not 
kept by gentile Christians. The Jews did continue to observe the seventh day 
according to the law of Moses. That some gentile Christians should do the 
same is as plausible as that some of the Gallatians did go back to circumcision 
and the law in time of the apostles. (Gal. 3:1-3; 6:12, 13.) The decision of 
the council at Jerusalem did not terminate the controversy, but a disposition to 
adopt Jewish customs continued, and the Christian doctors had the good fortune 
to persuade the people that the ministers of the Christian church succeeded to 
the character, rights, and privileges of the Jewish priesthood. (Mosh. Cent., II. 
Prt. 2; 2:4.) As the number, power, and leisure of the sacred orders increased, 
Jewish rites and ceremonies increased. In the apostolic constitutions, first 
brought to light — or forged in the fourth century and much changed and cor- 
rupted since — we find the observation of the seventh day — Sabbath — enjoined. . 
Every Sabbath Day, excepting one, and every Lord's Day hold your solemn 
assemblies and rejoice, for he will be guilty of sin who fasts on the Lord's Day, 
being the day of the resurrection, or during the time of penticost, or in general, 
who is sad on a festival day to the Lord; for on them we ought to rejoice; ^' ^ ^ 
but keep the Sabbath and the Lord's Day festival, because the former is the 
memorial of the creation and the other of the resurrection. If any one of the 
clergy be found to fast on the Lord's Day or on the Sabbath Day, excepting one 
only, let him be deprived. But assemble yourselves every day, but especially 
on the Sabbath Day, morning and evening, singing and praying. And on the 
day of our Lord's resurrection, which is the Lord's Day, meet more diligently, 
sending praises to God. (Out Look, March, 1883.) It is said that among those 
witnessing against the corruptions of state churches many seventh day Sab- 
batarians are to be found. This is very probable; for a proper distinction 
between the Old and New Covenants have seldom been observed by reformers 
from great corruptions ; they draw their arguments against great corruptions 
from every source ; and often involve themselves'in contraditions and inconsist- 
ancies. Some say the moral law is comprehended in the Ten Commandments, 



\ 



/ 



1052 THE SABBATH AND THE LORd's DAT. 



and argue the obligation to keep the first day Sabbath from the fourth conamand- 
ment ; while it expressly commands the seventh day. If the obligation to keep 
a Sabbath originates in it and rests upon it, the seventh day must be the true 
Sabbath. Consistency in logic does not always accompany true piety. Many 
witnesses for truths may sustain many errors; false logic may be employed to 
support the truth. Now, the moral obligation to observe the first day Sabbath, 
or Lord's Day, emanates from supreme love to God, love to ourselves, love to 
man, and love to all sencient animals. Mental, and physical, and moral laws, 
require it. As you spend the Sabbath so you shape your life, 



